Ep. 350: Is Inbox Zero Possible?

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The white whale of modern productivity discourse is achieving an empty email inbox; a goal state that’s often referred to simply as “inbox zero.” In this episode, Cal looks at why the original advice for achieving inbox zero failed and explores a strategy that might work better. He then answers listener questions and in a final segment reacts to a recent guest on the Tim Ferriss podcast who provides an interesting case study of the deep life in action.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Question, the show about cultivating a deep life in a distracted world.
0:23.5	Here in my DeepWork, H.Q.
0:25.8	I joined, as always by my producer, Jesse.
0:29.5	One of our first days with the AC on in the HQ.
0:32.5	I feel like summer is here.
0:34.1	Yeah.
0:34.6	I just got back from Boston.
0:37.5	That was a trip.
0:38.8	Took the boys to Finway.
0:40.6	Oh,
0:40.9	nice.
0:41.2	Who did they play?
0:41.6	White Sox?
0:42.2	Yeah.
0:43.1	Yeah, they lost.
0:44.7	They won yesterday, though.
0:45.7	Okay, good.
0:46.4	Yeah.
0:47.0	It wasn't a rousing showing by the home team.
0:50.1	My memory is when I lived, I lived in Boston for a long time when I was a graduate
0:53.9	student and a postdoc.
0:55.7	And I couldn't afford Red Sox tickets.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cal Newport, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cal Newport and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.