Ep. 360: One-Page Productivity

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Education, Self-improvement, Technology

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trying to stick to complicated time management systems without any breaks can eventually lead to burn out. But if you stop organizational efforts altogether, your life can become a stressful mess. In this episode, Cal taps the wisdom of an elite running coach to devise what he calls one-page productivity: a minimum time management system, meant to be run for limited periods to help you recharge, but that also maintains just enough organization that you can avoid disaster. He argues such maintenance modes should be an important part of any time management practice. Cal then answers listener questions and concludes by reviewing the books he read in June 2025. 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: One-Page Productivity [1:52] How do you approach decisions when you’re torn between two reasonable options? [18:17] How can I navigate teaching with phone addicted teenagers? [22:06] Have you considered using LLM’s to assist in your writing? [28:03] How many “thinking” walks do you take each week? [32:31] Do you have any recommendations for learning new material outside of the structured framework of a course? [35:00] CASE STUDY: A son explains his parents lifestyle engineering [37:21] CALL: Setting up workflows as a manager [41:09] JUNE BOOKS: The 5 Books Cal Read in June, 2025 [52:05] The Magic of Code (Samuel Arbesman) In the Swarm (Byung-Chul Han) The Fear Index (Robert Harriss) The Explore’s Gene (Alex Hutchinson) Skywalking (Dale Pollock) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slowGet a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?nytimes.com/athletic/6453809/2025/06/27/bruce-bochy-walking-exercise-creativity/ Thanks to our Sponsors: cozyearth.com (Use code “DEEP”)oracle.com/deepquestionsvanta.com/deepquestionsshopify.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.
0:23.1	I'm here in my deep work,
0:24.9	HQ, joined as always by my producer, Jesse.
0:27.6	Jesse, we live in a stupid swamp city.
0:30.1	Yeah.
0:30.2	I've never been, I don't think I've sweated more than I sweat
0:33.7	to try to go for a walk this afternoon.
0:35.9	It happens every summer.
0:37.3	It is brutal.
0:38.6	It is.
0:38.8	I think can we move the podcast, the Jocko Willink studio in San Diego?
0:43.8	San Diego is so nice.
0:44.9	So nice.
0:45.7	It's in his gym.
0:46.9	You can even wail on me a little bit in exchange.
0:50.1	I think that would be great.
0:51.1	I am.
0:51.6	I am excited.
0:52.4	My wife and I and some friends are going to see F1 tonight.
0:55.0	Oh, I just read a review about that in their New Yorker.
0:57.4	Oh, yeah, that was a positive.
0:58.3	I haven't read it yet.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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.