“Deep Work” is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task; in contrast to “Shallow Work”: the routine work, everyday tasks that do not call for our best, that we often perform while distracted. Deep work is often the most important work we can be doing but is rarely the most urgent.

Most of us let emails, interruptions, and distractions direct our day; we respond to the beeps and buzzes of phones and social media with “the urgency of a parent to a baby’s cry”. We are more akin to Pavlov’s dogs than thinking, self-directed beings. Yet every time we prioritize giving our attention to a “vibrating hunk of a metal”, we reinforce our weakness and deny ourselves the almost spiritual sense of satisfaction that can come from doing profound work.

The secret of your future lies in your daily routine. To be good, work hard. To be great, work hard AND smart; make Deep Work part of your routine.

Closing Quotes:

“Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.”  – Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

“To combat the dissipated mind through EFFECTIVE concentration is the essential first step in the ability to accomplish one’s needs and one’s desires.” – Hamid Bey

“The power to concentrate was the most important thing. Living without this power would be like opening one’s eyes without seeing anything.” – Haruki Murakami , The Elephant Vanishes

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier