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Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Ep. 272: The Essential Tools (w/ David Epstein)

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.81.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2023

⏱️ 93 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Cal reviews what he believes to be the four essential tools for feeling on top of everything you need to do. If you’re missing one of these, you might struggle. If you use all four, you’re probably safe never thinking about “productivity” again. Cal is then joined by friend of the show, New York Times bestselling author David Epstein, to answer listener questions about their personal struggles to take control of their lives.

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: The Productivity Toolkit [2:30]

- What is the most underrated productivity superpower? [35:05]

- Should I journal? [43:59]

- How do I build a system to help me remember things? [48:23]

- Can I use a split-day strategy to time block a reactive job? [52:01]

- Help! I’m stuck at age 30. How do I get unstuck? [54:42]

CAL REACTS: How can we make learning as addictive as social media? [1:16:06]

Links:

youtube.com/watch?v=P6FORpg0KVo

Thanks to our Sponsors:

rhone.com/cal

grammarly.com/podcast

policygenius.com/deepquestions

mybodytutor.com

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 Count Newport and this is Deep Questions, the show about living and working deeply in

0:17.8

a distracted world.

0:22.8

So I'm here in my Deep Work HQ, joined as always by my producer, Jesse.

0:28.6

He is the day before Halloween that this comes out.

0:31.4

Yeah, baby, which is exciting.

0:34.2

People are wondering, I'm assuming, where is Jesse Skeleton?

0:39.5

As is the tradition.

0:40.8

I have to tell you, my audience, my loyal audience, the reason why Jesse Skeleton is not

0:46.3

here is that he is in the dog house with me.

0:49.1

What happened in Jesse you know about this is I asked, I delegated, I will say, to Jesse

0:54.2

Skeleton, what I thought was an important interview, right, with an author friend of mine,

0:59.4

the number one New York Times bestselling author, David Epstein, I asked Jesse Skeleton

1:05.3

to interview him.

1:07.0

It did not go well.

1:08.0

And if you're interested, we have posted this, we'll post this video so you can see what

1:13.7

happened.

1:14.7

Just go to the deeplife.com slash listen, this is episode 272, it'll be one of the video

1:18.8

clips at the bottom.

1:20.2

If you want to see how that went awry, and if you don't want to go watch that clip, as

1:24.8

I always say, congratulations, because you've avoided wasting five minutes of your life.

1:29.2

But anyways, that's what's going on with Jesse Skeleton.

1:30.8

So go check out that clip at episode 272, if you want to see the disaster that was Jesse

...

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