Deep Work Summary

• Deep work means those professional tasks that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit done in concentration mode (no distractions)
• Shallow work relates to the tasks that do not require much cognitive work (logistical-style tasks) performed while distracted most of the time. They don't bring much new value in the world and are easy to duplicate.

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

Without explicit feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward actions that are easiest in the moment.

1. Deep Work

• Performing activities in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit.
• These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.
• Psychologists used to refer to deep work as “being in the flow."
• Requires long periods of uninterrupted thinking.

2. Shallow Work

• Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted
• Tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.

Deep work is the type of effort that is needed to stand out in a cognitively demanding field.

□ Minimize the shallow.

• Shallow work includes a low level of focus and consists of tasks that can be performed while distracted. These tasks don’t create new value.

• It is much more satisfying to create something extraordinary that only you can create.

□ Master hard things quickly.

1. Focus intensely without distraction.
2. Tackle relevant topics sysyematically.
3. Deliberate practice.

• Focus on developing your high-level skills, and you will be more valuable.

• Be a superstar. Climb to the top by becoming the best in your field.

• Work your way up to being an owner. Owners are the most valuable people out there.

• Immerse yourself in your work to master hard things quickly.

“Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

“Shallow 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.”

In short, because it maximizes the amount of productivity you can squeeze out of a certain amount of time.

And the reason for that is quite simple. Deep work refers to single-tasking, without distractions, in a state of intense focus, for extended periods of time. 

When you switch from some Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow – a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task. This residue gets especially thick if your work on Task A was unbounded and of low intensity before you switched, but even if you finish Task A before moving on, your attention remains divided for a while. 

When we are task switching some of our attention is still thinking about the first task so we are only half-focused on the new task. 

Having social media and email tabs open on your browser allows their notifications to pop up on the screen, which is enough to derail our focus

Todays workers feel like they are being more productive however they are merely moving information and completing small tasks which makes them feel busy--not productive though. Task switching and distractions are preventing us from truely focusing.

There are four strategies for achieving deep work:

1. Monastic approach- this is eliminating all sources of distraction and secluding yourself like a monk.
2. Bimodal approach- this is setting a clearly defined, long period of seclusion for work and leaving the rest of our time open for anything else.
3. Rhythmic approach- this approach is about forming a habit of doing deep work for blocks of  ~90 minutes and using a calendar to track your accomplishments.
4.  Journalistic strategy- this one has you doing deep work in any unexpected free time in your daily routine.

Despite the strategy you choose the important part to remember is the the key is consistency with that routine.

The difference between being in the zone and deep work is being in the zone happens by chance and after hours of procrastination but deep work is intentional and desired.

One ritual you could have is to define your workspace. Placing a "do not disturb" sign on your door or going to a coffee shop or library

Another way is to define specific boundaries. For example, you could completely disconnect from the internet or turn your phone on silent. 

You just need it to be a sustainable routine

In the future, work that requires repetition will be replaced by machines.

Only 3 types of people will survive. These are following:

1. People who can learn hard things fast.

2. People who are best at their work or are producing high quality work.

3. People who have capital for investing in future technologies.

We spend much of our day on autopilot not giving much thought to what we are doing with our time. This is a problem. We should adopt the habit of pausing before action and asking, "What makes the most sense right now ?". Hence,you should schedule every minute of your day.

Without structure,its easy to allow you to waste your time on social media,web surfing. To summarise, the motivation for this strategy is to recognise that deep work requires you to treat your time with respect. Scheduling every minute of the day is a simple habit that helps you to manage your time and maintain productivity.

Definition: 'Professional activities performed in a distraction-free environment that pushes your cognitive abilities to their limit. Those efforts create new value, improve our skills, and are hard to replicate.'

Deep work - 

The non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted, tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.

When faced with a hard problem, your mind, as it was evolved to do, will attempt to avoid excess expenditure of energy when possible.

One way it might attempt to sidestep this expenditure is by avoiding diving deeper into the problem by instead looping over and over again on what you already know about it.

When working on a proof/solution, mind has a tendency to rehash simple preliminary results, again and again, to avoid the harder work of building on these results toward the needed solution. Thus denying the needed growth that only comes about by going Deep into an idea/problem/concept.

Great idea comes from a great mind... Train your mind for deep work

“The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish. They elaborate that execution should be aimed at a small number of “wildly important goals.”