Deep Work: The Lost Art | Deep Work by Cal Newport Book Summary

Today’s post would be a book summary of one of the most dreaded and boring books I ever read.

But this book proved to be the foundational book that changed my life for the better.

So, here are a few ideas from that amazing book:

1. What is Deep Work?

Deep Work is the ability to work in a state of deep concentration and focus for a long period of time, without distraction or interruption.

It basically means you stay in a state of flow while doing the task.

2. Why is it even necessary?

Do I need to explain why we need to learn to focus more? We all have lost our ability to focus on anything. Our attention span is basically 3 seconds now.

I have faced it first hand that at a time, I can’t even focus on a movie. Movies are supposed to be fun and keep you engaged and back at that time, I couldn’t even focus on that.

And that’s why I believe we all need to level up in this Deep Work skill.

3. How to practice Deep Work

The author shares 4 different approaches to Deep Work in your routine. Here, are those based on their difficulty level:

a. The monastic approach. Monastic comes from the monastery — the place where monks live. It means shutting yourself off completely, for example by moving to a cabin in the woods to write a novel, and not coming back until it’s finished.

b. The bimodal approach. This strategy prioritizes deep work above everything else. You could set a 4–6 hour block each day for deep work, for example, where you lock yourself in your office, similar to the monastic approach. However, once that block is over, you’re free to do everything else that might be on your plate.

c. The rhythmic approach. This chunks down your work into time blocks, similar to the Pomodoro technique, and uses a calendar to track your progress. For example, you’d plan your week ahead of time and put 10 blocks of 90 minutes on your calendar, and make working with timed blocks a habit.

d. The journalistic approach. If you have a busy daily routine, this works well. What you do is simply dedicate any, unexpected free time to deep work.

From the above strategies. The bimodal approach is the most realistic approach to go on a deep work mode. Whereas, the monastery approach will work only when you’re working on a project and need to get it done.