9781478930082
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Deep Work audiobook

  • By: Cal Newport
  • Narrator: Jeff Bottoms
  • Length: 7 hours 44 minutes
  • Publisher: Hachette Audio
  • Publish date: January 05, 2016
  • Language: English
  • (107769 ratings)
(107769 ratings)
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Deep Work Audiobook Summary

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.

An Amazon Best Book of 2016 Pick in Business & Leadership
Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller
A Business Book of the Week at 800-CEO-READ

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Deep Work Audiobook Narrator

Jeff Bottoms is the narrator of Deep Work audiobook that was written by Cal Newport

About the Author(s) of Deep Work

Cal Newport is the author of Deep Work

Deep Work Full Details

Narrator Jeff Bottoms
Length 7 hours 44 minutes
Author Cal Newport
Publisher Hachette Audio
Release date January 05, 2016
ISBN 9781478930082

Subjects

The publisher of the Deep Work is Hachette Audio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Self-Help, Time Management

Additional info

The publisher of the Deep Work is Hachette Audio. The imprint is Grand Central Publishing. It is supplied by Hachette Audio. The ISBN-13 is 9781478930082.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Adam

December 28, 2015

Overview: the thesis is that deep work is both rare and valuable in todays world. That's about 1/3 of the book. The rest of the book is practical advice on how to pursue deep work.Part of me feels like a lot of what was said in the book is common sense. Particularly things that people know but can't find the willpower to do. I think that there is some truth to this. But there's also a difference between "knowing", and *knowing*. I think this book can help take a lot of people from "knowing" to *knowing*. Additionally, there were also a good chunk of things that I didn't know before reading this book.I gave this book a 5 star rating primarily because of how important I think the topic is. By following the advice, I think it could be genuinely life changing.Things I personally am planning to change after reading the book:- A rekindled commitment to eliminating distraction/shallow work from my life. I'm willing to be ruthless in this pursuit. Ex. no more reading marginally useful articles.- A rekindled commitment to seek out hard things. As Paul Graham puts it, "run uphill".- Research says that 4 hours is sort of the limit for how much legitimate deep work a human can do in one day. There are also tons of examples of successful people who only put in ~4 hours of deep work per day. So I don't feel (as) guilty anymore about the amount of actual work I get done each day.- Setting a cutoff point each day. "I don't do any work after 7:00pm". Your brain needs to recharge, and before it can recharge, it needs the confidence to know that there won't be any more incoming work requests until morning. I've noticed that being "constantly on" really stresses me out and makes me less productive, so it needs to stop.- To end the day, a shutdown ritual is useful. Particularly to make sure there's nothing urgent left to do, and to organize your tasks. This way, your mind won't be worried that it shut down too early and needs to get back to work.- Previously I was skeptical about the limits of willpower and thought I could just "wing it". Overall I'm still skeptical, but I'm less skeptical and I plan on taking advantage of things that reduce the need for willpower.- In particular, I plan on sticking to a schedule. If I'm explicitly scheduled to be working from 10am-noon, I'll be less inclined to come up with excuses to procrastinate.- The idea isn't to constrain yourself though; the schedule can be flexible. The idea is that by putting deliberate thought into what you do, you'll be less inclined to procrastinate.- It's important to plan ahead so that things like hunger don't interfere with your work.- Perhaps the most important thing I learned from this book is how dangerous it is to constantly cave in to procrastination cravings. Ex. needing to check your phone for the 30 seconds you spend waiting in line. Doing this basically atrophies your willpower muscles and makes it harder to engage in deep work. Next time you're working on something but are tempted to check Facebook, you won't be able to resist. You're too used to caving in. And even if you do resist, the temptation itself will be distracting. I've actually noticed that these sorts of things happen to me and I hate it. So I'm serious about following the advice to cold turkey eliminate procrastination during designated deep work periods, and to not be constantly occupied. Ex. I don't need to watch YouTube videos while I brush my teeth and get dressed in the morning.- I'm quitting Facebook. To me, the upside is clearly not worth the downside of having that temptation.- Productive meditation: take a period where you’re occupied physically but not mentally - walking, jogging, driving, showering - and focus your attention on a problem.Aside from the core content of the book, I really enjoyed all of the stories and anecdotes. There are a lot of interesting tidbits about the lives of famous and successful people.Overall, I thought the book was extremely well written. It was very clear and understandable. It was broken down into understandable sections and subsections. And I thought Cal (the author) did a *fantastic* job of using stories to illustrate his points. I've noticed that a lot of writers struggle with this and spend too much time in the abstract. Cal made everything very concrete (in addition to making the abstract point clear).I should note that almost none of the arguments in this book are air tight. You could poke holes at them. But if he were to make them air tight, the book would be thousands and thousands of pages long.

