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Deep Work
Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport · 2016
productivity
Focus is a trainable skill, and it is quietly becoming the most valuable one.
About the book
Deep Work argues that the ability to concentrate without distraction on a hard problem is becoming one of the most valuable skills in the economy, and one of the rarest. Newport explains why shallow, reactive work crowds it out, and offers concrete routines for protecting and training real focus.
About the author
Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown who writes about focus and a deliberate relationship with work and technology. His other books include So Good They Can't Ignore You, Digital Minimalism, and Slow Productivity.
Key ideas
- Deep work, full focus on a demanding task, is getting more valuable and more rare at the same time.
- Shallow work feels busy but rarely creates lasting value, and it quietly crowds out the deep kind.
- Focus is a skill you train with routine and ritual, not a mood you wait around for.
- What you refuse to do protects the work. Blocks of deep work only survive if you guard them.