Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

Overview

Read the Wall Street Journal Bestseller for "cultivating intense focus" for fast, powerful performance results for achieving success and true meaning in one's professional life (Adam Grant, author of Give and Take).

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

1. Work Deeply
2. Embrace Boredom
3. Quit Social Media
4. Drain the Shallows

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

An Amazon Best Book of 2016 Pick in Business & Leadership
Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller
A Business Book of the Week at 800-CEO-READ

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455586691
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/05/2016
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	13,322
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Cal Newport, Ph.D., lives in Washington, D.C., where he is a writer and an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He also runs the popular website Study Hacks: Decoding Patterns of Success. Deep Work is his fifth book.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Idea

Chapter 1 Deep Work Is Valuable 21

Chapter 2 Deep Work Is Rare 49

Chapter 3 Deep Work Is Meaningful 72

Part 2 The Rules

Rule #1 Work Deeply 95

Rule #2 Embrace Boredom 155

Rule #3 Quit Social Media 181

Rule #4 Drain the Shallows 215

Conclusion 257

Notes 265

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

As a presence on the page, Newport is exceptional in the realm of self-help authors. He is not an obvious maniac. His writing isn't befouled by stylistic abuses. He has not granted himself a job title featuring the word "guru" or "maven." Partly for these reasons and partly because his diagnoses rang true, I bought in to Deep Work. Six pages in, I powered down my laptop. Twenty pages in, I left the house to buy an alarm clock so that I wouldn't have an excuse to sleep next to my phone. A hundred pages in, I asked my brother to change my Twitter password so that I could no longer log in to my account.

The New York Times Book Review - Molly Young

11/09/2015
In this strong self-help book, Newport (So Good They Can’t Ignore You) declares that the habits of modern professionals—checking email at all hours, rushing from meeting to meeting, and valuing multitasking above all else—only stand in the way of truly valuable work. According to him, everyone should practice deep work: “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.” Newport calls on psychology and neuroscience, as well as common sense, to back up his recommendations. As to why people don’t already work this way, he implicates a cultural narrative that stresses activity over concentration and that encourages workers to follow the path of least resistance. Newport encourages readers to take breaks from technology, recharge with downtime, leave social media, and reply to emails more purposefully. It’s tempting to blow off the message as the complaints of an admitted non-technophile, but Newport’s disarming self-awareness—“Deep work is not some nostalgic affectation of writers and early-20th-century philosophers”—and emphasis on a meaningful work practice that’s “rich with productivity and meaning” makes for an excellent lesson in focusing on quality rather than quantity at work. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for So Good They Can't Ignore You:
"Stop worrying about what you feel like doing (and what the world owes you) and instead, start creating something meaningful and then give it to the world. Cal really delivers with this one."—Seth Godin, author, Linchpin

"Entrepreneurial professionals must develop a competitive advantage by building valuable skills. This book offers advice based on research and reality—not meaningless platitudes— on how to invest in yourself in order to stand out from the crowd. An important guide to starting up a remarkable career."—Reid Hoffman, co-founder & chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of the bestselling The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

"Do what you love and the money will follow' sounds like great advice — until it's time to get a job and disillusionment quickly sets in. Cal Newport ably demonstrates how the quest for 'passion' can corrode job satisfaction. If all he accomplished with this book was to turn conventional wisdom on its head, that would be interesting enough. But he goes further — offering advice and examples that will help you bypass the disillusionment and get right to work building skills that matter."—Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

"This book changed my mind. It has moved me from 'find your passion, so that you can be useful' to 'be useful so that you can find your passion.' That is a big flip, but it's more honest, and that is why I am giving each of my three young adult children a copy of this unorthodox guide."—Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick, WIRED magazine

"First book in years I read twice, to make sure I got it. Brilliant counter-intuitive career insights. Powerful new ideas that have already changed the way I think of my own career, and the advice I give others."—Derek Sivers, founder, CD Baby

"Written in an optimistic and accessible tone, with clear logic and no-nonsense advice, this work is useful reading for anyone new to the job market and striving to find a path or for those who have been struggling to find meaning in their current careers."—Publishers Weekly

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