so I want to talk to you today about a

piece of my own productivity toolkit

that I don't think I have talked much

about before but it's key to my

operation it's also an exercise I just

went through preparing for the fall

quarter that is just beginning so I

thought this was a great time to talk

about it because I could use examples

for my own life as I just went through

this so what is this tool we're going to

talk about I call it the weekly

template all right to understand the

weekly template we have to briefly zoom

out and remind ourselves about how my

multiscale planning framework works

because weekly templates fit into this

framework all right quick review for the

new listeners in multiscale planning you

start at the time scale of the current

quarter it's like right now you'd be

thinking about the fall and you have a

strategic plan or quarterly plan for

that period of time what are the big

things I'm working on what are the goals

I have for this quarter what do I want

to keep in mind that is important to me

in this quarter this is where you keep

uh yourself oriented towards the big

picture of your ideal lifestyle every

week at the beginning of the week you

look at your quarterly plan to help you

create your weekly plan for the week

ahead right this is where you actually

look at what's going to happen in the

days you're going to spend a lot of time

here with your calendar you're going to

spend a lot of time here with whatever

task capture system you use you're going

to put aside time when you're working on

your weekly plan uh on your calendar for

the week to make progress on important

initiatives to protect that that time

this is where you might also make

adjustments to your current plan you

know what I'm going to cancel this

meeting and move this meeting over here

because that's going to free up a lot of

time here and I need a lot of time to

get this bigger initiative done you then

look at your weekly plan every morning

when you create your daily plan and

there I suggest time blocking give every

minute of your day of job end with a

clear shutdown so in this way your big

picture Vision as caption Rec quarterly

planned is influencing everything you're

doing throughout the day without

requiring you to think about big picture

plan at every moment throughout your day

all right so here's where the weekly

template comes in is a piece of

supporting infrastructure to span from

your quarterly plan to your weekly plan

so the way I want you to think about

your weekly template is a uh a

collection of guidelines that you put in

place at the beginning of a quarter that

you consistently plan when you're

working on your weekly

plan so it's a way to uh at a scale

somewhat larger than each week make sure

that your weeks are going to be viable

to move you where you want to go that's

pretty vague so what I want to do is go

through one two three four um four types

of

things that you would put in a weekly

template and then hopefully this this

mechanism becomes more

clear all right the first element that

might be in a weekly template is

protected time that's where you decide

for this whole quarter there is a

certain time each week that I am

preemptively protecting

so for myself for example in my current

weekly template for the fall I don't

have any teaching in the mornings and my

plan is mornings are for

writing uh at least until 10:30 but

later on days when I can go later that's

part of my weekly template I I've

actually gone through and just protected

that time on my calendar for the entire

fall right so part of my weekly template

is I'm writing in the morning you might

for example have regular protected time

for um I exercise every day at my lunch

hour you might have regular protected

time for you know you're working on a

self-education project to open up new

career Capital opportunities this is

when I do my learning so just uh fixing

in advance this time I'm always using

for um this particular type of activity

that's a big element of a weekly

template now I'm going to give you an

advanced gloss on that tip hard thing

about having a simple rule about this

time is always dedicated to this

activity is that you will have

exceptions let me use myself as an

example here I want to write every

morning and I'm willing to be a pain

about this by the way I'm willing in the

moment to be a pain and say no I'm sorry

I know it would be convenient for

everyone if uh I could meet at 9:30 I

can't do things in the morning like I'm

willing to protect this but there's

there's two things I can't get around

once a month we have a faculty meeting

faculty meetings have always been on

Friday mornings I can't miss the faculty

meetings the other thing I can't get

around is that my kids school when they

have events at school where parents come

in to see kids work the way they do it

and I appreciate this is like let's just

do this first thing in the morning as

soon as school starts so parents can

then go on to their work days without

having missed too much so clearly when

those things happen that will interrupt

my plan of writing first thing in the

morning so I have these two exceptions I

know I can't get around so what I have

is a uh exception handling routine where

I say great when those two things happen

I have a very specific thing I do to

compensate for that lost time so the

faculty mean as soon as that's over I'm

going to this library on campus 90

minutes writing if I have to go in uh to

my kids school I'm going straight from

the school to this coffee shop um

writing right away so I have a a

exception handling routine there as part

of my protected time and my

template all right second common element

of a weekly template daily themes you

start thinking okay for the quarter

ahead maybe I want to dedicate different

days of the week for different types of

activities this is something you want to

figure out um ahead of time for example

you might have meeting days and non-

meeting days you know okay I I uh I want

to keep Mondays free of meeting so I can

really get into the week get my arms

around things make progress on things um

Mondays or non- meeting days that's a

weekly template decision every week you

apply that to your week when you're

making your plan you might say for

example I want to theme what type of

roles I work on on different days so

maybe I need to do meetings every day

day of the week but I'm going to put

meetings on this particular role on

Tuesdays uh and meetings for this

particular role on Wednesdays right

these are regular rules that you keep in

mind when it comes time to actually

schedule uh in my own academic career I

often have for example Class Days versus

non-class days class days are a days

where I'm teaching I treat those days

differently in my weekly template when I

think about what I do there versus

non-class days I like to meet with

students on class days I like to do

Georgetown related administrative work

on class days if I have meetings with an

administrator or an advising Dean or

something like this let's do this on

Class Days let's make the theme of Class

Days the the non-research part of being

a professor and then on a research day

well I'm going to schedule must fewer of

those things so I can have more unbroken

time to actually uh work on thinking

deeply you can also have for example

Fridays as a lighter day or your theme

for Fridays is uh no meetings in the

afternoon finish at 3 um so theming days

that's a weekly template I'm always

doing this on these particular

days the third we on the third element

that could go into a weekly

template regular rules and

limits right so this is not about

particular time but more about

particular rules or limits to the things

that are coming towards you that you're

going to enforce for the particular

quarter so for example a rural example

might be every time a Medan or call is

scheduled on my calendar I am going to

make sure there is 15 minutes at the end

of that calendar event for processing

that meeting or call now this either

means uh I put aside an hour and make it

clear that this call or meeting is for

45 minutes or I'm adding 15 minutes to

the other end of of the hourlong meeting

or call however you want to do it but

this is like a very useful rule it's a

case study it's an example um this way

you can process things discussed in a

meeting get things into your systems

clear your head before you move on right

this is like a a useful type of um role

limits might be things like I'm not

speaking this semester this is very

specific to me as a as a writer but

there's certainly uh quarters where

let's say I'm deep in the trying to

finish a book manuscript or I'm on a

book tour for a book manuscript where I

will just have a simple rule I'm taking

on no speaking gigs right so you just

have a simple rule like that these could

also be

quotas uh I am only doing one podcast a

week that's an actual quota I have in

place right now this fall uh I was on a

book tour in the spring now I'm not on a

book tour I don't want to stop

completely spreading the word about my

new books flow productivity but I also

do not want to be in that five to 10

podcasts a week like I was during book

tour I really need to be focused in

other things now so I have a simple rule

one podcast per week if that week has

its podcast I just don't make it

available having these rules in place

makes it so easy to react to the

incoming uh you might have a similar

rule for example with committees you're

joining okay I'm just going to do um two

committees that's it I have to choose

two committees I'm going to be on

there's only five peer review papers I'm

going to do U maybe there's a particular

type of thing you get pulled into in

your company and you say I'm not going

to do that more than once a month once

I've done it once for a month I'll say

no not till the next month so rules and

limits are a part of a weekly template

finally autopilot

scheduling looking at things that you

know occur regularly or will Ur

regularly throughout the quarter and say

when do I want to do them I just want to

figure that out in advance I don't want

to be each week when I sit down to do my

weekly planning asking

myself when am I going to find time for

this I'm going to make that decision at

the beginning of the quarter Friday

afternoons is when I do this type of

work the the online class I'm taking

that's first thing in the morning Monday

and Wednesday so I don't even I don't

want to have to think about it that's

just when it is that's just when I do it

hey it's Cal I wanted to interrupt

briefly to say that if you're enjoying

this video then you need to check out my

new book slow productivity the Lost

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this is like the Bible for most of the

