One way of knowing that, is the definition the author gave to “Shallow work”:
“Non-cognitively demanding logistical style task often
performed while distracted, these efforts tend not to create much new values
in the world and are easy to replicate”
From the definition, to work deeply is not exactly white and
black, there is gray area. The author touched on that and left it to everyone
to define a metric to judge how deep/productive is the work he/she is
performing. The author himself is academic so his metric is defined for example
by how many peer review papers he can purplish per year. The common theme
throughout the book however, what defines “Deep Work” is the ability to perform
the task at hand with full concentration for lengthy period without
being distracted. This means blocking access to social media, emails, phones
and other distracted technologies.
I think the book could use more examples for different skills,
but on the other hand providing more examples could derail the point of the book
and make it less effective. The book offer, however, many insights into other
great achievers throughout the history and how they did it.
There are lots of excellent points in the book, although they
are a bit scattered, so in my summary below I tried to group them for easier
reference.
Interesting Books referred:
·
“Getting Things Done, The
Art of Stress-Free Productivity” (David Allen)
·
“The talent code Unlocking
the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Anything” (Daniel
Coyle).
·
“Flow: Living at the Peak
of Your Abilities” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
·
“So Good They Can't Ignore
You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” (Cal Newport)
Book Summary
Introductory Notes
·
Success depends in one’s
ability to go deep, again and again, there's no way to achieve great things
without pushing your brain to its limit.
·
Deep Work is important to
get the best out of your capacity, it is not New concept as it was practiced by
many through history, for example:
1.
Carl Jung concentration
techniques during Freud time 1920s.
2.
Mark Twain using isolation
to write his novels.
3.
Woody Allen from 1969 to
2016 completed 44 films, 22 academy awards on typewriter without computer
4.
Bill gate with “think
week”.
·
With Network tools and
Social Media, we are mostly doing shallow work replacing Deep Work.
·
In today’s environments,
the new technologies advancement is narrowing the gap between what humans can do
and machines, company are hiring stars for consultation services, remote access
is often used for cheap labor. To remain competitive in this new environment
you need to learn a lot and quickly, requiring Deep Work. Being average is
over.
Three groups that will survive
1.
High skill worker, Data
Analytics, Data Visualization and Rapid prototyping
2.
The Super Stars (Highly
skilled)
3.
Owners investing in New
technologies.
·
Quote: A deep life is good
life.
How to become a winner in the new economy
1.
Ability to quickly master
hard things, deliberate practice to improve in certain domain.
2.
Ability to produce at elite
level in both quality and speed.
Criteria to be more competitive & Suggestions
1.
Ability to focus
uninterrupted on the idea or skill you want to master.
o
In
his book, “The talent code” Daniel Coyle talks about
Myelin which is fatty white substance that surrounds the axon of some
nerve cells, forming an electrically insulating layer. These fatty tissues
allow the brain perform faster and better.
o
By focusing repeatedly, it
encourages producing more Myelin
o
On the other hand, if you
get distracted continuously, say on Facebook while working, you are firing many
circuits and thus not strengthening these cells.
o
Quote: Use your mind like a
focus lens.
o
law of productivity = Work
produced= times spent • intensity of focus
o
This law explains why most
successful students spend less time.
o
Multitasking dissipates
attention with residual attention syndrome, exceptions managements: Jack Dorsey
of twitter, salesmen and lobbyist, study shows however even they can be more
productive if they limit their attention.
o
Ability to receive feedback
to stay productive
2.
Different ways to focus
o
Monastic way: Isolate
yourself to go deep. Applies if you have discrete contribution to make.
o
Bimodal: Alternate between
deep and shallow during the week or day or even switch in season.
o
Journalistic: Go deep
whenever possible.
Business as proxy for productivity
·
J. E. Hirsch Metric to
measure your academic foot print
o
Anything over 40 is high,
10 or less is risky
·
Quote: Idle mind is devil
workshop
·
Quote: Deep life is life
well lived
·
Transform your professional
life into one central on depth
Psychological impact of Deep Work
·
Experiments show that What
you focus on is what makes u happy regardless of the type of work
·
Study by Csikszent Mihalyi,
flow; indicates that stretching your mind to achieve something is more
enjoyable than simply relaxing.
Philosophical approach to Deep Work
·
Idea of the scariness of
things that you can tune into regardless of the job you are doing
Rules to transform your professional life into one
central on depth
1.
Work deeply (Eudaimonia
machine)
2.
We fight desires all the
time, have finite well power which will be depleted once used.
3.
Add routines, set
time/location for Deep Work
4.
Decide on your depth
philosophy
5.
Ignore inspiration but
rather ritualize and be consistent
6.
Quote: great creative minds
think like artist and work like accountants
7.
Quote (Friedrich Nietzsche):
“Only ideas won by walking have any value”.
Disciplines to go by
1. Focus on outcome.
2 2. Act on lead measures
(#customers) not lag measures (finance outcome)
a.
Another example: Lead (time
spent), lag measures (number of books read)
3 3. Keep Score Cards (#hours Deep
Work per week).
Be Lazy
·
Shut down after work.
·
Downtime is important for
creativity.
o
Math mind need focus mind
o
Decision related to vague
and various info, unconscious mind does better work
o
Downtime charges your
energy such walking in nature
·
Don't take break from
distraction but from focus.
Ways to train your mind to limit Distraction and increase
creativity
·
Internet Sabbath is not
very effective, i.e.; one day no internet.
·
Schedule time for the
internet per day
·
Work like Ted Roosevelt:
o
Identify a task, challenge
yourself to reduce the time to finish it
·
Meditate productively;
choose a project or idea and think about it without interruption during
physical time such as walking the dog, commuting to work.
o
Be worry of distraction
(more interesting thought) and looping (when facing difficult or challenging thought)
·
Structure your deep
thinking (always think about objectives and steps)
·
Memorize deck of cards
(explained in book)
·
Quit Social Media that's
not beneficial.
·
Most experience people can
spend Max 4 hours a day of Deep Work.
·
Schedule every minute of
your day to minimize shallow activities.
·
Quantify depth of your
activities
·
To define shallow work, ask
the question how long does it take a fresh smart graduate to do that task.
·
Email smartly and minimize
back and forth communications.
·
Quote: Develop the habit of
having small bad things happen. If you don't you will never have time
for the life changing big things.
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