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#cal newport
stark-reading-mad · 8 months
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Rainy days. My screen time has been causing so much mental distress and unrest that I've decided to take all the teachings from Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism and incorporate in my day to day.
This entails Mobile-free zones and Mobile-friendly zones in the house, using the guest room when I'm studying because it has no wifi connectivity.
I've made sure to explain to my family and my close ones about my non-availability during certain hours so I can study uninterrupted. I feel grateful that they're all enthusiastic about supporting me.
In order to achieve the ambitious goals I've set for myself, I have to make sacrifices and undergo some transformation to make it happen. Here's to hoping it will happen <3
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hiddenloner · 2 years
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hersanctuary · 1 year
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my media consumption schedule
sunday:
social media detox
don‘t touch anything. devices should be turned off
monday-friday:
intentional media consumption for 1h in the evening aka after I‘ve finished all my work
delete apps when done and re-install for consumption
content block social media websites in the settings so you don‘t have access to them
deactivate safari additionally
keep devices on greyscale unless color is important ( notetaking on iPad, 1h consumption,…)
saturday:
media day :)
no harsh time restrictions
but be mindful of what you watch or listen to
be intentional: education, makeup tutorial, cooking/baking video, …
but don’t have to :) It can be binge-watching my fav series or new movies
ask myself if this is the best way spend my time. Go to the movies, the park or shopping maybe?
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earth57 · 6 months
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lost-neurons · 8 months
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Tips from Cal Newport's How to Win at College
Recently I finished Cal Newport's another book, How to Win at College. A fast read, the book is basically a list of tips gathered by the author to help the reader succeed easier at uni.
Some of them were quite obvious to me, some of them caught my attention more, and they are the ones you can find below. Words in italics are the exact quotations, headlines are also original from the book. The rest of it is my attempt to summarize it (although the descriptions in the book itself are very short and clear, so really, check out the book). Without further ado:
Studying
Build Study Systems
before you start to study spend few minutes so you know exactly what and how will you study, that way you will optimize your work and study more efficiently
Avoid Daily To-Do Lists
rather try time-blocking
Do Schoolwork Every Day
doesn’t matter how much you do, as long as you do something daily it will be easier staying in that zone of the smooth work flow
Find a Secret Study Space
Take the time to explore the odd corners and depths of your favorite buildings on campus, and you will certainly find a hidden jewel of a study space to call your own.
however! switch them from time to time to prevent making studying tedious and alienating
Don’t Study In Groups
you really do need to sit at your QUIET desk in the library to absorb the material
seek out someone for specific help on a specific issue, then return to your solo work
Don’t Do All of Your Reading
read chapter introductions and conclusions, skim everything else
you may miss something important, your professor won’t – listen carefully during class
pay more attention to the assignments which will be part of an exam but weren’t or won’t be covered in class 
make tick marks next to sentences that catches your attention and is faster than highlighting
Start Long Term Projects the Day They Are Assigned
finish some work the same day; 30 mins are enough, plan the whole thing, do some research, maybe write some draft
Keep a Work-Progress Journal
every nigh jot down the day’s date, the long-term work you had scheduled for the day, and the work that you actually accomplished, be brief
that will keep your mind in the game, and you will feel being hold accountable
Start Studying Two Weeks in Advance
first ~12 days– an hour or so, maybe a couple extra hours over the weekend
two days before exam  – three-hour secessions to cement that knowledge
Focus On Grades, Ignore G.P.A
bad grades happen, as long as you put in the effort nobody cares about one bad day
focus on learning for the sake of learning, not for the sake of grades !!!!
Uni life
Get Involved with Your Major Department
attend the events, guest lectures, seminars, public thesis defenses
show up once a month, become a recognized face, that will have several benefits
Learn to Listen
never be the first person to give an opinion, listen to others’ thoughts first, be sure you understand their positions, and then interject your own thoughts with careful aplomb
you don’t want to be that stuck-up person who acts like they know everything, and only they are right – listen, listen, listen!!!
