I am a master multitasker. I come from a long line of people who do all the things, and stay busy, busy, busy. I’m not always proud of this trait. In fact, I often wonder if keeping all these balls in the air is the best way to work, live, and play. Enter this book, Deep Work, by Cal Newport, Ph.D., a professor of computer science who contends that mastering the ability to focus deeply on one thing at a time is a superpower that will help us be more productive at work and more fulfilled overall.
The first half of the book is focused on the idea of deep work, defining what it is and what it is not. Essentially, it refers to doing one thing for a period of time with no distractions, delving into it fully and completely. When you perform deep work, Newport says, you don’t pause to answer an email, or check your social media. You stay focused on the task at hand. It helps to pre-game to help avoid distractions, such as turning your email off, hiding your phone, finding a special, quiet place to work, etc.
The second half of the book explains how to do the deep work. Some of Newport’s advice is hard to swallow, especially in my field of public relations. He says we need to break from social media (even eliminating it completely) and not answer emails the minute they come in. While that might be a challenging thing to do, it makes sense. He also advocates being bored on purpose, something I’ve heard before.
Deep work is not only a fun thing to think about; Newport explains how and why it’s so important. In fact, he claims deep work will make you better at what you do, let you achieve more in less time and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from the mastery of a skill.
If you, like me, struggle to find the time to focus and feel like you are being pulled in many directions, this book might be helpful for you. It’s a rather quick and easy read with tons of anecdotes and concrete actions you can take to reach the state of deep work.