Simon's Journal: "Deep Work", Cal Newport - Notes, Actions and Additional Resources

Background

In my One Word year of “focus” in 2018, I am reading 9 books and looking for people to read along with me for 1 or more of those books. The reading plan can be seen here. This 2nd book for February 2018 is one of three that form the foundation of my 3rd Working Out Loud circle in Q1 2018.

Why this book?

I do not recall where I first heard of this book.

I was first intrigued by Cal’s mantra and recommendation to “quit all social media”. My view of extreme views is that it is often the way to deeply challenge my own views on a subject and instead of dismissing such views outright I should pay careful attention and reflect on what I truly believe on a subject.

As my #OneWord2018 year of #focus implies, I am seeking to do lots of things with greater focus this year.

By the end of 2017, I had come to the realisation that I was now incapable of concentrating for repeated regular periods of time including reading books.

So when I reflected on what I should do in 2018 the idea of focussing on 3 sets of 3 books for 3-monthly periods with 1 month off in between came to mind. The 9 books came rapidly to mind and Cal’s book was the first that I added to the list.

I am a generalist with a curiosity and fascination for lots of disparate and overlapping subjects that I seek to apply in every area of my life.

I live a lot of my life online but do a lot of things in real life as well. I lead or am a member of multiple virtual and physical communities.

Distractions have become a significant issue in my life including tech notifications but also my employment role includes working on new projects as well as supporting live systems. I am not always in control of how I run my working life as for probably about 50% of my working life I am reactive to other people’s demands in support of live systems.

Would this book be my saviour?

I have been reading mainly ebooks for many years now. I am still sorting out the best way of reading and notetaking from books that I read especially ones where I know there will be things I need and want to apply.

For this book, I read it using iBooks on an iPad and highlighted relevant sentences and paragraphs to review and apply later.

My takeaways from the book to action

Having now read the book and gone back over the highlighted sections and listed some of the book headings and sections below, the following are my takeaways to action.

Even while I was reading the book, I read it in Airplane mode so that i was not pestered by notifications. I will seek to do this for all my reading of ebooks from now on.
I have already started reviewing the way notifications are set up on my various devices (including an Android mobile and a Windows 10 laptop). I need to go further. On the mobile I have already switched off all notifications bar text messages. I will probably do the same on the laptop. This may need to go even further and stop notifications within the apps and web sites I use.
On the back of the Airplane mode strategy, an issue that I now need to address is how do I then rabbit trail which is a major source of my learning by going on relentless quests for knowledge when a subject grips me. I have now started taking notes to look up specific things later so I do not waylaid while I do the core reading of whatever the content is. Even reading this book. I found some really helpful and practical content via rabbit trails.
I have been challenged by the equation in the book of High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus). I will look to do some work in how I measure intensity of focus and how that relates to depth of work.
As well as me being interrupted by others at work, I am conscious that i also interrupt others and a majority are coders and database administrators who probably need no interruptions more than me! I need to think about ways of reducing the times when I interrupt others even if that means it reduces my own efficiency and effectiveness for the greater good. This may include discussing with those people how we jointly tackle this issue.
Explore the different philosophies of deep work scheduling to develop my own routine:-

monastic

I can probably do this when I am working from home (currently, only Fridays) and also when I am at home at weekends in between parental and family responsibilities

bi-modal

Seeking to allocate time to deep work or shallow work for each day. This would probably be impossible in my current job and may be even when I am at home.

rhythmic

Book in the diary times consistently during a week when I will work deeply or shallowly. The power of habit kicks in here. I note that this may also take advantage of when I have most energy. I tend to have a dip after lunch and can work deeply in mornings and evenings even really early and really late.

journalistic

This would be a great target for me eventually – being able to work deeply instantly whenever the opportunity to do so arises during any day of the week.

Develop my own ritual of deep working to trigger off my mind that I am about to start working deeply including where, how long, how and with what tools.
Look for an opportunity to do a “grand gesture” (e.g. going somewhere for an extended period of time to create/co-create something.
For specific areas where I know deep work is required, use OKRs to help in the implementation of the 4 disciplines of execution with a major focus on lead measures. This will be a good way to help me prioritise as I am notoriously bad at doing that.
Set times for downtime when I am not creating etc anything.
Implement breaks from focus which enable me to give in to distraction for set periods of time.
Put myself under pressure via estimating something, giving myself less time to do it and going for it.
Do the meditating exercise while walking to take a single goal/ problem to work through to a solution. This reminds me of my recent “talking to my phone camera” while I do my lunchtime walk.
Monitor my use of social media especially when I should be focused on specific deliverables.
Evaluate the tools that I use to ensure that I am only using ones that definitely yield benefit and do actually help me do deep work. Evaluation to be based on what the real world goals are and for each goal what the activities are to achieve those goials.
Implement the “schedule every minute of every day” approach efore or at the start of the day in question. Set time blocks for types of activity including a measure of shallow versus deep.
Set myself a target deep/shallow ratio for work.
Review my email behaviour and implement any changes per the book (e.g. clarity of what I am asking to prevent further responses back, try not to give reasons for why I cannot do something where the other person does not need to know those reasons).

