Healthy Productivity with Cal Newport

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2024

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re tired, burnt out, and searching for a reprieve from hustle culture. Something needs to change if we’re going to get to real productivity: doing that is meaningful and fulfilling rather than just checking boxes off an endless to-do list. On today’s episode, Cal Newport joins the podcast to explore slow productivity, deep work, and how we can achieve more by doing less. About our Guest: Cal is a computer science professor at Georgetown University and the bestselling author of eight books including Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World and most recently, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. He also has a YouTube channel and hosts the podcast Deep Questions with Cal Newport. You can watch this episode on YouTube. I am now writing on Substack, check out my work there. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 2:45: Slow productivity vs. pseudoproductivity 10:35: Anxiety, procrastination, and overwhelm 17:40: Meaningful work and anti-productivity 22:40: Technology, anti-capitalist philosophy, and knowledge work 28:55: The cognitive drain of multitasking 32:45: The distraction of phones social media 36:00: The ratio of deep work to lighter work 41:00: How timeblocking actually reduces stress 45:20: Office hours and shared documents 48:05: Common misconceptions about Cal’s work 55:45: Tailoring advice to your individual situation 1:00:40: Life transitions, and the deceptive advice to “follow your passion” 1:08:00: Obsessing over quality while avoiding perfectionism 1:17:30: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Transform your health with the ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEINGWELL at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month! Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Hansen. If you're new to the show,
0:11.0	thanks for listening today. And if you've listened before, welcome back. The anti-productivity movement
0:15.5	has been having something of a moment over the last five to ten years. The success of books like
0:20.2	Do Nothing in 4,000
0:21.4	weeks from former podcast guests, Celeste Headley and Oliver Berkman, respectively,
0:26.4	suggests that people are searching for a reprieve from relentless work and hustle culture.
0:30.8	And it's true. We're tired. It feels like there's always more to do, and the grind of
0:35.0	emails and meetings and social posts doesn't seem to make
0:38.4	much of a dent. Something needs to change if we're going to get to real productivity, doing that
0:43.0	is fulfilling, that supports us in meeting our goals, rather than endlessly checking boxes off
0:47.8	our to-do list. Today, I'm joined by someone who has thought a lot about this, and who just might
0:52.7	know how to help. This is a very special guest,
0:54.8	someone whose work I've been following for a long time, Cal Newport. Cal is a computer science
0:59.5	professor at Georgetown University and the bestselling author of, I believe, eight books now,
1:03.9	including deep work, rules for focus success in a distracted world, and most recently slow
1:08.9	productivity, the lost art of accomplishment without burnout.
1:12.4	He also has a very successful YouTube channel and hosts the podcast, Deep Questions with
1:16.3	Cowell Newport. So, Cal, thanks for doing this. How are you doing?
1:18.7	Hey, Forrest. Thanks for having me on. I've been looking forward to this conversation.
1:21.9	I'm really glad. Yeah, same. And I was so excited when I first encountered your book
1:27.2	because I thought there was such a
1:29.3	natural connection to some of the things that we talk about on the podcast.
	...

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