Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Book Review)

By jgn on Sunday, June 21, 2020 in Reading, Reviews, and Technology

I have been wanting to read this for years; I read some of the blog posts and was impressed. (In fact, I have two copies and one is a paperback English imprint, so I must have picked it up at some point in London with the intention to read it on a plane.) Based on the blog posts, I know that I do a number of things reported in this work regarding time and cognitive management, but I wanted to see how it added at book-length: I was not disappointed.

If you want to get more things of value done, then you must read this book.

Essentially this is a book about task selection, prioritization, and efficiency, augmented with a distinction between deep and shallow work. Now maybe I will to get my daughter to read it before she goes off to college.

About my only criticism is that it is relentlessly focused on the individual. Perhaps Newport has another book in him about how groups of people can collectively move their work from the shallows to the deep end.

Originally reviewed on Goodreads on 21 June 2020.