Relax Before Exams
studying right up until the testing begins releases too much adrenaline, resulting in troubles with focusing
take an hour before an exam to relax so you will feel confident and calm
Ignore Your Classmates’ Grades
Worry about your performance and progress; let your classmates worry about their own.
Blow the Curve Once a Term
every semester choose one class you like, then within this class choose one interesting project, and then just absolutely kill it
Ask One Question at Every Lecture
(…) when you are doing the reading that will be covered in the lecture, jot down a quick list of questions that seem relevant. Then, once in class, follow the professor’s material carefully modifying and honing your questions as appropriate. Finally, when you feel you have a question that is meaningful, and will clarify an important point of the discussion, ask away.
Befriend a Professor
make them your mentor, they provide the letters of recommendation, informal instructions, and many other useful tools you need for academic success
visit office hours not only when you have troubles with certain topics; when working on a paper talk to them about possible topics, get feedback on the selected idea, check with them the structure of your argument, ask for clarification etc. etc. etc.
Apply to Ten Scholarships a Year
For every ten well-selected scholarships and awards you apply for, you probably have a good shot at winning at least one (…). The more scholarships you win, the better your odds on future applications.
it will accumulate and after few years your resume will be looking good when joining the job market
Lifestyle
Schedule Your Free Time
so you don’t waste it sitting and wondering what to do and turning 10-minutes jobs into 2-hours ones
either you are in one of your scheduled break periods, or are you working – no more feeling guilty or uncertain when to relax
Find an Escape
schedule an escape every single week, do it alone; can be a long hike, sitting in the coffee shop reading, anything allowing you to relax and cut off uni stuff for a few hours
Exercise Five Days a Week
keep yourself active to boost your brain, but also to take care of your muscles and joints – they were made to move!
Stay In Touch
talk to your family and friends at least once a month; literally talk, call them or meet if you can, messaging doesn’t count nor sending voice massages
Don’t Undersleep, Don’t Oversleep
find out how many hours do you need to feel rested and stick to them
avoid too few but also too many hours of sleep – The fact that you can sleep more, doesn’t mean that you should.
Laugh Every Day
Find something every single day that will make you laugh
Seek Out Fun
if you don’t actively seek out fun, it won’t actively seek out you
Reconsider reading Newport's book, or give his podcast (Deep Questions with Cal Newport) a try. He's the first person I found with such a healthy approach to productivity and work
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questwithambition · 1 year
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Digital Minimalism - some thoughts
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(I took zero photos of me reading the book so here a couple of the library). Back in January I picked up Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, and as I read it I decided to implement some of the changes for at least a month to see what impact they would had. And oh my, has it been positive! A few takeaways:
I took an entire month off all social media, including Tumblr and Pinterest. I already didn’t have the Instagram and Facebook apps on my phone, but here I wasn’t able to access them on my laptop / browser either. This was a great break, as it really encouraged me to reconsider every time I picked up my phone. Since there was nothing to do on my phone I ended up reading more and doing other activities like painting and calling friends etc. It freed up not only time but the nagging compulsion to pick up my phone.
One of the biggest changes was spending time doing nothing, and also taking walks without headphones. I used to always listen to music / a podcast on my walk to and from uni / elsewhere but following the book recommendation, I stopped doing so. I was sceptic at first but I have so much space in my brain? These walks give my brain time to work through issues and worries, appreciate the world around me, or even just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. This calm has spread to other areas of my life: I was waiting at the dentist this morning for 10 minutes, and instead of reading or looking at my phone I just basked in the sunlight coming through the window, listening with half an ear to the receptionists chatting in the background and enjoyed a serene moment. If I could recommend a change it would be this one: on part of a commute, remove the headphones. Try sitting or walking in silence.
A final change was reducing notifications and availability: I implemented a “personal” mode on my phone where between the hours of 8:30pm and 9am only my family and a best friend will pop up in my notifications which immensely reduces the pressure to reply / think about it in the evening, and gives me a solid couple of hours work in the morning. I’ve taken it further and have removed notifications from a lot of apps such as snapchat and messenger etc: the people who need to urgently contact me have my number, and I’ll check the other socials throughout the day when I have time and space.
