Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Ratings384
Average rating4
The idea of isolation and extreme concentration leveraged throughout the book felt like another banal, elitist, pretentious, easy-as-pie solution like acute minimalism promoted by YouTube self-help gurus: reduce distractions by locking yourself in a cabin in the woods and congrats, you're a next level genius!
I was actually really upset at this book. I am not sure if it was due to being stuck in traffic while listening to it or just the overall message of this book did not resonate with me. We can all agree that if you had the ability to focus on your work you'd get better results, sure. But after listening to this book with overall generalizations that fit the mold of either journalism or tenor track professorship, I could not see a path to adopt anything more than the basic understanding that one could benefit from some focused time.
And then the few examples in this book where the author found success were periods of time that were outlandish and abusive. Bill Gates sleeping on his keyboard because he was in “deep work”, the author himself thinking of mathematical equations while hanging out with his child. The whole premise of this book was that you could succeed with creating time for deep work, but then example after example were people pushing themselves beyond normal deep work to succeed.
Maybe I missed the point, but I was very upset with the examples of what I would classify as the 10x engineering mentality which I am not sure is something I am willing to promote.
Ironically had a hard time staying focused on it. Lots of tips felt too far off. Appreciated the research and concept and there were a few good tidbits.
الكتاب الذي سيجعلك تعيد التفكير في مشكلة العصر و هي التشتت الذهني و يرسخ لديك فكرة أن التركيز هو زادك في هذا الزمن لتحدث تغييرا في حياتك.
The Book that will help you rethink our era's deepest problem which is ‘' mental distraction ‘' and will surely establish within the idea that ‘' focus is your asset in this time that will change your life''
Highlights from the book-
When next you need to get into a deep mode:
• shut down your social media notifications;
• make sure not to switch to the next task until you have finished the ongoing one. There will be an attention residue — working in a semi–distraction state, which is counterproductive;
• spend less time on the Internet and no time playing games on your telephone/ computer;
• exert maximum productivity from the hour's work, and maximum recovery from your downtime.
Deep Work – 4.5 Stars:
Overall, this is a great book that grounds essential concepts in a practical structure with suggestions you can adapt to your own routine.
Before reading it, I saw some reviews saying the book’s ideas are too extreme—I don’t think that’s true. High performance simply isn’t possible without something resembling “deep work.” People who think these concepts are too much either didn’t understand the book or aren’t the intended audience, and that’s fine.
A couple of criticisms: the author’s academic background makes it a bit abstract at times, which can make it harder to connect with if you're not in a similar profession. Also, the real-life examples feel somewhat forced, lacking the smooth narrative integration of, say, Gladwell’s writing.
Still, I feel this book will have a lasting influence on how I organize my life.
The first section I feel can be pretty much ignored as it's just anecdotes of 'successful' people and nothing particularly useful.
Absolutely shallow. 98% feels like filler to reach a certain page count. The whole focus on “award winning” people and focus on other liberal/conservative garbage institutions make this book so American in a repulsing way for non Americans.
responding to a fellow reader's interpretation —
the cabin is not the solution. we are infinitely complex and unfortunately, we are the solution.
event + response = outcome is a philosophy i was taught by the current michigan athletic director in an education class my senior year... we can only control our response to our circumstance, and we impact the outcome, but the event does as well.
adam sandler essentially said in an snl sketch around the same time, "wherever you go, there you are" :)
so like, me; i want to spark a creative project of some point in my adult life, but i haven't yet in my time. not having ample time and stability to focus and think destroys that. deep work invests into that. it definitely teeters on dave ramsey - core "just eat PB&J" advice, and doesn't account for the unfair nature of the world, but... nothing does :/
one more. jack white's lyrics to little room are below. this book is little room, but it's just the first two lines. it's on you to clear out the noise that distracts line 1-2's creativity versus lines 3-8 :) thank you, cal newport, for your insights on giving my brain room to breathe and produce. i'm always looking for my little room in a busy life, unfortunately!
"Well, you're in your little room
And you're working on something good
But if it's really good
You're gonna need a bigger room
And when you're in the bigger room
You might not know what to do
You might have to think of how you got started
Sitting in your little room"
This book is about knowledge work, and nurturing your ability to focus within the context of the knowledge work framework. The problems that Cal addresses in this book are all too familiar to me and my own experience in the Corporate landscape. Email, Slack, endless meetings, department heads that block any sort of productive work for their own purposes, etc. Cal brings the problems to light, allows you to put your own problems in the place of his, and to then do the work of finding solutions to these issues the best way you can, in the situation you find yourself in.
This book has brought me back to a place of awareness.
If you want to do the things you want to do, then find a way to do them. If it is a priority to you, you will figure out how.
I'm glad I found this book when I did and that I read it.
It was a great reminder to me, to focus on work when at work, and life when I'm outside of work.
And never letting the two intertwine.
This is a book which provides anecdotes as to why focusing is good. It then explains how to focus. This is cool, but not worth the time it takes to read it. It's a snack masquerading as a three-course meal, and while the snack isn't a half bad snack, it's simply not the same as the meal you expected.
Good message, bad page count. Like most Newport books, the content to page ratio is frustratingly low.
2.5 rounded down.
If you have to choose between buying and reading Atomic Habits versus buying and reading this book, I am of the belief you would find far more utility from Atomic Habits.
