* I’m being somewhat loose in my use of the word “individualized” here. The monastic philosophy does not apply only to those who work by themselves. There are examples of deep endeavors where the work is done among a small group. Think, for example, of songwriting teams like Rodgers and Hammerstein, or invention teams like the Wright brothers. What I really mean to indicate with my use of the term is that this philosophy applies well to those who can work toward clear goals without the other obligations that come along with being a member of a larger organization.
* Supporters of open office plans might claim that they’re approximating this mix of depth and interaction by making available conference rooms that people can use as needed to dive deeper into an idea. This conceit, however, trivializes the role of deep work in innovation. These efforts are not an occasional accompaniment to inspirational chance encounters; they instead represent the bulk of the effort involved in most real breakthroughs.
* You can see a snapshot of my “hour tally” online: “Deep Habits: Should You Track Hours or Milestones?” March 23, 2014, http://calnewport.com/blog/2014/03/23/deep-habits-should-you-track-hours-or-milestones/.
* There is some debate in the literature as to whether these are the exact same quantity. For our purposes, however, this doesn’t matter. The key observation is that there is a limited resource, necessary to attention, that must be conserved.
* The specific article by White from which I draw the steps presented here can be found online: Ron White, “How to Memorize a Deck of Cards with Superhuman Speed,” guest post, The Art of Manliness, June 1, 2012, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/06/01/how-to-memorize-a-deck-of-cards/.
* Notice, the Internet sabbatical is not the same as the Internet Sabbath mentioned in Rule #2. The latter asks that you regularly take small breaks from the Internet (usually a single weekend day), while the former describes a substantial and long break from an online life, lasting many weeks—and sometimes more.
* It was exactly this type of analysis that supports my own lack of presence on Facebook. I’ve never been a member and I’ve undoubtedly missed out on many minor benefits of the type summarized above, but this hasn’t affected my quest to maintain a thriving and rewarding social life to any noticeable degree.
* This idea has many different forms and names, including the 80/20 rule, Pareto’s principle, and, if you’re feeling particularly pretentious, the principle of factor sparsity.
* The studies I cite are looking at the activity of deliberate practice—which substantially (but not completely) overlaps our definition of deep work. For our purposes here, deliberate practice is a good specific stand.in for the general category of cognitively demanding tasks to which deep work belongs.