The 365 Best Business Books Of All-Time: Deep Work

Cal Newport doesn’t use social media, and doesn’t list his email address on his website. He also doesn’t use the Internet for entertainment.

Not surprisingly, he’s incredibly productive, finishes his work day by 5:30, and generally enjoys his life.

In his book Deep Work, he makes the argument that 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.

With that in mind, here’s a radical idea for you.

My Key Takeaway/Principle
Quit Social Media

This one is simple. Most people focus only on the benefits of using social media, and pay no attention to the detriments.

Newport identifies this as the “Any-Benefit” approach to tool selection. You’re justified in using a network tool if you can identify any possible benefit, or anything you might possibly miss out on if you don’t use it.

Instead, consider using the “Craftsman” approach to tool selection. You will identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Then, only adopt a tool if the positive impacts on those factors significantly outweigh the negative impacts.

Here’s a very practical approach to doing it. Quit all social networking sites for 30 days. Then, ask yourself these two questions at the end of that time about each of the social networks you took a break from.

Questions to ask yourself

• Would the last thirty days have been notably better if I had been able to use this service?
• Did people care that I wasn’t using this service?

If you answer no to both questions, quit the social network permanently. If your answer was “yes” you can let yourself go back.

What else is covered in this book?

Newport covers a lot of ground, including a lot of research about what constant partial attention does to your brain (it’s not good), and how you can overcome your addiction to email, even in a culture that expects you to always “be on.” This is one of those ideas that just might change the trajectory of your life. Seriously.

This year (2018) I’m reading and summarizing the top 365 business books of all-time. You can get the full list of books, and links to my reviews of each book, by clicking here.

Happy learning!