Cal Newport is back on the show to uncover his magnum opus on why we work the way we work today, and why we need to change our relationship with email.
Email simply doesn’t scale – its back and forth nature is what drove Cal Newport down the rabbit hole of finding a better way to work. This includes all methods of communication, be it Slack, WhatsApp, or Facebook DMs and so on. These tools should just be used as shorthand, and not become your work. In his latest book, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, I had to unpick my good friend’s insights.
Join us today as we uncover why we need to change our relationship with email. In this brave new world, we touch on how email came about accidentally, finding solutions as a team, context switching, and the fascinating research path that led Cal to writing the book.
Talking Points
- The main elements of email that we need to move away from
- Why email has taken over our work
- On Merlin Mann and Inbox Zero
- The Attention Capital Principle
- Changing our view on email in all parts of the business, from managerial to admin and customer support
- How you can stop relying on email today
“Don’t explain to people what you’re doing, just do it.”
– Cal Newport
Helpful Links
- ‘A World Without Email’ by Cal Newport
- Episode 73 with Cal Newport
- Episode 229: Exploring Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport
- ‘Digital Minimalism’ by Cal Newport
- ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport
- The New Yorker articles by Cal Newport
- The New Yorker: The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done by Cal Newport
- Episode 203: The Evolution of Getting Things Done with David Allen
- Woven
- Deep Questions Podcast
- CalNewport.com
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