The case for long stretches without interruptions

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who also writes about work and technology. Deep Work, published in 2016, argues that the ability to concentrate hard on demanding tasks is both rarer and more valuable than it used to be.

He separates deep work, which stretches your abilities and is hard to copy, from shallow work such as email, meetings and admin, which is necessary but easy to replace. Constant messaging and social media, he argues, train people out of deep focus.

The second half offers rules: schedule deep work in advance, build routines around it, accept some boredom instead of reaching for the phone, and be strict about where your attention goes.

A useful idea is attention residue, from research by Sophie Leroy: after switching tasks, part of your attention stays on the previous one, so frequent switching lowers the quality of the next piece of work. Batching email and protecting blocks of time are simple responses to that.

The criticism is that the book draws heavily on writers, scientists and executives who can control their calendars. Many people, such as shop staff, nurses or support teams, are paid to respond quickly, and for them the advice needs adapting. The evidence is also mostly stories and Newport's own reasoning, with only a few studies. Still, even one protected hour a day is within reach for many readers.

The idea behind this caseLesson: Meetings and notes →

1. 1Book a 60 to 90 minute block in your calendar for one demanding task and treat it like a meeting.
2. 2Check email and chat at set times, for example three times a day, and tell your team.
3. 3Put your phone in another room during that block.
4. 4At the end of the day, write down unfinished tasks and tomorrow's first step, then stop.