Thread by @Gaurav1105

Re-read "Deep-Work" last nite. Some learnings/notes/extracts:

1) Ability to master hard things quickly and produce high quality work quickly are two vital characteristics in order to succeed. “If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.”

2) Those who can work intelligently with machines, those with access to capital and those who are the best at what they do will vastly outperform others – world becoming more ‘winner take all’

3) Deep work goes hand in hand with awareness and attention which are strongly correlated with happiness. The clarity for what matters gives clarity into what doesn’t.

4)Having a set time and location when you do certain types of work helps save some willpower and eliminate certain decisions. Great, creative minds think like artists but work like accountants – can’t wait for inspiration to strike, must have great routines.

5)Hub and spoke model – the hub is what you do deep work on but also expose yourself to serendipitous ideas, people, meetings and interactions. This state is totally necessary to maximize your potential.

6) A minimalistic, simplistic lifestyle is helpful to stay focused and do Deep Work. Most people hit a mental block with deep work after about 4 hours. Be very deliberate about how you spend your leisure time before it begins. Quit social media as much as possible.

7)Focus on the 'wildly important' (less but better and deeper), act on 'elite measures' (both lag and lead measures), keep a compelling scorecard of elite measures, create a cadence of accountability and plan weekly reviews of how much and how effective your Deep Work is.

8) Having a set time and location when you do certain types of work helps save some willpower and eliminate certain decisions. A commitment to deep work usually entails short term sacrifice for long term outperformance and is found in nearly all great accomplishments.

9)Chunks of time with no distractions is vital in any line of work. Those who recognize the importance of this depth of thinking have a humongous competitive advantage – it is becoming rarer just as it is becoming more vital.

10) Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on. “Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don’t, you’ll never find time for the life-changing big things.”

11) Less mental clutter means more mental resources available for deep thinking. “Human beings, it seems, are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging. There”.

12) “If you can’t learn, you can’t thrive.” If you service low-impact activities, therefore, you're taking away time you could be spending on higher-impact activities. It's a zero-sum game.

13)Give yourself a strict period of time to spend working. This limits burnout, work creep, and keeps you focused and urgent on your work.

Notice your shallow-work to better avoid It. Shallow work is non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style, often performed while distracted.

14) Use commutes, exercise, cleaning or other repetitive tasks to work out the concepts. You can train your mind to use trapped time to work on the knotty sections of your deep work.

15)“The differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.”

16) The core components of deliberate practice: (1) your attention is focused tightly on a specific skill you’re trying to improve/an idea you’re trying to master; (2) you receive feedback so you can correct your approach to keep your attention exactly where it’s most productive.

17) “This new science of performance argues that you get better at a skill as you develop more myelin around the relevant neurons, allowing the corresponding circuit to fire more effortlessly and effectively. To be great at something is to be well myelinated.”

18)“People experiencing attention residue after switching tasks are likely to demonstrate poor performance on that next task,” and the more intense the residue, the worse the performance.”

19) “Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.”
*The Principle of Least Resistance*: In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors on the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest at the moment.

20)“Deep work is at a severe disadvantage in a technopoly because it builds on values like quality, craftsmanship, and mastery that are decidedly old-fashioned and non-technological.”

21) "Your work is a craft, and if you hone your ability and apply it with respect and care, then like the skilled wheelwright you can generate meaning in the daily efforts of your professional life. *Deep work is the superpower of the 21st century.* "