If your mind bounces around all day like an energizer bunny, and you rarely feel you’re accomplishing anything on your to-do list, let alone moving forward on a significant piece of work, it’s time you learned how to go deep.
So what is deep work? Deep work is the ability to focus without distractions on a cognitively demanding task.
In other words, it’s the lost art of losing yourself in work that matters, and not getting distracted by your phone notifications, social media or multiple browser tabs. It’s about training the brain to embrace ONE thing at a time.
It’s brilliantly laid out in Cal Newport’s excellent book: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – a book about the science of productivity.
The book is split into two parts. The first explains what deep work is and different ways to do it. The second part shows us how to actually do it and make deep work a regular practice in our lives, so you can put it right into action.
Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who studies the theory of distributed systems, the author of six books, including, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, and owner of his well-known Study Hacks blog.
This is definitely one of my favorite books this year and I’d recommend it for anyone who wants to work smarter and avoid distractions.
In his book he shares four ways to help us maximize productivity and rules to deploy more deep work in our lives. Watch my video for my full review and to learn these four methods.