Skip to content
My Docs

Productivity and Work with Cal Newport

5 Things in Learning Process - Information Sources, Boredom, Attention, Working Memory, Intellectual

Section titled “5 Things in Learning Process - Information Sources, Boredom, Attention, Working Memory, Intellectual”

Source: How To Escape Mediocrity & Get Ahead Of 99% Of People | Cal Newport and my personal notes on examples implementations

My personal summary: Learn like you would before the internet - scheduled learning, books

  1. Limit Sources of Information by Time and High Quality Sources
    • Daily: curated daily news source (1 or few) like New York Times, CBC News Lite Editor’s pick
    • Monthly
      • 2-6 in depth articles from professional journals/magazines like New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal
    • Seasons:
      • Books written by expert researchers
      • Consume media with goal of 1:1 fun/smart ratio of fun media to learning / high quality media
    • Example on reading about artificial intelligence: You will learn about major changes in daily news. Read a magazine article on AI, then a book on an AI topic.
    • See book “Digital minimalism : on living better with less technology”
  2. Be ok with boredom
    • For example reduce phone uses to physical locations and times
  3. Attention
    • Do difficult work or high quality activity, for example use pomodoro technique with longer sessions over time
    • Setup environment for different activities
  4. Strengthen working memory
    • Solve problems with a light activity like walking, ok for mind to wander than return to problem
  5. Practice being intellectual
    • For example, do learning and research processes of higher education
    • Look at secondary sources (context), before studing a primary source to appreciate it
    • Record your learning and knowledge like a taking notes on subjects and add to notes / essays over time

1 Page Productivity System

Section titled “1 Page Productivity System”

Source: The 1-Page Productivity Hack That Will Save Your Sanity | Cal Newport

The system uses 2 basics things in most work environments: 1. Calendar, 2. 1 sheet of paper, for example notebook.

Use the calendar as the main tool to track meetings, work.

Paper

Section titled “Paper”

Write ideas, tasks on paper. If possible, move item to the calendar like time for task in calendar and cross item off.

Calendar

Section titled “Calendar”

Use calendar for time blocks.

Maintenance Mode

Section titled “Maintenance Mode”

If items come like emails/requests, schedule them in calendar for later or say no during maintenance mode. The mode is temporary to allow you to recharge. Maintenance keeps items and calendar current.

Maintaining the paper: when the sheet is full, for each item in the paper:

  • Copy to new paper / sheet or remove it if not needed anymore
  • Move to the calendar or put note in future date

See Also

Section titled “See Also”