Deep work by Cal Newport - illustrated book lessons

Deep work by Cal Newport

(My apologies for an email earlier

which carried incomplete draft of this post.)

Lets begin with our book number 45 out of 100 illustrated book lessons. It is another book by the professor Calport who is a seasoned advocate of slow and deep work.

Deep work is any activity that is done in distraction free state over a stretch of time.

In it concentration is pushed to its limits and it creates value and increases skills of the person.

It also helps in retaining more of the knowledge.

It is a valuable skill in present times. It is hard to copy and creates results which are not possible other wise.

Shallow work is work done in distracted mode which is easy to do and creates mediocre results which can be easily replicated by other person or machine.

In recent times person who will have more chances of success is person who has -

Access to capital.

Best in his field.

Can do deep work.

Quality of the work depends on time devoted and the intensity of focus used.

When we multitask and shift from one task to other there is an attention residue between shifts. It increases time taken and decreases the performance.

One way to increase deep work is to give RAPT attention to work which means giving attention to positive and productive things mainly. Our reality is formed by the content we pay attention to. As we grow older we filter out negative stimuli.

Deep work also provides meaning to the pursuit.

Three ways of doing deep work.

There is monastic way of doing deep work. In it we focus on one big, meaningful and discrete task.

There is bimodal way in which we do deep work for 3-4 hours in day followed by routine and shallow work.

Third is journalistic way. We fit deep work in our schedule. There is hub and spoke. Hub is shallow work and spoke is deep work.

There is one thought experiment related to deep work. It involves making a Eudiamonia machine.

It is abuilding which has 5 unconnected rooms.

First is gallery which shows works previously done.

Second room is coffee room and bar where people can meet and discuss.

Third room is library or data room.

Fourth is office with whiteboard. There is no big distraction there.

And the fifth room is deep work room which is sound proof and secluded.

Then there is an argument for open and connected offices. These lead to serendipitous discovery and innovation. Places like Bell lab.

Then there is a framework by Christenson which shows how an idea can be executed in reality by a company.

First focus on most important thing.

Act on lead measures which will take you towards goal and lag measures which correct the missing things.

Keep a scoreboard.

Take responsibility.

In this way chances of success of an idea increases.

You should also plan downtime. When you relax your attention recharges. You get new insights. When you go into nature you get inherently fascinating stimuli. This is called attention restoration therapy. When you go for a walk or run or have a conversation face to face you regain your mental energy.

Also practice shutdown ritual at night. Cut of all internet after office time and write down your problems on paper with possible solutions to deal with Zeilgarnik effect of unfinished tasks.

When yo decide on rule based issues use your frontal cortex.

For vague and complex situation gut feeling may be better as it incorporates subconscious information.

Next you should embrace boredom. Don’t try to fill every minute of your day with useless stimuli from your phone. This trains your mind to focus less. You then find it hard to do deep work.

Digital detox alone will not help but you need to rewire your brain to change its attention habits.

One way to do that is by scheduling your shallow time or play time. Fix time during which you will scroll your phone or watch Netflix. After that do not return to these when you do the deep work.

Next technique is productive meditation. Do any pleasurable activity in which you are physically engaged but mentally free like jogging. Then fill your mind with a meaningful and difficult problem you need to solve.

You might have read about memory champions. They are actually attention champions. They can give deep attention to organize large amounts of data. They use the fact that our brain is good in remembering scenes.

Any technology is a tool and you should analyze it for its benefits and drawbacks before integrating it in your life.

Fill your leisure time with active and pleasurable pursuits.

Practice fixed schedule productivity. Do not be over available and become hard to reach.

Allow few bad things to happen to allow big meaningful things to come.

Leaving you with a quote that is good for everyone who is interested in deep work.

“No, is a complete sentence.”