Dr. Cal Newport: How to Enhance Focus and Improve Productivity
03/11/24 • 172 min
9 Listeners
In this episode, my guest is Dr. Cal Newport, Ph.D., a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and bestselling author of numerous books on focus and productivity and how to access the deepest possible layers of your cognitive abilities in order to do quality work and lead a more balanced life. We discuss how to avoid digital distraction, specific systems to best arrange and update your schedule, and how to curate your work and home environment. We discuss how to engage with smartphones and technology, the significant productivity cost of task-switching, and how to avoid and overcome burnout. This episode provides specific protocols for enhancing focus and productivity, time management, task prioritization, and improving work-life balance that ought to be useful for anyone, young or old, regardless of profession.
For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.
Use Ask Huberman Lab, our new AI-powered platform, for a summary, clips, and insights from this episode.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Dr. Cal Newport
(00:03:09) Sponsors: LMNT & Waking Up
(00:07:00) Smartphones, Office & Walking
(00:13:08) Productive Meditation, Whiteboards
(00:20:04) Tool: Capturing Ideas, Notebooks
(00:24:57) Tool: Active Recall & Remembering Information
(00:26:15) Sponsor: AG1
(00:31:29) Studying, Deliberate Practice
(00:38:13) Flow States vs. Deep Work
(00:41:39) Social Media, Emergencies
(00:45:27) Phone & Addiction; Task Switching
(00:54:23) “Neuro-Semantic Coherence” vs. Flow; Concentration
(01:02:40) Internet Use & Kids; Video Games; Audiobooks
(01:08:15) Pseudo-Productivity, Burnout
(01:12:34) Social Media Distraction; The Deep Life
(01:18:03) Attention, ADHD, Smartphones & Addiction; Kids
(01:26:12) TikTok, Algorithm
(01:30:39) Tool: Boredom Tolerance, Gap Effects & “Thoreau Walks”
(01:37:43) Solitude Deprivation, Anxiety
(01:41:22) Tools: Fixed Work Schedule & Productivity, Exercise, Sleep
(01:47:52) Deep Work, Insomnia; Productivity & Core Work; Music
(01:55:08) Cognitive Focus & Environment; Isolation
(02:02:30) Burnout Epidemic, Digital Collaboration
(02:11:11) Cognitive Revolution, Balance
(02:16:45) Remote, Hybrid vs. In-Person Work; Zoom
(02:22:05) Tool: Pull-Based System, Designing Workload
(02:28:49) Tools: Multi-Scale Planning, Time Blocking; Deep Work Groups
(02:38:56) Tool: Shutdown Ritual
(02:42:37) Accessibility, Reputation & Flexibility
(02:47:29) Work-Life Balance, Vacation; Productivity
(02:54:47) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
In this episode, my guest is Dr. Cal Newport, Ph.D., a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and bestselling author of numerous books on focus and productivity and how to access the deepest possible layers of your cognitive abilities in order to do quality work and lead a more balanced life. We discuss how to avoid digital distraction, specific systems to best arrange and update your schedule, and how to curate your work and home environment. We discuss how to engage with smartphones and technology, the significant productivity cost of task-switching, and how to avoid and overcome burnout. This episode provides specific protocols for enhancing focus and productivity, time management, task prioritization, and improving work-life balance that ought to be useful for anyone, young or old, regardless of profession.
For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.
