Deep Work

To succeed you have to produce the absolute best stuff you’re capable of producing—a task that requires depth.

If you can create something useful, its reachable audience is essentially limitless—which greatly magnifies your reward.

In my retiring room I am by myself. I keep the key with me all the time; no one else is allowed in there except with my permission.

Deep work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.

Deep work is not, in other words, an old-fashioned skill falling into irrelevance. It’s instead a crucial ability for anyone looking to move ahead in a globally competitive information economy that tends to chew up and spit out those who aren’t earning their keep.

Indeed, if you study the lives of other influential figures from both distant and recent history, you’ll find that a commitment to deep work is a common theme.

Jason Benn’s story highlights a crucial lesson: Deep work is not some nostalgic affectation of writers and early-twentieth-century philosophers.

Adam Grant thinks a lot about the mechanics of producing at an elite level.

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus).

To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction.