From episode 276 of Cal Newport's podcast, Deep Questions. He talks about five things needed to "close the loops" (to use David Allen's term) in your mind and have a clear head. Calendar. Digital. Sync it with phone to have it with you at all times. Appointments and meetings go on there with relevant information.…
Inverse Law of Accomplishment
From episode 276 of Cal Newport's podcast, Deep Questions. The higher the impressiveness of an accomplishment, the fewer things you can do.
The Seasonality of Life
One observation that has struck me lately is how life comes in seasons. Probably the most famous passage in the book of Ecclesiastes speaks to the "times" or "seasons" of human life (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Another book which emphasizes seasons is Song of Solomon. The book recounts a love story between a man and woman who…
How I try to be productive (my productivity system)
My productivity system contains three components: capture, configure, and control. I want to make sure I fully capture all the tasks on my plate as well as the things that arise throughout the day (per David Allen’s Getting Things Done system). After capturing tasks, I want to configure all the tasks: process them to make…
Pursuing a Deeper Life
It’s easy to skim along the surface of life these days, bouncing from distraction to distraction. What I want in life is depth. I want to have a life that counts. Not “successful,” but one that counts for eternity. To that end, I’ve been a bit of quest recently for how to live a deeper…
Cyborg Nation
This is my third installment in reflecting on our cultural moment and how we can begin responding as the church. In the first part I talked about secularism, and in the second part, I talked about what it means to be a post-Christian. Today, I want to talk about the third profound shift we’ve seen…
A World Without Email | The Specialization Principle
How do we get out of the mess that email has made? Cal Newport, in his book A World Without Email, lays out a few principles that could help individuals and organizations get out of this mess we've made. First, Newport argues that organizations must prioritize their worker's attention. Knowledge work require great depth of…
A World Without Email | The Protocol Principle
Email is terrible. But Cal Newport has answers for the problem of email: the attention capital principle and the process principle. In the next chapter, Newport lays out the next principle: the protocol principle. The protocol principle seeks to "optimize when and how coordination occurs in the workplace" (187). In other words, what are the…
A World Without Email | The Process Principle
Newport opens his book examining the problems that email has brought upon the world of knowledge work. He then attempts to solve these problems by laying out a few principles. He first argues that organizations should focus on focus, guarding their employee's attention. Next, Newport focuses on the "process principle." Knowledge work can be more…
A World Without Email | The Attention Capital Principle
After exploring the problems with email, Cal Newport dives into different ways to solve them with several principles. The first principle is the "attention capital principe." Newport essentially argues that the most valuable asset knowledge workers have is their brains. Since the human mind is what produces value in knowledge work, it needs to be…
Raising Lazarus 