Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distract World<\/i>. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.<\/p>\n
Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n We face distractions today that ten years ago did not exist. According to Newport, being distracted is a trend to be resisted; it is a trend that it hinders us from functioning and creating at a high level and making a greater impact in the world. There are rewards for those who resist. One reward is high impact; the other is the ability to stand out in a rather shallow world. In fact, he posits that there is \u201cmassive economic and personal opportunity for the few who recognize the potential of resisting this trend\u2026\u201d1 \u00a0What then is it that sets apart those who function and create at a high level\u2014leaving a lasting impact on the world\u2014from those who simply work?\u00a0 The differentiating factors are the contrasts between Deep Work and Shallow Work.<\/p>\n Newport defines Deep Work as those \u201cprofessional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.\u201d2 In contrast, shallow work consists of \u201cnoncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.\u201d3 \u00a0It is in the focused times of deep concentration, away from distraction, in which the real breakthroughs come. Newport’s advice for getting there: work deeply, embrace boredom; quit social media; drain the shallows.<\/p>\n Briefly, those who work deeply, \u201cadd routines and rituals to [their] working life designed to minimize the amount of [their] limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.\u201d4 Routine and ritual are the keys to working deeply. Those who embrace boredom make a decided effort to, \u201cwean [their] mind from a dependence on distraction.\u201d5 Being aware of the power of distraction is the key to embracing boredom. Those who quit social media do not entirely reject these essential tools; they realize that key is to \u201creject the state of distracted hyperconnectedness\u201d for which these tools are so well known.6 Finally, those who drain the shallows are those who realize that \u201cthe shallow work that increasingly dominates the time and attention\u2026is less vital than it often seems in the moment.\u201d7 \u00a0Consequently, the key to draining the shallows is to make a decided effort to identify and then lessen the amount of time spent on shallow work. With that, deep work requires practice, discipline, sacrifice, and dedication; words that can often be overlooked in a world filled with distractions.<\/p>\n Application<\/strong><\/p>\n Two times a year I interview new missionary candidates. I have been doing this\u00a0now for five years.\u00a0In the last couple of years, I have noticed a trend where many missionary candidates want to text and\/or stay on social media while we have the interview. It got to the point where I now designate the meeting room as a \u201csocial media free room.\u201d Surprisingly, some candidates do not respond well to this; they have difficulty turning off their mobile devices, looking me in the eyes and having a conversation. Understand\u2014this conversation is not about a great coffee shop or restaurant; these are conversations about their life and God\u2019s plan for their life.\u00a0 These are conversations about impacting the world and making decisions that will affect their lives and their family members for generations to come, and still many cannot disconnect. Even after announcing that this is a “social media free room,” on more than one occasion, the person that I was interviewing attempted to hide the phone under the table and text while looking blankly into my eyes trying to prove that they could both do the interview and text at the same time. They couldn\u2019t!<\/p>\n This is not to say that I am immune to the distractions. I noticed that even while I was typing this blog post that I was being distracted by email, texting, and Skype chats. At one point I began to move toward a distraction, but I caught myself. It\u2019s not easy! Newport makes a very valid point:\u00a0Deep work is hard work, and the distractions are real.<\/p>\n Newport\u2019s book may resinate more clearly with\u00a0those of us who, for the cause of Christ, wish to make a positive impact in the world. While Christ was in the wilderness Satan attempted to distract him. Also, the book of Hebrews encourages that\u00a0“…we must get rid of everything that slows us down.” (Hebrews 21). This sounds very much like Newport’s thesis. It takes a deep work of the Holy Spirit in our life and \u201cdeep work\u201d on our part to make an impact in a world that is clearly distracted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Newport, Cal. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distract World. Grand Central Publishing, 2016. Summary We face distractions today that ten years ago did not exist. According to Newport, being distracted is a trend to be resisted; it is a trend that it hinders us from functioning and creating at a high level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[951],"class_list":["post-12652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-newport","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12660,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12652\/revisions\/12660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n