Use Ask Huberman Lab, our new AI-powered platform, for a summary, clips, and insights from this episode.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Dr. Cal Newport
(00:03:09) Sponsors: LMNT & Waking Up
(00:07:00) Smartphones, Office & Walking
(00:13:08) Productive Meditation, Whiteboards
(00:20:04) Tool: Capturing Ideas, Notebooks
(00:24:57) Tool: Active Recall & Remembering Information
(00:26:15) Sponsor: AG1
(00:31:29) Studying, Deliberate Practice
(00:38:13) Flow States vs. Deep Work
(00:41:39) Social Media, Emergencies
(00:45:27) Phone & Addiction; Task Switching
(00:54:23) “Neuro-Semantic Coherence” vs. Flow; Concentration
(01:02:40) Internet Use & Kids; Video Games; Audiobooks
(01:08:15) Pseudo-Productivity, Burnout
(01:12:34) Social Media Distraction; The Deep Life
(01:18:03) Attention, ADHD, Smartphones & Addiction; Kids
(01:26:12) TikTok, Algorithm
(01:30:39) Tool: Boredom Tolerance, Gap Effects & “Thoreau Walks”
(01:37:43) Solitude Deprivation, Anxiety
(01:41:22) Tools: Fixed Work Schedule & Productivity, Exercise, Sleep
(01:47:52) Deep Work, Insomnia; Productivity & Core Work; Music
(01:55:08) Cognitive Focus & Environment; Isolation
(02:02:30) Burnout Epidemic, Digital Collaboration
(02:11:11) Cognitive Revolution, Balance
(02:16:45) Remote, Hybrid vs. In-Person Work; Zoom
(02:22:05) Tool: Pull-Based System, Designing Workload
(02:28:49) Tools: Multi-Scale Planning, Time Blocking; Deep Work Groups
(02:38:56) Tool: Shutdown Ritual
(02:42:37) Accessibility, Reputation & Flexibility
(02:47:29) Work-Life Balance, Vacation; Productivity
(02:54:47) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
Previous Episode
How Placebo Effects Work to Change Our Biology & Psychology
In this episode, I discuss placebo and belief and mindset effects — all of which exert a powerful and real influence on our biology and psychology. I discuss how your beliefs and expectation that a certain outcome will occur after taking a substance (or any intervention cause genuine changes in brain and bodily function. I discuss how placebos can change neurotransmitter and hormone release, pain levels, whether the stress response is beneficial or detrimental and more. I also explain how placebo effects can work with traditional drug or behavioral treatments to help improve health outcomes and why some people are more susceptible to placebo effects. By the end of the episode, listeners will understand the placebo effect, how it works, and how beliefs and mindsets can be leveraged toward mental health, physical health, and performance goals.
For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Placebo Effects
(00:02:40) Sponsors: Eight Sleep, AeroPress & Levels
(00:07:24) Placebo, Nocebo vs. Belief Effect, Prefrontal Cortex
(00:14:03) Dopamine, Placebo & Parkinson’s Disease; Placebo Controls
(00:21:36) Hormone Release & Placebo Effect, Paired Associations
(00:28:52) Conditioning Effect & Insulin; Pavlovian Response
(00:32:50) Sponsor: AG1
(00:34:17) Context & Expectations; Placebo Effect & Brain
(00:40:51) Cancer, Mind-Body Practices; Placebo Effects & Limits
(00:44:54) Asthma, Specificity & Placebo Effects
(00:48:01) Sponsor: InsideTracker
(00:49:03) Nicotine & Dose-Dependent Placebo Effects
(00:55:31) Placebo Effects vs. Belief Effects, Food & Mindset
(01:01:02) Exercise & Belief Effects
(01:04:08) Placebo Effect, Brain & Stress Response
(01:11:18) Individual Variation, Genetics & Placebo Effect
(01:16:11) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
Next Episode
Dr. E.J. Chichilnisky: How the Brain Works, Curing Blindness & How to Navigate a Career Path
In this episode, my guest is Dr. E.J. Chichilnisky, Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery and ophthalmology at Stanford University. He studies how we see and uses that information to build artificial eyes that restore vision to the blind.
We discuss how understanding the retina (the light-sensing brain tissue that lines the back of our eyes) is critical to knowing how our brain works more generally.
We discuss brain augmentation with biologically informed prostheses, robotics, and AI and what this means for medicine and humanity.
We also discuss E.J.’s unique journey into neuroscience and how changing fields multiple times, combined with some wandering, taught him how to guide his decision-making in all realms of life.
This episode ought to be of interest to anyone interested in learning how the brain works from a world-class neuroscientist, those interested in the future of brain therapeutics and people seeking inspiration and tools for navigating their own professional and life journey.
For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.
Thank you to our sponsors
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Dr. E.J. Chichilnisky
(00:02:47) Sponsors: LMNT & Waking Up
(00:06:06) Vision & Brain; Retina
(00:11:23) Retina & Visual Processing
(00:18:37) Vision in Humans & Other Animals, Color
(00:23:01) Studying the Human Retina
(00:26:33) Sponsor: AG1
(00:31:16) Cell Types
(00:36:00) Determining Cell Function in Retina
(00:43:39) Retinal Cell Types & Stimuli
(00:49:27) Retinal Prostheses, Implants
(01:00:25) Artificial Retina, Augmenting Vision
(01:07:12) Neuroengineering, Neuroaugmentation & Specificity
(01:17:01) Building a Smart Device, AI
(01:20:02) Neural Prosthesis, Paralysis; Specificity
(01:25:21) Neurodegeneration; Adult Neuroplasticity; Implant Specificity
(01:34:00) Career Journey, Music & Dance, Neuroscience
(01:42:55) Self-Understanding, Coffee; Self-Love, Meditation & Yoga
(01:47:50) Body Signals & Decisions; Beauty
(01:57:49) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
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