Damien 's Key Ideas from Deep Work
by Cal Newport

Knowledge workers usually lack explicit indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable at work, so they turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing multiple tasks in a visible manner.

But doing lots of tasks is shallow work. Productivity for knowledge workers is about effectiveness not efficiency. Lots of corporate workers have become experts in effectively doing the wrong things. 

• Monastic: isolate yourself for long periods of time without distractions; no shallow work allowed
• Bimodal: reserve a few consecutive days when you will be working like a monastic (you need at least one day a week)
• Rhythmic: take 3-4 hours every day to perform deep work on your project
• Journalistic: alternate your day between deep and shallow work as it fits your blocks of time (not recommended to try out first).

Our ability to focus deeply is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice.

There are some things we can do:

1. Set up a routine for work
2. Value Downtime
3. Eliminate Distractions, mainly social media

In order to have a deep work routine, you have to decide the following:

• Where you’ll work and for how long.
• How you’ll work once you start to work.
• How you’ll support your work.

• Downtime aids insights
• It helps recharge the energy needed to work deeply
• The work that evening downtime replaces is usually not that important

It's important to have a shutdown ritual, to ensure that every incomplete activity has been reviewed and that for each you have confirmed that either you have a plan you will follow for its completion, or it’s wirrten down and saved in a place where it will be revisited.

• Sending too much time on Social Media breaks up our time and reduces our ability to concentrate.
• Social Media take away time you could be spending on higher-impact activities. It’s a zero-sum game.
• If you want to eliminate the addictive pull of entertainment sites on your time and attention, give your brain a quality alternative.