Book Review #7-Deep Work

Written by Cal Newport, Deep Work is not your conventional self-improvement book. His Ted Talk titled ‘Quit Social Media’ has over 5 million views and is definitely one of the most insightful speeches I’ve heard. Watching it fortified my decision to engage in more content that is written and researched by him. Consequently, picking up and reading Deep Work was fairly life-altering. Newport coined the term deep work which roughly means and I quote him, “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.” (p. 3)

The book is segregated into 2 sections namely Part 1: The Idea (of deep work) and Part 2: The Rules (of how to practically integrate deep work into one’s daily life). The author backs up his hypothesis for living a focused life by taking an earnest look at the research done regarding learning, concentration and productivity. He critically analyzes a multitude of works/research papers of psychologists, entrepreneurs, scientists as well as professors to systematically produce enough evidence vis-à-vis the need for deep work, and by doing so, garner greater fulfillment in work and life.

I can’t say I agree with everything the author suggests- for example, quitting social media, but he does not make this claim without providing a methodology for doing so. For him, social media departure is synonymous with taking back control of our time and attention from meaningless consumption. This re-direction is crucial to become purposeful creators and contributors in our respective fields, rather than remaining ordinary consumers in the capitalist economy.

The unmitigated practicality of this book makes it an essential read. Newport summarizes almost everything he would like to advocate in the following sentence. “If you service low-impact activities, therefore, you’re taking away time you could be spending on higher-impact activities. It’s a zero-sum game.” (P.202)

Whether you are a student, working professional, teacher, homemaker, entrepreneur or all of these- this book is a fundamental primer that will redefine the way you value your time and most importantly- it provides immediate evidence-based measures to do so.