Summary of 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport. (2 Summaries in 1: In-Depth Summary and Bonus 2-Page PDF.)

Sophie Leroy, a business professor at the University of Minnesota, discovered in experiments that when people switch tasks, attention doesn't immediately follow. Part of the attention remains stuck on the prior task, resulting in worse performance on the next task. She called this effect attention residue, which becomes stronger in these instances:

The work sprint is a technique that practices intense focus. Applying the work sprint to a task has 4 steps: Estimate how long the task usually takes when working at a normal pace. Create a deadline that is significantly shorter than the estimate. If possible, make a public commitment to the deadline for accountability and pressure. Use a countdown

The consistency of a rhythmic approach creates a daily deep work habit, which over time becomes stronger and requires less willpower. The rhythmic approach is also great for making progress on big projects that require weeks or months to finish. A lengthy project can be demotivating and lead to procrastination, especially if the project does not ha

One solution to weaning yourself off of distraction is scheduling offline / online time blocks: a preset schedule for using the Internet. The rule is simple: you use the Internet only during online time blocks, while abstaining from Internet use during offline time blocks. Over time, if you adhere to the following 4 points regarding offline/online

Newport proposes a more rigorous approach called the craftsman approach to tool selection, which involves a careful evaluation of a tool's pros and cons as it relates to your most important goals and activities.

Professorial approach to emails The last approach is based on the behavior of many professors; they simply do not respond to emails unless the sender convinces them that a reply is worth the time and effort. The professorial approach calls for ignoring the email for a few reasons: The message is unclear or difficult to respond to The subject is uni

So Newport create a sender filter on his website as follows: "If you have an offer, opportunity, or introduction that might make my life more interesting, e-mail me at interesting@calnewport.com. For the reasons stated above, I'll only respond to those proposals that are a good match for my schedule and interests." Newport's sender filter

6 Strategies To Reduce Shallow Work Quantify the depth of every activity Create a shallow work budget Schedule your entire day Use fixed-schedule productivity Learn how to say "no" Manage email senders

To solve this problem, schedule your entire day like this: On lined paper, mark every other line with the hour of day. Schedule all your planned activities for the day (work tasks, lunch breaks, meetings, etc.) on the paper. For larger tasks (over 30 minutes), put each task in its own block. For smaller tasks, create a generic "task block"