So this was something recommended in the self-help talk at the NLB (I really should sign up for more talks) and since I really enjoyed Digital Minimalism, I decided to read this. Plus, I tend to get a bit reflective around December (or any other trigger, really), and I thought it would be nice to have one more perspective on work before I start thinking about what I want my 2020 to be like.
Deep Work is broken into two parts: the case for deep work and how to achieve it. Newport defines deep work as:
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
Deep Work by Cal Newport
This is opposed to shallow work, which is defined as
“Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
Which sounds a lot like busy work to me. The argument of the book is that in this new economy, we are increasingly conflating work with shallow work because it’s easily measurable (and because we are getting more and more distracted). However, those who are able to master the art of deep work will end up being more highly valued because of what they can create.
However, not all workers need to master deep work for their job. If you are, for example, a manager who needs to coordinate projects, then your job depends on you being in constant contact with a group of people and you may actually need to be always available to put out fires.
Honestly, I don’t think my job needs deep work on a day to day basis. It might require creative thought in the longer term, but most of what I do is coordination between groups and I’m not actually creating something. That said, I also write and that is where deep work comes in handy (even if it’s not “professional”). So I was interested in Part 2, where Newport gives us four rules for deep work:
- Work Deeply – deep work requires time and you must create that time.
- Embrace Boredom – you need constant exposure to boredom in order to be able to train yourself to concentrate intensely. If you distract yourself the minute you’re bored, then you don’t get to strengthen your “mental muscle”
- Quit Social Media – in most cases, social media doesn’t bring you enough benefits to warrant staying on it. This section brought up the “any-benefit approach to network tool selection”, which is an idea that we are justified using any social network as long as it brings us some benefit – something that I definitely used to practice! Newport, however, argues that unless there are significant benefits to social media, the little benefits we do get outweigh the costs of constant distraction.
- Drain the Shallows – basically, you need to learn to get rid of trivial work in order to make time for deep work.
Although the rules are pretty broad, they do make sense. And I agree with the idea that you have to constantly work your mental muscles in order to grow it – I mentioned it before but writing at the start of NaNoWriMo was so much harder than writing at the end of NaNoWriMo.
Digression: the part on cutting down on social media reminded me of the argument in Paper. Mark Kurlansky argued in Paper that technology doesn’t change society, it arises as a response to the changing needs of society. But here, we have Newport arguing that these changes don’t fit our needs and we are, in fact, being herded down a path that does not benefit many people. So has social media changed society or has it evolved as a response to our changing needs? I’d argue both – it came about as a way to keep in touch but as business started to harness the power of targetted advertising, social media platforms started to use their technology to change our online usage patterns (okay, I guess you could argue that these advances result from a demand on the business side).
Overall, I really enjoyed this and found it to be inspirational. I definitely want to do more deep work in 2020 for my writing and this, coupled with Digital Minimalism, provided a blueprint for the way forward. I’d recommend this to other creatives who are looking for a way to produce better and more creative work.
Featured Image: Photo from Canva
This seems really interesting 😊 I was thinking about giving myself 1 day/week next term to do this sort of work … distraction-free writing. I’m glad that there’s a book that describes the evidence behind it!
A day a week sounds great! I think you’d be able to get a lot done (: All the best for next term!
“quit social media?” I know you have talked about this before with an intention to limit use of some platforms and I can certainly see advantages to not subscribing to many social media (SM) outlets. However, one can derive some pleasure or benefits from SM. I don’t watch much TV and have avoided most televised news programs. Consequently, I rely on SM sources to direct me to news that I am interested in. Of course, one must cultivate could sources or else you end up with skewed news! Additionally, people use some SM to be seen and/or heard. IG comes to mind. When others respond, that gives you a bit of validation. I sometimes take it step further and engage people who make comments. Occasionally that results in meaningful conversations. So, SM does provide benefits, as long as you make it real!
In the book, most of the people who are featured don’t need social media, I think partly because their work doesn’t require them to be connected. And I think his point is more about how social media is designed to be addictive and hence can get in the way of the long stretches of time needed for deep work, which is something I that agree with (though I think he took it a step further)
But I don’t think I could do completely without social media! A short break every now and then sounds very tempting, though :p
Agreed!. I spend too much time online and I also need to push myself away! easier said than done!