Deep Work by Cal Newport | Book

Summary & PDF by 2000 Books

What you will learn by the end of Deep Work PDF:
● What deep work means and how it can help you focus in spite of distractions
● 3 advantages you instantly acquire when you practice deep work in your work and life in
general
● 3 steps you can take to implement deep work
● How to effectively train yourself to maintain a healthy state of deep work
● Why a "deep life" is a good life1

About the Author

Cal Newport is a full-time assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University.
Having already written 5 amazing self-improvement books, Cal is definitely someone who can
teach entrepreneurs a lot about productivity, especially with his book, ​Deep Work Rules: For
Focused Success In A Distracted World.

What is Deep Work?

Deep work is a specific type of work activity among all the different types of work activities you
can do: it's when you're focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
Cal claims deep work as something like a killer app in the knowledge economy.

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“It's incredibly powerful and valuable, so I'm trying to spread the word that if you learn how to do
this tier one skill, and do a lot of this, you can have huge acceleration in your career.”

Why Now?
Deep work is important in this day and age, given where we are, with so much distraction that's
all around us. If we go back 100 years ago, deep work was valuable only for a very small
fraction of the economy. There were only a few people, maybe some scientists and
professional thinkers and writers, for which deep work actually helped their career. But for the
vast majority of people in the worldwide economy who are doing mainly manual jobs, the ability
to perform deep work didn’t matter.
A big argument the book is making is that things have shifted. As we've moved increasingly
towards a knowledge economy, deep work is becoming much more universally valuable, mainly
for the following 3 reasons.

Advantage 1: Deep work helps you learn things more

quickly
Based on this concept, if you are good at focusing intensely on work and at protecting and
scheduling that time, it will make you better at your job. This is because it enables you to
actually learn complicated things quickly. And to do that, almost by definition -- looking at the
psychology or neuroscience of it, you have to be in a state of deep work.

Those who are very good at deep work can pick up complex new skills and ideas quickly, a
consensus among economists these days. In an increasingly competitive knowledge economy,
the ability to keep up with ever-changing complex ideas and systems is becoming crucial. So
deep work is the tool you need to actually accomplish that goal.

You need Myelination

This is an interesting advance in neuroscience in which we now actually know what's happening
at the level of the neurons. When you're trying to learn a new complicated task -- which is what's
actually happening when you're doing deep work on a new task, you’re focusing very intensely
on the new activity in the absence of other types of distractions.

What's happening in your brain is that a neurocircuit relevant to this new skill or idea is able to
fire repeatedly in near isolation, because you're focusing on it intensely. This triggers a certain
type of cell to begin laying a sheath of a protein material called Myelin around the neuron cell
body. This is essentially an insulator which allows those circuits to fire faster and more easily
going forward.

From just the way these cells in the brains actually work, if you're not focusing on something
very intensely without distraction, you're not going to get the Myelin sheaths laid down, and

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you're not going to learn what you’re trying to. So if you’re also checking Facebook and you
jump to your inbox every 15 minutes and then you give it another 5 or 10 minutes at the level of
the neurons, you're really not going to be able to master the task very quickly, which puts you at
a big disadvantage.

Flip it the other way!

If you're one of the few who do deep work and can pick up this skill quickly, you're at a huge
advantage in the current knowledge economy. You're never going to see a top athlete in training
or a top chess player or a musician playing their violin while also looking at their phone out of
the corner of their eye because they know they're not going to get better.

“We don't yet have such embodied knowledge in the world of knowledge work, we're not as
good at understanding practice and improvement, but the same principles apply. It's like being
a professional basketball player before people figured out about jump shots and how to do
conditioning. You have these huge advantages. I think that's what's going on here with
knowledge work. If you're one of the few to leverage the skill of deep work, it's just going to give
you this big competitive advantage over everyone else who's not yet so familiar with the
importance of it.”

The ‘Attention Residue’ effect

A key reason for this is a very important effect known as “attention residue.”

If you're focusing on a particular work and then you switch your attention to another one, there is
a residue left in your brain from that original work that you were looking at, and that residue can
take 10 to 30 minutes to clear out of your head.

While that residue is present, you are performing at a cognitively reduced capacity. So you're
just not able to fire on all mental cylinders, you still have a residue gunking up the works, taking
some of your attention, making it a little bit harder to focus. When you have attention residue,
you're just not producing your best work and you're producing stuff at a much lower rate of
productivity.