I am aware that this list of actions is long but lots of these actions are definitely actionable and working more deeply is right at the top of my list of what I need to master. I intend reviewing these at the end of June and at the end of September and at the end of December.

Outline of the book

Cal Newport’s Deep Work

Introduction

Definitions:

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: Non-cognitively 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.
The Deep Work Hypothesis: The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.

PART 1 - The Idea

Chapter 1 - Deep Work is Valuable

Deep Work Helps You Quickly Learn Hard Things
Deep Work Helps You Produce at an Elite Level
High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

Chapter Two - Deep Work Is Rare

The Metric Black Hole
The Principle of Least Resistance: In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment.
Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity
The Cult of the Internet

Chapter 3 - Deep Work is Meaningful

A Psychological Argument for Depth
Homo Sapiens Deepensis

Part 2 - The Rules

Rule #1 - Work Deeply

Decide on Your Depth Philosophy

The Monastic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling
The Bimodal Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling
The Rhythmic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling
The Journalistic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling

Ritualize
Make Grand Gestures
Don’t Work Alone
Execute Like a Business

Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important
Discipline #2: Act on the Lead Measures
Discipline #3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability

Be Lazy

Reason #1: Downtime Aids Insights
unconscious thought theory (UTT): proposes that for decisions that require the application of strict rules, the conscious mind must be involved; for decisions that involve large amounts of information and multiple vague, and perhaps even conflicting, constraints, your unconscious mind is well suited to tackle the issue.
Reason #2: Downtime Helps Recharge the Energy Needed to Work Deeply
attention restoration theory (ART): spending time in nature can improve your ability to concentrate
Reason #3: The Work That Evening Downtime Replaces Is Usually Not That Important

Rule #2: Embrace Boredom

Rule #1 taught you how to integrate deep work into your schedule and support it with routines and rituals designed to help you consistently reach the current limit of your concentration ability.
Rule #2 will help you significantly improve this limit.
Don’t Take Breaks from Distraction. Instead Take Breaks from Focus.

Point #1: This strategy works even if your job requires lots of Internet use and/or prompt e-mail replies.
Point #2: Regardless of how you schedule your Internet blocks, you must keep the time outside these blocks absolutely free from Internet use.
Point #3: Scheduling Internet use at home as well as at work can further improve your concentration training.

Work Like Teddy Roosevelt
Meditate Productively

Suggestion #1: Be Wary of Distractions and Looping
Suggestion #2: Structure Your Deep Thinking

Memorize a Deck of Cards

Rule #3 - Quit Social Media

The Any-Benefit Approach to Network Tool Selection: You’re justified in using a network tool if you can identify any possible benefit to its use, or anything you might possibly miss out on if you don’t use it.
The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.
Apply the Law of the Vital Few to Your Internet Habits
The Law of the Vital Few: In many settings, 80 percent of a given effect is due to just 20 percent of the possible causes.
Don’t Use the Internet to Entertain Yourself

Rule #4 - Drain The Shallows

Schedule Every Minute of Your Day
Quantify the Depth of Every Activity
Ask Your Boss for a Shallow Work Budget
Finish Your Work by Five Thirty
Become Hard To Reach

Tip #1: Make People Who Send You E-mail Do More Work
Tip #2: Do More Work When You Send or Reply to E-mails
Tip #3: Don’t Respond

· Conclusion
“I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.”
("Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life"; Winifred Gallagher)

Additional Resources

One of the joys in my learning is rabbit trail-ing to explore references made in the books that I am reading. This book was no exception. I now refer to additional resources relating to the book.

The following are all referenced in the book.

Arnold Bennett's “How To Live On 24 Hours A Day”:
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (1910), written by Arnold Bennett, is part of a larger work entitled How to Live. In this volume, he offers droll, practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to just existing) within the confines of 24 hours a day. (from Wikipedia)
Download the book at Project Gutenberg
Listen to an audio version of the book:

Winifred Gallagher’s Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life:
Google Books
Washington Post book review

Winifred’s talk at Microsoft Research:

Your life is the creation of what you focus on-and what you donΓÇÖt. But what is “attention” exactly? Can we train our focus? What happens in the brain when you deeply focus on something? With cutting edge information from neuroscience and behavioral science we can examine the role of attention in all areas of our lives, from work and relationships to the role it plays in innovation and creativity. In todayΓÇÖs world of omnipresent Blackberries, sound bites, Twitter and an increasing incidence of ADD in our children, it might be time to re-examine the role of focused attention in the modern world.

Neal Stephenson, author of “Anathem", Talks at Google:

Cal Newport on the Michael Hyatt podcast:

Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons:

eudaimonia (a state in which you’re achieving your full human potential);
Eudaimonia in work and family life: Findings and reflections (Carol D. Ryff):