My notes from Deep Work

by Cal Newport

Training

The ability to concentrate intensely is a skill that must be trained.

The creative insights have little to do with a onetime decision to thing deeper and much to do with a commitment to training this ability every morning. Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don't simultaneously wean your mind form a dependence on distraction. You'll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend the rest of your time fleeing the slightest hint of boredom.

People who multitask all the time can't filter out irrelevancy. They can't manage a working memory. The're chronically distracted.

Getting the most of your deep work habit requires training and this training must address the two goals:

You should instead schedule the occasional break from focus to give in to distraction.

Schedule in advance when you will use the internet and avoid it altogether outside those times.

This strategy works even if your job requires lots of internet use and/or prompt e-mail replies. This simply means that your internet blocks will be more numerous.

Regardless of your internet schedule, keep out of internet outside of those blocks.

An inevitable issue you will face when executing this strategy is realizing early on in an offline block that there's some crucial piece of information online that you need to retrieve to continue making progress on your current task. You must resist this temptation. It's crucial that you don't immediately abandon an offline block. If infeasible - change schedule so that internet block begins sooner, but not immediately, better wait out at least a five-minute gap which won't impede your progress.

Scheduling internet use at home as well as at work can further improve your concentration training. Maintain the strategy of scheduling internet use even after the workday is over. Give yourself plenty of opportunities throughout your evening to resist switching to these distractions at the slightest hint of boredom.