Mindset
About this category
Content whose primary subject is how an individual manages their own psychology, focus, habits, or relationship with work. The unit of change is the *person themselves*, not their business or team.
Showing 2363 articles for Mindset.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
How email created the hyperactive hive mind — and what to do about it
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
March 8, 2021
Productivity & habits
8
Time management
7
Work-life balance
6
No one chose constant messaging — technological determinism imposed it.
Passion follows skill; mission only visible from the adjacent possible.
Inconvenience is fine; only real pain justifies adding tech back.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Advice for women starting their first startup
Y Combinator
March 8, 2021
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
7
Stop waiting — there is never a perfect moment to start
Being a mom or outsider is a strength, not a barrier
Build value for yourself, not someone else's company
Deep work & focus
YouTube
How to stop Silicon Valley anxiety killing your focus
Silicon Valley Girl
March 6, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
6
FOMO is really fear of irrelevance, not genuine opportunity
Chasing trends fragments the focus that built your results
Absorb new ideas by folding them into your existing work
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Managing WhatsApp, quarterly plans, and deep work schedules
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
March 4, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Processes & SOPs
6
WhatsApp group chats are cognitively incompatible with focused work.
Strategic plans are for big-rock projects — not tasks or experiments.
Pure deep work periods need far fewer hours than most people assume.
How committing fully — killing off options — drives decisive action
Bill Gallagher
March 2, 2021
Goal setting
8
Management
6
To decide literally means to kill off alternatives — not preserve them
A CEO's 'more is more' instinct was silently stalling his team
Throw your hat over the fence: remove the exit to force commitment
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Taming Trello and reducing instant messaging overload
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 25, 2021
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Perfect Trello setups don't make work easier — executing does.
Fixing messaging overload means redesigning processes, not habits.
Time blocking and creative flexibility are fully compatible.
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Intellectual humility: how to know what you don't know
The Daily Stoic
February 24, 2021
Identity & self-belief
9
Pivoting
6
Deep work & focus
5
Partial knowledge breeds overconfidence more than ignorance ever does
Treating beliefs as hypotheses — not identity — is what rethinking requires
Backup plans and procrastination signal smart risk management, not weak commitment
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Wealth, deep work habits, and building community: Cal Newport Q&A
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 22, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Processes & SOPs
8
Relationships & family
7
Financial security belongs inside the deep life's craft bucket.
Back-and-forth messaging kills team productivity — redesign processes to eliminate it.
Physical presence with people is irreplaceable; analog connection is non-negotiable.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport's habit Q&A: planning, anxiety, writing, and deep work
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 18, 2021
Productivity & habits
10
Deep work & focus
7
Time management
6
Weekly planning should take under an hour — not several.
Pre-meeting rehearsal rituals mute anxiety without addressing ruminations directly.
Top publications seek distinctive writers, not interesting submissions.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Four lessons from 2020: perspective, resilience, opportunity, and action
Startups For the Rest of Us
February 16, 2021
Resilience & grit
8
Niche selection
7
Identity & self-belief
5
Startup problems shrink against crises like pandemics and civil unrest.
Founders who ship publicly during chaos catch luck others never see.
Recessions spawn new categories; hunters of emerging problems thrive.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Escaping the autonomy trap: why knowledge work defaults to chaos
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 15, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
6
Peter Drucker's autonomy doctrine accidentally created the inbox-obsessed workplace
Separating workflow design from execution is how teams escape the hive mind
Consistent two-hour deep work sessions outperform sporadic heroic marathon days
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Weekly planning system to delegate 80% of your workload
Cameron Herold
February 12, 2021
Productivity & habits
8
Delegation
7
Delegate 80% of your weekly tasks before Monday starts.
Only schedule 5 hours of true project time per day.
Sunday planning in 30 minutes prevents overwhelm all week.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Getting things done during a pandemic: habits and productivity
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 11, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Work-life balance
6
Schedule productive meditation like deep work — not a bonus walk.
Email-checking during work is a depleted social connection, not poor discipline.
Quarterly plan postmortems reveal what to cut and where to refocus.
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Amelia Boone on excellence, endurance, and the cost of discipline
The Daily Stoic
February 10, 2021
Identity & self-belief
9
Deep work & focus
8
Time management
7
The same drive behind elite performance can quietly fuel self-destruction.
Why holding two careers made Boone better at both, not worse.
Asking for help strengthens relationships — suppressing emotion compounds the cost.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport Q&A: deep leisure, productivity, and digital life
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 8, 2021
Productivity & habits
9
Work-life balance
8
Deep work & focus
8
Balance four leisure types to prevent burnout, not just skill-building
Being hard to reach and 'lazy' is a structural deep work strategy
30-day digital declutter resets your values, not just your screen time