Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World · chapter 5 · member edition

Rule #2: Embrace Boredom

The “Embrace Boredom” chapter makes a compelling experiential case for training attention and resisting distraction impulses. The underlying neuroscience (attention is trainable) is sound. But Newport’s specific prescriptions (schedule internet use, productive meditation) are his own inventions extrapolated from related but distinct research. The Nass multitasking study he cites has mixed replication results.

So what

See Chapter 3-5 analysis above.

Verdict

MixedBag

Claims checked in this chapter (3)

needs context⚠ re-audit pending

People who multitask all the time cannot filter out irrelevancy, cannot manage working memory, and are chronically distracted, based on Clifford Nass's Stanford research.

needs context⚠ re-audit pending

You must train your ability to concentrate, treating it like a muscle that strengthens with use. Scheduling internet use rather than scheduling breaks from the internet rewires your brain for focus.

needs context⚠ re-audit pending

Productive meditation -- using periods of physical activity (walking, showering) to focus on a single professional problem -- strengthens your ability to think deeply.