Review - Deep Work - Rules for Focused Successi_Cal Newport
In the current era of Information and Technology,
and Social Medias, it has become difficult for people to focus/concentrate on
anything. We are becoming constantly distracted due to the flood of notifications
on our Smart Phones on an ongoing basis. Due to profound use of internet
(leisurely and for work as well), our short term memory has been getting enough
exercise: however, this practice has been deteriorating our long term memory –
which is imperative for critical thinking exercise and producing meaningful
results. Writer and Professor Cal Newport has written this book in order to
show this devastating reality, and on the other hand providing convincing skills
and practices necessary to shift this paradigm towards more focused and
meaningful work habit. He had used the relevant examples and case studies –
like of Carl Jung and Bill Gates – to generate excellent arguments on why deep
work is necessary.
Cal has defined deep work and shallow work as:
Deep Work: Professional
activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push
your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value,
improve you skill, and are hard to replicate.
Shallow Work: Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These
efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to
replicate.
The classification of knowledge workers as: The high skilled workers, The superstars,
and The investor, shows the reality that if we don’t fall in any of these
categories, our dream of achieving our goal is not going to be materialized.
The reality that we are not able to see, understand, an accept is that we are
focusing on non – value adding activates like replying back to the messages,
following entertainment links, frying our brain cells by watching overdose of
videos, and getting instant news. Almost all of these activities do not assist
in achieving our goal, and yet we spend most of our time in such activities. We
cannot spend 5 minutes of free time or waiting time by not overlooking over our
smart phone. This shows that we’d lost our ability to get bored, to think
things through, and to enjoy the thinking; we need distractions to fill such
small bits or chunks of time that we get every day.
He convinces us that: in the present world, the
value of deep work is rising and paradoxically the ability of people to perform
deep work is diminishing – both exponentially. His arguments are based on: Neurological,
Psychological, and Philosophical point of view. Not only he convinces us on the
present reality he has provided several tools necessary for us to adopt the
practice of deep work necessary in our life. The following equation shows us
the law of nature for output:
High
Quality Work = (Time Spent) * (Intensity of Focus)
He has provided the few
rules for aiding us to adopt this new habit in our betterment. They can be summarized
as:
1.
Rule – 1: Work Deeply
Six Strategies to follow this rule are:
i.
Decide on your depth philosophy,
ii.
Ritualize,
iii.
Make grand gestures,
iv.
Don’t work alone,
v.
Execute like a business, and
vi.
Be lazy
2.
Rule – 2: Embrace the Boredom
3.
Rule – 3: Quit Social Medias
4. Rule – 4: Drain the Shallows
In the nutshell, this book is about dissection of our present work habit, arguments on why this is not the way to achieve our dreams, and lastly provides us with the tools necessary for us to adopt the deep work philosophy in our life. Borrowing the words of Winifred Gallaghar, “I will live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is”: in this chaotic world, if we want to find some sense and balance in our life, it is best to adopt the philosophy of deep work i.e. ‘Work Hard and Play Hard’.
Rating: 3.9/5
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