I chose to read a productivity book to start 2021 because it's an area I've been struggling with lately. For the first half of 2020, I was happy with my productivity levels, but things went downhill rapidly in the second half. In between short bursts of work, I would instinctively start typing "command-T-y-o-u-enter" (to open YouTube). 5-minute breaks turned into half-hour time-wasting sessions.

The central argument of Deep Work is as follows:

  1. Society now values knowledge workers – people who can integrate complex information. People who work on mundane tasks will be replaced by AI.
  2. Success in this new economy requires "deep work", i.e long periods of uninterrupted focus.
  3. Constantly checking social media depletes our finite resources of willpower, reducing our ability to do deep work.

Deep Work was an important read. It explained to me why I was finding it so hard to get into the swing of things: having spent so much of last year giving in to procrastination, my willpower muscle atrophied. I will be adopting several ideas suggested in Deep Work, which I believe could improve my productivity and wellbeing in the long run. As a first step, I am going to seriously resist the urge to check my phone to pass time (e.g when I'm in a lift or waiting for someone) – while seemingly innocuous, this is the kind of thing that can weaken one's willpower over time.

All this said, I was not a fan of the book.

Firstly, the author makes sweeping statements about the power of deep work based on a small set of anecdotes, from people working in a relatively small set of activities. The author happens to be from academia (as he so often reminds us – see later), which is highly suited to deep work. Academia is primarily an individualistic field that doesn't require much ongoing input, particularly in the author's field (computer science), so is well suited to shutting yourself away to do research. I would have liked to see a greater discussion of which areas deep work is well suited to and which it isn't. Newport mentions certain management roles as examples of where deep work cannot be done but doesn't analyse whether it should be done.

Secondly, Newport is very anti-tech. I agree with his points about the dangers of tech, but feel like he is missing a beat on the positives. Early on, he provided an anecdote of someone who locked himself in a room with just a programming textbook and highlighters to force himself to learn how to code. Sure, this may be "deep" work, but is it truly the best way to learn? Furthermore, he talks about the dangers of email and social media (I broadly agree here), but strangely seems to mention almost nothing about messaging services like WhatsApp or Messenger. He seems to believe that these digitally-enabled relationships are shallow... ok boomer.

Lastly, what is it all for? Newport vehemently argues that we should cut out social media so that we have time for "the most important things in life", which in his case, seems to be churning out journal articles. The book is full of humblebragging and petty one-upping, with the author constantly reminding us about how many papers he has published etc. I understand that deep work is merely a means to achieve one's goals, but if you're going to criticise other people's lifestyle choices, it's probably worth defending your own.

Closely related to Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Several philosophies of deep work:

Things that I will incorporate into my life:

<aside> 💡 Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. (loc 31)

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