“Rules for focused success in a distracted world. The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare and valuable.”
What's in this book
- Cal Newport's 2016 popular psychology - a framework for focused work in a fragmented-attention economy
- Newport's structural breakthrough that established his contemporary popular-psychology career
- 296 pages organized around the four rules of deep work and the productivity-and-attention reform program
- Author is a Georgetown computer science professor specializing in distributed algorithms
- Jeff Bottoms audiobook is the definitive audio production
- For readers of Digital Minimalism, Atomic Habits, So Good They Can't Ignore You, and contemporary popular-psychology productivity literature
Buy this book
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Cal Newport argues that the ability to perform cognitively demanding work without distraction - what he calls "deep work" - is both increasingly rare and increasingly valuable. The combination means those who cultivate it will thrive.
The book is split into two parts: the case for deep work, and practical rules for achieving it. The rules section is where the real value lies - Newport covers scheduling techniques, rituals, and how to drain the shallow work from your schedule.
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