Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (2016) is a self-help book by Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University and a graduate of MIT. In the book, Newport examines current workplace culture, asserting that oftentimes, it unintentionally invites ever-increasing distraction for employees.

Newport offers strategies to overcome these distractions, and explores the alternative to what he argues is the shallow, cognitively undemanding work pervading the modern workplace. He calls this approach Deep Work, arguing that cultivating habits toward focus and concentration enhances productivity and provides one with a more clearly defined sense that their work has value.

Deep Work is Newport’s sixth book. In the time since, he has published two more, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (2019) and A World without Email (2021). The guide is based on the 2016 Kindle edition.

Summary

The book is divided into two parts, which are bookended by an introduction and a conclusion. Newport begins the introduction with an anecdote about the 20th-century psychologist, Carl Jung, who had a retreat built in Switzerland so that he could work intensely without distraction.

Newport then establishes the book’s primary purpose, which is to provide readers with strategies they can use to limit distractions and cultivate their abilities to focus on their work.