ideas we talk about here in these videos

you can get a free excerpt at Cal

newport.com

slow I know you're going to like it

check it out now let's get back to the

video one of the more interesting things

and one of the more effective things you

can add as part of your autop piloting

for your weekly schedule is office

hours all right uh when do I want to

regularly have time to handle short

things are going to require back and

forth interaction and get it out of my

inbox I give you an example of that from

today I won't get too specific it's like

a Georgetown administrative example um

someone wrote me from the Department

like there's like a couple things none

of it that complicated it had to do with

like class registration and there this

class is too full this one might not be

enough people like it was

um nothing super complicated but it was

it was like a little ambiguous like well

so what how can I be useful here what's

really the issue and my first instinct

was let me just send back an email now

so I can get this out of my inbox and

that's just going to be kind of

clarifying we'll kind of go back and

forth and figure this out I said no no

no no no we could do this in 45 seconds

of talking so I said let's just talk it

you know we were going to see each other

later took 45 seconds like so what do

you mean by this oh okay do you need

this from me no what about that great oh

one exception great okay good 45 seconds

we were done office hours allows you to

get that uh get that compression on a

regular basis so so time you can push

in interactions are going to require

more than like one message back and

response right so just autop piloting

where is stuff uh where is the regular

stuff actually going to happen there's

clearly some overlap between autop

piloting and time protection time

protection is more like my mornings are

for writing the exact details of that

might depend on the day

right time protection might be uh Friday

afternoons I go to the The Cabin in the

Woods and um just do brainstorming right

autopilot is more like this hour on this

day is when I prep my course um this is

when I go through my batch so it's much

more like specific time blocks that you

know are going to happen on a regular

basis so there's some overlap there um

anyway so this these type of things go

into a weekly template so your weekly

template I have a fall weekly template

just goes in your quarterly plan is

right there on the top like here's my

general template I want to follow each

week when I'm scheduling my week think

about what's in the template it really

does make a

difference because you don't have to go

through all of the thought processes

required to figure out these elements of

your weekly template you don't have to

go through those from scratch each

week some weeks when you're creating

your weekly plan you're have a good cup

of coffee you got a good night's sleep

you're really like let's I'm thinking

about this I'm Innovative other times

like oh my God I'm just trying to figure

out roughly how I want to get things

done um so you want the template there

to to support you it's it's like your I

call it a template because you think of

it as like here's my template for the

ideal week would have these elements I'm

R in the morning I'm not doing too many

of these These are meeting days these

are non- meeting days like it's the it

gives you the recipe or the template for

what you think for that quarter is Going

to Be an Effective week quarter is the

right time frame to work on this uh

because things change like what's

relevant for me in the fall will be

different than what's relevant to me in

the winter and that's true for a lot of

other period people as well so you're

you're your quarterly plan check is like

the right time scale in which to look at

these temp plates two you're going to

have to adjust it a bunch you get super

ambitious I'm going to every afternoon

you know work in the woods it turns out

like that almost never works there's

like all these little things I can't

avoid that keeps messing up that plan I

need to adjust this weekly template

that's great adjust as needed finally at

the end of a

quarter these are a good focuser for

reflection if you think back what about

these weekly templates that I like what

about them frustrated me like I really

wanted to do this and I just could not

make that work gives you I think deeper

insight about what's working and not

working in your job much deeper Insight

than just like a typical day you get

busy days you can have non- busy days

there could be a deadline where you're

overwhelmed and other times you're bored

but when you think back about your lower

time scale your larger time scale weekly

template adjustments I think you get a

deeper insight about what you're looking

for in your working life what's working

and what's not

you love the like my mornings were for

writing maybe this was like super

effective now you're having some insight

of like you know what maybe I'm well

suited for like a a a more self-paced

more like what matters is what you

produce type job maybe you're really

frustrated that you couldn't make

something like that work and it's

telling you about you know the meeting

pace of my job is really incompatible

that's what I have to find a way to

change then might be changing my role

and changing my expectations I think

there's great Insight that comes from

your grappling with your vision of the

ideal week it kind of lives in this nice

sweet spot between the

idiosyncratic difficulties of a

particular day and the very aspirational

big picture visions of like where do I

want to be 5 years from now it kind of

gets at more what's happening what's not

happening it's getting the trends of

your job not individual days but also

not the two area of images so it's the

fall now figure out your weekly template

just to summarize again the elements

that might go into that regularly

protected time themes for various days

rules and limits and autopilot

scheduling get one of these figured out

for your your fall ahead it's it's

really going you're going to feel like

your weeks are much better much less

exhausting much more uh productive in

the sense of making progress on the

things you care about you're going to be

less frustrated uh it really can make

you feel like it has a different job

versus the alternative of just like now

I'm facing this week it's full of all

this stuff I guess this seems fine let's

just go day-to-day and time block and

make the most of it right it is going to

feel like an a completely different job

even though you haven't actually

officially changed anything about your

role so give your weekly template a

try I have uh one specific question and

then a broader one I guess I'll go with

a specific one first when you start your

writing is it usually around

8:30 um usually it's

8:30 sometimes it's earlier so ideally

two hours ideally two hours so it if I

know I'm ending on the earlier side I

might start early earlier right so we

leave uh we leave the house to walk the

kids to the bus stop at 7:30 and and

typically my wife and I both walked into

the bus stop together because we like to

walk back it's like a time to catch up

um but if she has something early then

I'll just take them if I have something

like if I know I have an 11 or a 10:30

meeting I might just bow out the walking

that day and then I could start my

writing right at 7:30 and get that extra

hour mhm so we it it just it just sort

of depends on what's going on and

ideally six days a week or five days a

week um five days a week six days is

needed okay right Sunday session is

needed uh occasionally evening sessions

but I won't get too much into that now

because I think we have a question yeah

so so we'll get into that as well um I

don't make right now I'm trying at least

not making the six day regular yeah I

would like not to have to do it on the

sixth day so I'm I'm going to see if

this metronome regular Relentless every

single morning you're making progress

like I have a sense that's going to add

up to you know slow productivity since

that will keep me on Pace well that's

what you do when you wrote slow

productivity right yeah I I mean I I

think I

was thinking about using Sundays more oh

okay right but then I I helped start at

my kids school a robotics team and we we

meet on Sunday mornings so like that

kind of took out the time I was very

that's I I would often write on Sunday

mornings um that ate up that time so

then last year like I wasn't writing as

much on Sundays as as I usually do do

and so now I'm going to kind of see how

that goes make that more permanent and

then my broad question is does a

template look more like a calendar in

your week of plan is it more like a

bulleted list it's a bulleted list yeah

so so my fall template I call it um it's

categories and bullet points okay yeah

so it's like here are my elements of uh

here are the elements I think I used a

wording of like here's my the elements

of my ideal week for this quarter I mean

I use the word semester because I'm a

professor but same idea yeah and just

put it right at the top of

uh your quarterly plan because you're

looking at that every week and that's

exactly when you want to remind yourself

of of your of your

template all right cool so we got a

bunch of questions that are kind of

similarly tactical again we're following

our theme Here of back to back to school

back to work like let's get our systems

tuned up but before we get to the next

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deep questions speaking of questions

