The single hardest batch admin tasks that most people do on a regular basis is cleaning their email inbox. If you're just going through your inbox one by one, why is that so hard? Because you are switching context from message to message. So shorter blocks of themed admin tasks is way more comfortable than having bigger blocks when you mix together different types of admin tasks. But my fourth bit of advanced time blocking advice is whenever you put a meeting of any significant length or complexity onto your time block plan, add a short block after it for just post-mortem and organizing what you learned.
In celebration of the newly released *second* edition of the Time Block Planner, Cal provides some additional expert tips for getting the most out of a time blocking discipline before answering listener questions on the general topic of time management. He closes by discussing the recent claim that phones are ruining peoples’ ability to watch movies.
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 can I double what I accomplish each week by better controlling my time? [16:54]
- How do I deal with the guilt of missing time blocks? [44:17]
- How does Cal reconcile slow productivity with the urgency of time blocking? [49:22]
- How do I block enough time to keep up with all the internet content I want to read? [52:40]
- How do I stick to my block schedule if no one is forcing me to? [1:02:11]
- How can Cal be both a computer science professor and yet still be so bad at technology? [1:07:00]
Something Interesting: Have Phones Ruined Movies? [1:15:45]
Links:
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/05/barbenheimer-bad-movie-behavior/
Thanks to our Sponsors:
moshlife.com/deep
mintmobile.com/deep
expressvpn.com/deep
80000hours.org/deep
Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.