When I picked up this book I was filled with your typical productivity-blended dread of procrastination: I know that in order to achieve big things, I needed to work deep. It is just that the time to work in this “deep” fashion just wasn’t available at a moment’s notice. I suspect the same is true for most people reading these words.
This book proved that assumption wrong- and by quite a margin.
Who should read this book?
While it is obvious to suggest this book to its target audience of modern knowledge workers, I would instead choose to plead its case to administrators and people in charge.
Here’s why.
Reading this book as a middle-class Indian, the necessity of working hard and deep in order to attain a certain standard of living was a no-brainer. However, the bigger reality which Cal Newport repeatedly alludes to is that most working environments are simply not conducive to deep work. This is especially true in the overpopulated job markets of the Indian subcontinent where resumes are perpetually stacked in the HR inbox to take the place of your present job.
As such, it is far more important for people in power to read this book and incorporate into the workflow and institutional structure some of its core tenets.
These could include reducing dependence on e-mail and instant messaging, setting in place meaningful uninterrupted break periods, and to do away with the industrial-era metric of quantifying one’s productivity rather than valuing the quality in place.
All of this may appear a pipe-dream, but perhaps such a revolutionary change is just a spirited head or boss away.
How practical is this book?
While I was mulling over reading this book, I came across the following tweet referencing it.
The qualm of the person in the tweet is one that most of us may relate to. In a post-pandemic world where the line between work and one’s private life is always a blur, it is easier said than done to “block” out deep-work hours.
However, a deeper reading of this book suggests that even this is possible and all within the seemingly scandalous artificial restraint of not working beyond 5:30 PM and never on weekends.
I plan on applying some of these measures to my own life and hope that it will aid me to achieve my personal and professional aims as an educator, researcher, and writer.
I will get back to you regarding how practical or otherwise some of these measures may be.
This installment of the newsletter was written during a deep-work block but you need not read, like, and share it during one. Do follow it though and add it to your reading list during a future deep reading session.
Do read this book and see to it that it lands at the desk of someone in a position to make changes to a workplace.