Jesse let's move on to our

questions all right who do we have first

hi first question is from Aaron in your

podcast with Andrew huberman you

mentioned the importance of a fixed

schedule and that you usually like to

stop working around 5:30 you also

mentioned that you occasionally have a

90-minute writing session in the evening

when you need to get something written

on deadline is that something you time

Block in your day ahead of time or is it

the result of overflow work just not

getting done during the day do you wait

until after it's over to do your

shutdown routine all right Aon good

questions um I'm actually these days in

my weekly uh my weekly template um I

typically aim actually now I'm finishing

below before

5:30 uh because I'm using exercise as my

transition so after I do my shutdown

routine I'm I'm using exercise almost

every day as my transition from uh work

to non work I find that really helps to

have like a a difficult physical strain

help helps reset your body

physiologically not to mention your

brain psychologically for life outside

of work um these workouts I'm doing

though can require I know 45 50 minutes

so um I'm ending work a little earlier

now I I I like to get going in the in

the exercise when possible before five

so I'm ending a little earlier all right

so let's get to the the meat of your

question I do sometimes ride in the

evening um okay so how does that fit

within my daily time block plan um it's

after the

shutdown right because the shutdown

routine is where you're closing all the

open Loops of your day you're reviewing

your plan for the week ahead you're

convincing yourself that it is fine to

stop working you're not forgetting

anything there's nothing that there's

urgent that you need to deal with before

the next day and then you either check

your shutdown complete checkbox in like

my time block planner or you have some

sort of Catchphrase you say to signal to

yourself I have reviewed everything I'm

comfortable shutting down we don't have

to think about work again that is still

worth doing at the end of your workday

because an evening writing session

doesn't require you to have all those

open Loops open an evening writing

session is not checking your email it's

not planning it's not working on

projects it's not thinking ahead it's

just a singular activity I'm just

sitting here and trying to write so I do

my normal shutdown the evening writing

is like something separate then right um

I don't time block it because I don't

time block after shutdown I don't time

block my my non-work time I just note

when I do a shutdown for the day I I in

my time block planner I just right

evening I kind of like bullet point

below it like roughly what I remember I

want to try to get done that evening I

don't time block it so I just know like

okay I'm going to do an evening time

writing block and I'll usually

coordinate them with my wife and be like

okay so here's if this works like here's

what I'm going to do um I'll I'll go to

my office or head over to the coffee

shop and for like an hour and here's

what I'm going to do it and so it's

roughly time blocked in the sense I know

I work out with her when I'm going to do

it but I don't actually draw time blocks

because I don't actually do time

blocking in any formal Sense on weekends

or after shut Downs um for me evening

writing blocks are not

overflow right I don't like this idea

that if like you don't finish your plan

just keep working you know that's that

means your plan was probably too

ambitious or you weren't being

sufficiently focused during your day I

don't like using evenings for overflow

if at all possible I typically use

evening writing sessions because I'm

trying to uh break a complicated story

so this will typically happen with my

New Yorker writing those are hard

articles to get into because the the

writing caliber is hard right the the

thinking has to be super sharp but the

the writing just the craft has to be

very high um it's a high bar of Entry

sometimes to get into them so sometimes

I like to sort of make a running start

at them by riding in a new location at a

new time so like I'm going to bevco like

in the that's our coffee shop going in

the evening and um like coming at this

in like a new environment to try to like

harness some inspiration just to kind of

break into the piece and then like once

a piece is going then it's more

workmanlike and you can just schedule it

so typically that's what I'm doing with

my afternoon writing sessions if I am

behind on a a deadline the thing I'll

usually uh aim for is like a long a long

weekend writing session that's more like

okay I need to throw five hours at this

thing and um so maybe I'm going to stay

home and work on this while like the

family's doing something else or we'll

go to like my in-law's house and they

have like a out building on their

property sometimes I'm like great I will

go out there and write while uh you know

you visit with your parents Etc so

that's that's the way I think about that

but good question all right what do we

got next next question is from Mark I'm

a new high school teacher I also play in

a successful band so I currently have

two sources of income my passion is to

start my own business what is the best

approach for me to leverage my current

career Capital to become an

entrepreneur well Mark I'm suspicious of

your use of the word passion here like

when someone says my passion is to start

my own business what that really means

is I like the idea of starting my own

business and I'm going to call it my

passion so that like uh you have to go

along with it but there you're not wired

this is my book so good they can't

ignore you you don't have some genetic

predisposition for a particular job that

exists in the 21st century like

freelance knowledge economy when you say

it's my passion you're just saying I'm

interested in starting a business okay

I'm glad you're interested in that that

by itself doesn't mean much to me right

so I don't hear the word passion and

have

that that that that sort of reaction of

uh career genu flection oh my God you

got to do that like we got to make that

work like the word's kind of meaningless

to me so what should we do lifestyle

Centric

planning okay we need to have this

vision of your ideal lifestyle in a few

years and then 10 years or more out like

we we'll work on those two time frames

this Vision has to be holistic it has to

capture all the different areas of your

life like what type of place you're

living in what's the rhythm of your day

who are you around like what what do you

smell what do you taste what do you see

what do you hear you you want to build

this aspirational vision of sort of like

the rhythms and realities of your day

like what is it that you're trying to

get towards and then we can assess

career Capital you have or career

Capital that you could obtain and see

how it would fit into that lifestyle

Vision maybe entrepreneurship works well

in here right you're like oh you know

what if I do this I could I could see a

path towards this lifestyle I have that

like the teaching is not going to get

there this is more constrained or or

whatever fine it could play a role in

that but I want you working backwards

from an ideal lifestyle not working

forwards from something that you've just

labeled a passion because that is really

that's rough and it's crude and it's

