Productivity
by Cal Newport
Why is focus worth so much now?
Cal Newport argues that the ability to concentrate hard, without distraction, is getting rarer just as it's becoming more valuable. Email and meetings fill most working days. The few people who can still shut them out and think, he says, will thrive.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Deep work stretches your mind to its limit and produces something hard to copy. Shallow work is the replies and admin, easy to do while distracted and easy to hand on. Newport asks how many months it would take to train a bright graduate to do the task.
The business professor Sophie Leroy found that when you switch tasks, part of your attention stays stuck on the last one. Newport borrows her term, attention residue. A quick look at your inbox halfway through a hard problem leaves you thinking less clearly for a while afterwards.
Newport describes four ways to fit deep work into a life. The monastic way cuts out nearly everything else. The bimodal way alternates long deep stretches with normal busy periods. The rhythmic way sets the same time every day. The journalistic way grabs whatever gaps appear.
If you reach for your phone whenever a queue slows, Newport says, your brain has learned to need distraction and won't settle when you ask it to. His fix is to schedule when you'll go online and stay offline the rest of the time, even at home.
Deep work
Hard, focused work with no distractions is getting rarer, which makes it worth more.
Attention residue
When you switch tasks, part of your mind stays stuck on the last one for a while.
Scheduling focus
Don't wait for the mood to focus. Book the time in your diary and guard it.
Embrace boredom
If you grab your phone at every dull moment, your mind forgets how to focus.
Choosing tools
Keep an app only if what it gives you clearly outweighs what it costs in time and focus.
A story from the book
Struggling to finish the last Harry Potter book at home, J.K. Rowling booked a suite at the Balmoral, a grand Edinburgh hotel, and wrote there. Newport calls this a grand gesture. Spending real money on a change of scene tells your mind the work matters, so it's easier to begin.
One thing to try
Tonight, end work with a ritual. Check email one last time, write a next step for each unfinished task and glance at tomorrow's diary. Any work thought after that can wait until morning, because it already has a plan.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. Deep Work comes with a Name That Idea round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhy is focus worth so much now? Cal Newport argues that the ability to concentrate hard, without distraction, is getting rarer just as it's becoming more valuable. Email and meetings fill most working days. The few people who can still shut them out and think, he says, will thrive.
Deep and shallow; Attention residue; Four ways to go deep; Embrace boredom.
Tonight, end work with a ritual. Check email one last time, write a next step for each unfinished task and glance at tomorrow's diary. Any work thought after that can wait until morning, because it already has a plan.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from Deep Work in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Name That Idea round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
