Deep Questions with Cal Newport

We’ve become so used to our phones in our lives that we’ve stopped realizing how arbitrary and unusual the content we’re watching really has become. In this episode, Cal looks closer at what we’re really spending time doing on our phones, then provides step-by-step instructions for healing this relationship. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your quest...

A deep life requires that you encounter and make sense of a large amount of incoming information, from narrow data relevant to a professional project, to broad insights into your purpose. How do you keep track of all of this? In this episode, Cal proposes a minimalist approach aimed at minimizing the friction required to keep tabs on what matters. Below are the questions covered in today's episode...

A key step in cultivating a deep life is reflecting on what matters to you and the best strategies for pursuing it. This, in turn, requires that you engage in the consumption of some manner of self help. It’s here that many people sell themselves short, limiting this intake to short videos and the occasional advice guide. In today’s episode, Cal talks about cultivating a much richer approach to se...

One of the more interesting realities of people who live remarkable lives is that they are often much less busy than the rest of us. In this episode, Cal explores three ideas that help explain why this is true, then explains how we can use these ideas to reduce our own workloads. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s...

Call talks with Ali Abdaal about his journey from doctor to YouTube sensation, and then dives deep into Ali’s new book, “Feel-Good Productivity,” and the possibilities of making accomplishment something enjoyable. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvoVideo from today’s episode:  youtube.com/ca...

What is the correct first step in transforming your life into something deeper? Traditional advice says to start with a clear vision of what you value. Cal has been arguing that it’s instead more important to develop a foundation of discipline. In this episode, he explores a more specific variation of this idea: perhaps the best way to prepare to pursue the big is to first learn how to control the...

During the New Year season it is common to talk about how to be more productive. But what about the downtime between your major pursuits? In this episode, Cal argues for rewiring your brain to crave slow distractions over their faster (often digital) alternatives. The goal here is not to get more done but to transform your life into something slower and more meaningful. Below are the questions cov...

One of the more important abilities to cultivate for the year ahead is comfort learning complicated (and therefore valuable) new things. In this episode, Cal tackles the myths surrounding mastery and presents a new mental model for internalizing non-trivial information. As he elaborates, there is both good news and bad news when it comes to this topic: you can learn almost anything, but you can’t...

The mega-bestselling writer Arthur Brooks is one of the rare individuals to have both lived a carefully cultivated deep life and written a book on the topic (co-authored with Oprah!). In today’s episode, Cal interviews Brooks, going deep into the details of his unusual and inspiring career and extracting proven rules from his experience. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with the...

We talk a lot on this show about getting more done, but what’s the best way to handle the inevitable situation in which you have too much to do? Cal walks through a sensible response to the crazy-making reality of overload. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvoVideo from today’s episod...

One of the most important skills for cultivating a satisfying and high impact life is one we rarely discuss: the art of serious thinking. In this episode, Cal makes the case for serious thinking as an ability to specifically cultivate, then describes five specific practices you can put into place to launch a crash course in developing an effective life of the mind. Below are the questions covered...

We talk a lot on this show about remaining organized in a digital workplace that drowns us with incoming obligations. In this episode, Cal focuses on the key question of how you get *started* toward this goal. What do you do, in other words, on day one of your quest to find depth amidst the shallows.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions...

One of the most common types of messages sent in from listeners of this podcast are self-recriminations about laziness. But what does “laziness” actually mean? In this episode, Cal takes a deeper look at the common terms and sees that it’s often used to describe two unrelated phenomena. He then gives a big idea for overcoming each.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their...

 How you accomplish important goals: The type that can transform your life in remarkable ways? In this episode, Cal breaks down the common mistakes we make in pursuing hard goals and then details the reverse goal setting strategy he has found to work much more consistently.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the...

Based on extensive feedback from listeners and new research, Cal is ready to unveil his new and improved version of the Deep Life Stack, his foundational approach for transforming your life from shallow and distracted to deep and remarkable.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo    Video fr...

A viral video making the rounds recently argues that the key to promoting learning is to deliver education in apps that are equally addictive as social media. Cal takes a closer look at the brain science behind this claim and argues why it is fundamentally impossible to beat attention engineered apps at their own game. We shouldn’t, however, give up hope, as our brain has a completely unrelated mo...

In this episode, Cal reviews what he believes to be the four essential tools for feeling on top of everything you need to do. If you’re missing one of these, you might struggle. If you use all four, you’re probably safe never thinking about “productivity” again. Cal is then joined by friend of the show, New York Times bestselling author David Epstein, to answer listener questions about their perso...

Much of the advice we discuss is about how to improve things right now. But what are the right strategies for ensuring that we’re happy about where we are five or even ten years in the future. How do we ensure, in other words, that we won’t look back at major swaths of our lives with regret? In this episode, Cal discusses three big ideas for playing the long game when it comes to cultivating a dee...

An increasing number of people are suffering from “super distractions” that rise above the level of harmless diversion and instead start to actively hold them back in their life. Some of the common culprits cited include social media, online pornography, and alcohol. In this episode, Cal takes a closer look at what creates super distractions and uses this insight to come up with an effective game...

After an episode in which Cal reviewed ancient wisdom on cultivating a deeper life, he turns his attention back to more recent advice. Focusing on three of the more unconventional but unambiguously effective ideas that he has proposed in his twenty years of professional writing on these topics.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answer...

Stoicism seems to be all the rage at the moment. In what ways is it relevant to our question to live deeply in a distracted world? And in what ways is it not? Cal takes a closer look at Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and discusses his relationship with the philosophy more generally.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! H...

Knowledge workers increasingly describe themselves as exhausted and burnt out. Why is this happening? In this episode, Cal argues that some of the obvious answers aren’t enough to explain the phenomenon. The real answer is both less expected and perhaps more fixable than we expect. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’...

Do we need to move to a ranch in the middle of nowhere to take control of our technology habits? Cal argues that these types of extreme examples are counter-productive, making it seem like real changes are close to impossible. He offers instead an alternative approach based on zero-based budgeting your technological life.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps...

In this episode, Cal visits eight of the most influential books in personal productivity, identifying for each a single idea that ended up most resonating both with his own work and the culture more generally.    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo    Video from today’s episode:  youtube.com...

Change is unavoidable. You can either fear it or learn to master it. In this interview episode, Cal talks with longtime friend of the show, Brad Stulberg, about his new book, “Master of Change.”    Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo    Video from today’s episode:  youtube.com/calnewportmedi...