Book Recap: Deep Work by Cal Newport

​Most of us are aware that our collective attention spans and capacity to get challenging work done effectively have taken a beating due to a preponderance of distractions ranging from social media to cell phone notifications to instant messaging and email. Author and Georgetown University professor Cal Newport makes this issue his headliner in Deep Work: a manifesto on principles and strategies for combating our distractions and achieving “deep work”, or “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.”

Newport spends the first half of the book espousing the reasons why deep work is valuable, rare and important — and he does a great job convincing the reader. Rather than relying on the overused format of cherry-picking case studies, Newport refreshingly provides a bevy of logical, consistent arguments and examples that fit together well and bring the reader to agreement. He also introduces the reader to a cast of characters who, in some form or another, embody some mix of deep work (Newport), strong work habits (Clear) and flow state (Csikszentmihalyi).

The latter half of the book presents a series of strategies for becoming a deep worker, ranging from quitting social media — one of the more extreme suggestions — to creating specific time blocks during which you allow yourself to check email. One of my favorite techniques is the Roosevelt dash (modeled after Theodore Roosevelt): the practice of dramatically reducing the amount of time you typically give yourself to complete a task, thereby forcing yourself into blisteringly intense focus in order to complete it. For example, I could shut out all distractions by giving myself a mere 30 minutes to write and upload this post. While not all of Newport’s suggestions are this concrete and achievable, there are many of them, allowing the reader to pick and choose to their liking.
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Deep Work would not have been as enjoyable without Newport’s backing up of his more ideological first half with his more concrete, strategic second half. Given that balance, and the fact that the book is an easy read that could be finished in a weekend, Deep Work is well worth your time.