Deepwork a term coined by Cal Newport is referenced multiple times by Lex Fridman in his podcast. In fact, one of the youtube videos where Lex Fridman is explaining his daily routine, it is clear that Deepwork is central to his day. I admire Lex Fridman for his philosophical outlook on life, the knowledge that he conveys to the world through his podcast and his love centered worldview. So I picked up Cal Newport’s Deepwork and took some notes to share with friends and family. Cal Newport is a seminal and authentic thinker — his philosophy towards work and learning is laid out in the series of books he has produced. TL;DR The idea: Deepwork is valuable Deepwork is rare Deepwork is meaningful The rules Work Deeply Embrace Boredom Quit Social Media Drain the shallows In the first part of the book Cal lays out the foundations of why working deeply is becoming more and more important in today’s world. Most people today are bombarded by information and distractions making the abil...
I was thinking about making a video to mark the end of the year. It seemed apt to talk about goal setting since this is what I (and I am sure many others) are thinking about this time of the year. However, instead of talking about what goals to set in 2023, I want to talk about what 2022 has taught me. Here are the lessons. 1. The magic of thinking small Over the years, I used to set extraordinarily difficult goals with the mindset that even if I don't reach the goals, I would have made significant progress. Unfortunately for me, that would usually turn into an intimidating goal. I would procrastinate and the more I ran away from it, the scarier the goal became. Long story short, I would feel bad at the end of the year and set even more audacious goals - hence repeating the cycle. 2. Doing less, not more I, like many others, have a lot of interests. There are many things that I think are cool - so many books to read, courses to attend, Youtube, Podcasts, Blogging. In a burst of...
I saw the question "Why am I unproductive?" and other variations of it a lot on Quora. I have compiled my answers into the blogpost here. Please enjoy and leave your comments! Take a step back and zoom out. You can look at time management as a 3 step process: Plan Execute Analyze Plan Clarify your values, think about what’s really important for you and why. How would you imagine things would be if you were reasonably productive? Also, think about the negative outcomes if you don’t - try to really imagine that outcome and see how that makes you feel. Set your goals. Try and be as specific as you possibly can. What do you want? What do you want it? Explicitly state the outcome/result you want to achieve. Execute Remove distractions. Work aggressively towards saying “no” to existing and probable distractions and carve out time slots in your day that you would protect at all costs. Most distractions are our mobile phones so definitely keep it away during this time. Exhibit unyie...