{"id":53577,"date":"2016-01-12T12:37:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T18:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=53577"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:19:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:19:34","slug":"podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever spent an entire day at work feeling really busy, clearing out your emails (and sometimes looking at Facebook)&nbsp;&#8212; and yet at the end of the day you realize&nbsp;you weren&#8217;t very productive at all?&nbsp;And when&nbsp;you&nbsp;resolve to do better the next day and&nbsp;dig into deeper work, you find that you can&#8217;t focus. You still have an overpowering itch to check your email or scroll through your Instagram feed.<\/p>\n<p>If that sounds familiar, today&#8217;s show is for you. My guest, Cal Newport is the author of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1455509124\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1455509124&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkId=7A4IVNTHXUJL6SVN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">So Good They Can&#8217;t Ignore You<\/a>,&nbsp;<\/em>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/art-of-manliness-podcast-78-the-myth-of-following-your-passion\/\">our last podcast together on how you shouldn&#8217;t necessarily follow your passion<\/a> is one of our best and most popular of all time.<\/p>\n<p>Cal now has a new book out called <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00X47ZVXM\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00X47ZVXM&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/a><\/em>,<em>&nbsp;<\/em>and it&#8217;s just as insightful and paradigm-shifting as his last. In today&#8217;s podcast&nbsp;Cal and I discuss why being able to concentrate&nbsp;deeply on hard tasks is the skill that will set you apart in today&#8217;s marketplace and how deep work can lead to a more meaningful life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever spent an entire day at work feeling really busy, clearing out your emails (and sometimes looking at Facebook)&nbsp;&#8212; and yet at the end of the day you realize&nbsp;you weren&#8217;t very productive at all?&nbsp;And when&nbsp;you&nbsp;resolve to do better the next day and&nbsp;dig into deeper work, you find that you can&#8217;t focus. You still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Be More Focused at Work and College | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You&#039;ll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You&#039;ll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":217,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/168.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Be More Focused at Work and College | The Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/168.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You'll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/168.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/168.png\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Art of Manliness\",\"description\":\"Men&#039;s Interest and Lifestyle\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\",\"name\":\"Brett\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/artofmanliness.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/author\\\/brett\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Be More Focused at Work and College | The Art of Manliness","description":"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You'll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction | The Art of Manliness","og_description":"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You'll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/","og_site_name":"The Art of Manliness","article_publisher":"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness","article_published_time":"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Brett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@artofmanliness","twitter_site":"@artofmanliness","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brett","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/"},"author":{"name":"Brett","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832"},"headline":"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction","datePublished":"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/"},"wordCount":217,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png","articleSection":["Character","Podcast","Self-Improvement"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/","name":"How to Be More Focused at Work and College | The Art of Manliness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png","datePublished":"2016-01-12T18:37:49+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-27T01:19:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832"},"description":"Cal Newport and I discuss his newest book, Deep Work, in this episode of the podcast. You'll learn new tactics for focusing deeply on the task at hand.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/168.png","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-168-the-value-of-deep-work-in-the-age-of-distraction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Podcast #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of Distraction"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/","name":"The Art of Manliness","description":"Men&#039;s Interest and Lifestyle","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832","name":"Brett","sameAs":["http:\/\/artofmanliness.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/author\/brett\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}