Deep Work 4 Rules: What Each One Asks of You

You’ve heard of the four rules from the book Deep Work, maybe from a colleague. Now you want the rules of deep work in plain words.

Here you get the four rules in the book’s order, what each asks of you, and where my days differ. You’ll also see how all four meet in one block and a clean end of the day. A block is a timed stretch of focused work.

What are Cal Newport’s deep work rules?

The four rules are the practical part of a book by Cal Newport. Its full title is Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Grand Central Publishing, 2016).

Three chapters argue that deep work is valuable, rare and meaningful. Then come the book’s four rules for doing it.

Deep work, in Newport’s book, means work in distraction-free concentration that pushes your thinking to its limit.

Rule	What it asks of you
Rule #1: Work Deeply	Build deep work into your days on purpose
Rule #2: Embrace Boredom	Stop filling every idle moment with your phone
Rule #3: Quit Social Media	Keep a tool only if its benefits clearly outweigh its costs
Rule #4: Drain the Shallows	Limit shallow work: schedule it, cap it, say no

The way I read them, Rules 1 and 4 are about your working time. Rules 2 and 3 are about your attention, also outside work.

The book’s subtitle says what the rules are for: focused success in a distracted world. The sections below follow the book’s order.

Rule 1: Work Deeply

Rule 1 comes first in the book’s order. It asks you to stop waiting for deep work to happen and to build it into your days on purpose. That means routines, rituals and a fixed place for deep work in your schedule.

Part of it is choosing one of the four types of deep work: monastic, bimodal, rhythmic or journalistic. Here’s what that looks like in my days.

Rule 2: Embrace Boredom

After your days, Rule 2 turns to your attention. It treats concentration as a trainable skill: don’t fill idle moments with your phone.

That covers every idle moment, like waiting in line, walking somewhere or the gap between two tasks. For the rule’s practices and how the training works, read what embrace boredom means in deep work.

In my book, the break between blocks has its own rule: no smartphone, no social media, no shows or videos. They fill your mind with new stimuli that still echo in the next block. A quick check on your phone turns into 15 minutes of scrolling.

The way I read it, the reasons differ: Rule 2 is about training, my book’s break is about recovery. But in both, the phone stays away.

Rule 3: Quit Social Media

Your phone also carries the tools Rule 3 is about. The title sounds like a ban, but Rule 3 is a test.

It asks you to test each network and online tool against what it costs you in time and attention. Keep it only if its benefits clearly outweigh its costs. The test in detail is in what quit social media means in deep work.

My book doesn’t ask you to quit any network. It asks for the next block: phone off, in a drawer in another room, out of your line of sight. Willpower won’t do it: your phone is engineered to capture your attention, and trying to ignore it won’t work.

On the computer, close email, Slack and social media first, then turn on Do Not Disturb mode. Outside the block, you decide consciously when to use your phone: only in longer breaks or after work. The way I read it, that’s narrower than Rule 3: it’s about the next 45 minutes, not about your accounts.

Rule 4: Drain the Shallows

Rule 4 returns to your working time: shrink shallow work so deep work gets room. Newport defines shallow work as “Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted.”

The rule asks you to schedule it, cap it and say no. See what drain the shallows means in deep work.

The way I read it, three points from my book and my work fit this rule:

• Two blocks: 170 emails in my inbox are two blocks.
• Match the task to your energy: demanding tasks when you have energy, easier tasks when it fades.
• A real end of the day: no “quickly” checking emails after the last block.

Maybe Rule 4 makes you think of scheduling every minute of your day. I don’t plan much; usually I know what comes next. That’s my way, not a verdict on Rule 4.

My book leaves it open: some people like a fixed schedule, others feel pressured by it. Find out what works for you.

How do you put the 4 rules of deep work into practice?

Whatever schedule works for you, start with one block, not with your whole week. My book starts with the smallest unit, a single block: master it, then repeat.

In my reading, not Newport’s, one block and a clean end of the day touch all four rules. See also how to do a deep work session.

1. Turn your phone off, put it in another room, and close email, Slack and social media. (Rule 3)
2. Set a timer and write your block goal on your protocol sheet, a sheet for your goal and steps. (Rule 1)
3. Spend the break away from your phone: move, open a window, look outside. (Rule 2)
4. Close the day after your last block: no “quickly” checking emails. (Rule 4)

That’s one block and the close of your day. A second block is faster, because your space is already set up: desk cleared, phone hidden.

FAQ

Can you follow the 4 rules of deep work if you don’t control your schedule?

You don’t need a free morning for the 4 rules of deep work. My book’s blocks run 15, 25, 35, 45 or 90 minutes, by how fit you feel. They don’t need to start on the hour.

See also the limits of the deep work idea.

Is there a limit to how much deep work you can do in a day?

In my book, the realistic upper limit for highly concentrated work is four to six hours a day. Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer (1993) report that training studies show essentially no benefit from practice beyond four hours a day. Their topic is skill practice, not deep work.

What does an interruption cost?

Gloria Mark told Gallup in 2006 that interrupted work was resumed after 23 minutes and 15 seconds on average. That counts the 81.9 percent resumed the same day. Mark, Gudith and Klocke (2008) found that people worked faster after interruptions, but with more stress and frustration.

Keep reading

• Deep Work Techniques: 8 That Fit Into a Single BlockWhat are deep work techniques? Get 8 you can use in your next block, in the order you need them, plus what to do when you get stuck. Try them today.
• Deep Work vs. Time Blocking: What's the Difference?Deep work is a cognitive state. Time blocking is a scheduling method. They're not alternatives — one enables the other. Here's how they fit together.
• Deep Work vs Shallow Work: What Is the Difference?Deep work vs shallow work: what separates them, why shallow work isn't the enemy, and whether there is a right ratio between the two for your working day.