Focus
Deep or Shallow Work Quiz
Not every task deserves your best brain. Describe one task on your list — four questions tell you whether to protect it for deep work, batch it, delegate it, or drop it.
Results
Answer the questions above to classify your task.
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Related tools
How to Do Deep Work
Answer 4 questions and get a Cal Newport–style deep work plan — scheduling, environment, shallow-work cuts, and your first protected focus block.
Deep Work Schedule Quiz
Find your deep work scheduling style — monastic, bimodal, rhythmic, or journalistic — based on Cal Newport's four philosophies and your real-life constraints.
Shallow Work Audit
Calculate how much of your workweek is shallow work — meetings, email, Slack, and admin — versus time left for deep work. Cal Newport–style audit in 60 seconds.
Shutdown Ritual Builder
Build a personalized end-of-day shutdown ritual — Cal Newport's method to stop work thoughts, plan tomorrow, and actually disconnect tonight.
Frequently asked questions
- Can shallow work become deep work?
- Sometimes — writing a thoughtful strategy memo is deep; firing off a quick status update is shallow. Same domain, different cognitive demand.
- Should I eliminate all shallow work?
- No — shallow work keeps organizations running. The goal is to batch and minimize it so deep work gets protected hours.
- What if my boss assigns mostly shallow tasks?
- Use the delegate and batch recommendations, and negotiate protected focus time. Run the shallow work audit to quantify the problem with data.