often um working off of like a houseon

incomplete vision of like what this

thing really means I want you working

backwards from a lifestyle that's how

you do a real career Capital analysis is

you you you know exactly what you want

to invest that career capital in and now

you're saying can I get enough career

capital I mean you're being much more

you're being much more systematic about

this when you're doing lifestyle Centric

planning in your situation

Mark um a big thing I want you to do is

be very realistic about finances

right so figure out okay for this Vision

I

have like how much does it cost like how

much am I how much am I spending like

what would the spend be there what would

get real numbers here right I mean this

is really empowering for people I'm sort

of thinking about this chapter from my

deep Life Book I'm working on now that

getting concrete numbers as well as this

sense of like complete understanding

control over your money right now and

these concrete evidence-based numbers

for well if I lived here it would cost

this much and I would need this much and

and here's how much I can earn doing

this and that um working with real

numbers is important because then you

can start saying for example okay if I

wanted a small business to support me

because then I could be more flexible

and live this lifestyle where I'm in the

woods all the time or whatever it is now

you have numbers and now you could say

okay so I need a small business to

generate this much money and now you can

be like okay is that reasonable like

who's making that much money in these

small businesses and why and then you

can start doing uh an idea that that I

talk about and so good they can't you

called using money as a neutral

indicator of value start seeing on the

side okay well well how much money am I

making money now I'm selling this

product am I making money am I selling

it right is is no one buying it okay

this a problem oh people are buying it

that means there's some value here so I

could imagine I would have to 3x this

for this plan so you're getting really

detailed about uh the financial

realities all of it working backwards

from an ideal lifestyle Vision all right

so I I love hearing people talk about uh

use the phrase lifestyle or ideal

lifestyle when thinking about their

careers I get nervous when I hear them

say

passion passion just means I wna and I

don't want you to say anything about it

but I'm not I'm not convinced by that so

you know look uh some sort of

entrepreneurial push here might be a big

part of achieving your vision that does

give you lots of autonomy lifestyle you

know jobs are a way of scaling up income

that separate income from time there's a

lot of cool options there but it's also

really hard so you want to get realistic

about that also very cool that you play

in a band I think that uh I love that

you know Derek cers so IAL about him in

that book so good they can't ignore you

he talks about leaving his job to be a

musician full-time and then leaving his

job as a musician to run a small

business so that's my homework for you

mark read so good they can't ignore you

find in particular that chapter about

using money as a neutal indicator of

value read Derek cers story because he

was uh you know he made exactly these

decisions um and I'll give you the

tldr he left his job to be a full-time

musician once he was making enough money

already being a musician on the side to

cover his expenses he stopped his

performing to work on his company

full-time once his company was making

him enough money on the side that he

could live off of those expenses so he

he let the money not his sense of what

would be cool be the indicator of when

he was ready to make a jump he then sold

that company for like 20 something

million dollars so worked out well

interesting guy all right who do we got

next next question is from Susan I have

academic writing that needs to be done

for my career I also have creating

writing projects whenever I try to

schedule my creative writing the

academic writing takes precedence and I

up telling myself that I'll fit the

creative writing stuff in whenever I

find extra time I do find extra time but

never enough to make real progress I

find time blocking for my creative slf

fun projects as stressful this is where

your weekly template is going to be

useful because you need to probably um

pre protect this time like you you got

to have it figured out this is when I do

academic writing and I have enough time

put aside to feel very comfortable about

my academic writing and that's going to

be a lot of

time and then you're going to say I'm

going to put aside and regularly

schedule my time for my fund writing and

it's going to be in a different place

and that's where this time is put aside

and that's when I work on my fund

writing and there will be less of that

because it's not your full job right now

what you should not do is what you're

doing now which is approaching

day and saying okay I'm going to time

block my day um do I have time here what

should I do next should I do creative

writing should I do academic writing oh

my God I don't think I've done enough

academic writing I and once I finish my

academic writing I'm busy I don't have

time for my creative writing this time

has to be protected way in advance and

you got to have rituals around it and

it's got to be here's where I go to do

this writing and it's like clockwork and

I feel I feel bad if I ever miss it it

makes me feel like something's

incomplete in my life and probably it's

going to be like first thing in the

morning you're doing academic writing

and then two evenings and one weekend

day a week you have these like late

afternoon evening sessions at a coffee

shop or you do your creative writing

like you got to figure out how to make

this regular and ritualized but protect

that time and if you don't have that if

you're like okay but I don't have enough

time when I try to do that like I can't

I don't have for example enough time to

regularly work on my academic writing

and my creative writing when you try to

figure out that time and you can't

there's just not enough consistently

free time in your schedule for that to

happen well now you're confronting

reality what we call Facing the

productivity Dragon oh I'm not fooling

myself my schedule doesn't have enough

time to do both okay something has to

change either I have to put off the

creative writing uh until I have like a

sabatical to just do that or I have to

loosen something else on my schedule so

I get the weekly template this this sort

of thinking about like when this quarter

do I want to work most weeks on academic

writing when this quarter am I going to

work most weeks on creative writing

forces you to confront

the reality of your workload at a scale

that tells you something deep about your

your job on a daily scale doesn't tell

you much you could no matter what your

job is you can have a busy day but on

this the scale of like I'm trying to

find a consistent schedule to do this

writing when you fail to do that that's

telling you something that is

consistently true about your job it's a

very useful scale to interrogate what's

working and what's not working um so

that's what I would do I you should

never be thinking in my Ideal World you

never will be thinking on a typical day

should I do this writing today or when

