Booknotes - Deepwork, Cal Newport

Rule #1: Work Deeply

Decide on your Depth Philosophy

*The Monastic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling

*The Bimodal Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling

*The Rhythmic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling

*The Journalistic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling

Ritualise your work habits
Set a strategy on:
*Where you’ll work and for how long

*How you’ll work once you start to work

*How you’ll support your work

Execute Like a Business: from the 4 Disciplines of Execution

Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important — Execution should be on a small number of “wildly important goals”. Identify a small number of ambitions outcomes to pursue .

Discipline #2: Act on the Lead Measures — Find measures associated with your Deepwork — “measure the new behaviours that will drive success”

Eg — Time spent in a state of deep work dedicated toward your wildly important goal.

Discipline #3: Keep a compelling scoreboard — Have a personal scoreboard that shows your “Lead measures” (like how many hours you’re spending on deepwork)

Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability — Do a weekly review to look over your scorecard to celebrate wins and understand why you didn’t hit your targets. Then adjust accordingly.

Rule #2: Embrace Boredom

Don’t Take Breaks from Distraction. Instead Take Breaks from Focus.

*Schedule when you’ll use the internet and then avoid it altogether outside of these times.

Point #1: This strategy works even if your job requires lots of Internet use and/or prompt email replies — just adjust your “internet blocks” to be more frequent.

Point #2: Regardless of how your schedule your Internet blocks, you must keep the time outside these blocks absolutely free from Internet use.

Point #3: Scheduling Internet use at home as well can further improve your concentration training.

Rule #3: Quit Social Media

Take the following approach:

The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.

Don’t Use the Internet to Entertain Yourself!

Arnold Bennet: “Put more thought into your leisure time”

Figure out in advance how you are going to spend your evenings and weekends before they begin.

Arnold Bennet: “One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an or a leg. All they want is change — not rest, except in sleep”

There was a lot more content on the book and the notes above were not meant to be a summary of the book. They are mearly some of my takeaways.