Advantage 2: Deep work helps you produce more output

with higher quality
Remember that one of the core attributes of deep work is that you work for a long time without
distraction, but what that means is you don't switch your attention to something else and back
again when you're in a deep work session. The book suggests to allow all of this residue to clear
out, and once it's all cleared out, you would be able to get more work done and at a higher level
quality per hour invested.

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“I think this is really important in part because we've had this evolution in the way knowledge
workers think about productivity. Back in the late 1990s, people were doing actual multitasking,
so they would have an inbox window open at the same time as something else and they would
be talking on the phone.”

Multitasking is a myth
“We're not able to do it. It makes you worse at everything.”
In the last decade, people have moved away from multitasking. But what people are doing
instead is what Cal calls a bunch of ​“just-checks.”​ People are mainly working on the primary
task, but every 10 or 15 minutes they do a quick “just check.” They say -- Let me just see if
something came in important in my email inbox… Well, I'm a little bit bored, let me just check
Facebook real quick to see if there's something interesting there and then let me come back…

“It feels like this should be fine because you're not multitasking. You're just taking a glance at
other things every once in awhile. But attention residue theory tells us that it's disastrous for
your productivity because each ‘just check’ you do to an inbox or Facebook or a browser tab
gives you a thick, fresh slathering of attention residue. And so what happens is you’re not
producing your smartest thoughts and you’re producing a fraction of your possible output.”

If instead you really do deep work -- long periods of time with zero distractions where you're
really focusing hard -- it can seem almost like a “superpower” at first.

“You just produce stuff at such a faster rate at such higher quality that it can even baffle people,
make them wondering -- I don't understand how you do this, where are you finding the time to
get it done?”

Turn away from the email inbox

Email inboxes are a mechanism that's designed to create the maximum attention residue in the
shortest amount of time. When you look at it, you're almost certainly going to see something that
requires your attention. You're going to see a thing from your boss or a colleague.

“You know you're going to have to respond to them a little bit later that day but you don't really
have time to do it at the moment. And that's killer. That's, that's as bad as seeing a heated
political discussion because we all have this experience of writing emails in our head. I'm sure
this is very familiar where you're walking and you're in the shower and you find yourself like
writing a response to an email.”

Advantage 3: Your life will be more meaningful

A philosophical benefit when your day is filled with a lot of deep work is that the day will be more
meaningful and will feel more satisfying.

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People whose careers are built around deep work ​like their work a lot better.

A big reason behind it is that the mind constructs its understanding of its world based on what
we pay attention to, and so if you're constantly paying attention to a lot of small and trivial
things, social media, and constant communication, the sense of the world your mind creates is
that it's so frenetic and stressful as there's all of these mind traps that you're triggering.

But if you spend lots of your time just focused on a small number of things that are valuable,
you're creating things that are really valuable.

A deep worker might be incredibly productive and effective, but if asked “how are you?” they're
unlikely to say “busy.” They'll say, “Oh, I'm doing pretty well… Let me tell you something I've
been working on that I'm pretty proud of…”

It’s a totally different type of worldview.

Deep work also ​makes your background anxiety lower. It makes you more satisfied with life,
which is just as important as its economic benefits.

No one ever changed the world by having a fast email response time. The stuff that matters is
where you have skills that you're applying at your highest level. That's the stuff that makes an
impact.

So now you’re probably wondering:

How can I minimize the impact so that I have as much energy and time as possible for the deep
stuff that actually moves the needle?

How to Implement Deep Work: 3 Big Ideas

To successfully transition into a deep work type of lifestyle, the book offers the following ideas.

1. Deep work is an ability that has to be trained.

You can't just assume that you know how to focus really intensely. It's just a matter of doing it.

2. Deep work is an ability that must be supported.

Go out of your way on how you approach your work. Schedule your work and manage your time
to make sure that deep work has a place of priority.

3. Deep work is an ability that has to be fought for.

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This goes contrary to a lot of trends right now in the world of work and society, generally. To
make deep work a priority, you're going to be pushing back on some trends out there, like the
“importance” of connectivity, social media, and of being busy.

