One
of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly
rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.
Deep
work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively
demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master
complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep
work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true
fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a
super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century
economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending
their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not
even realizing there's a better way.
In DEEP WORK,
author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a
connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead
celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts,
he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a
deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a
rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for
transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.
A
mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, DEEP WORK takes the
reader on a journey through memorable stories -- from Carl Jung building
a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer
buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free
from distraction in the air -- and no-nonsense advice, such as the
claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that
you should practice being bored. DEEP WORK is an indispensable guide to
anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.
