the past few weeks featured too much procrastination and i feel like i was occupied with something shallow when alone. and now, as this year is slipping away and i am still desperate to get that book count in, i finally tackled "deep work", cuz deep work i need [essay crying in a corner].

"deep work" is a focused and distraction-free state of "flow", which should be cultivated for three key reasons: it's important, it's rare, and it's fulfilling. nice.

this was an okay read that could have easily been condensed into 100 pages or less. three major issues: sexist examples - the vast majority of examples being men (see also this person's blog:   https://kimschlesinger.com/post/deep-work-2/), the author's apparent assumption that anyone can do deep work [with equal ease/opportunity] (whereas, in reality, it's prob mostly freelances, academics, and maybe postgrad students), and too many examples with office floor plans.

the rest of this review is just notes on what i already knew (haha, maybe i should publish my "aggressive studying" as "rules for being a postgrad and keeping your shit together in this unpredictable period of youth"), a few (a few) things i learnt, and a few (quite a few) things for my future self to research.


some things that i had been doing before reading this book and that work for me:
 
1. keeping your metrics visible: when i need to get that wordcount in, i keep a tally of every 100 words

2. end-of-day ritual: i don't have issues with saying bye bye to work, only if it feels like i could still be going on (i agree that this momentum should be used)

3. shallow work gives a misleading sense of progress; sometimes i use it to get started, but from this book i realised that a better way to get going would be to do a small task that relates to my deep work, rather than doing shallow work.

4. feeling that deep work is what makes me feel fulfilled -> now it's a bit more structured in my head that it promotes mastery, autonomy, and purpose

5. setting a deadline that is before the actual deadline, but dude, it doesn't work, my memory is too good and i know i can take my darn time

6. building deep work environment - all that prep-your-coffee/tea-light-a-candle-when-you-work jazz, nothing new in this book

7. collaboration, aka "i work cuz they're working" - it's rare for me to find a person with whom i can actually be in deep focus 

8. writing emails that relay all the info - and loving when ppl do that for me too, thank you for valuing my time

some new ideas:

1. deep work is not just work: e.g., can be applied to personal goals, like writing reviews, aaaaaaa 

2. try periodic and daily scheduling for deep work

3. try scheduling internet time - as much of an online nun as i am, i STILL feel like my time on the internet youtube could be reduced 

4. learn to say no to shallow work - though, i'd rather learn to select what shallow work to engage in and what to delegate and what to say no to

5. organization's adoption of distracting practices - what work environment would i like to be in?

miscellaneous:
 
- high-quality work produced = time spent x intensity of focus 

- task-switching vs multitasking 

- evidence on deep focus promoting myelination? 

- recency and availability bias in tasks -> e.g., overestimation of the importance of your inbox 

- what IS willpower? 

- does the brain really not need a break from thinking? i need a meta-analysis, pls 

- interesting distinction between leading metrics (monitoring progress as you go, e.g., wordcount) and lagging metrics (logging completed tasks, e.g., number of papers written)