I'm Cal Newport, and this is DeepFestions, episode 224.

I'm here in my DeepWork HQ, joined by my producer Jesse.

As Jesse will attest, I was late getting here today.

I want to mention why, because I think there's a general point relevant to the topics we talk

about here on the show.

Here was the mistake I made today.

I had about an hour to kill before needing to start prepping for the podcast recording

today.

And I had an idea that it's common among people who are working on long-term projects to

require DeepWork, this ambitious, optimistic idea that you know what I'll do.

I'll write for an hour.

I'm working on a book, listeners know this, I'm writing a book on slow productivity, and

I figured I want to get an hour in writing because I have this little window before I move

on to other things.

That never works.

So an hour goes by, and now I'm up to my cognitive ears, my proverbial ears, and this argument

I'm trying to make.

And here's the real issue, the argument I was trying to make wasn't working, and that's

the worst case scenario from actually keeping DeepWork in a tightly constrained box is

when what you're working on, the cognitive puzzle you're working on isn't quite working.

Your brain basically refuses any alternative but to make this function.

Because there's an unease if you're writing, I'm sure this is the same for people who are

...