Author and productivity expert, Cal Newport, discusses the inefficiency of looking busy at work, offering strategies for better workflow management, the importance of rest, and how AI can enhance productivity. Learn how to slow down but achieve more in your white-collar job.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Overestimate Time
Slow down your work pace by overestimating task completion times.
Add 25-50% to your initial time estimate for projects.
insights INSIGHT
Estimating Cognitive Tasks
Humans struggle to estimate the time needed for abstract intellectual tasks.
We tend to base estimations on best-case scenarios instead of realistic ones.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Convincing Your Boss
Convincing your boss to let you work slower is easier than convincing them to let you do less.
Take advantage of the fact that they also struggle with time estimation.
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The modern employee is overloaded. Alongside various projects, the average office worker has to deal with a huge administrative burden, responding to emails and instant messages, attending meetings, and trying to figure out which of their seemingly endless tasks is the most urgent. Academic, author and productivity expert Cal Newport thinks there’s a better way. In this episode, he explains how white-collar jobs put an emphasis on looking busy, rather than getting stuff done – and how to fight back. Cal also gives practical tips for better managing your workflow, how to tell your boss your work will take twice as long, and why you should go to the cinema – on a workday.
Presented by Isabel Berwick, produced by Mischa Frankl-Duval, mixed by Simon Panayi. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio.
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