Rachel

June 13, 2016

If you do one thing to improve your life this year, subscribe to Dr. Newport's blog and start reading his books. I would suggest starting with "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and then read "Deep Work." They compliment each other. The first helps you sort out what you should be focusing on, and the second one tells you how to make sure what's important gets done. Over the years I've read lots of productivity books, and the related literature. But his approach to work impacts me everyday, and nothing has done more to change how I work and how I define success.

SR

January 14, 2016

Worth reading. Helped me make some drastic changes in my schedule. I will post an update how these changes went after six months.What I learned: (spoiler alerts)1. Figure out what is most valuable to your success.2. Spend most of the time on it, mostly in the early hours of your day where your attention span is long.3. Try to spend at least 3 deep sessions on it approx. 90 min each.4. Almost anything other than your main task is a shallow task.5. Bunch all the shallow tasks into one deep task.6. Nature helps to retain your attention span.7. Email and Internet in general is a huge attention sucker.What I disliked: 1. It is hard to remember what the rules are after reading the whole book. "So good they cannot ignore you" did a better job at this.2. I did not like the way the content is organized. Three/four huge chapters.3. Some places it felt like fillers.

Always

October 05, 2020

I kind of have been procrastinating a lot lately, even my reading has fallen off, this social distancing and shut down has really torpedoed my routines so reading this feels timely and a good reminder of the need to prioritize and cut out superfluous activities. I'm not sure that this book needed to be as long as it was to be quite honest and I felt similarly about the other Newport book I read. The book makes a lot of intuitive arguments and I think most of us know the importance of being more deliberate about what we do and trying to engage in things that challenge us and help us grow. Its more so the implementation/execution that's the issue with a lot of these productivity related things in my experience. It can be useful though to read these things once in a while to reinforce those ideas or to try and recalibrate oneself into being more mindful/cultivating better habits. Four starts mostly because I think I needed this at this moment to help me get myself back into the habit of doing more work instead of just napping and watching TV all day. I really hope this shut down ends soon honestly.

Liong

January 03, 2023

Loved his book "Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World."Now I read his other book "Deep Work". I understand that deep concentration in working is very crucial.Deep work helps us quickly learn and understand hard things.Deep means we must focus intensely without distraction.High-Quality Work Produced + (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus).This book mentioned many famous people such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, J.K. Rowling, and so on.

Amir

September 25, 2017

Amazing, amazing. This book is going to drastically help me reach the optimum level of productivity I've been seeking. This marvelous book provides you with a great mindset, valuing deep work resulting in astonishing achievements. The deep work book is organized in two sections: 1. The first convinces you of the importance and necessity of deep work in order to live a fulfilling and productive life. 2. The second part of the book begins to offer practical advices on cultivating a deep work routine along with tactics to refine and preserve it constantlyThis book was really amazing, incredibly well written, enriched with great amount of refined experience and I absolutely recommend it to any one who longs productivity and achievement of gigantic results and accomplishments.

Scott

February 24, 2017

OVERVIEW:Deep Work was a solid self-help/productivity book. Being a podcast junkie, I had heard the majority of things that Newport preaches in his book. However, I really appreciated his practical applications of how to enter into Deep Work, or 'the zone' as I call it. STORIES TOLD: In Deep Work, the author tells a story of a young consultant who automates his work responsibilities using Excel macros. He then studied computer programming to increase his worth in the workforce. I, too, am a consultant, and this is exactly what I'm doing with UX design. I'm getting myself out of the mundane work of project management, and moving toward the thought-provoking and challenging field of design. TRUTHS TAUGHT:- Deep work is a skill that can and must be developed to be successful in knowledge work. Leaders in the next generation will have the power to put away distraction and enter into deep work. - Working creatively with machines is one of the three types of people who will success in the new economy. UX designers are right in line with this thinking. AN added benefit is being able to work remote and control your work environment. - Knowledge work is not supposed to be shown through producing X amount of widgets. It shouldn't be solely measured by quantity of hours worked or public messages/deliverables sent. Quality is what really matters. - When telling people that you're busy, they will respect it. Deep work stretches are always understood if they are well defined, and well communicated to those trying to get your attention.-3 Methods of Deep Work: The habitual 'rhythmic method' of deep work is more sustainable and actually produces more hours of deep work cumulatively. It becomes engrained in us as scheduled thinking time. Try waking up early and starting your day with a few hours of deep work. Over times, this habit will increase your ability to think deeply (work it out just like a muscle). By and large, most jobs don't allow you to disappear for large chunks of time. The 'monastic method' of deep work is rarely doable. Fitting in deep work whenever you can into your schedule is called the 'journalistic approach'. Walter Isaacson exemplified this method in writing his novels on the side of his job as the NY Times lead editor. ACTIONABLE STEPS:- To learn quickly, you need to study for long periods of time consistently. This is neurologically proven. - Force yourself to concentrate by locking away digital distractions. To write comprehensive thoughts, put away and limit distractions, interruptions, and constant checking of messages. -Perform a 'shut down' complete action that signifies the end of your professional work day-Regularly rest your mind to improve frequently and intensity of deep work (e.g. short walks, water breaks)- Embrace boredom - Don't flee from being bored! Allow your mind to relax and be un-stimulated. Your mind cannot come up with creative solutions and personal insights if it is constantly bombarded with digital stimulus. If you cannot allow yourself to be bored for more than a few minutes without mindlessly swiping around on your phone, then you are not ready for deep work. Your mind has been conditioned for distraction. It's being rewired. - Study like Theodore Roosevelt - Focus in short intense bursts of deep work, not long drawn out marathon study sessions filled with interruptions- The 'any benefit' reason for using social media platforms is not a good reason for using them. This reason essentially says that if something provides 'any benefit' then it is worth using. This is a trick! We must focus on the best uses of our time, not merely on good uses of our time. - Get off social media, cold turkey. Don't announce it. See who actually notices that you're gone. You'll be surprised by how many won't miss you from social networks. Sad, but true. QUOTES:"I'll live the focused life, because it's the best life to live." - Winfield Gallagher

