Cal Newport
Computer science professor · author of Deep Work
Georgetown computer scientist and author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity. He argues that the scarce resource is uninterrupted concentration, and that most productivity advice ignores it. Famously, he has never had a personal social media account.
- Entries
- 19
- Does
- 9
- Recommends
- 9
- Discusses
- 1
The gear and products they use
All 6 products in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Deep Work
Undistracted concentration is a trainable skill and increasingly the source of value in knowledge work, which is the argument of his own book.
Source: calnewport.com: his booksView item: Deep WorkBacked by 5 of 44 stacks - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Digital Minimalism
Selecting a small number of technologies that serve what you value, and ignoring the rest without guilt, is what his own book asks for.
Source: calnewport.com: on digital minimalismView item: Digital MinimalismBacked by 2 of 44 stacks - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Slow Productivity
Makes the case in his own book for fewer commitments, a natural working pace, and an obsession with quality over visible busyness.
Source: calnewport.com: his booksView item: Slow ProductivityBacked by 2 of 44 stacks - AppRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Website and app blocker
Has long advised hard blocking software as a way to start deep work training, and he is dismissive of gentler app-based wellness nudges.
Source: calnewport.com: digital wellness for grown upsView item: Website and app blockerBacked by 2 of 44 stacks - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Paper time-block planner
Hand-formatted generic notebooks for years to satisfy his time-block planning before designing his own paper planner.
Source: calnewport.com: my new plannerView item: Paper time-block plannerBacked by 1 of 44 stacks - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
So Good They Can't Ignore You
Argues in his own book that rare and valuable skills, not a pre-existing passion, are what buy autonomy and meaning in a career.
Source: calnewport.com: his booksView item: So Good They Can't Ignore YouBacked by 1 of 44 stacks
Protocols
5 entriesRepeatable, mostly free routines with a defined trigger and dose.
Concentration blocks go on his calendar four weeks ahead, and he protects them like appointments. Fragmented attention is what he designs against.
Source: calnewport.com: from deep tallies to deep schedulesBacked by 3 of 44 stacksTen to twenty minutes each evening go on blocking out the next day, and he rewrites the plan whenever it breaks.
Source: calnewport.com: planning every minute of your work dayBacked by 3 of 44 stacksEnds every workday with a fixed review of open loops and a spoken phrase marking work finished, so the evening is genuinely off.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcriptBacked by 2 of 44 stacksRecommends a full thirty-day break from optional technologies followed by deliberate reintroduction, not gradual cutting back.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcriptBacked by 2 of 44 stacksNeutral on the pomodoro technique, he prefers breaks taken when concentration flags rather than on a fixed timer.
Source: calnewport.com: on deep breaksBacked by 2 of 44 stacks
Habits
8 entriesDaily practices held long enough to become default behavior.
Books daily: high-quality leisure is what makes reduced screen time sustainable rather than empty, he argues.
Source: Digital MinimalismBacked by 19 of 44 stacksDedicated thinking time comes from regular walks, often spent working through a specific problem away from any screen.
Source: Deep Questions podcastBacked by 12 of 44 stacksMonday mornings go on planning the coming work week. He emails the plan to himself, then allocates individual days against a sensible picture of the week.
Source: calnewport.com: plan your week in advanceBacked by 4 of 44 stacksFirst thing on arriving at his office he writes; two books came out of the 9 to 10:30am slot.
Source: calnewport.com: my focus-centric work dayBacked by 3 of 44 stacksHas never had a personal social media account, and argues the professional benefits people assume they would lose are rarely real.
Source: calnewport.com: resolve to live a deep lifeBacked by 1 of 44 stacksDefines solitude as being free of input from other minds, and coined solitude deprivation for the constant opposite.
Source: calnewport.com: spend more time aloneBacked by 8 of 44 stacksRecommends charging the phone outside the bedroom: one of the simplest structural fixes to compulsive use.
Source: Digital MinimalismBacked by 6 of 44 stacksAdvises a morning with no meetings, calls, messages, email or internet until noon, so the day starts on your own work.
Source: calnewport.com: the rise of the monk mode morningBacked by 4 of 44 stacks
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“So the 30-day declutter is at the core of my philosophy of digital minimalism. So this was my take on what do we do about the fact that, starting around 2016, people became very uneasy about their phones in a way that they weren’t in 2014.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 4 Feb 2022 “At the end of your workday, you go through and you close, you use the David Allen term, all the open loops. … And then you have to do some sort of demonstrative ritual at that point to indicate that you did all those checks.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 4 Feb 2022
Latest episodes
All of Deep Questions with Cal Newport (opens in a new tab)- Rethinking the Deep Life Stack (Again!) | Monday Advice (opens in a new tab) · 1h 20m
- Has AI “Gone Rogue”? Let’s Look Closer… | Tech Decoded (opens in a new tab) · 36m
- How to Build a Cognitive Training Plan | Monday Advice (opens in a new tab) · 1h 3m
- Classic Episode: How Do I Kick My Scrolling Habit? | Monday Advice (opens in a new tab) · 58m
- How Do I Finish Meaningful Projects? | Monday Advice (opens in a new tab) · 1h 5m
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