Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

An advantage of scheduling your day is that you can determine how much time you’re actually spending in shallow activities.

Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don’t, you’ll never find time for the life-changing big things.”

The deep life, of course, is not for everybody. It requires hard work and drastic changes to your habits. For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind. There’s also an uneasiness that surrounds any effort to produce the best things you’re capable of producing, as this forces you to confront the possibility that your best is not (yet) that good. It’s safer to comment on our culture than to step into the Rooseveltian ring and attempt to wrestle it into something better. But if you’re willing to sidestep these comforts and fears, and instead struggle to deploy your mind to its fullest capacity to create things that matter, then you’ll discover, as others have before you, that

depth generates a life rich with productivity and meaning.

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