Ep. 233: Escaping Your Tyrannical Inbox

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2023

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Today’s Deep Question: How can I free myself from spending all day in my inbox? [8:24]

- Why does Cal suggest having multiple email addresses? [43:27]
- How do I convince my colleagues to actually read process-centric emails? [47:16]
- How do I work with people who enjoy email check-ins? [52:16]
- How do I get key information out of email an into a better system? [57:25]
- How can I focus when my job demands an open door policy? [1:01:11]

Something Interesting: Alex Haley wrote on a cargo ship [1:12:42]

Links:

affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/16.Mark-CHI_Email.pdf
tim.blog/autoresponse/
blog.rescuetime.com/communication-multitasking-switches/
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/01/23/magazine/cal-newport-interview.html
alexhaley.com/2018/08/04/aboard-the-african-star-by-alex-haley/

Thanks to our Sponsors:

mintmobile.com/deep
huel.com/questions
hensonshaving.com/cal
blinkist.com/deep

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport, and this is DeepQuestions, the show about living and working deeply in
0:17.9	an increasingly distracted world.
0:23.7	I'm here in my deep work HQ.
0:25.9	I'm joined by my producer, Jesse, a little bit nervous today, because we're kind of under
0:32.2	the timing gun, because the restaurant that used to be below us, as we've talked about
0:37.7	on the show closed, and a new restaurant's coming in, which is good, and I know the
0:42.4	owner, so that's all good, but they've started construction, and they've given us a little
0:47.3	window today, one hour long, to record our podcast, they're going to in theory hold back
0:52.9	on the louder of the construction, so we are under the gun, we got to nail this thing,
0:56.3	one take, keep it tight before whatever, power saws and hammers fill our ears.
1:03.0	One take Tony, one take Tony, we got to earn it today.
1:05.4	I think, Jesse, we need to try harder to become regulars at this new place than we were
1:10.5	at the old place.
1:11.5	Yeah, I mean, you just have to walk downstairs and walk in the door, right?
1:14.8	But we just got to do it.
1:15.8	I think from the beginning, we need to instill ourselves as a fixture here.
1:18.8	I know the owner, I probably know some of the staff, we got to have like our booth, you
1:23.4	know, I would love to go there, like our pre-recording or post-recording, whatever.
1:27.7	We didn't do that with the last place, we only went there a couple times, so this new place,
1:31.8	we got to be regulars.
1:32.8	People got to know.
1:33.8	People got to know.
	...

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