So would definitely recommend giving the book a read (I borrowed it from my library because libraries are amazing and so many of them have audiobooks / ebooks so please look them up! Also excellent places to read as pictured above). You obviously have to adapt what is said to your lifestyle, and some sections can drag on a bit, but I appreciated all the examples of how different people implemented steps in their lives.
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luxe-pauvre · 1 year
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We take for granted our ability to pay attention. As foundational results in neuroscience reveal, part of what distinguishes us from our primate ancestors is the ability of our prefrontal cortex to operate as a kind of traffic cop for our attention, amplifying signals from brain networks associated with our current object of focus while suppressing signals from everywhere else. Other animals can do this with respect to immediate stimuli, such as the deer alertly raising its head when it hears a branch crack, but only humans can decide to focus on something not actually happening around them at the moment, like planning a mammoth hunt or composing a strategy memo. From the perspective of a frenzied knowledge worker, a serious shortcoming of this process is that the prefrontal cortex can service only one attention target at a time. As Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen bluntly summarise in their 2016 book, The Distracted Mind: “Our brains do not parallel process information.” As a result, when you attempt to maintain multiple ongoing electronic conversations while also working on a primary task like writing a report or coding a computer program, your prefrontal cortex must continually jump back and forth between different goals, each requiring the amplification and suppression of different brain networks. Not surprisingly, this network switching is not an instantaneous process; it requires both time and cognitive resources. When you try to do it rapidly, things get messy. The fact that switching our attention slows down our mental processing has been observed since at least the early twentieth century, long before anyone understood how the prefrontal cortex was actually executing these changes.
Cal Newport, A World Without Email
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sopstvena · 2 years
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The key is recognizing that the urge to avoid hard things is human, and should be expected. It’s part of the process. A big idea […] is that significantly reducing the role of screens in your life will significantly reduce the friction you experience toward doing hard things. If you’ve trained your mind that at the slightest hint of boredom it will receive a shiny, dopamine-flavored treat in the form of a rapid cycle of swiping and scrolling […], then good luck convincing yourself to sit down and tackle something meaningful but difficult.
Cal Newport
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blackcoffeewrites63 · 21 days
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Does anyone else have a ridiculous TBR shelf in one room and another even bigger TBR shelf in another room
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And also currently reading this:
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And listening to this:
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And swearing to read a one of the self-help books they bought a year ago but never actually opened,
Current book:
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And has this shipping from Mercari because you read the synopsis and can’t stop thinking about this:
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But you had a rough week, stopped in the bookstore and bought this because you can’t stop thinking about it:
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Anyone?
Yeah, I might have a problem.
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alantea87 · 24 days
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So, I’ve clocked my first 24 hours with the Nokia 2660 Flip. Truly a flip-you to my iPhone and its addicting qualities. Nothing groundbreaking to use a dumb-phone, but I wanted to challenge myself again to rejoin reality and reconnect with my friends and family properly… by stripping back my use of technology to its bare essentials.
Why…
After many months of wanting to pull away from social media, WhatsApp and iOS, I was apprehensive yet elated at the very idea. What about the memes? Thirst posts? Corgis? I’d miss them all. But much needed clarity came crashing in: my iPhone had become my adult pacifier (or dummy for us Brits). Using your smartphone during times of boredom, times of stress, or times of wanting connection has become a habit of many. And, I was no exception. Especially the doom-scrolling for hours on end after work. Luckily, after some realisation… my emotions were at the mercy of this bloody thing. Not to mention the continued horrors of witnessing violence or harassment on Instagram reels - content like this seemingly slipping through censorship safeguards. I had enough and wanted to go back simpler times, even at the dismay of others. I finally bought my second dumb-phone in two years, but this time it was far more usable (bigger buttons, predictive texts, foldable display). I wanted to really try much harder in having an iPhone-less life, even if it created a touch more inconvenience.
