Ep. 251: The Efficiency Trap

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Productivity YouTube is filled with breathless videos about optimizing systems and squeezing every ounce of speed out of your common habits. But does all of this efficiency really end up improving the quality of the most important things you produce? In this episode, Cal takes a deeper look at the different ways that productivity systems and tools can help your professional life, separating the boring but effective from the exciting but over-hyped.

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/calnewportmedia

Today’s Deep Question: Does working faster make work better? [3:56]

- Why doesn’t Cal agree with other productivity YouTubers about apps? [27:50]

- How can I be productive if my organization bans third-party tools? [32:36]

- How do top writers keep their research process “efficient”? [37:29]

- How do I stop teaching from devouring all my time? [44:00]

- Is it a problem that I don’t feel overwhelmed? [50:19]

Something Interesting: The Productivity Diet & A Hotel for Book Lovers [1:02:33]

Links:

kickstarter.com/projects/mikevardy/the-productivity-diet-by-mike-vardy

sylviabeachhotel.com/

Thanks to our Sponsors:

expressvpn.com/deep

blinkist.com/deep

policygenius.com

grammarly.com/go

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.