BOOK REVIEW
The Business Bulletin
Book Review: Deep Work: Rules for focused success in a distracted world. By Cal Newport Do you struggle to maintain focus?
more we do it the stronger we get.
need us to shut off the world and this
Do you get distracted by social media,
For most of us, it’s going to take a few
is a great way of getting them done.
emails or do you procrastinate and
hours in the “Deep Work” gym So,
I have found that I am getting more
struggle to get everything done?
what does it entail? Well, you’ll have to
and more moved over to deep work
Our super-connected world has
read the book to get the full detail but
time and am getting more done and
made us lazy. We can get answers at
as with most “get it done” concepts
have more free time. Win-win.
the lightning speed and ultimately,
you have to plan! One of the things I
we will all choose the easy way to
liked best though was that while you
get the answer over the difficult, it’s
need your focused time and have
human nature. Just think about work
to remove your distractions for that
situations where people will ask the
period Newport suggests that you
same question over and over because
schedule the “non-productive” time
it is easier than having to remember
too. That means you can set aside 20
or work it out themselves?
minutes of mindless scrolling through
We all struggle with distractions from time to time and as I am a big fan of a “get it done” book our latest read for book club was Deep Work by Cal Newport. This book had been on the wish list for some time, so it was good to finally get to read it. Newport helps you to understand what deep work is and how effective it can be in helping people to achieve.
We would recommend this book to everybody from students to CEO’s – there is something in there to help everyone.
TikTok as a reward for completing your deep work task! Maybe Tik Tok isn’t your thing but I liked the idea of getting something less cerebral or brain straining as a reward, something to look forward to. Knowing that you can have downtime also helps to motivate you to achieve during the deep work session. There are many useful suggestions
Mhairi Richardson Tomrom Team Coaching Mhairi specialises in coaching teams to help them achieve more and improve their wellbeing. Her focus is
Deep work is ultimately the ability
within this book like using your “out
to master hard or difficult things
of office” as a filter and being absolute
quickly and to produce work at an
in your email responses so that there
extraordinary speed and of a superior
is no requirement for a response
quality. It requires you to remove all
however I think it is worth reading the
distractions and focus on the work/
whole book to get the background and
project/task.
support for the concept. If you want to
Mhairi is also a coach with a strong SME
try the “shallow” approach there are a
background, a focus on the detail, a high
Newport stresses that in today’s world of instant communication and constant distraction that the value of being able to focus is becoming more
few great web resources that outline the key steps and approaches. Within Book Club a couple of us
and important and yet rarer and rarer.
have already embraced the method
He also says that working in a deep
and are very impressed with it. In
way is like exercising a muscle, the
business, we all have those tasks that
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on building trust within the team and a combination of coaching, mentoring and facilitation and she can tailor the program to the needs of your business. She enjoys working with newly formed teams, established team or teams who just feel they should be achieving more.
level of emotional intelligence and a strong desire to develop talent and grow high performing teams. 07970 002129 mhairi.richardson@tomrom.co.uk tomrom.co.uk
