The Cal Newport Show

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.

DEEP DIVE: Should you move to the country?  [3:55]


DEEP WORK QUESTIONS:

- Is it worth time blocking for long projects? [20:11]
- What’s your (Cal’s) opinion on bosses stopping by the office to chat?  [22:16]
- How can I remember all of your advice? [25:39]
- How do I avoid the feeling of just going through the motions? [32:41]
- How do I better get started in the morning? [38:31]


DEEP LIFE QUESTIONS:

- What’s your advice for studying while also working in a warehouse? [44:38]
- How can I improve my meditative walks? [50:10]
- How can working parents maximize time spent with children? [54:12]
- Are you so good you can’t be ignored in computer science?  [58:40]
- How do I choose a thesis topic? [1:03:41]  

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

Below are the topics covered in today's listener calls mini-episode (with timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.

DEEP DIVE: When should tasks live on my calendar? [7:24]

LISTENER CALLS:

- Online presences for novelists  [14:13]
- Not getting stuff done outside of work [26:10]
- Managing team workload [32:19]
- Finding more family time [39:37]
- Leveraging career capital early in one’s career [47:48]


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

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.

DEEP DIVE: How do I tame email? [9:51]


DEEP WORK QUESTIONS:

- How to accomplish deep work in the context of meeting overload? [29:09]
- What is difference between the productivity funnel and capture/configure/control? [36:06]
- Do you (Cal) have a filing system for emails? [40:18]
- What time blocking granularity is best? [42:53]
- How do you (Cal) manage projects vs tasks on your board system? [44:52]


DEEP LIFE QUESTIONS:

- How does one get a sense of satisfaction from goals that continue ad infinitum? [50:33]
- How soon after the birth of a child is it realistic to start employing time blocking? [55:29]
- How should one combine having young children and pursuing newfound ambitions? [59:24]
- How should I think about career capital when taking time off to be a stay-at-home parent? [1:03:19]


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

Below are the topics covered in today's listener calls mini-episode (with timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


DEEP DIVE: Decoding the Productive Pause [2:43]

LISTENER CALLS:

- Finding a research interests.  [10:00]
- Trading moments of your life for money. [13:23] 
- Scheduling more deep work. [23:14]
- Handling the difficult switch from work to leisure and then back again.  [27:30]            
- Creating temporal Eudamonia Machines.  [32:31]      
- Leading a new team away from email.  [39:14]


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

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


DEEP WORK QUESTIONS:

- Are some people more suited for deep work than others?  [4:54]
- How do I tame post-shutdown excitement?   [8:33]
- How to I deal with ambiguous deep work?  [14:41]
- Can you  (Cal) elaborate on the Friction/Flow/Finalization project pathway?  [17:41] 
- How do you time-block plan in a company obsessed with last minute meetings?  [23:21]


DEEP LIFE QUESTIONS:

- Are you (Cal) a control freak?  [41:16]
- What have you (Cal) learned from the pandemic?  [45:07]
- Would you (Cal) do your CS research and writing if you couldn’t share it?  [51:54]
- How did you (Cal) never get tempted to join a social media platform?  [56:11]
- Is the monastic life the ultimate deep life?  [59:24]



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

Below are the topics covered in today's listener calls mini-episode (with timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


A conversation with Producer Jesse about my next book [1:48]


LISTENER CALLS:

- Twitter FOMO for a journalist. [16:40]
- Tracking small amounts of time. [25:12]
- My quarterly planning process. [30:07]
- Tedious tasks with an entry level job. [34:22]
- Timeblock planners spiral bindings. [38:24]
- Struggling to balance teaching with research (PLUS: a bonus rant about the coming knowledge work revolution). [42:15]


Thanks to Jay Kerstens for the intro music and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.

DEEP DIVE: My October reading list [1:49]


DEEP WORK QUESTIONS:

 - How do you avoid burn out from deep work? [11:55]
 - Are your (Cal's) systems for tracking deep work and for tracking GTD projects independent? [13:59]
 - Does studying “on the go” incur cognitive burden? [18:07]
 - What category of things do you track on your (Cal's) Trello boards? [26:42]
 - What skills are most important for an undergraduate looking to become a professor? [32:12]


DEEP LIFE QUESTIONS:

 - What would you recommend to a doctoral student without a mentor?  [36:53]
 - How do you balance physical and digital tools in productivity?  [39:16]
 - Do you suggest reading for quality or quantity with non-fiction books?  [41:34]
 - How do you apply your ideas to make sure your family can pursue a deeper life?  [43:25]
 - Is the deep life compatible with helping humanity?  [48:27]


Thanks to Jay Kerstens for the intro music and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Below are the topics covered in today's listener calls mini-episode (with timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


DEEP DIVE: Is Overload Necessary? (Epic rant alert) [3:53]

LISTENER CALLS:

 - Beyond the most important task of the day. [27:00] 
 - "Pseudo-blocking" household admin. [31:53] 
 - A doctor struggling to find leisure time. [36:47]
 - Defanging the internet with strategic browser plug-ins. [44:26]
 - Applying sprints outside of the tech sector. [49:35]


Thanks to Jay Kerstens for the intro music and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


DEEP DIVE: What would you say you do here? [3:05]


DEEP WORK QUESTIONS:

 - What time management strategies do you suggest if I work a 9-5 and want to pursue master's or phd? [13:32]
 - How to overcome productivity pr0n?  
- Lifehacker addict is hung up on the fomo (fear of missing out) of potential shortcuts. [19:51]
- could save time
 - How to time block deep work while juggling the demands of "in the moment questions". [25:03]
- Pharmacist manager gets bogged down with constant questions despite needing time to do deep work.
 - How do you differentiate productive meditation with "day-dreaming mode" to solve problems?  [32:28]
        - Relaxing the pre-frontal cortex
 - What are your thoughts on scaling up for sole proprietors? [35:37]
- A digital marketer thinking of outsourcing for book keeping, etc.


DEEP LIFE QUESTIONS:

 - What do you do/read to keep the path of living a deep life?  [38:57]
 - What's your class policy regarding your students and their phone use?  [42:38]
 - How do you combat confirmation bias as an author and academic?  [44:58]

 
 - How do you balance reading new books and re-reading books (especially past ones that have proven valuable)?


Thanks to Jay Kerstens for the intro music and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Below are the topics covered in today's listener calls mini-episode (with timestamps). For instructions on submitting your own questions, go to calnewport.com/podcast.


DEEP DIVE: On Facebook, Misinformation, and the Death of Collaborative Curation [2:59]


LISTENER CALLS:

 - My thoughts on speed reading. [21:29]
 - My system for writing New Yorker articles (routinizing demanding work). [24:43]
 - The importance of media for academic careers. [34:07]
 - Re-assessing linked note-taking. [40:02]
 - The absurdity of live study streams. [44:12]
 - Time blocking without a time-block planner. [51:21]


Thanks to Jay Kerstens for the intro music and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices