Welcome to episode 144 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we share part 4 of our book review on Deep Work by Cal Newport. We’ll talk through the book’s advice on embracing boredom, how it contributes to deep work, and share our reactions on practicality.
Original Recording Date: 10-14-2021
Topics – "Rule #2 – Embrace Boredom", Format Reminder, Taking Breaks from Focus, Work Like Teddy Roosevelt, Meditate Productively
00:57 – Part 4 of Our Discussion on Deep Work by Cal Newport

* Check out Part 1, Episode 141, where we discussed the “Why?” of the book (why deep work). Part 2 (Episode 142) and Part 3 (Episode 143) were focused on the first rule of deep work, which was working deeply (the structure and the execution).
* Format: We’ll do some summarization, then answer whether we believe the point, whether it applies to us, whether it makes us want to change, and what we anticipate changing, if anything.
* One thing we realized is that we want to model how we’re going to try to read books that have a big impact on us from now on
on by doing the following:

* Summarize big points.
* Take notes.
* Record our reactions.
* Record what we’re going to try to change.

5:03 Rule #2 – Embrace Boredom
The ability to perform cognitively demanding tasks with intense concentration is something that needs to be trained over time. It’s a skill, not a habit. People think they can lead highly distracted lives, then turn on concentration when they need it. Studies show that they’re wrong.
Don’t Take Breaks from Distraction. Instead Take Breaks from Focus.
If you train your brain to be distracted and need the dopamine of changing tasks or seeking out digital distraction, you won’t be able to perform high level deep work. Don’t schedule deep work, assume everything is deep and schedule small times for shallow work.
Point #1: This strategy works even if your job requires lots of Internet use and/or prompt e-mail replies.
Schedule time for those tasks more frequently. Just keep to the discipline of scheduling.
Point #2: Regardless of how you schedule your Internet blocks, you must keep the time outside these blocks absolutely free from Internet use.
Resist the temptation to get connected during deep work. It’s too easy to get distracted while looking something up. If you’re blocked, then switch to a different offline activity.
Point #3: Scheduling Internet use at home as well as at work can further improve your concentration training.
You can’t just leave work and abandon your good behaviors, any more than a professional athlete can train all day then return home and ignore the diet they need to support their top performance. You can’t let your brain get wired for distraction during your time off.
8:48 Reactions
Do I believe this?

*
John: Yes. It makes sense that the brain circuits we train the most are the ones that we fall back on using. The idea that we’re training ourselves to need that jolt of dopamine that comes from indulging in social/news/doom scrolling is probably mo...