My notes from Deep Work

by Cal Newport

Deep work is hard, shallow work is easier.

For you as an individual this is good news. The myopia of your peers and employers uncovers a great personal advantage. Assuming the trends outlined here continue, depth will become increasingly rare and therefore increasingly valuable.

Our brains construct our worldview based on whe we pay attention to.

Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, is the sum of what you focus on. Your world is the outcome of what you pay attention to.

Sense of importance is inherent in deep work - if you spend enough time in this state, your mind will understand you world as rich in meaning and importance.

When you lose focus, your mind tends to fix on what could be wrong with your life instead of what's right.

The best moments usually occur when person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

Ironically jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities, they have built-in goals, feedback and challenges, all of which encourage one to become involved in one's work to concentrate and lose oneself in it. Free time on the other hand is unstructured and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed.

To build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction.

We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals. Computer programmers must see their work the same way.

A similar potential for craftsmanship can be found im most skilled jobs in the information economy.

You don't need a rarified job, you need a rarified approach to your work. Cultivating craftsmanship is necessarily a deep task and therefore requires commitment to deep work.