Neck-deep…
Sometimes I feel that tech companies invent inconveniences in order to sell more solutions directly to you. And as someone who used to work at Apple’s Regent Street store years back (when the first iPhone was launched, mind you), Apple has turned into a capitalist nightmare. I miss their earlier days of really creating a tech solution to improve your life. Now it’s all about that coin and I forget I am neck-deep in their eco system and feel like I’m drowning in their “YOU’RE MY ELITE EMPLOYEE” energy, so I feel I have to keep on buying more. Yes, the integration of all of their devices work incredibly well. But sometimes I feel that innovation doesn’t always address your ability to connect (naturally) with other people. In fact, my self and a lot of my friends (at my age), now feel that modern technology hinders deep, meaningful connections e.g. good old face-to-face conversations in the real world. I think as a millennial (and listen up gen z), I forget that conversation in person is incredibly nuanced: one has to balance tone, emotion, inflection and practice patience. It involves drama and full expression - hands, legs and otherwise! Real connection. No avatars, no emojis, no hiding. Worst case scenario, make a phone call and use your voice. Having said that, I will have to practice what I preach now that it’s much harder to write big messages via SMS on an alphanumeric keypad, lol. I’m more likely to text “can I call you in a bit instead?”.
Current tech hoes…
I have in fact have not fully compromised my relationship with tech. I am using an iPad for emails and internet. Plus, I have resorted to using my Apple Watch as a “mp3 player” paired with my AirPods Pro 2s. I forgot that if you have an Apple Music sub, you can download songs/albums/playlists directly to your Apple Watch via Wi-Fi etc. Perfect for the gym and the commute. Because I am sure as hell that I won’t be touching those dodgy Temu-like music players on Amazon. Frankly, they look like they would crumble in your hand and would be carcinogenic. Remember guys, tech companies have turned once a useful tool (the smartphone) into a slot-machine in your hand. Your emotions are being played with and sometimes I did enjoy aspects of that (memes, targeted videos/content etc) but I say: no bloomin more. For now. Lol. Famous last words. I’m going to try and do two weeks minimum with my Nokia 2660 and see how I survive.
Challenges to expect…
Unlike the Nokia 2680 Flip (only sold in North America, I think) as a fancier operating system that allows WhatsApp and a stripped down version of Google Maps. GPS navigation on that version of the 2660 apparently works alright, but you wouldn’t be able to use it in car for driving (I don’t drive anyway). But my main concern about using a feature phone is that lack of mapping. And I chronically get lost in London, despite being born and raised in Hackney/Islington. So I do plan to use my iPhone (loaded up with a data eSIM) to use it like it was a good old TomTom. Sorry gen z, these were old standalone GPS screen/devices you retrofitted in your car. But only if I plan on going somewhere totally new. Otherwise, I will try and relearn the bus network (within reason, lol) and tube map relative to my needs. I kinda miss those days of printing out directions and/or relying on your actual brain to problem solve and to get your bearings. Other things I may or may not miss out on: QR code scanning/presenting, tube/weather updates, voice notes.
Final words…
Scaling back to a dumb-phone has actually already reduced my levels of anxiety, sense of disconnect or being part of comparison culture. The very act of adding in your contacts manually one-by-one like the 90s/2000s into a cellphone was quite therapeutic despite its novelty. I think you can import a vCard, but couldn’t be arsed. *Carrie Bradshaw voice* But then I thought to myself (as I typed each contact into my Nokia keypad): damn boy… do I only really have three (actual) friends?
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Two books I am currently reading and recommend.
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anjumbai · 5 months
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Deep Work by Cal Newport - Thoughts
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"I'll live the focused life, because it's the best kind there is." - Winfred Gallagher
Rating: very useful out of 10
I knew I heard the name Cal Newport somewhere before. It turns out he wrote that book named "How to Become a Straight A-student"; which I read back in 2021. Although I did not finish it, it was filled with a lot of practicality and very useful instructions. And this book, while focusing more on the fact that why going deep is necessary, is also filled with equal amount of well-explained examples.
