How I Structure My Day for Deep Work
Three weeks ago I quit social media.
That left me with some newfound time and attention that I didn’t want to squander. So I pulled the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, which I’d read years earlier, off the shelf.
I have no doubt that my first reading of that book planted the seed that eventually grew into the action of deleting my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, but I’d forgotten many of the details about how to do deep work well.
As I revisited the book, I used my underlines and margin notes to create one-page sketchnote summaries for each chapter:
While there are many ideas in that book worth exploring, here I’d like to focus on the specific philosophy of depth that I’ve chosen to work from, along with the daily schedule that creates the space for consistent deep work sessions.
Let me start by illustrating the four depth philosophies that Newport describes.
The Four Depth Philosophies
In order to make deep work a priority, and in order to integrate it into your life in a way that sticks, you need an underlying philosophy.
Newport describes four of them:
