Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.(Grand Central Publishing, 2016).
Deep Work is---on its surface---a self-help book oriented towards MBA-types who have an obsession with “creating value.” While it is true that the text does give much attention to mythologized accounts of the greatest companies being created by super-human individuals, it is also true that this book provides a philosophical approach to how work should be done that is indeed relevant to those who are skeptical of the “value-creation process” so often evangelized in introductory business-management courses.
Distractions
Arguably, the central theme of the book is minimizing distractions and maximizing concentration. While the text does contextualize these actions within the sphere of business strategy---mostly for the benefit of his target audience, which I do not suspect I am---I choose to read it more as strategies for minimizing the “noise” that drowns out the signals in life. Social networking, phones, media, et cetera are clearly progenitors of the noise that surrounds and consumes the our attention. These distractions, Newport argues, force us to sacrifice our “deep work” for “shallow” menial work.
Work Distractions
Being an academic and a librarian at a relatively prestigious institution where we are ostensibly meant to be performing high-quality research and instruction consistently and quickly, my work life is more surrounded by shallow work that I would care to admit. I am constantly being tossed around different students, professors, and colleagues to the point where I have a curious habit of constantly checking my email. This is all work that, truthfully, creates nothing of value to the world in a philosophical sense. There is no great work being produced by constantly being inundated with needless meetings, phone calls, and emails. Fortunately, the people around me seem to have an understanding of this fact, and even complain about the shallowness of their meetings, yet do little to combat this fact. However, I am fortunately able to feel free to tell my colleagues “not to bother me” while I grind out an article or some code for a project. They almost always heed this warning that I will not be available, and put enough faith in me that I am actually doing things with this monastic time.
Many of these work distractions end with a colleague speaking softly to me “well that was a waste of time,” or “this could have been an email.” Even so, need these distractions even be an email or a text? Do they need to exist at all? One of the most impactful pieces of advice that Newport presents is to delete all regular “update meetings” and instead trust in each other to just get in touch whenever there is a significant update to give. I will likely engage with this strategy for my student workers especially, I have noticed that their work tends to degrade when deadlines approach, and perhaps being unencumbered by arbitrary deadlines that do not actually need to be “deadlined,” they will produce higher-quality work in an equal amount of time.
Network Distractions
The second distraction that gave me most pause was Newport’s analysis of “Network Distractions” and his blatant advice to “quit social media” in your day-to-day life. Perhaps he is right that social/communication networks need not be in constant interaction with our own mind. Perhaps this is something that can occur on a mere weekly cadence. A counter-argument that Newport predicts is that it is a good way to get caught up with the day’s important news. However, social media in particular places precedence on the most incendiary of remarks, as it drives engagement. I agree with Newport that while being up to-date in current events is virtuous for the modern polis, it is rather meaningless to know what some guy in San Francisco thinks about the important world events. It is necessary, then, to understand that while the events are necessary to know and understand, other’s reactions to it, particularly on social media, is a detriment to one’s productivity and mental well-being.
These network distractions are easy to identify, but very difficult to leave. The meditative scrolling of social media provides instant gratification to the user, creating an addiction that scientists are only recently beginning to understand. I do confess that I spent most of my secondary and post-secondary education scrolling through Twitter/X (The Everything App praise be to Musk’s name), and it severely affected my mental and emotional well-being, especially concerning LGBT+ policies going into effect around the country. It seems that, in some instances, the adage that ignorance is bliss. Not all ignorance, but ignorance of some guy in Wyoming’s opinions on transgender rights brings terrific bliss.
Boredom
I am someone whose mind must constantly be engaged with something. Perhaps this is a consequence of entering young-adulthood right as social media began to really close its grip upon the consumer. The telephone, for all of its remarkable effects on the efficiency of communication, is perhaps too convenient. Five years ago, when I was in the midst of my undergraduate studies, the convenience of perpetually having a machine in your pocket with which you can enter idle animations on the train or in a café while waiting for a friend, was remarkable and allowed me to feel less awkward in public. Now, my possession of a phone induces tremendous existential angst. What used to serve as an alleviation of social anxiety now feels like the primary source of this angst. To Newport, this is indicative of people becoming much less able to be bored. I think that these distractions provide a temporary respite from being bored, but it also prevents us from being alone with our thoughts, which in my experience is the ontogeny for my best ideas.
Partially due to the advice in this book, I am attempting to consistently go without my phone. I tend to be able to concentrate intensely at my work, especially because I do love my job, but it is after work where the terror of boredom sets in. This is where we must exercise the muscles of being bored, just being alone with our thoughts.
In Summary
This book, which should be read skeptical of its value-oriented ideology, is a guide for how to live a less cluttered life, and in that respect, is immensely valuable. We should, instead, live more focused lives, free from menial, useless, or shallow distractions, so that we can more deeply focus on our tasks at hand.