Some of Cal Newport's ideas

 Jottings on some core ideas of Cal Newport’s from YouTube videos

 

The Deep Life

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5e1DRkbiU

 

How to live a deep life, a life radically aligned with your values, that it might be meaningful to you.

 

Try to focus on what really matters to you so that you don’t waste too much time on what doesn’t matter.

 

“Radical” tries to capture the idea that we are hoping for big change here not just walk more and eat less meat etc.

 

Intentional

 

Identify the different areas of your life which are all important to you:

(1) Craft – work and creative leisure

(2) Community – family and friends

(3) Constitution – health, fitness, food, exercise etc.

(4) Contemplation – religion and thinking

(5) Celebration – enjoying the world with presence and gratitude – fun stuff you love

 

Warm up by developing a keystone habit in each of these “buckets” – something simple, doable, meaningful (non-trivial) in each bucket each day – do them and write down that you did them – do optional activity that is a pain

 

Dedicate 4-6 weeks focused on each bucket – clear out stuff to put in good stuff

 

By acting like this, you gain insight – self-awareness

 

Try this before making some huge radical change like moving to the woods!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOQpZlZuySE

 

Time management

 

Rules for what to do next with respect to work

 

Somehow we make this decision – sometimes not in a thought-out way

 

Capture – store all the important information in a trusted, reliable way (don’t waste brain space on remembering what you need to do), in a system you review regularly – David Allen, Getting Things Done

(1) Capture deadlines etc. and what needs to be done by when  

(2) Configure – Care more about how you organise what you capture – consolidate relevant information so you can quickly find out what you need to know – all the relevant info is there in one place when you need it  

(3) Control – don’t be reactive be proactive – make a plan for your time in advance which makes the most of the time you have available – think about the big picture not just the moment – you need to do this sort of planning on different time scales say quarterly, weekly, daily

Give your time a job

 

Some possible tools:

 

Trello – Roles – Projects

 

Google Docs

 

Time block planner - https://www.timeblockplanner.com/

 

WorkingMemory.Doc on your desktop for things you want to capture and process / action / store later

 

Calendar

 

To be processed

 

Waiting to hear back from  

 

Daily shut down

 

Weekly tidy up

 

(4) Constrain – what are you going to manage / accept onto your plate / decide how to say yes and no – what do I want to do and how do I want to do it that will help me to do it better or quicker – have a reliable process for doing it

 

Offer office hours for people who bother you! Come see me Monday 2-5pm

 

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Slow Productivity

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZwPyB20lxg

 

cf. burn out / Exhaustion in the face of all that we have to do  

 

2019 onwards – we are tired of doing too much

 

Books:

 

How To Do Nothing

 

Do Nothing

 

Laziness does not exist

 

Can’t even

 

4000 weeks

 

Skilled and focused work at a natural pace – breaks – ups and down of intensity – never too many things at one time – this then that not 18 things!

 

Chronic overload – more things on our plate than we can easily imagine how we are going to get this done

 

We love to make a plan and complete a plan. We hate it when we can’t do this.

 

The overhead spiral – the admin that is required just to do our actual work in terms of information gathering, co-ordinating and co-operating - meetings and email add and add until they are mostly about the fixed overhead – we talk about the work rather than do the work! We have meetings about meetings!

 

Relentless pace – when do we relax? – sit in the shade in the heat of the day, nap and chat, or take the day off if its raining

 

There are always things to get done and you are always behind – no relief – 10/10 all the time, day after day

 

* * * 

 

Deep Work

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJYlhhT7hyE

 

Deep efforts often move the needle / produce the value / lead to growth, success etc. esp. in knowledge work, art, crafts etc. – adding value to information – skilled thought

 

Concentrate hard without distraction – do your underlying core activity – don’t just be busy!

 

Distraction is a problem and an opportunity – there is competitive advantage to depth in an increasingly shallow world

 

If running from a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the other runners!

 

Define your deep work, don’t just work more

 

Measure it and have goals

 

What is the ideal ratio of shallow and deep work in your role in a typical week?

 

Schedule your deep work – don’t wait for the instinct to hit you! Get it on the plan and treat it like a commitment in the diary

 

Have rituals around the deep work that help you

 

Train – likely you are out of cognitive shape – practice

 

* * *

 

How To Read 5 Books a Month

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRBkIdc_VYU

 

Reading well is like exercise for the brain

 

Choose more interesting books! Read what you want to read not what you feel you should read. Mix it up. Choose a wide variety and switch between different styles, difficulties, audio and written etc. Have fun reading.

 

Schedule reading like you schedule exercise. Set aside half and hour or an hour to read. Don’t wait until you have time and are in the mood.

 

Put rituals around reading which make reading more enjoyable. Have a drink with your book. Read outside or in some other conducive location.

 

Do closing pushes. Work through those last 100 pages. Get it done! Sprint to the end when the end is in sight.

 

Take everything interesting (distracting) off your phone! Take a book with you / have one nearby. Read when bored / you don’t have anything else to do.

 

* * *

 

How Professional Writers Take Notes On Books

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T79wobxay98

 

Corner marking

 

* * *

 

Tips for Doing Hard Things

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv5GVT4FCvE

 

Brandon Sanderson, The Common Lies Writers Tell You (2020 talk) – you can’t do anything you want to / follow your dreams – rather, doing hard things is good, tell yourself “I can do hard things” (learn, practice, challenge yourself), and doing hard things will make me a better person whether I succeed or not

 

Have better goals – not “be a successful novelist”, set a goal which is more specific and which you can control, e.g. write X words, make your next MS better!

 

4DX – the 4 disciplines of execution – lead v lag indicators – lead indicators give you a concrete goal to focus on – you can track it and make changes etc.

 

Learn how you work – figure out what works for you to get yourself to do stuff – e.g. tracking, deadline, social pressure (tell someone what you are doing and ask them to ask you about it!), schedule, ritual etc.

 

(What has this to do with threat, food or mate? This makes it hard for us to do when it doesn’t seem an immediate survival necessity)

 

Trick yourself in to doing it

 

Break it down into manageable pieces so that you have something to go after