da

July 15, 2019

Practical how-to's as well as researched encouragement to be wary of how much time we give away to anything other than our true passions. By working hard and then playing hard, we can achieve better focus in less time. Audiobook performer Jeff Bottoms reads well.

Chris

February 05, 2016

The ability to focus is the new IQ.I heard that somewhere, from someone smart (or someone with a low IQ who was over compensating).I realised my ability to focus on one task had degraded horrendously since getting a new smartphone. Since December I've been enjoying this smooth user experience by paying constant homage to the little screen of joy.The day my usage hit 4 hours I knew I had a problem.Then I started reading Deep Work.In a world of distraction the ability to deep work is king. It is in these deep periods of concentration that knowledge workers create the most value.The barometer of success in our culture has become your level of business. The busier you appear, the harder you must be working. We've embraced shallow work that creates the illusion (to us and others) that we are being productive.If you agree that the most value you can create is done when you laser focus in on one task, then Cal Newport's Deep Work has some rules for you.Rule #1: Embrace Deep WorkStick to a routine and create rituals. Work in the same place, at the same time, in the same clothes with the same coffee. These kind constants help you get it to the deep work state quicker.Rule #2: Become comfortable with boredom.The enemy of deep work is your mind's desire for distraction. That moment when you hit a mentally taxing part of your work you're going to feel the desire to check your facebook, have a chat with a colleague or open up your phone. This moment is crucial. Ignore the desire, fight through it, train your mind to laser focus. You should partake in this mental training throughout your day. When you're on the subway you usually reach for your phone, right? Identify those moments of "boredom" and endure them. Sit still with your own thoughts.In the beginning this will be difficult as we're so used to constant mental stimulation. Here is a handy hack: When you have a moment of boredom, and the desire to check your phone arises say this to yourself: "I can play with my phone, but only after I've waited 5 minutes".This detaches the reward from the desire.Rule #3: Quit Social Media'nuff said really. At the very least, schedule your social media. There is an idea that our constant interconnectedness bring value to our lives and the counter argument is that social media has instead detached the production of value from attention. We now have a "you like mine, I'll like yours" agreement with our social network. Rule #4: Drain The ShallowsShallow work (as opposed to Deep Work) is nearly everything other than the specific task which you are uniquely suited to do that brings maximum value in to your would.A writer writes books. Their shallow work would be: tweeting, email, meetings and book tours. Be merciless in cutting the shallow work from your life.To identify how shallow a piece of work is ask yourself this question: How long would it take (in months) for a recent college grad (i.e somewhat smart) with no specialised training in my industry to do this job?Those four rules and hundreds of other ideas and tips make up the book.As a result of taking this concept serious in my own life, I now take the task that can add the most potential value to my life and I work on it in an un-interrupted session of deep work daily. Brown noise headphones on, pomodoro timer open, facebook blocked and phone in airplane mode.And most importantly of all: my phone usage is now 30 minutes daily.

Caro (Bookaria)

April 04, 2019

In a world filled with constant distractions and interruptions, our ability to focus deeply and produce quality work has become affected. This book discusses the importance of deep focus and concentration in creating results at work.I value the author's ideas and found them helpful. My perspective regarding interruptions has shifted and I'm working on managing distractions better which in turn will improve overall efficiency.Overall, a great book about productivity.

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