Train Yourself
People often get this wrong. They think about deep work as a habit, like flossing or something
they often do.
The reality is that ​deep work is absolutely a trained skill, like playing the guitar, and it's
something that you haven't practiced systematically. You shouldn't expect to do it.
“This point is important because if you get this wrong, it's easy to get frustrated early on. A lot of
people will say -- yeah, I should try to focus more. Maybe they set aside some time, say I'm just
going to concentrate, and it doesn't go well. It's uncomfortable. Their mind is rebelling. They
can't really concentrate that hardly because they haven't practiced it yet. And then they go back
to what they're doing before. But when you understand that you have to train it first, those types
of experiences are not so frustrating because you say -- well, of course, I'm not that great at it, I
haven't really done a lot of training, but I also have confidence that I could get better if I put in
the time.”

Therefore, ​detox your brain from an addiction to novel stimuli. If your brain has been trained
at the slightest hint of boredom, it's going to get a novel stimuli delivered through a web browser
or your phone. If you've trained your brain to expect this at all times, it's not going to be able to
work deeply when it’s time to work deeply. It just won't be able to tolerate the lack of novel
stimuli when you're actually concentrated on the same thing for a long amount of time.

You can push your brain until it concentrates deeper and deeper, and here, any sort of skill or
activity that gives you immediate feedback about your effectiveness helps. It could be like
playing poker or bridge, athletic endeavors that really require you to focus, and understand
where all the players are on the field in order to do it well.

The Science of Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice means pushing yourself past your comfort level or getting very specific
feedback on what you’re doing right or not. This is how people become good at things that are
hard. And so any type of game or activity that allows you to do deliberate practice on something
cognitive is like doing pull-ups for your brain.

Cal cites Charles Darwin, who did his thinking everyday on the ideas behind the “Origin of
Species.” Charles had a particular path that he would walk through the grounds of his estate in
England and that helped him switch into the mindset of deep thinking.

There are different ways and philosophies of how you can schedule deep work professionally. It
depends on your personality and on the type of job you have.

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 ● Bimodal philosophy ​- This is where you occasionally put aside a large amount of time,
about one to three days, where you do nothing but deep work -- no email, no social
media, simply no distraction during those periods. But outside of those periods you're
just doing your normal work, more shallow without a lot of intense thinking, and you’re
accessible.
● Rhythmic philosophy ​- Most people find this much more effective to do. You just set
the same time for the same days every week for doing deep work.
When you schedule deep work, you don't leave it up to chance. But keep in mind that the type
of routine you use to get deep work into your schedule can differ from what other people are
doing. You just need to match a scheduling philosophy to the specifics of your personality and
your particular job demands. This minimizes the energy required to slip into that mindset.

Theodore Roosevelt, A Man Who Exemplified Deep Work

Theodore Roosevelt was famous for his ability to work deeply. It allowed him to produce a
massive amount of high-quality work for a relatively limited amount of hours spent. He’s a great
example of deep work acting like a superpower.

Deep work, for example, was how he was able to get good grades at Harvard University. When
he was in law school at Columbia, while also involved in political life after Harvard, he could do
his studying with such intensity that in one hour he could get done what the typical
semi-distracted undergrad might spend three to four hours doing. He also wrote what ended up
being an incredibly influential book on naval strategy. “The Naval War of 1812” was his first
published book. He wrote this on the side while having a very busy life as a student and a
member of the society.

Now, deep work is no longer a sort of affectation of a very small number of people who think for
a living. Deep work is not a scale that's just relevant to philosophers, professors, novelists, and
others in the knowledge economy.

Why a Deep Life is a Good Life

Deep work being a sort of a killer app in the knowledge economy is something Cal can hardly
stress enough.

If you have a non-entry level knowledge job, if you're doing something more than just
administrative work, if you're doing something more than just moving messages around – and
you make deep work a priority in your life, train it like you would train any other tier one skill, go
out of your way and fight to make it at the center of your working life -- you are just going to
produce much more than your peers.

“You’re going to produce at a much higher quality. You're going to pick up new skills and ideas
very quickly. In our current economy, deep work has so many powerful benefits, so that's why

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I'm so excited about this idea and this conclusion that any way you look at it, a deep life is a
good life.”

Find out more about ​Deep Work ​and the other works of Cal Newport on​ ​www.calnewport.com​.
He has a blog, otherwise he says he is relatively hard to contact. As many know, Cal never had
a social media account on purpose. He also does not have a general purpose email address.
Still, he is professionally successful, has friends, and knows what’s going on in the world.

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4.​ ​Mini Habits​ by Stephen Guise

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