should I do this writing today that

answer should have been long since

established and recorded and it's like

autopilot at this

point all right who do we got next next

question is from Ari at my current job

I'm struggling to fit in deep work

sessions I have calls starting at 7:30

a.m. which can stretch till 12:00 p.m.

I've tried shifting my deep work

sessions to after lunch but been unable

because I'm already

exhausted well I can already tell this

is like a time time zone thing probably

if he's starting at 7:30 a.m. he's

probably like West Coast maybe working

with East Coasters um so Ari you're

going to have to lean heavily into uh

location and rituals to make afternoon

deep work more effective for you it is

hard for a lot of people I have a hard

time with it most people here's a

reality most people if you say hey first

thing in the day

get some coffee and work deeply can do

it like okay yeah like I I don't have

too much other stuff in my head from

work like we're just getting started so

my my cognitive context is focused my

attention residue is minimal I have

energy in the morning I'm having my

first caffeine of the day like great

let's do deep work in the morning most

people can just do that without too much

support the afternoon's a different

story and I include myself in this if I

just like after we record this podcast

Like Jesse if I just after this podcast

you're like you know what I think I'm

going to go do some right and just took

out my computer that would be difficult

mhm uh I would need ritual and location

built around getting good deep work

occurring you know in the afternoon so

Ari It's Not Unusual that that's the

case for you as well all right so what

might this mean uh I have a bunch of

ideas for this uh first of all I would

suggest a halfday shutdown routine after

your calls end at noon so give yourself

a half hours to close up all of the open

Loops that were created by these calls

make sure the stuff that needs to be on

your calendar is on your calendar the

stuff that needs to go into your C

capture system is in your task

management capture systems the

follow-ups are happening that there's

not loose ends from these calls that are

still floating around so you really want

to sort of shut those things down take

the next step schedule when things are

going to happen get that out of your

head any deep work attempt with a bunch

of open Loops from the morning still

open is going to be otherwise uh very

difficult um I would then suggest having

a uh a physical

Interruption so this could be like going

on a long walk on a set route our our

canonical example here is Darwin that is

a state uh outside of London built the

the sandwalk a very specific sandline

path that went through the most scenic

parts of his property and he would do a

set number of circuits on that path to

prepare himself for writing so it could

be this I'm I'm walking doing this

particular walk maybe to a coffee shop

and back or if you live near the woods

on a particular Wooded Trail exercise I

become a big believer in this if you

have some schedule here go do some Hard

Exercise midday it really does reset

your energy levels and your brain now

you're ready to switch over to try deep

work keep the Deep work period

reasonable most days it is

hard to be on calls from 7:30 to 12 like

you are using a lot of energy you cannot

on a regular basis then say great I'll

do 12:30 to 5:30 you know writing the

Great American novel you've used a lot

of energy so let's go with the slow

productivity principle here of slow but

steady deep work done really well

every single day reasonable amount of

time that will add up to something good

and and maybe it takes a little bit

longer to add up to something good but

my schedule will be if I keep my

schedule sustainable I can keep doing

this and over time I'm going to produce

lots of cool

stuff consider chemical interruptions as

well so I get this special cup of coffee

or I make my mon tea or like something

you do right at the beginning of the

afternoon deep work session have a

location Interruption go somewhere

different than where you did your calls

to do work I think this is worth

potentially even spending non-trivial

money and having uh notable

eccentricities in your day it really

makes a big difference to say I'm going

to this shed I'm going to this Library

um going to this like local University I

am going to my attic deep work room I'm

going to the the cabin I built in the

woods whatever it is change locations

for this deep work I've done I've shut

down I've gone for a walk I've made my

special cup of tea and now I'm going to

the Deep work only location and then

have a fixed amount of time you're

working as I said this is probably not

going to be too long most days you

should be happy with 90 minutes to two

hours that's probably all the energy you

have

left if this seems insufficient choose

one day at first were you end your calls

earlier just when these calls are being

set up you're like on this day I'm

actually only available till 11: or

10:30 right people like whatever you're

just clear about it like you're

available we're always doing calls

there's one day where like you're not

available at the for a couple hours at

the end so we just work around it um you

can do that one day a week maybe two and

have a longer deep work session but

don't try to be a hero here your brain

can only do so much work especially when

is you have this kind of really mixed up

demanding multi-roll knowledge work type

of things going on all right do those

things regular afternoon deep work as

possible just trust that 90 minutes to

two hours 5 days a week four weeks a

month will produce really good stuff

even if it's not as fast as you would

like to go it's better that you have a

sustainable Pace you can slowly move on

that over time gets you to the Finish

Line than it is that in the short term

you're trying to to go heroic um the

Clos the loop here when you're done with

this deep work session then have like

your final end of the day session where

you do your real shutdown this is where

you can have like okay I have admin

tasks I need to do I would do that after

the Deep work non-trivial admin tasks

like I got to fill out this form it's

going to take 20 minutes you have your

hour and 90 minutes at the end of the

deep workk session to just um shut down

your day I would leave that type of

stuff the non-trivial admin to the other

end of deep work if possible so that you

can get to it before it's too late um

again adjust as

needed different people have different

preferences different rhythms work

better but that's probably how I would

do it all right Jesse what do we got

next our next questions our Corner oo

slow productivity Corner uh you've

missed me saying this for the last two

weeks but we like to have one question a

week that's relevant to my new book slow

productivity the uh the art with the

Lost Art of accomplishment I haven't

said in a while Jesse the Lost Art of

accomplishment without overload uh it

really is like a a source book to God

75% of the stuff we talked about on the

show if you haven't read slow

productivity yet uh you got to go get it

just go get it read it recommend it

because we talk about the book so often

on the show anyways here's our slow

productivity question Corner slow

productivity Corner question of the week

[Music]

