About author
Tomorrow is the author of Newport Deep Work, an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He has written six self improvement books so far. He also has a Study Hacks blog on Academics and Career Success which he started in 2007. He is a U.S. Citain Hai and was born on 23 June 1982.
Introduction
By reading this summary, you will come to know that how these days professional people emphasize on quantity more than quality. And how this thing is making today’s young professional like some puppets who start multitasking in the process of handling multiple emails and projects at the same time, so that the quality which is called “deep work” in their work is not achieved. Deep work means to work with full focus without any distraction, which also means that today’s professional people should set their priorities. Call Newport, who has studied at MIT and is the author of this book, also claims that the best way to protect yourself from the corporate race is. That is to take a break from technology and social media for some time and give yourself some quality time so that you get a chance for self-examination alone. You can focus on your shortcomings and improvements. Deep work is important not only because distraction is a bad habit but also because it can take you from point A to point B in minimum time.
Chapter One: Why is Deep Work Valuable?
If you want to change your life and want to make a significant place in the society, then you have to do these two things.
- Ability to learn difficult things
- Ability to finish any important task with quality and speed.
To achieve a high quality work in your life, there is an equation which is something like this:
High Quality Work Produced (i.e.Time Spent) x Intensity of Focus
That is, if you want to do high quality work, then either spend more time on it or increase your focus.
Topper students of well recognized schools already know this equation by increasing their focus and producing quality work in less time.
But to do any focused work, we need to do that work deeply while avoiding multitasking, although multitasking has become a routine in our today’s life.
Sophie LeRoy, a researcher proves that there is a thing called “Attention Residue”. When you move from a Task A to Task B without finishing Task A then it happens that our mind is still thinking about Task A at that time. And the more intense this resume is, the worse you will perform on Task B.
So , when you learn the techniques of deepwork (which are already given in this summary) and apply them in your life, then you will be able to produce the highest quality work in less time.
Chapter Two: Deepwork is rare
Tom Coren noticed that he spends an hour and a half every day just reading emails and replying to them. So he thought that what is its effect on the company and what is the contribution of an individual in his company. So he collected some details like all cent emails, typing speed, reading speed and salary of employees. When he removed it from the analytical system and saw it, it was found that reading every email was worth 95 cents according to the labor.
Many companies such as Facebook are adopting the concept of “the hall”, in which an open space office resides and each employee is given a separate cabin so that they can interact and share their ideas. But it also distracts them as it keeps them out of their deep work zone.
He was given a separate cabin so that he could interact with each other and share his ideas. But it also distracts them as it keeps them out of their deep work zone.
Often people confuse business with productivity. With no clear knowledge of how to be valuable in their jobs and being productive, many knowledgeable workers make the same mistake that is an industrial indicator of productivity: doing too many things at once.
A lot of employees do this. They start doing any work they read in front of them. So that they feel that they work a lot. And at the same time, as is the trend nowadays, the work that is related to the Internet will be considered productive. Due to all these reasons, deep work is becoming rare, which in a way is good news for you because the one who can do deep work will compete with anyone and will easily leave behind those who work with him.
Chapter three : Deepwork Meaning
Rick Furer is a black smith. He specializes in Enchantment and Medidevil metal working practices, which he painstakingly creates in his shop.
If he wants to make a sword, it will take him 8 hours to make it by hand, and each time the hammer strikes a particular point of the blade. This type of work requires a lot of concentration and no distractions, and you shouldn’t be surprised why this guy doesn’t have a Facebook account. The ability to focus your attention on anything has a huge impact on your quality of life and it also increases your experience level. Laura Karsten uses an MRI scanner to check her patient’s brain activity. She wants to know how a part of the brain called the amygdala reacts emotionally to positive and negative images.
But this did not prove that older people were happier because they liked positive images more, but because their brains were rewired in a way that inspired them to appreciate positive things rather than negative ones. By managing their attention in this way, these people had improved this world a little for themselves, and did all this by changing the thoughts and not by any external change and this thing has also been proved. That small things that seem positive like email or meeting an old friend or talking about office policies — all of this together build up an image in your mind that will show how stressful your life is. And there is depressing and that is because you have divided attention on all these small things. So remember always , you should choose your target carefully and then put your all focus on it. In short, you should always try to live a focused life which is best.
Chapter Four: Work Deeply
Eudomonia Machine is a Greek concept about a room where humans can reach their full potential and an extreme focused state. This is a space where you can do deep work. This is a 5 room space which is interconnected and to reach room number 5 you have to first pass through room number 4,3,2,1 then you cannot bypass any stage of the machine first room will light you up A little stress is given that the work you are about to do is important. In the second room, work-related curiosity is awakened in you so that you start thinking about them. In the third room you will find all the records that are necessary to complete your work so that when you start the work, you do not have to go to the end in the middle. In the fourth room, you write all the ideas related to your work on a paper and the fifth room is sound proof and different so that no one disturbs while doing that work. This is the room where the deepwork happens.
You concentrate for 90 minutes and take a break of 90 minutes, which gives you the maximum benefit of the human brain.
Unfortunately, this vision is still far away from our current reality. Instead, we still find ourselves in open space offices where messages and emails from inbox can’t be negated and meetings go on constantly – this is the setting where colleagues will quickly respond to your emails from you for the best possible result. If you want and according to this book, then you are forced to do shallow work in a way.
Chapter Five :
First Strategy : Monastic Approach
This strategy is based only on keeping yourself isolated from every distraction which are present in your life. In this approach, you will act like a monk or a priest, who keeps himself away from any kind of distracting thing. It is as if you are preparing for any IAS exam and apart from your parents, you do not have any contact with anyone.
Second Strategy: Bimodal Approach
This strategy is best suited for those who cannot completely separate themselves from the world. Revolutionary psychologist and thinker Carl Jung adopted this strategy. He used to write in his room for a few hours in the morning and then while walking in the forest, he used to think about what he would have written and then later he had to go to attend his lectures and also to the clinic to earn money. According to this philosophy, you have to divide your time, out of which some time slot is to be given only to those tasks which are most important for you and in the rest of the time, give to your other work. Bimodal worker works monstrously in his deep time. By turning off your cell phone, you will stay away from everything as if you went to your room to study for 2 hours and your phone is also turned off so that you will not have any distraction and then you come out of the room for 1 hour again normal life are living.
Third Technique: RHYTHMIC PHILOSOPHY
As some call it The Chain Method. To apply this method, a specific time can be selected every day to do a specific activity and every day you have to put a big red cross on the calendar every time you finish that task. Keep doing this until you see the chain of Red Crosses growing. Just keep in mind that this chain should not be cut.
Fourth Strategy: Journalistic Approach
When you are very busy the whole day then you can follow this approach, in this you act like a journalist, as soon as you get free time, even if you get half an hour, then you do deep work, that means if you know that If you are going to be free from 5 to 5:30, then switch off your mobile and sit at an isolated place to complete your important tasks.
Rituals i.e. what action to take? During his book “On the Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin’s working life had a very strict structure, as his son Francis would later tell Charles Darwin would wake up at seven in the morning and take a short walk. Then he used to sit alone and had his breakfast and went to study between eight and nine and a half hours, he used to check the letters of the day before for the next one hour, after which he used to study back from ten thirty to noon. After this session, he took a round trip from his green house to all his properties and pondered deeply on the ideas which he found challenging, until he was satisfied with his thinking. Only after that they used to declare their work for that day as the finish.
Of course, we do not say that you should do the same thing, but there are some things you should definitely consider.
Where you will work and for how long, think about it in advance because you will have to choose a location where you can do deep work and give effort.