I really wanted this to be a book that I felt foundational to the way I structured my work going forward. Unfortunately, most of the practical information I felt was quite obvious and I already practice it. As an aspiring academic, I think maybe most useful things I learned from the book were that: memory training and other focus intensive tasks that are unrelated to your research/work can be helpful to train your brain to think more deeply on your actual work, and that there exist successful young Professors who end their work day at 5:30pm.
I went into the book already convinced of the value of deep work. As a result I found most of the content to be fairly useless. Most of the book felt persuasive in nature, as if trying to convince the reader of the value of deep work and that the techniques introduced are actually facilitative of deep work. To this second point, most of the evidence was anecdotal, and interesting but not very personal, nor deep, nor detailed. Most of it could've, ironically, been summarized on a buzz-feed article titled “30 quirky habits of the worlds most ingenious minds” or something like that.
To the first point, if you are someone, especially someone who is not in tech/startup world, who is already convinced of the value of deep work I feel you can easily skip the first half of the book. In fact I wish I had.
Overall I was quite disappointed, I think Professor Newport had a very unique opportunity as someone with a vast wealth of personal experience in high achieving environments and positions that he could've leveraged. If he wanted to support his arguments with anecdote, he could've used his own, as a Ph.D. student who graduated from MIT. I would've eaten a narrative book like this up if he supported each of his techniques with a full story of how it helped him in some unique situation, and how he developed these techniques throughout his career (much like the conclusion of the book) then supported this with sprinkles of anecdotes from other professors or scholars or something as supplements. This still would not serve the same purposes as Atomic habits which is highly centered on research supported techniques, but I think it would've offered a unique perspective worth reading about.
Overall the book was a bit of a slog, mildly derogatory, sometimes a bit finger-wavey, and pretty redundant but with some gems buried in the pages, but as some other reviewers have said these gems could've occupied 20pgs maximum if they were written concisely. The supporting evidence wasn't very supportive, so basically the techniques are more like very general tips or recommendations which are left to stand on their own merit, and could've been expressed in that many pages. In short, if you are even remotely interested in personal growth or bettering yourself, you're probably already doing most, if not all, of what this book suggests.
Has great ideas with lots of (sometimes interesting) anecdotal bullshit mixed in that you can skip if you're in a rush
I came to this book after thoroughly enjoying Newport's Digital Minimalism (and loving the impact it has had on my own productivity and satisfaction). Deep Work was, by comparison, disappointing.
I'm convinced by the broad argument and found some of the advice helpful. Much of the practical tips in this book, though, are done better and with broader applicability in Digital Minimalism.
Where this book really lost me was its casual acceptance of an individualistic, outgrind-the-competition, aren't-successful-people-amazing capitalism. Like, maybe its primary audience is meant to be venture capitalists, executives, and fellow self-help writers?
Tl;dr - don't bother with this book, read Digital Minimalism instead.
Although I had begun reading this book a while ago and never really finished it. Immediately after reading the Atomic Habits, I felt the urge to read the rest. Deep Work, I think, nicely complements the former.
A critical insight this book gave me is the following. The nature of work I am attempting to do is fundamentally different from that of a random person. The work of a researcher might be different from that of a student. This is also the reason why authors or scriptwriters often tell stories of their getaways from civilization. Focus is the absence of all distractions. Newport brings in the theory of attention residue to drive this point home. When you try to switch between tasks, some of your unconscious attention remains with the original task (Yes, multi-tasking is really a myth. But if you are like me and think that taking up a lot of assignments and fitting them somehow into your calendar is what you need, maybe you are mistaken). Once you are sold on this idea the next half of the book gives you lot of really practicable advice to leverage this idea and make your life better.
Even though you might have heard the slogan of quality over quantity or that you need to do smart work and not hard work, no one really tells you how you achieve that. Here you can find a lot of the fine details of how to make that possible. Probably because the author himself is an academic, this book would seem fine tuned for academics or researchers. But be aware that this book doesn't have the flow to it like Atomic Habits has and at times it would feel repetitious. But one reason you would want to read this completely is to get all the nuances in the advice. For instance if you are the CEO of two successful companies like Jack Dorsey, the advice in this book might not apply to you.
Overall I felt that this book might have a lot of power to change your work habits. Something that the Atomic Habits doesn't really touch upon a lot.
Read it for a book club at work, found it motivational, insightful and easy to read.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Few nonfiction books actually help me become better. This one did.
I didn't get a lot from this book but it did confirm my hunch that the ability to focus deeply is a practiced skill, and I enjoyed some of the practical advice on ways to achieve it.
Surprisingly ok for a book which tells you, that the big secret behind efficient work is limiting distractions and organising your time.
The concept of deep work and shallow work is utmost important for all of us to understand in this distracted world.
The author is not the only one who is researching on the topic, but the book has done a very good job to bring this topic to light.
Everyone will benefit from this book. Young and old.
I've read a few books by now on productivity. This one did not make any particularly nuanced points, but I did leave convinced that deep work is a key to expert success. David Allen's “Getting Things Done” and, by a different author, “The Power of Habit” are some good books to read either after or before this one. They all pretty much say the same thing—habit is crucial to success and we must manage our actions in regards to all types of projects in our lives.
I think this was a really important book for me to read. Sure some sections could have probably been shorter, but there are some ideas in here that I don't see myself ever forgetting and that could also lead to some significant changes in my life.