I'm Cal Newport and this is deep questions. Now normally on a Thursday I would be releasing a Habit Tune Up mini episode.

That's the format where I take voice questions from listeners and we get into nitty gritty details about upgrading their

productivity habits.

The day that I'm recording and releasing this however, November the 5th, is one ironically in which we are probably

too distracted to be thinking clearly about productivity techniques.

So with that in mind, I thought today I would do something a little bit different

to provide some content that was perhaps a little bit more distracting on its own, perhaps a little bit more philosophical,

something that you could get lost in more effectively, at least for a little while.

So in particular, what I am going to do today is share with you a conversation I had earlier in the summer with the author Greg McEwen.

This was an interview that I did for Greg's podcast, which I highly recommend, and

he has kindly allowed me to release the interview on my feed here for the Deep Questions

podcast so that those of you who did not hear it on his podcast can hear it here.

If you don't know Greg, he is most well known for his book

Essentialism this is a book I think is essential to the modern Canada both not just productivity but but thinking about meaning and

satisfaction and doing effective work more generally it is the definitive word

on avoiding overload it is the definitive word on avoiding overload

it is the definitive word on reducing what's on your plate

down to something manageable

why that is not only tractable

but also something from a psychological and even perhaps

spiritual perspective is really critical. Greg gave a very nice endorsement

blurb for digital minimalism. He's someone who's

...