March 23, 2026

Ep. 397: Why Do “Productivity Technologies” Make My Job Worse?

1 hour 7 minutes

A new study finds that for many workers, AI increases shallow efforts while decreasing time focusing on what really matters. This is not the first digital productivity technology to create this paradoxical effect. In today’s episode, Cal dives deep into why this happens and then details three strategies for avoiding these traps in your own professional life.

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: Why Do “Productivity Technologies” Make My Job Worse? [3:17]

INBOX:

An article about meetings [36:11]

A case study on escaping email overload [47:29]

A tool that makes the internet more boring [50:37]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

Deep or Crazy? [57:02]

What Cal read [1:02:23]

Cal in the news [1:05:57]

Books:

Reader, Come Home (Maryanne Wolf)

What Do You Say? (William Stixrud and Ned Johnson)

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?
pmresearcher.substack.com/p/why-meetings-multiply
docs.pluckeye.net/overview

Thanks to our Sponsors:

calderalab.com/deep
cozyearth.com/deep (Use code “DEEP”)
grammarly.com
drinkag1.com/deep

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Nate Mechler for research and newsletter, and Mark Miles for mastering.

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By Cal Newport

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