Kruse's Keys: Read "Deep Work" Because It Will Change Everything (Newport)

Note:  I've also written another post: "Deep Work for the Christian life" here.

This was one of the most useful books that I have ever read.  Deep Work will make you better and if you focus--it will make you the best.  I especially enjoy books that lead to other books and this one is packed with nearly 20 of them! Were I running a company, business, platoon, or squadron I would buy a copy of this essential read for every worker under me.

Key Quotes:

• "The way to be a better comic is to create better jokes...[and write every day]" -Jerry Seinfeld
• "There is a popular notion that artists work from inspiration...but I hope my work makes it clear that waiting for inspiration to strike is a terrible plan...the single best piece of advice I can offer to anyone trying to do creative work is to ignore inspiration." -Mason Currey
• "Great creative minds think like artists but work like accountants." -David Brooks
• "If you want to win the war for attention...say 'yes' to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else."  -David Brooks

Key Takeaways:

• You want to be well-myelinated in order to be great.  Myelin is a layer of fatty lipids and proteins that grow around your nerve cells.  The more myelin that builds up, the faster these nerve cells fire off.  The buildup of myelin (i.e., myelination) comes when you focus solely on a specific task or skill.  The specific ‘circuit’ associated with that task fires off repetitively as you work which triggers cells to produce and envelope your nerves with myelin.  This process then creates a ‘permanent’ skill or knowledge base.   Where learning and myelin buildup go awry is when one tries to multitask.  Multi-tasking fires off multiple circuits at once and doesn’t allow your body to isolate the specific circuit in order to learn a new language or write that term paper--thus no myelin is produced when you are distracted. 
• HQW = TS x FI
• Combat"attention residue" (as defined by Sophie Leroy).  It's very difficult for our mind's to switch from one task to another, especially if one task is not completely finished.  We are then aided when we can focus on one task for that extended (and undistracted) period of time.
• Don't let busyness define you.  Without clearly defined metrics for success or what constitutes accomplishment, people default to busyness and long hours as a proxy for productivity.  You can buck the trend by focusing on deep work and tasks.
• Your attention's focus becomes your worldview--this becomes relevent in dealing with adversity but also in a mindset that avoids focusing on the shallow.  A shallow focus drains your brain neurologically.
• Meaning doesn't come from your work but your mindset. Your work or profession doesn't have to be an especially meaningful one--instead you can derive meaning by the way in which you approach your work.
• There are 4 Deep Work Scheduling philosophies:  
• Monastic: Typically not part of a large, interdependent organization and thus you can seclude yourself completely for extended stretches of time
• Bi-Modal:  Your job or requirements require non-deep pursuits.  In some cases, the shallow pursuits "pay the bills" so that you can spend extended periods in deep work.
• Rhythmic: You use the chain method (p.111) to incorporate depth into your daily life. This means building set times for deep work into your schedule and giving yourself visual cues to prompt the deep work.  Aim for 90 minute blocks. 
• Journalistic: This is the varsity approach where you enter deep work states when you can.  In essence you 'switch on' deep work and crank out productivity.  
• Create Rituals--you need to determine:
• Work location and duration
• Work rules and processes (e.g., no internet, words per hour etc.).  If your job is internet/email intensive--schedule your internet/email blocks.  *When an internet need arises outside the designated time blocks, practice delaying its use at least 5 minutes.  
• Deep work support (e.g., coffee, right food, light extercise etc.)
• Figure out the how (i.e. the execution):
• Focus on the wildly important
• Act on the lead measures (i.e., the time spent in deep work periods--so track your hours)
• Keep a compelling scoreboard (i.e., create a visual focus point to track your progress)
• Create scheduled accountability (e.g., a weekly review)
• Shutdown.  Shutdown at the end of your workday.  Stay shutdown at night and on the weekends and on vacation.  
• Downtime aids insights
• Downtime recharges your "directed attention", enabling deep work
• Evening work is almost always not that important and most often just induces stress as you think about something that can't be solved till the next wday
• Create a shutdown ritual that frees your mind (p.151-4)
• Be Bored.  Rewire your brain to break the cycle for on-demand distraction.  Sit in line without looking at your phone.  Let your mind wander.
• Take an internet/social media sabbath for one day a week and one week a year.  See what you are missing in the life around you that exists outside a screen.
• Social media short-circuits the connection between attention and value by promoting a shallow alternative where everyone pays attention to everyone's postings of little/zero value.  
• The ideal is that we strive to create things of value that are valuable apart from social media 'likes' or attention
• Meditate productively (while running or during commutes/long drives)
• Fight distraction and lazy looping (i.e., move your thought process forward)
• Structure your deep thinking
• Make your free time count.  It sounds counter-intuitive but schedule your free time for concrete purposes/objectives.  Instead of exhausting you, this will promote fulfillment in your inner being and prevent you from haphazardly filling your free time with meaningless activity.  
• Commit to Fixed Schedule Productivity.  This was one of my favorites because the default understanding in most offices (especially military ones) is that hours/"busyness"/physical presence= productivity. In a fixed schedule one adheres to a finite end time (e.g., 5PM every day) and then finds productivity strategies to accomplish what's needed to be done in that amount of time. Otherwise, in an undefined day the hours get filled with shallow, trivial pursuits and end times get pushed for no productive reason.
• Send Better Emails.  Process-centric ones.  Properly executed this can revolutionize your work day.  
• Just the act of scheduling when you check your email (and getting those checks down to a few times a day) and batching your replies will skyrocket your productivity past everyone else in your office.  The biggest hurdle is to just TURN OFF your email between those scheduled times.   
• The next step comes when you write your replies.  Resist the urge to dash off a quick reply--instead take the time to look at what the actual project/mission is in the email and what's the most efficient way to bring it to a close.  In other words, lay out the solution or possible options so that the addressee can make a decision without a myriad of emails flying back and forth.  
• The other shortcut that I use (not from the book) is that when you anticipate that its going to be an overly complex or lengthy email--just pick up the phone and call--this has saved me countless hours.  
• Finally, not every email merits a response--don't let superfluous poorly written emails consume your precious time.  A corollary to this is to RESIST THE URGE TO REPLY TO GROUP EMAILS.  Think long and hard if you really need reply at all--unless you are the only one with specific knowledge you probably don't need to descend into that black hole. 

