"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."
Cal Newport's deep dive into deep work is important reading, especially in a time of global pandemic, remote working, and "The Great Resignation." Of course, as a manager, I recognize a lot of this as aspirational at best and not feasible at worst, which the author skirts around.
"Because, of course, in the end, a business's goal is to generate value, not to make sure its employee's lives are as easy as possible."
"Deep Work: Rules of Focused Success in a Distracted World" explores concepts like attention residue and attention restoration theory, making a compelling case for using any and all methods to protect and preserve time for deep work.
Disclaimer: I do not subscribe to the entirety of this philosophy. Having come from a journalism background where things change from moment to moment, I've become comfortable amidst uncertainty -- a stipulation acknowledged by Newport.
"I call this approach, in which you fit deep work wherever you can in your schedule, the journalist philosophy ... This name is a nod to the fact that journalists, like Walter Isaacson, are trained to shift into a writing mode on a moment's notice, as is required by the deadline-driven nature of their profession."
Overall, the reading can be slow going, but the messages and tips are intensely useful, no matter your profession, market, or personal working style.
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