hi the question comes from fendra I got

laid off recently and currently have a

part-time job I spend about four to five

hours on that to keep up with the bills

and rent I have an interview with a big

tech company coming up in a few weeks

and I need to prepare is there a way to

use the principles of slow productivity

to strike a balance between my part-time

job and interview

prep well let's go back to the principle

we mentioned for Ari uh a key idea from

slow productivity which is trusting slow

but

steady so doing a reasonable amount of

work on a regular basis trusting that

can get you where you need to go this is

like one of the most important heris

from the slow productivity mindset is

getting out of the idea of uh how busy

or exhausted I am today is what matters

how overloaded I am is what matters and

instead saying I want to produce at the

bigger scale stuff I'm proud of how can

I do that in a way that's sustainable

that's compatible with uh a richer life

and it's not going to make me completely

fatigued slow but steady is the way it's

like how I write books I write a little

bit most days I let it add up over a

year right slow but steady I want to

drill in on this a little bit though

right because uh The Details Matter here

for you because you don't have a ton of

time you have a few weeks so uh you

can't get this wrong you don't have the

ability I'm looking at this you're

working four to five hours a day you

don't have the ability to just say I'm

going to take a week and just do nothing

but prepare for the interview I mean

it's not a bad idea I guess if you could

take time off your part-time job but

it's a part-time job so you probably

can't um but you don't have a lot of

room for error here if like you're slow

but steady if you get off to if it's not

very effective you're in trouble you

won't be prepared for this interview you

don't have a lot of time to course

correct so let me dive a little bit

deeper um another way to say slow but

steady is Relentless and

deliberate now I use this more specific

terms to capture the following two

important elements to doing the strategy

properly in your in your situation when

I say Relentless like it really has to

be every

day a lot of people have uh a loose

definition of what it means to do

something

regularly all right we can convince

ourselves yeah man I'm I'm practicing my

guitar in a regular basis but if you

actually went through and measured it

you're like well I only really played

twice this week and the first time you

know I was just sort of like jamming

along to a song and really if I do the

math I had about 15 minutes of actual

prce practicing in that week but in your

mind like I picked it up on several

occasions right we we're easily diluted

we can easily dilute ourselves into

thinking we're doing something all the

time um so you have to defeat that by

being relentless no no I do this every

single day here's the time I do it tired

or not tired you know whatever it takes

like this is I do it every single day so

you have to be relentless otherwise

you're not going to have enough results

to aggregate the second term I

introduced there was deliberate and I'm

I'm drawing here from the phrase

deliberate practice right our our best

framework for understanding how people

get good at complex activities it's

attributed to the late Anders Ericson

deliberate practice says okay if you

want to get better at something you have

to stretch yourself past where you're

comfortable in a very specific targeted

way what is the thing that I need to do

better let me design an activity to do

right now that does nothing but push me

on that so that I I'm stretching my

ability to do that piece this is

particularly important for learning

which is what you're trying to do and

preparing for the interviews you cannot

waste any of these sessions they have to

be designed to deliberately improve you

exactly in the areas you need to improve

do not waste an hour interview prep

session kind of reading stuff on Reddit

you need to actually like be on the leak

code website um doing the exercises

right now of a type that you're like not

quite comfortable with giving it your

full attention trying to figure out how

to make them work if you don't have that

sense of cognitive discomfort or stretch

you're wasting the

time so relentless and deliberate every

single day not wasting minute of those

blocks now now like the blocks don't

have to be that long it could be 45

minutes to an hour a day five days a

week it's not that much time and it

spread out over a few weeks you will get

really really good and I think this is

actually going to be long-term a great

experience for you because after you

nail this interview which you will if

you're Relentless and deliberate and you

get this other job and now you have uh

senior it's a senior development job so

you have this you know kind of big

flashy knowledge work job you remember

how this went and you will start

thinking what are all of the other

things in my job now that I have this

big new fancy job where if I mastered

this it would be really useful it would

give me a huge leg up it'd be really

impressive it would open up more options

and you will have this confidence of I

can learn that without having to make

some major change to my schedule that if

I just devote 45 minutes a day and maybe

I just do this over lunch hour 5 days a

week and I'm deliberate in terms of what

I do in that time there's there's no uh

limit to what I can start picking up and

now quarter after quarter you're

building up all these skills you've

mastered this new API you've mastered

this new programming language and like

this stuff is going to add up your

career capital is going to pile you're

going to start making some Investments

with that capital and your life is going

to get somewhere really cool so I mean

this is a great General tip if you're

Relentless and deliberate a uh small

amount of time each

day can add up to something that I think

is very impressive and that is a key

slow productivity principle one I think

that deserves hearing the slow

productivity Corner Music one more

[Music]

