Mini Book Review of Deep Work

In this video, I’m doing a mini book review of the book titled – Deep Work, Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World by Cal Newport. 

It’s a great and phenomenal book which talks about the importance of deep work versus shallow work.

Deep work is things like writing, producing content, coming up with business ideas, and making business plans.

While he generally defines shallow work as more of administrative stuff such as data entry, research, things like this.

Deep work is things that get you closer to your ultimate goals.  And shallow work while necessary, doesn’t get you closer to your big goals most of the time.

He doesn’t get into a philosophical argument on which one is better for the economy or yourself because both are necessary. But if you want to be successful, make a lot of money, and make a significant impact on the world he argues that deep work is not only the right thing to do but it’s the best route for you to take.

In his research, he estimates that people can only do deep work – which he defines as deep concentration and mentally exhausting work – for only  2 to 6 hours each day.

And without training your mind to do deep work most people can do it for less than two hours in any day.

This phenomenal book talks about how especially in our knowledge economy, how important deep work is because people who do shallow work are being replaced by automation.

I especially appreciate his emphasis on the importance of deep work and focus when it comes to the millennial generation, where I belong as I just turned 30 in December.

My generation was brought up with all this distracting technology so the focus is becoming a competitive advantage.

It’s normal to see people my age trying to do a bunch of things at once.  One example I see on a regular basis goes something like this… They have a movie on while doing research on the computer, while listening to music on their cell phones, all the while doing none of them well, which research has proved over and over again.

This is just one example of the highly destructive and fragmented stuff that takes us away from our deep work and getting closer to our goals.

Throughout the book, he argues that to have a highly paid job in this new knowledge economy, and to not be replaced by automation, that you have to do deep work, become highly productive and skilled, and produce tons of value for either your clients, society, or whoever your audience is.

***

You can watch the full video below…