Ep. 324: Taming Non-Work Tasks

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Education, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2024

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We talk a lot on this show about how to organize your professional efforts. But what about all your obligations outside of work? The personal goals, the household repairs, the family tasks? In this episode, Cal discusses organizational strategies custom-fit to these types of obligations. He then answers listener questions and checks in on a hidden trend in the world of technology. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia Deep Dive: Taming Non-Work Tasks [4:48] - How do you manage unexpected projects in your time management system? [26:57] - How can I implement lifestyle-centric planning if my life has been directed by other people? [29:36] - How do you figure out what your rare and valuable skill is? [33:57] - Should I return to social media to promote my new book? [37:30] - How can I do fewer things if I’m expected to bill 40 client hours every week? [46:23] - CALL: Hiring an administrative assistant [50:08] CASE STUDY: A software developer’s “pull” system [57:35] TECH CORNER: The Quiet Revolution [1:08:34] 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? newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-frightening-familiarity-of-late-nineties-office-photos youtube.com/watch?v=-lRkCbhABvo Thanks to our Sponsors: blinkist.com/deep notion.com/cal zbiotics.com/cal drinklmnt.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Kieron Rees for the 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 world.
0:30.2	So I'm here in my deep work, HQ, joined as always by my producer Jesse. I'll tell you the other day Jesse, there was a reporter, journalist, or podcast or I know someone who was
0:34.3	interviewing me was here in Tacoma Park and they were excited to see Jesse's
0:39.8	skeleton and I had to tell them,
0:43.0	Justice Skeleton is no longer at the Deep Work HQ.
0:46.0	I had to integrate them into my Halloween display.
0:48.0	So I don't want to say that they were very disappointed,
0:51.0	but yeah, they're very disappointed. It's on you
0:55.1	know working duty in the month of October. It's got a lot to do yeah it's got a lot that
0:59.6	has to be done. What are you going to do? Yeah. And that reporter was Bob Woodward.
1:06.0	He's writing a whole book about it now.
1:11.0	The missing bones. All right. When I briefly mentioned I have a new New
1:16.4	Yorker piece. I always like to tell the audience when there's the new New Yorker piece to read.
1:19.9	This one was a little bit different, Jesse. It was art criticism. You were a minor in
1:27.8	college, right? I was indeed. I was a minor in art history in college, almost a major. I was just a course or two away.
1:34.4	There's a feature at the New Yorker called Photo Booth, where it's essays reacting to some
1:40.1	sort of visual artifact, like a new art exhibit or a new art book and
1:43.7	then the thing is they have their different writers from their different topics
1:46.8	write this you rotate through so they asked me to write it about the
1:50.6	re-release of a photo book by Lars Turned Bjork, I believe he's Swedish.
1:57.3	It was a photo book from the early 2000s about offices, kind of like a stark aesthetic look at office life.
2:05.0	And so I wrote about it.
	...

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