I’ve been through the process of adapting them to my work as a software developer. Most of those are taken from his own work as a professor and writer. And those skills cannot be developed by skimming through online content.Ĭal offers some rules in his book, with examples. For example, understanding about Android app architecture, or web performance. But it means that you need to dig deeper to offer value. And this is good, because our brains really shouldn’t be worrying about whether to use length() or size(). You should care because with the amount of good code tutorials out there, not to mention the abundance of open source code and, of course, Stack Overflow, there is no reward for remembering something by rote mindless repetition. His advice is to aim for 3 to 4 hours a day. But a good proportion of your working hours should be deep work. We certainly cannot work deeply for 8 hours every day.

Not all work needs to, or even can, be deep work. It may include looking up something on Stack Overflow but if all you do is copy and paste, it’s not deep work.

It’s not the stuff you do when you’re tired.Īs a software engineer, deep work is writing code, learning, teaching. Thus, developing it will give any knowledge worker an edge.ĭeep work can be best understood as work that provides value and is hard to replicate by others. In it, he argues that deep work, as opposed to shallow work, is becoming a rare skill. “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” is a book by Cal Newport, a computer science professor. What is deep work and why you should care

Deep Work for Software Developers Download the eBook now (PDF) TL DR: a few simple steps to improve your focus as a software developer

For windows instal Deep Work