The Overhead Tax and the Overhead Spiraling Out of Control

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A world without email gets into the psychology and neuroscience about why all that context shifting is really bad. But I didn't use that term in my new book in slow productivity, which is coming out next year. No. Every obligation brings with it an overhead tax. And when the amount of that taxes get to a certain point, you get the saturation. We tend to keep our workloads right at the precipice of that spiral out of control.

Few professional experiences feel worse than overload. But what really causes this unfortunate state? In this episode, Cal takes a closer look at overload, identifying its main culprits, identifying solutions, and helping listeners with their specific overload-related questions.

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: How does overload actually operate? [3:54]

- Does Cal use an executive assistant? [26:15]

- How do I write an effective communication policy for my team? [36:35]

- Does overhead compound exponentially? [42:50]

- How rare are high expectation/low overhead jobs? [48:05]

- My job has few shallow obligations. What should I do with my free time? [51:41]

Something Interesting: The future of social media is less social [59:39]

Links:

wsj.com/articles/workers-say-its-harder-to-get-things-done-now-heres-why-2a5f1389

nytimes.com/2023/04/19/technology/personaltech/tiktok-twitter-facebook-social.html