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I didn't realize this is where Newport was going. Most of what I've read of him in the past advocates for getting off of social media to gain control over your time - which I think is good advice.

I'd recommend Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks: Time management for mortals as it's very different from the productivity-oriented time management books that tend to dominate the genre.

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It's always worth remembering that Cal is an academic - a culture in which it is considered virtuous for your work to be your life, or at the very least the defining element of it.

This is a source of a lot of the ongoing exploitive or outright abusive behaviours and treatments of those on the lower rungs of the academic totem pole that are frankly endemic in most institutions.

Academia is feudalism with an intellectual veneer.

Source: Academic for 5 years.

He is an academic, but in Deep Work he argues that excessive working hours are not necessary for success in the field, using himself and a few other academics as examples of successful academics who've achieved both a work-life balance and tenure.

I assume that the weekdays which Elizabeth spends caring for her children are not spent working at the same time. She has an unusual schedule, but I doubt she works excessive hours. A big part of Deep Work is quality over quantity.

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