Ep. 270: Depth vs. Distraction

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2023

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An increasing number of people are suffering from “super distractions” that rise above the level of harmless diversion and instead start to actively hold them back in their life. Some of the common culprits cited include social media, online pornography, and alcohol. In this episode, Cal takes a closer look at what creates super distractions and uses this insight to come up with an effective game plan for fighting back.

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: Taking control of your life from super distractions [8:09]

- How can I stay productive while in between goals? [36:24]

- Will I become depressed from a dopamine fast? [40:46]

- How can I overcome negative thoughts? [44:01]

- Are there rituals to help me handle shallow work more efficiently? [50:19]

CASE STUDY: Success with an electronic detox [58:27]

Cal Reacts: NPR left Twitter and the effects are negligible [1:06:59]

Links:

niemanreports.org/articles/npr-twitter-musk/

Thanks to our Sponsors:

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
0:17.8	a distracted world.
0:21.0	I'm here in my deep work HQ, joined as always by my producer Jesse, so I'm going to add
0:34.3	something in here, not in our original script, because we are recording this episode just
0:41.5	a day or two after those almost indescribably horrible terrorist attacks on Southern Israel.
0:51.3	I thought it would be a good excuse to briefly revisit a question that I'm often emailed
0:57.3	or asked during hard times when something bad is happening, and we would just touch
1:03.5	base on it right now.
1:04.5	The question usually has a form like this.
1:07.9	How do I focus or how do I work deeply or how do I resist distractions when something
1:14.1	really hard or terrible is happening?
1:17.1	I get this question a lot during those all too common circumstances, and my answer,
1:22.9	and I just want to remind everyone of this, my answer is you don't.
1:27.8	When there is something that is really difficult happening in your life, you don't need
1:33.3	to work deeply.
1:35.5	You don't need the time block, you don't need to resist distraction.
1:40.2	It is a moment to embrace the other critical aspects of your humanity, your connection to
1:46.3	other people and the family and the community.
1:50.2	These things are what is important.
1:53.2	Work is one of the things you do.
1:56.2	It's not everything you do.
1:57.7	The fact that I have to come back to this question every time there is a tragedy, there's
	...

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