Key References:

• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant (2014)
• "Why Is It So Hard to Do My Work" by Sophie Leroy (2009)
• Scrum project management technique (i.e., Agile)
• Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford
• To Save Everything, Click Here by Evgeny Morozov (2013)
• Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher (2010)
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt (1999)
• The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made by Evan Thomas and Walter Isaacson (1986)
• Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work by Mason Currey (2013)
• The Four Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey and Chris McChesney (2016)
• The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• "The Art of Focus" by David Brooks (2014)
• Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers (2011)
• Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (2012)






NOTES:
26  Talent is not a bulk item, that is, a bunch of mediocrity does not = talent.  "There's a premium to be being the best"

36  Being good at something = well-mylinated.  Myelin is a layer of fatty lipids and proteins that grow around your nerve cells.  The more myelin that builds up, the faster these nerve cells fire off.  The buildup of myelin (i.e., myelination) comes when you focus solely on a specific task or skill.  The specific ‘circuit’ associated with that task fires off repetitively as you work which triggers cells to produce and envelope your nerves with myelin.  This process then creates a ‘permanent’ skill or knowledge base.   Where learning and myelin buildup go awry is when one tries to multitask.  Multi-tasking fires off multiple circuits at once and doesn’t allow your body to isolate the specific circuit in order to learn a new language or write that term paper--thus no myelin is produced when you are distracted.

37  Learning is deep work--it requires intense focus and concentration.

38-39  Should publishing be the measure of a professor's worth.  Adam Grant as most productive professor at Wharton and highest rated teacher

40  High Quality Work = time spent x intensity of work

42-3  Attention Residue as examined by Sophie Leroy:  As revealed by two experiments,
people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate that people find it difficult to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers. Being able to finish one task before switching to another is, however, not enough to enable effective task transitions. Time pressure while finishing a prior task is needed to disengage from the first task and thus move to the next task and it contributes to higher performance on the next task.

48  Stand up meeting to reduce bloviation--i.e., people less likely to drone on if they are standing up--refers to SCRUM project management

58  Principle of the easy(est)= without clear direction and input, we will do the easiest task/thing

62  for managers: lack of clear metric for success promotes anxiety.  And without a good idea of what accomplishment means, they default to busyness...thus:

64  Busyness becomes a proxy for productivity.  But you can buck the trend and focus on the deep work

76-7  Focus on the good.  Our worldview is actually shaped by our focus NOT our circumstances.

82  A "shallow" workday is a neurologically draining one
91  Your work or profession doesn't have to be an especially meaningful one--instead you can derive meaning by the way in which you approach your work.


102-117  The rules for Deep Work Scheduling:  there are four types

119-120  The importance of good rituals

121-6  Grand gestures and their importance.  To go deep, first go big

131  Hub and spoke office architecture: this is NOT an open office plan with breakout rooms.  With hub and spoke, the focus is on the sound-proofed offices (i.e., the spokes) for the deep work and then encourage interactions with the hubs.  

133-4  Whiteboard effect speaks to collaborative deep work where multiple individuals depend on the progress of another group to advance their own deep work.

135  figuring out the how--recommends using 4 DX for this

136-142  4 DX: focus on teh wildly important and track it.


144-50  Why shutdown:  UTT, ART, low importance to check evening

151-4  make a series of steps: shutdown ritual

160  Social media sabbath

161-3  Schedule your internet time

167  Teddy R's intense work aka sprints

168  Roosevelt dashes (creating artificial  deadlines)

176-9  How to memorize a deck of cards

207  Study Hacks blog: value vs. attention and social media

213  Schedule your free time

229  Shallow work definition: How long would it take to train a fresh college graduate to complete certain daily tasks of mine


236  Fixed schedule productivity

248  Process-centric emails