Deep work is focused, uninterrupted work on something cognitively hard: writing, designing, programming, analysing, learning something difficult. The term comes from Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown, whose 2016 book Deep Work argued that the ability to do it is becoming rarer just as it's becoming more valuable.
Deep work and shallow work
Newport contrasts deep work with shallow work: tasks that don't need much concentration and can be done while distracted, like most email, scheduling, status updates and routine admin. Shallow work isn't worthless, and some of it has to be done. The problem is that it expands to fill the day, because it's easier, always available, and feels like progress.
| Deep work | Shallow work | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs | Full attention, for a long stretch | Partial attention, in short bursts |
| Examples | Writing, design, code, analysis, study | Email, scheduling, updates, forms |
| Hard to replace? | Yes: it draws on skill | No: most people could do it |
| Survives interruption? | Badly | Fine |
Why it matters
Two reasons. First, hard skills are learned through focused practice, and focused practice is deep work. Second, the work that sets people apart in most knowledge jobs, the clear report, the elegant design, the bug no one else could find, comes out of long stretches of concentration, not out of the gaps between messages.
Interruptions cost more than they seem to. Gloria Mark's field studies found people took around 23 minutes to get back to an interrupted task, and Sophie Leroy's experiments found that after a switch, part of your attention stays on the previous task, a cost she called attention residue. A day chopped into 30-minute pieces may contain no deep work at all, even if it's busy from start to finish.
Four ways to fit deep work into your life
Newport describes four approaches, depending on how much control you have over your time:
- Monastic: cut out almost all shallow work. Rare, and only possible in a few roles.
- Bimodal: alternate between deep periods (a day, a week) and normal ones.
- Rhythmic: a fixed daily block, the same time every day. The most practical for most people.
- Journalistic: drop into deep work whenever a gap opens up. Hard to do well without practice.
How to start
- Pick a daily block, 60 to 90 minutes, at the time your mind is freshest. For many people that's the first thing in the morning, before email.
- Protect it like a meeting. Put it in the calendar. Decline things that land on it.
- Go offline for it. Notifications off, phone elsewhere, chat closed.
- Decide the task the day before, so the block starts with work rather than with choosing.
- Track it. Count your deep hours each week. Newport suggests that even experienced practitioners top out at around four hours a day.
A deep work timer set to 90 minutes makes the block concrete, and the Pomodoro calculator helps plan the rest of the day around it. If meetings are what's eating your time, our post on maker's and manager's schedules is the next read.
Deep work in different jobs
| Job | Deep work | Shallow work |
|---|---|---|
| Software developer | Designing a system, writing tricky code, debugging | Stand-ups, small reviews, chat, ticket updates |
| Writer or marketer | Drafting, structuring an argument, editing hard | Scheduling posts, formatting, approvals |
| Student | Problem sets, essays, active recall, learning new material | Organising notes, admin, group chat |
| Manager | Strategy, planning, hard feedback, hiring decisions | Routine approvals, status meetings, inbox |
| Designer | Exploring concepts, solving a layout problem | Exporting assets, file housekeeping |
A week of deep work
- Every morning: a 90-minute block before email, on the most important project.
- Two afternoons: a second block of 60 to 90 minutes, with meetings kept to the other afternoons.
- Friday: half an hour to review the week, count your deep hours and book next week's blocks.
That's seven to ten hours of deep work a week, which most people find is far more than they were getting. Signs it's slipping: blocks quietly turning into email time, finishing days busy but with nothing hard done, and big tasks that never leave the to-do list.
A block with a destination
One trick that helps: give the block a shape you can see. In Flight, a deep work session is a real flight. Pick a destination about 90 minutes away, and your plane takes off when you start and lands when the block is over.