1-page free summary of deep work.

favorite quote: “If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.”

let’s get started:

(if you want to read a detailed summary of atomic habits then click here where I have covered all chapter lessons and top quotes and a lot more.)

There is no one correct deep work ritual; the best fit is determined by both the individual and the type of project pursued. However, there are a few general questions that any effective ritual must answer:

• Where you’ll work and for how long.

Your ritual should include a location for your deep work efforts. This location can be as simple as your regular office, with the door closed and the desk cleaned (a colleague of mine likes to put a hotel-style “do not disturb” sign on his office door when he’s working on a difficult project).

• How you’ll work once you start to work.

To keep your efforts structured, your ritual requires rules and processes. For example, you could prohibit all Internet use or keep a metric like words produced per twenty-minute interval to keep your concentration sharp. Without this structure, you’ll have to mentally litigate what you should and should not be doing during these sessions and constantly assess whether you’re working hard enough. These are unnecessary drains on your reserves of willpower.

• How you’ll support your work.

Your ritual must ensure that your brain receives the support it requires to continue operating at a high level of depth.

For example, the ritual may require you to begin with a cup of good coffee, to ensure you have enough food of the right type to maintain energy or to incorporate light exercise such as walking to help keep your mind clear.

“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.”

If you want to win the war for attention, don’t try to say ‘no’ to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord; try to say ‘yes’ to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else.

To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction. Put another way, the type of work that optimizes your performance is deep work.

Thank you for your time.