Book Highlights & A Brief
Book — Deep Work by Cal Newport
— From Dayo, as she experiences and learns. Welcome to The Mind Palace!
I’ll just get right in. I spent my week reading a book, Deep Work, so here we go:
Highlights from Deep Work
People play differently when they’re keeping score.
If you want to accomplish a goal, tracking it pushes you into actually doing it [meeting each goal requirement]. It’s like rewarding yourself and then your brain drives you to continue because it likes the rush of accomplishment. That’s how streaks work :)
Treat the process as a priority.
If you want to make certain moves, your brain is going to fall on past patterns whether you like it or not. To do so, you need a track record. Take steps that align with what your future self does. Rome was not built in a day.
Your willpower is limited.
‘You have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as you use it. Your will, in other words, is not a manifestation of your character that you can deploy without limit; it’s instead like a muscle that tires.’
Always relying on your willpower to do hard stuff gets tiring. At a point, you’ll get lazy and do whatever because you’ll see the task to complete as hard and daunting. You’re making life harder. Instead, move beyond good intentions and adopt routines that serve the sole purpose of reducing the amount of willpower you have to muster. Create a frictionless environment.
