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Alexandria · Catalogue Card MS-2

Deep Work

by Cal Newport

Call no.
MS-2
Extent
137 pages
Published
2016
Language
English
ISBN
9780349411910
Started
October 20, 2025
Completed
November 26, 2025
Public rating
5.0/5

Summary

One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

'Cal Newport is exceptional in the realm of self-help authors' N ew York Times

'Deep work' is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Coined by author and professor Cal Newport on his popular blog Study Hacks, deep work will make you better at what you do, let you achieve more in less time and provide the sense of true fulfilment that comes from the mastery of a skill. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive economy.

And yet most people, whether knowledge workers in noisy open-plan offices or creatives struggling to sharpen their vision, have lost the ability to go deep - spending their days instead in a frantic blur of email and social media, not even realising there's a better way.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories -- from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air -- and surprising suggestions, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored.

Put simply: developing and cultivating a deep work practice is one of the best decisions you can make in an increasingly distracted world. This book will point the way.

This book in numbers

Days to finish
37
Pages per day
3.7
Length vs. library average · shorter
-58%
Estimated reading time
4.6 h
Year read
2025
My rating vs. public
– vs 5.0

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