Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport

Jan 2016 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Jeff Bottoms

About this audiobook

AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2O16 PICK IN BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP

WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER

A BUSINESS BOOK OF THE WEEK AT 800-CEO-READ

Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” book (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review).

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

1. Work Deeply
2. Embrace Boredom
3. Quit Social Media
4. Drain the Shallows

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

Ratings and reviews

beyond helpful in crafting personal and professional hobbies

Life changing

SO GOODS

About the author

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including, A World Without Email, Digital Minimalism, So Good They Can't Ignore You, and Deep Work, which have been published in over 35 languages. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times, and WIRED, a frequent guest on NPR, and the host of the popular Deep Questions podcast.