Arthur Andersen

I enjoyed this book a lot because I feel that I want to do so much but accomplish so little. Most of the advice seems so common sense that nobody talks about it. Or maybe they talk about it but nobody incorporates these concepts sincerely into their life.

With Deep Work the computer scientist Cal Newport describes ideas of ill work ethics, inbalance between types of work and methods of how to accomplish deep work.

Shallow Work vs. Deep Work

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.

This kind of work is called busy-work and should be avoided or off-handed to other people since it is not creating value.

Deep work is the opposite. It is the rare work that generates value and should be maximised.

Deep Work is Valuable

Two core abilities are paramount to thrive in the new economy:

1. The ability to quickly master hard things.
2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.

Both abilities are only possible when done deliberately without much diversion (if any).

“Men of genius themselves were great only by bringing all their power to bear on the point on which they had decided to show their full measure.” – Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life

High-quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

Principle of Least-Resistance

In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors, to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest at the moment.

This means that instead of focussing at the most important task (which may require a lot of concentration) we intuitively take an easy task.

This results in busyness as a proxy for productivity:

In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.

The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection

Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impact on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impact.

Eliminate all distracting media from my life. Deep Work is meaningful.

Law of the Vital Few / Pareto Principle

In many settings, 80 percent of a given effect is due to just 20 percent of the possible causes.

Meaning that I can probably eliminate 80 percent of the things I do, to still reach 80 percent of the outcome from the remaining 20 percent. Lets optimize!

Summary

Work Deeply

• Create A Deep Work Ritual (Where? For how long? How once started? How to support sustainability?)
• Time-boxing for the most important task
• Don’t Work Alone
• Ahere to 4 Disciplines of Execution
  1. Focus on the Wildly Important —
  2. Act on the Lead Measures — Time spent in a deep state
  3. Keep a Compelling Score Board – e.g. Hours spent working deeply
  4. Create a Cadence of Accountability
• Allow and plan for relaxation from deep work (for example via Shutdown-Routine)

Embrace Boredom

• Don’t take breaks from distraction, take breaks from focus

Quit Social Media

• Neither my professional and personal goals do not depend on my use of social media.
• Don’t use the Internet to entertain yourself

Drain the Shallows

• Be hard to reach
• Do more work when answering e-mails (try to answer almost all possible questions that may arise)