Ep. 299: Our Love/Hate Relationship with Personal Productivity

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Education, Technology, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2024

⏱️ 139 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cal has been writing professionally about issues related to personal productivity for two decades. In today’s episode, he provides a short history of what he’s observed during this period about out constantly shifting relationship with this topic, from the quiet optimism of the 1990s, to the techno-mania of the early 2000s, to the whiplash shift from anti-distraction to anti-work sentiments in the 2010s. He ends with a summary of where we are today and what he currently thinks matters in thinking about getting things done. During the Q&A session, Cal is joined by special guest host Scott Young (whose new book is GET BETTER AT ANYTHING) to help answer your questions. We conclude with a list of the books Cal read in April.Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvoVideo from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmediaDeep Dive: The 20-year history with personal productivity [4:20]- How does Cal organize his files as a technical researcher? [1:04:55]- How slow is too slow? [1:18:48]- Does “Monk Mode” actually work? [1:27:25]- How do I adapt my organizational systems to do more complicated work? [1:36:07]- What are the most underrated habits for living a great life? [1:49:46]CASE STUDY: Unconventional slow productivity [1:55:56]FINAL SEGMENT: The 5 Books Cal Read in April 2024 [2:04:51]Links:Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?v=448bf8afad0740d18f6b109b4bd40d51 moehrbetter.com/gtd-advanced-workflow-diagram.htmlBooks Discussed in Deep Dive:7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleHow To Become CEOGetting Things DoneThe Four Hour Work WeekEssentialismHow To Do NothingApril Books:An Empire of Their Own by Neal GablerCo-intelligence by Ethan Mollick Dragons of Eden by Carl SaganThe Perfect Mile by Neal BascombTo Heal a Fractured World by Jonathan SacksThanks to our Sponsors: This show is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/deepquestionsnotion.com/calzocdoc.com/deepshopify.com/deepThanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Kieron Rees for slow productivity music, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport and this is Deep Questions, the show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted
0:18.9	world. I'm here in my deep work HQ joined as always by my producer Jesse.
0:30.5	Jesse it's hard to believe we we've passed the two-month mark since my book's
0:35.4	Little Productivity came out. Yeah, I was talking to something about that the other
0:38.6	day, so I knew. It's a long two months. On the other hand, it feels like a
0:42.4	quick two months and the other hand it feels like a quick two months because I've been
0:45.0	doing so much so I've certainly been talking about this book a lot but anyways I'm
0:48.7	glad to have made it to the the two month mark and you know what the book hasn't
0:52.3	disappeared so that's always
0:53.5	good there's always the worry that after the first couple of weeks your book just
0:56.9	sort of disappears but I would say it's rolling along pretty strong still
1:00.2	back in the day before podcasts were a big promotional avenue for
1:05.1	podcasts, did you have to travel everywhere? I didn't have to start traveling
1:09.6	until digital minimalism. So after deep Work, which was my fifth book, after that took off, then
1:16.7	suddenly it was, oh by the way you have to go do things. Yeah, yeah. Oh man it was the easy days
1:21.3	before then. It was like, maybe write an article or two.
1:25.3	But you didn't sell as many bucks? You'll do, you'll do like a couple of radio interviews, like from your
1:30.8	house, like you know, do some podcast occasionally with a iPhone I used to use iPhone earbuds
1:36.3	wired into my laptop I do a couple podcasts from your bedroom there's no video back then
1:40.9	like that was it like deep work I did very little because there's no video back then like that was it like deep work. I did very little
1:43.7	Oh because there's no video. Yeah There's like a good review deep work I remember like I got a good review in the Wall Street Journal
1:50.3	Which like drove some sales for a while while but then it kind of disappeared.
	...

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