time all right do we have a call Jesse

we do here we

go hello Cal I've resonated a lot on the

topic of

seasonality I'm a writer and a producer

for a football podcast so February

through July looks very different in my

line of work than August through January

and I know for a lot of people that's

similar in the academic world in the off

season I found so much joy scheduling

deep work hours in the morning spending

time with my family implementing

shutdown rituals and ultimately giving

myself space to think and right it was

it was a joy I gave myself some buffer

over the last month but how do you

protect yourself in season from being

reactionary and ultimately being a mile

wide but only one inch deep thanks guys

all right well thanks Kyle Kyle has a

football podcast is this Kyle Shanahan

is that I don't like Kyle Shannon has

the time for a football podcast he

probably goes on a podcast like he's not

spending six months a year writing just

taking like deep work time in the

morning he probably does a lot of deep

work but it's a lot of like film

breakdown stuff I have I've dealt with a

non-trivial number of uh professional

sports franchises they care about deep

work but uh I will tell you the busiest

people I've met have been Prof Sports

GMS really yeah those are because they

the GMS in particular

have all the concerns of like the

product on the court or the field but

also like uh management concerns

Staffing concerns budget concerns you

know it's those are crazy jobs I'm

saying Mike Rizzo I feel your pain and

I'm still waiting for my invite to come

teach deep work principles to to all

those uh the Hope Row to those young

players all right Kyle let's get into

this um so look I'm in the same place oh

man I love my Summers I love my summer

schedule my summer schedule just ended

you know my my my wonderful summer

schedule where I write a half day every

day I only have any scheduled

appointments or meetings on my calendars

Tuesday through Thursday afternoons and

oh man those schedules are fantastic uh

it's painful to go back you got to make

sure though that you have just as much

of a plan for your busy Seasons as you

do for your easy Seasons it's fun and

easy to make a plan for the easy Seasons

because you have a lot of time and not a

lot to do and like you could just I want

to write all day I all my meetings only

on Tuesdays like everything's possible

it's a pleasure to build those plans

it's way more stressful in the busy

season because like your plans don't

work like I can't do this and I can't

write every morning and then and I have

to do this and this and you see your

schedule fall apart and it can be really

stressful but you got to stick with it

and in particular what should you be

what what's probably missing from your

Brew here is what we talked about in the

Deep dive a weekly template like that's

probably what's going to help you here

if you're already doing you know

multiscale planning Etc right you're not

running around just completely reactive

you you have capture systems you're

doing multiscale planning your weekly

templates are you're going to make uh

your stand to gain back some autonomy

over your time all right okay we got to

do this but here's the days we record

the podcast I'm treating those

differently than days we don't um I'm

consolidating all these meetings like

one big thing we're doing on Thursdays

I'm taking these two things off my plate

because they're destroying my schedule

and they're getting in the way like this

is where the weekly template is where

you're able to exert autonomy I think

it's really important I think that

aspect of this is really important

because what happens is you can be

organized but also feel out of control

and what I mean by that is you know we

talk about all the time on this show

contrary to the uh the interpretation of

the anti-product crowd that that think

that any interest in being organized is

all about just being co-opted by late

stage capitalism coer of influences like

we say no no no the be

nonorganized to not have your work

captured in in uh context capture

systems to be doing no planning on your

time to be just sort of like stumbling

through your days that's what puts you

at the mercy of other forces it's going

to make you miserable you're going to

work harder than you you you want to

work it's everything's going to be worse

like you the the step from completely

disorganized to organize is a big one

but it's not the full step this gets to

Kyle's issue I think because you can be

completely organized I know what's on my

plate I plan my time carefully I get the

most out of my time I have shut down

routines I don't let my work follow me

home like you be doing all the things

and be really upset because you feel

like your schedule's not yours you're

scheduling your time really well but

mainly what you're doing is just

juggling all the balls that people are

chucking at you you're preventing them

from falling but it's way too many balls

to be juggling that's where the weekly

template this is where you can really

gain some autonomy of your schedule you

begin saying I'm not just going to say

my goal is to juggle every ball that's

thrown at me it's going to say I only

take two balls this day and this day is

three and this day I'm not juggling at

all it's where you begin to get some

autonomy back over your schedule it's

where you step from being organized to

also being somewhat in control over what

these organized days feel like so Kyle

it's a pain after a light season to make

a busy season work because it's so much

harder but it's worth doing and let the

weekly template maybe be the main tool

that you're adding to your toolkit this

this particular busy season and and I

think that'll do uh I think that'll do

much

better all right we got a case study

here this where people ride in to talk

about their experience putting the type

of things we talk about on this show

into practice in their real lives uh if

you have a case study to share you can

just email it directly to Jesse atal

newport.com he's organizing those all

right today's case study comes from

Colton Colton says I have been a devout

Newport tonian since high school and I

followed your advice on time block

planning autopilot schedules and deep

work throughout College once I began my

service as a Peace Corp volunteer in

Zambia however I encountered a lot of

problems transitioning from my kushy

college life and into my first real job

and the harsh living conditions of rural

Zambia was brutal I have no electricity

running water toilets or

stoves it took a year for me to figure

out how to get things in this part of

the world surprisingly get things done

in this part of the world surprisingly

most of your advice about knowledge work

applies to my work as a Peace Corp

volunteer each morning I read over my

Google Calendar and quarterly goal

project list and use them to build a

Time pled plan for the day I managed my

curring task with an autopilot schedule

that blocks off specific times each

morning to do my research and writing at

work for a remote cancer lab back in the

US I handle my non-recurring task with a

project list that I can pull from each

morning because I work on one task at a

time without any distractions I can

finish all of my work by 1 p.m. and

still accomplish a ton of projects in my

Village like building a medical waste

incinerator for my local clinic and

Publishing a few papers in medical

journals well Colton I appreciate the

case study and I appreciate your use of

the word newort coronian which I uh I

really hope to spread let me highlight

something from this case study that I

think is

important I mentioned this in the call

as well there is this sense out there

that to care about personal productivity

again is somehow a negative or maybe

like a a necessary evil of certain like

super high-powered like corporate High

pain jobs but but for the most part it's

just internalized capitalism in its

worst sort of form and it's something

that those of us who are um more uh

socially conscious and self-aware we

want to dirty ourselves with this belies

that belief this is literally someone in

the Peace Corps in Zambia building

medical incinerators and working on

cancer research being organized makes

that possible being organized means he

can uh with complete focus and presence

starting at 1 P.M every day just be

working in that Village while also still

making progress in the morning on the

other things it's making his ability to

be effective even under really

