Cal Newport

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Loss of focus

  “I was worried that I was increasingly losing my ability to focus on hard thinking for extended periods of time. Too much of my day would be interrupted by small tasks and inexplicably frantic inbox checking.”

  Our noteCal describes the motivation behind restructuring his workday to protect his focus.

• Complexity of productivity

  “The allure of productivity is therefore a complex one. We cannot dismiss it as the result of the evil master plan of mustache twirling capitalists.”

  Our noteCal argues that productivity is a human drive, not just a cultural imposition.

• Rules vs Judgment

  “Humans don't operate by rules - we navigate by heuristics, principles, and judgment. Hard rules create system fragility.”

  Our noteCal explains why rigid rule-based systems fail to replicate the nuanced judgment of human beings.

• Definition of Craftsmanship

  “Yale Professor Richard Sennett calls craftsmanship "an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake.”

  Our noteCal Newport discusses the fundamental human drive to perform high-quality work for its own sake.

• Investing in tools

  “It's one thing to read about a productivity system, but it's another thing to actually invest in and own an artifact that's dedicated to implementing that system.”

  Our noteCal discusses the motivational aspect of buying a physical planner.

• Fixing the plan

  “The solution, therefore, is not to muster the courage to blindly charge ahead, but to instead accept what our brain is telling us: our plans need more hard work invested before they're ready.”

  Our noteCal suggests improving the plan instead of relying on willpower.

• Evaluating productivity systems

  “I find their investigations of time management systems and personal productivity fads, in particular, to be quite applicable.”

  Our noteCal Newport discusses why he recommends the blog Academic Productivity to his readers.

• Economic value of focus

  “I was fascinated, for example, by the economic reality that so many knowledge work organizations systematically undervalued focus, and was convinced that this provided a massive opportunity for those willing to correct for this mistake.”

  Our noteCal explains the core economic thesis behind his book Deep Work.

• Completion Centric Planning

  “It introduces the idea of completion-centric planning - a technique for shifting your focus from tasks to projects.”

  Our noteCal explains a guest post he wrote about shifting focus from small tasks to finishing larger projects.

• Questioning Conventional Methods

  “Ignoring the conventional approaches, what would be the least painful, most effective possible way to get this done?”

  Our noteCal encourages readers to find the most efficient path by ignoring standard norms.

• Researching new topics

  “This invited lecture therefore provided me a great opportunity to bring myself up to speed on the research relevant to this topic.”

  Our noteCal Newport explains how a school talk prompted him to dive deep into smartphone research.

• Vetting deep projects

  “By raising the bar for considering a deep project-relentlessly examining, researching, and studying the reality of a pursuit before finally deeming it worthy-you'll naturally end up giving serious consideration to fewer ideas.”

  Our noteCal explains how rigorous vetting leads to better focus on fewer, higher-quality projects.

• Mind alone with mind

  “It's time for your mind to be alone with your mind - regardless of what's going on around you.”

  Our noteHe emphasizes that solitude is about internal focus rather than external environment.

• Environment for Focus

  “A surprisingly effective place to work is the local library. They're quiet. They have study cubicles.”

  Our noteNewport recommends leaving the house to find a distraction-free environment for deep work.

• Work perception traits

  “The way individuals view work may be a function of [personality] traits, not just reflections of the work itself.”

  Our noteCal discusses research showing that how people view their jobs depends more on them than the job.

• Logic over tinkering

  “Instead of starting from a qualitative description of a what a circuit needed to accomplish, and then tinkering until you came up with a workable solution, you could instead capture the goal as a logic equation”

  Our noteNewport describes the shift from intuitive tinkering to mathematical precision in engineering.

• The Winner's Reward

  “We give people at the top of a category disproportionately more rewards than those who are slightly below them.”

  Our noteCal discusses why being the absolute best in a category is more valuable than being just good.

• The necessity of excellence

  “if you want to do something interesting and rewarding - be it writing a novel, becoming a professor, or growing a successful business - you have to first become exceptional.”

  Our noteCal explains that success in any competitive field requires reaching an exceptional level of skill.

• Internal meaning

  “meaning comes from within each person for themselves. No matter how good my models or intention, I cannot give you a formula”

  Our noteCal reflects on the limitations of self-help formulas in providing true life meaning.

• Evaluating time value

  “How many of your work hours were worth what they cost? How would your schedule and habits change if you eliminated low-value work from your life altogether?”

  Our noteCal Newport reflects on the importance of eliminating low-value tasks to justify the cost of one's time.

• Technology and Productivity

  “Many very recent advances (particularly social networks) spread very rapidly but don't add anything to productivity and may actually decrement quality of life.”

  Our noteCal reflects on how fast-spreading modern tools often fail to improve actual work output or well-being.

• Continuous reading flow

  “The Morse Code Method is based on the following idea: you should never stop reading until you're done with the entire article.”

  Our noteThe core rule of the Morse Code Method for efficient information processing.

• Speed over perfection

  “Go quick. Don't worry about typos. Ignore fancy formatting. Just get the ideas down. As fast as possible.”

  Our noteAdvice on the processing phase of note-taking to avoid wasting time.

• Starving original thought

  “It doesn't take much daily activity before original thought is starved of the neuronal nutriments required to grow.”

  Our noteCal warns that busywork quickly kills the ability to generate original ideas.

• Avoiding digital crutches

  “When they're away from their computer, their phone is still useful for basic operations, but it ceases to act as a crutch that helps them avoid the world around them.”

  Our noteCal explains how limiting phone features helps people engage more with their physical environment.

• Insight into dependency

  “But if you give it a chance, it's still disruptive enough to your normal routines to provide key insight into just how dependent you may have become on mediating your experience through a constant background hum of digital intervention.”

  Our noteCal describes the benefit of trying a lightweight digital restriction to see one's own habits.

• Avoid Mediocrity

  “If you just ship for the sake of shipping, for example, you're likely to end up producing an ever-growing mountain of mediocrity.”

  Our noteCal warns against focusing only on execution without high ambition.

• Defining Completion Criteria

  “At the beginning of each month of summer: I print out a document that lists three project names, and, for each, a quick description of the completion criteria”

  Our noteCal describes his low-tech method for tracking monthly summer goals.

• Breaking digital addiction

  “Without that steady supply of attention crack, it became easy for Daniel to "swear off the Internet."”

  Our noteCal Newport describes how removing a primary distraction reduces the urge for other distractions.

• Ambiguity of passion

  “The word "passion" is ambiguous, which is why I think it frustrates so many parents and students.”

  Our noteCal discusses why the common advice to follow one's passion can be confusing and frustrating.