Deep Work — Core Ideas

What Is Deep Work?

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.

The opposite — shallow work — is non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted (emails, meetings, social media).

Why Deep Work Matters

1. The economy rewards it: In a knowledge economy, the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
2. It's a skill: Like any skill, you can train and improve your ability to concentrate deeply.
3. It produces meaning: Deep work generates a sense of fulfillment that shallow work never can.

The Four Rules

Rule 1: Work Deeply

• Choose a depth philosophy: Monastic (eliminate all distractions), Bimodal (dedicate defined stretches to deep work), Rhythmic (set a regular daily habit), or Journalistic (fit deep work wherever you can).
• Ritualize: Build routines that minimize the willpower needed to start deep work sessions.
• Grand gestures: Sometimes a dramatic change in environment (a cabin, a hotel room) helps signal the importance of the task.

Rule 2: Embrace Boredom

• Don't take breaks from distraction; take breaks from focus. Schedule internet/distraction blocks rather than scheduling focus blocks.
• Practice being bored: Resist the urge to pull out your phone during every idle moment.
• Productive meditation: Use physical activity (walking, jogging) to focus on a single professional problem.

Rule 3: Quit Social Media

• Apply the Craftsman Approach: Only use a tool if its positive impacts substantially outweigh its negative impacts.
• The 30-day experiment: Quit a social media service for 30 days. If nobody noticed and you didn't miss it, leave it permanently.

Rule 4: Drain the Shallows

• Schedule every minute of your day (time blocking).
• Quantify the depth of every activity: "How many months would it take to train a smart recent college graduate to do this task?"
• Become hard to reach: Make people who email you do more work, send fewer emails yourself, and don't respond to messages that are ambiguous.

Key Takeaways

• Attention is your most valuable resource. Guard it ruthlessly.
• The ability to do deep work is not a luxury — it's a necessity for producing work that matters.
• Depth requires practice. Start with short sessions and build up over time.

Who Should Read This

Knowledge workers, students, creatives, and anyone who feels pulled in too many directions by modern distractions.