FUTURE TALENT November - January 2019/2020 | Page 77

PERSONAL TRAINING
Deep Work:
Rules for Focused Success in
a Distracted World
P
RECENT
Cal Newport, Piatkus, 2016
C
al Newport defines deep work
as “professional activities
per formed in a state of
distraction-free concentration that
push your cognitive capabilities to
their limit” – an uncommon practice
in working lives increasingly
punctuated with distractions and
interruptions. Newport himself calls
the ability to work in this way ‘the
superpower of the 21st century’ – but
recognises the challenges of
overcoming the opposite: shallow
work tasks that don’t require our full
concentration, fill up our time and
neither satisfy nor add value. Deep
Work not only makes a convincing
argument that going deep produces
massive benefits for almost any
contemporary knowledge-based
organisation, but offers individuals a
training regime to help transform
work habits and develop a lasting
d e e p -wo r k c a p a b i l i t y. E nte r
Newport’s four ‘rules’, including a call
to junk social media and to practice
Flow
The Psychology of
Optimum Experience
being bored. Crucially, this is no
anti-tech diatribe but a positive and
highly pragmatic study of how to
manage the constraints of so many
calls on our time, packed with stories
and anecdotes that bring the
argument to life, and inspiring us to
carve out sufficient time for fulfilling,
valuable work.
CLASSIC
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Harper & Row 1990 (revised edition,
Rider Books, 2002)
W
e’ve all experienced a
mo me nt w he n we’ re
completely immersed in a
task, when time flies and we find
we’ve accomplished more than we
realise. It’s a state of optimal
experience, of happiness no less,
that Csikszentmihalyi describes as
flow. The key aspect to flow –
mirrored in Cal Newport’s Deep Work
– is control: in the flow-like state, we
ex e rc i s e c o n t ro l o v e r o u r
consciousness rather than allowing
ourselves to be influenced by
external forces, or our own apathy
and anxiety. It’s a state of intrinsic
motivation, where the task becomes
its own reward; it has meaning. Our
engagement is such that the
chances of success are increased.
The book ar tfully boils down
Csikszentmihalyi’s decades of
research into an accessible set
of principles or common
characteristics that lend themselves
to reaching a state of flow, such as
clearly defined and measured goals;
focused attention; continuous
personal development and balancing
capability and stretch. As the book’s
fascinating case studies show,
learning the art of flow can transform
our personal and professional lives,
building bridges between the two.
November – January 2019 // 77