circumstances possible this is what I

like to see personal productivity skills

deployed towards it allows me to

deploy the image of the ideal life that

I have in

mind he doesn't use the word here

optimize he doesn't use the word here

maximize output he does not use the word

here hustle he does not use the the word

here like production machine no he has a

vision of what would be a sustainable

feeling meaningful vision for my life

and and he realized if he cannot control

the incoming streams of what needs to be

done and information and task and

request in his life if he can't handle

that if he has no control over his time

he can't get to that Vision those

Visions don't have to be heartless those

Visions don't have to be mechanistic it

doesn't have to be one of Blake's Mills

rendered in flesh in an in in the

personal uh individual it doesn't have

to be Gordon gecko right it's more

neutral than that you control yourself

you can control your life what you do

with your life is up to you and most

people actually want to do more

interesting things than just try to

optimize or maximize output so Colton I

love it it's a great case study we're

productive so that we can produce our

ideal lives not the highest possible

production rate

possible all right so we got a final

segment coming up but first let's hear

from another

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docomo our final

segment all right this is our first

podcast of September oh it makes me sort

of

sad I mean I like the school year

because my kids are in school but my

summer schedule is so nice oh man and

Jesse I I've mentioned you I have like

an administrative role I know you told

the audience too did I oh my God it's

fine I'm Building Systems my weekly temp

plate man I'm like Cal newpor the

Newport Tony and Vibes is is strong my

friend my trellos are smoking because

they're being used so much I'm on it but

man I missed the summer all right so

it's first episode of September so we'll

talk about the books I read in August

hey before we do though a listener was

it Zach yeah sent us me and Jesse custom

hats for the show so I figured we'd do

this final segment in the hats if you're

uh listening setad of watching you can

check this on YouTube

there we go there we go looks good yeah

looking good here all right so for those

who are listening we have on stylish vbl

CCP trucker hats of course we know what

that means value based lifestyle Centric

career planning that is the way that we

hear the Deep questions podcast think

about career choices uh these hats are

awesome yeah I mean I'm not a fashion

Guru but I think it I think these look

pretty Sharp

it does it kind of seems like we're

probably uh you know these hats are from

our time spent running like a state

Committee in the old Soviet Union just

looking at these abbreviations that this

is probably some sort of like Russian

abbreviation for like the state crop

distribution socialist republic you know

advisory

committee but that's cool there kind of

like a retroness to that all right so

we're going to we're going to harness as

vccp energy as we do the books I read in

a August 2024 all right this first one's

a little weird Jesse I'm just going to

preface this by saying I my wife read

we're on vacation she was reading it I

we were in the woods somewhere I was

like I'll read that it was uh Emily

Wild's

Encyclopedia of fairies written by hea

faucet it's a fantasy book I guess maybe

like a little bit of a romance book but

not I don't really know these genres

very well um I actually like the first

two3 in particular like the it's a

alternative timeline

world I couldn't really tell when this

took place I finally found some clues

that it must have been 20th century or

equivalent because they mentioned movies

at some point but it's kind of like a

Timeless uh it's a professor it posits a

world where fairies exist and it follows

a professor who is like who studies

fairies like they this is just a subject

that people study and she goes to like

this small uh town in a country that

doesn't really exist up in Scandinavia

somewhere like in and um stuff ensues I

actually kind of like the World building

because I'm a professor of there being a

whole academic discipline that studies

like these being and it's a little bit

dark and a little bit whatever um I

thought it went a little bit look I'm

not a big novel reader so take this with

a grain of salt uh once it actually got

past like you know we we see hints of

this we're kind of studying this once

they were actually like we in a fairy

world I felt like it was just whatever

anything goes and everything's magic and

whatever right like and then that that

kind of lost me right that World

building lost me but I thought it was

I enjoyed it I don't read a lot of books

like this I didn't realize all these

books always have like a romance core or

two oh really yeah yeah um so she's her

fellow Professor who spoiler alert is

part magic or something they you know U

I love fair I thought it was good though

I thought it was good all right then I

read Annie uh Annie Jacobson's book

nuclear war man there's a book right

there I love when non-fiction writers do

something different with form and format

and what Jacobson did and this is a

compelling book to it's a hard to put

down book she basically did a bunch of

research a non-fiction book I think

Amazon I think Amazon chose it you know

they have their best of the best books

of the year so far and you know slow

productivity was chosen as the best

business and Leadership book of 2024 so

far I think this was chosen as the best

just overall non-fiction book of 2024 so

far what she did is a lot of research on

uh what is the US's actual like nuclear

war plans and procedures and protocols

like how does this work who makes the

decisions where are the various people

what happens if this gets blown up where

are the missiles and then the book just

walks through it takes place largely in

like 12 minutes it walks through global

thermonuclear war breaking out from the

point of view of like the American okay

so this person we see this on the radar

and the president goes here and then

these get blown then this happens and we

fire these missiles and and and the the

whole world gets blown up in the end so

it's like a really kind of scary book

but she's really trying to nail the

detail straight of like here's how this

would work here's the you pull out this

Caper you would type in these things

these people at this base underground

here would be involved in this and she

works the whole thing out spoiler alert

it does not go well for us in Washington

DC so we get hit by a thermonuclear

Warhead early on in the book and where

we are right now we're not going to do

well our skin would catch on fire so

this would not be good for us uh there

was

one I got a nitpick there's one nitpick

I was like this doesn't seem well okay I

have two nitpicks two okay by the way my

family did terribly in this

um so the the first two missiles hit

Washington DC where me and my two

sisters live the second Missile hit the

uh Diablo Canyon Nuclear

facility uh in central California coast

my brother works that nuclear power

plant so the first two missiles killed

my whole family uh so we we didn't do

well we didn't do well in that book all

right here's my two nitpicks one so it's

mainly very well researched but I can

tell the parts where she you know

glossed over um one when she went to the

the Boomer class the missile Subs so are

missile Subs fired missiles at the end

right um she so these would be like an

Ohio class probably uh missile sub I

know a lot about Subs my brother was on

Subs she talks about when the the order

comes in for firing the missiles that

alarm Bells start wailing on the sub

that's missile launch time it's missile

launch time there's they don't do alarm

bells on Subs the whole point is that

the sub is supposed to be as quiet as

possible they wear sneakers on these

things just to try to make sure that

like their foot steps make sound they're

not going to have a clax and bell sound

uh to tell the submariners it's time to

fire missiles they would because the

whole point is you fire these missiles

and are supposed to go back under and

not be detected so that was not true

then the other thing I didn't understand

is the presid resid on Marine 2 right so

it's on the um or Marine One the

helicopter right and they're rushing

away from the White House to try to get

to Mount Storm because they they know

the the missiles coming for uh the White