Cal Newport strategies to achieve the impossible in less time

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Notifications interrupt. The meetings proliferate. The entrance trays They devour time. In this digital ecosystem, sustained concentration has become scarce and valuable.

Cal Newport called him “deep work” in his book ‘Centrate’ (Deep Work): This state of concentration without distractions that allows to solve complex problems. There is something paradoxical here: the knowledge economy demands more deep thinking, but our digital tools actively work against it.

Look at the use metrics of your phone. How many notifications do you get up to date? Surely more than 100, possibly more than 200. Each is a microinterruption. Recover the concentration after It is not immediate.


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We often enter that state that we could define as “being busy but without advancing.” We confuse activity with productivity.

Before smartphone, prolonged concentration was almost a basic ability. Today is An act of resistanceIt is almost a heroicity.

Great innovators apply in their own way of deep thinking. Steve Jobs boasted of his contemplative walks. Bill Gates, of his “weeks of reading” a couple of times a year. There is something.

What does Cal Newport suggest to incorporate time of this type into our lives?

  1. Program deep work. Block specific time for tasks that require total concentration.
  2. Minimize context change. Each jump between tasks consumes mental resources. Grouping similar tasks reduces this “cognitive tax.”
  3. Create rituals. The will is limited. Rituals automate decisions about when and how to work.
  4. Embrace boredom. Our aversion to be disconnected erodes our ability to attention. Boredom has its advantages.
  5. Audit tools. Not all technology deserves a place in our professional life.

Basecamp or Shopify have already implemented measures such as Days without meetingsor a firm commitment to asynchronous communication.

Deep work offers something that empty trays and completed tasks cannot: meaning. The psychologist CSIKSZENTMIHALYI called him “flow“: That state where time disappears and work becomes its own reward.

The need to think deeply is no longer a strategy to copy Newport, it is almost an intellectual need.

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Outstanding image | Sauv Thapa Shrestha in Unspash

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