The book argues why you should not drown in shallow activities which yield little to no impact on your life, but rather spend more time going deep and practicing deep work. Deep work refers to the practice of committing to a work with intense focus, reducing all sorts of distractions while you're going at it. While I approached this to learn more bout student life and the uses of deep work, it turned out to target knowledge workers more. But that wouldn't stop me from extracting something from the book now, would it? Well anyways, I won't go into much details about the book. I sometimes forget that I'm writing about my thoughts and not on a critical review of how the book is structured or anything like that.
So what did I like about the book? The fact that it advised you to quit social media. I liked how he said if you wanna do something different, if you wanna be able to focus more and get distracted less, you should be harder to reach. You shouldn't be available just by one email, or be just one instagram notification away. And I liked how he said that most people would argue that "I'm connected with my friends over there etc etc" and how it does have some validity, he names it the "any benefit" approach. Which means if something provides you with even just one benefit, you'll cling to it despite the overwhelming difference of the damages it can cause.
I agree with him on this part and being difficult to reach has now proven to be a good part of my life. I love it. You can even say I liked this because he mentioned something I already do. Which is true. I worked for it, so some recognition from an inanimate object feels nice.
He also states how deep work should be practiced on a daily basis. Which gives natural idiots like me hope cause even though I might be an idiot, I can still practice something daily without much issue ( thanks to atomic habits ). And like James Clear said, habits build up like compound interests do. I liked the book. I disliked some of it for the overwhelming office related examples but perhaps I should've understood students aren't the key target audience in this book. As he already has a rather amazing book for students. Check it out, I'd say.
A common argument that comes up would be that- I don't need to read a whole damn book to learn basic stuff like this. True. You don't. You can just learn em by scrolling through your Instagram food, or YouTube; maybe if you try hard enough you can resist clicking on that youtube short too. I'd still advise reading the book. It teaches you to practice something on a long term basis, and each chapter happens to have something new instead of all of it one, so you can gradually learn and apply. That's how self-help books work for me. You read and apply, learn something new, apply again. This book might encourage some to become delusional. Just reading self-help books don't take you particularly anywhere. So if this is your 14th self-help book, maybe seek therapy. Or you can ignore me, which is the natural order.
Atomic Habits and Deep Work, both happen to be helpful in their own ways. But I'd prefer Atomic Habits over this, due to how much more practical the first one is. But if you really wanna understand the need of deep work and eventually apply it in your life, or maybe you lack focus like me- try it out. It has boosted my focus span. Or maybe the fact that I don't really have much to do daily is what made my focus span increase but hey, nobody is looking into that.
Next read: The Subtle Art of not giving a damn about the books title. (or grammar)
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mitchipedia · 1 year
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This is exactly what teenagers in Brooklyn should be doing: Reading books they don’t understand, getting into trouble, trying on intellectual identities without worrying about widespread scrutiny, sewing their own jeans, and yes, if they want, whittling sticks. How long did we really think young people would be willing to give up all of this wonderful mess in exchange for monotonously boosting the value of Meta stock?
— Cal Newport
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benjaminasimpson · 5 months
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What are the basic tools for living a calm, meaningful, and productive life? Consider Newport's Four Keys
I listen to Cal Newport’s Deep Life Podcast. In Episode 272, Cal begins the show by identifying four foundational tools for productivity. Watch the first ten to fifteen minutes. What are these tools? Calendar Obligation/Status List (More than a to-do list, could be mangaged with a project board like Trello.) Multi-scale Planning Documents (Daily, weekly, and quarterly outlooks, and a review…
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hiddenloner · 1 year
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Focus
When you decide to act on something or change something in your life, your focus is on your goal and only that. When we are not really ready to act on something we tend to start reminiscing about reasons why we haven't achieved something yet or why we have to start doing something in a different way but if we stop " bullshitting" ourselves there is no space for excuses and the past becomes irrelevant even if it did contribute to the present moment and was out of our control
- Pem (HiddenLoner)
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infotweb · 6 months
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keanuestrada · 2 years
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Cal Newport: “Generate more value from the small number of things you commit to go after.”
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