Deep Work

Although a short book, if you already buy into the importance of deep work you can probably skim (or even skip) the first part. There are several anecdotes presented to support the premise of the book, some of which are repeated across chapters to reinforce such premise.

One of the things that struck me the most was the so-called "metrics black hole", which is the idea that knowledge work can't be measured accurately. It is hard to quantify the impact shallow work has on your day-to-day and your output. This makes it difficult for companies to justify an investment in promoting deep work by removing distractions. Looking busy is what makes it seem like you're doing your job well as long as it's visible (e.g. prompt responses, high participation in threads, frequent reviews, and plenty of meetings). While some of these provide valuable work they inevitably decrease deep work which, as the book presents, enables the highest quality of output (whatever "output" means to you).

This can become a valuable read if you don't have structured time in your day-to-day to be able to focus. It provides several practical ways to promote deep work in your home or office.

How did this book affect me?

I find programming to be a creative outlet that lends itself well to enabling deep work. I often reach a "flow" state in a matter of minutes. This makes it easier for me to dedicate a few hours a day to focused work geared towards growth (hoping it will benefit me in my personal and professional life).

This was not a "random" book read based on recommendations but an intentional (although casual) research into effective methods to learn, grow, and generally retain more information. As someone who mostly reads to learn, I find it hard to retain the acquired knowledge without deliberate practice. To top it off I want to not only retain what I read but also apply it for personal projects and hopefully have further technical growth in my career.

I strongly agree that we abuse network tools that keep us distracted and degrade our capacity to stay focused. I notice it all around, grabbing your phone to fill those few minutes while you wait for something. And while I get excited about many of our technological advances I believe they keep creating a bigger divide between individuals trapped in shallow work vs the ones focusing on deep work. I tried ChatGPT and was blown away by its capabilities, then I stopped for a second and realized how "easy" it was to ask for anything. The debate is, does this make us more productive OR does it create a deeper divide between people who can do their work without ChatGPT and people who cannot?

I don't have an answer but I believe one should be careful about how any of these tools are used. If you're trying to learn then ChatGPT might prove to not help in getting you there. If you let tools do the work that will make you more proficient in something, then you become better at using the tools and not at doing what you were attempting to get better at. If I'm trying to learn a new programming language by creating a simple JSON API and I ask ChatGPT to do it for me, then I'm using it wrong. I'm just reading someone else's work hoping it will stick. Now if I'm trying to get a deeper understanding of how memory allocations work for a specific programming language then ChatGPT can give me an accurate response with ease. This has a substantially positive impact on my goal to learn VS being handed a solution like in the first example.

One of the most important lessons I got out of the book is that deep work doesn't just "happen". You have to create rituals and routines design maintain a state of deep concentration. This is hard to achieve at a manager level while being pulled in one too many directions where most things seem to require immediate attention. I don't believe I will be able to make a drastic change in my professional life but I will try to maintain focus whenever I can. I started doing this in a few ways:

• Blocking time on my calendar to have a meeting with myself, can I keep my focus on something without falling into the trap of checking on every notification?
• Minimize how many times I check my email and disable the "ding" notification sound. My work does NOT depend on me answering emails.
• Create smarter email filters, I get A LOT of emails that I just regularly delete. Some of them can just be turned into a report at the end of the day. I might try and create a script for this!
• Stop rushing to respond to someone on Slack unless I am tagged directly.
• Slow down on trying to be present in too many threads and focus on what matters
• Start creating a daily schedule and review its priorities daily: what is deserving of my attention? What can I delegate?

I'm still working on setting myself up for some of them and plan to get myself in good shape before the end of the month. In my personal life, I reserve focus time after the kid goes to bed, and after I can spend quality time with my wife. I believe (and the book hints at that as well) that one should cultivate relationships with the people one loves the most. This has become a routine for the past 3 weeks and I am challenging myself to keep it up for as long as possible.

Why 3 stars?

It's clear that a lot of research went into this book but like many others in the same genre, there's a lot of unnecessary... fluff. Some of the people used as golden standards are morally quite questionable. While that doesn't take away from the point the author is trying to make I would prefer highlighting individuals with stronger morals all around.

Additionally, for a book published in 2016, I was surprised that emails were used as one of the network tools that can lead to distraction. The omnipresence of chat systems (e.g. Slack) is a more dangerous weapon of distraction than emails. A chat message expects a quick response and I was hoping this book would provide pragmatic ideas on how to address it. With all the other suggestions, the reader has the tools to figure it out but it did feel a little bit out of touch with how companies realistically rely on quick communication nowadays.

All in all, if you don't buy into the importance of deep work, this book will easily convince you! Generally recommended to set yourself up for success.