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Being Well Podcast: Rethinking Productivity with Cal Newport
November 11, 2024

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 of the Being Well Podcast, 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.

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

Forrest is now writing on Substack, check out his work there.

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