“ Another benefit of a sender filter is that it resets expectations. The most crucial line in my description is the following: I’ll only respond to those proposals that are a good match for my schedule… Cal Newport
“ An auction market, by contrast, is less structured: There are many different types of career capital, and each person might generate a unique collection. The cleantech space is an auction market. Mike… Cal Newport
“ Among many breakthroughs, Csikszentmihalyi’s work with ESM helped validate a theory he had been developing over the preceding decade: The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is str… Cal Newport
“ Alex Berger, he didn’t arrive at his outstanding job by following a clear passion. Instead he carefully and persistently gathered career capital, confident that valuable skills would translate into va… Cal Newport
“ After running my tough experiment [with cancer]… I have a plan for living the rest of my life, Gallagher concludes in her book. I’ll choose my targets with care… then give them my rapt attention. In s… Cal Newport
“ After returning from a trip to India, where he observed the practice of adding meditation rooms to homes, he expanded the complex to include a private office. In my retiring room I am by myself, Jung… Cal Newport
“ Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detri… Cal Newport
“ A commitment to deep work is not a moral stance and it’s not a philosophical statement—it is instead a pragmatic recognition that the ability to concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done. Cal Newport
“ The complex reality of the technologies that real companies leverage to get ahead emphasizes the absurdity of the now common idea that exposure to simplistic, consumer-facing products—especially in sc… Cal Newport
“ The pool of individuals to whom the monastic philosophy applies is limited—and that’s okay. If you’re outside this pool, its radical simplicity shouldn’t evince too much envy. On the other hand, if yo… Cal Newport
“ Returned to this paper regularly over a period of two weeks. When I was done, I had probably experienced fifteen hours total of deliberate practice–style strain, but due to its intensity it felt like… Cal Newport
“ Particular, identify a deep task (that is, something that requires deep work to complete) that’s high on your priority list. Estimate how long you’d normally put aside for an obligation of this type,… Cal Newport
“ Many software companies now deploy the Scrum project management methodology, which replaces a lot of this ad hoc messaging with regular, highly structured, and ruthlessly efficient status meetings (of… Cal Newport
“ Just because you really want to organize your work around a mission doesn’t mean that you can easily make it happen. Cal Newport
“ If it’s rare and valuable, it’s not easy to get. This insight brought me into the world of performance science, where I encountered the concept of deliberate practice—a method for building skills by r… Cal Newport
“ Easy to identify the relevant lead measure: time spent in a state of deep work dedicated toward your wildly important goal. Cal Newport
“ Argue that his approach to batching helps explain this paradox. In particular, by consolidating his work into intense and uninterrupted pulses, he’s leveraging the following law of productivity: High-… Cal Newport
“ You’re either remarkable or invisible, says Seth Godin in his 2002 bestseller, Purple Cow.1 As he elaborated in a Fast Company manifesto he published on the subject: The world is full of boring stuff—… Cal Newport
