nothing that i didn't already know to some extent (accompanied by a disregard for the direct influence of capitalism in the lack of depth in our lives). the concept of deep work is familiar to anyone who's spent at least a couple of hours on the productivity side of YouTube, but before reading the book that coined it, i had already expanded on it to include, besides professional (knowledge) work, any cognitive activity meaningful to me. this type of "work", from reading a book to watching a movie, has to get at least 30 minutes straight of my attention. that's because im the kind of person who schedules even my hobbies, otherwise i don't do them (e.g. 3 blocks of 30 minutes for reading spread throughout the day) –which is actually a strategy suggested here: schedule everything, even your rest and leisure times, so you always know what to do next and your brain can't trick you into thinking you don't. (for some reason, authors always recommend using a notebook, which i find ridiculous, bc i'll never open the damn notebook again, but i'll definitely check my phone. so i just ignore them and use the todoist app instead, pinning "today" tasks on my home screen.) this may sound exhausting or robotic, but it's actually freeing, especially if you consider the way focus and willpower work and schedule even your procrastination habits. you can't use the "just this one more time" excuse if it's already scheduled bc if it's already scheduled, you're not abdicating it forever, and if you're not abdicating it forever, you're not pushing your willpower to the limit, but saving it for the real work. plus, there's no point in creating a schedule free of distractions if you're "subconsciously planning" to give in eventually. in case the habit or activity in question is truly bad for you, you can slowly but surely (instead of drastically but ingenuously) remove it from your schedule, strengthening your willpower muscle and building a healthy pathway in your brain. just think like a drug addict, we're all drug addicts. by the way, for people new to Deep Work, great complementary reading would be Stolen Focus and the trilogy of habit —The Willpower Instinct, The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits— as these books better explain why our brain can't handle switching tasks all the time, and how it can both get addicted to "shallow" activities and be trained like an athlete to pursue deep ones.