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
Cal Newport's three-scale planning system for big projects
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 11, 2021
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Goal setting
7
Reactive scheduling is why long-term projects never get done.
Quarterly, weekly, and daily plans must cascade into each other.
Default to not starting a project until the idea keeps haunting you.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Chuck Yeager: lessons from a life of obsession, courage, and craft
Founders
January 11, 2021
Resilience & grit
9
Deep work & focus
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Flying more than anyone else compounds into mastery — reps are everything.
Stubborn refusal to quit put Yeager in position to break the sound barrier.
Fear is a tool: Yeager used it to learn everything, not to stop.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Productivity habits for distracting days, deep work, and metric tracking
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 7, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Resilience & grit
5
Anxiety blocks deep work — cut it on distressing days without guilt.
Process drives 90% of productivity gains; tool choice drives 10%.
Start with one keystone habit per life bucket, then expand slowly.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Dan Pink on writing, timing, and designing your workday
How I Work
January 6, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Your peak mental hours are too valuable to spend on email.
Environment design beats willpower for sustaining deep work.
Generating 60 bad titles surfaces the one good one.
Year-end review and planning practices for founders
Bill Gallagher
January 5, 2021
Goal setting
9
Productivity & habits
6
Long-term planning
5
Memory defaults to recent weeks — a structured review corrects that.
Ritualize the year's close before planning; a clean slate changes what you build.
Anchor annual goals to a 5–10 year vision, then break into 90-day actions.
Why be productive: defining intention over output
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 4, 2021
Time management
10
Deep work & focus
8
Productivity & habits
8
Productivity without defined life goals defaults to just working more
Separate information-gathering from deep work; always target a concrete artifact
The right productivity system depends on personality, not universal superiority
Resilience & grit
Podcast
How Theodore Geisel spent decades becoming Dr. Seuss
Founders
January 4, 2021
Resilience & grit
7
Deep work & focus
6
Dr. Seuss chose children's books because his ad contract allowed it
Cat in the Hat came from a 225-word challenge, not creative vision
Nearly 30 years of rejection and day jobs preceded full-time writing
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport habit tune-up: tasks vs projects, grad school, and academic research
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 31, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Work-life balance
6
PR & media
5
Why projects don't belong in your task list — ever
Grad school works better when you treat it like a job
Finding the right research problem takes more effort than solving it
Productivity & habits
YouTube
How to reach inbox zero using the four D's system
Cameron Herold
December 28, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Processes & SOPs
5
Four D's: delete, delegate, deal with, or drag to a folder
Four deferral folders replace an overflowing inbox permanently
Triage once or twice daily; end every day at inbox zero
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Deep Questions Q&A: Productivity systems, career design, and the deep life
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 28, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Work-life balance
7
Where you live matters more than what job you do.
Your shutdown routine should take five minutes, not an hour.
A good productivity system should become invisible and boring.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport on habits: task systems, Twitter, vacation work, and thesis pacing
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 23, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Academic Twitter delivers almost no real career benefit for professors
Two focused hours daily beats sporadic all-day sprints on big projects
Vacation productivity needs structure, but far less than a normal workday
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Deep Questions with Cal Newport: work focus, digital detox, and life reset
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 21, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Surviving a shallow team: build quiet internal systems, not arguments
Digital detox cravings last 10–14 days — friction and replacements are key
Pair a radical physical change with each behavioural goal to build momentum
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Five stoic moments from history that embody the four virtues
The Daily Stoic
December 20, 2020
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
8
Case studies
6
Steve Scott stopped Tiger Woods from losing by cheating himself of a win
Epictetus had his leg broken by his master and responded without a sound
Degradation only lands if you consent to it — Douglass refused
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Stop being busy and start being productive
Cameron Herold
December 18, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Vision & mission
6
Busy leaders often produce little — busyness is not productivity
A four-outcome filter cuts projects that don't drive real results
Reverse-engineer from your three-year vision to today's top three tasks
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Capture tools, time blocking, and planning foundations for new challenges
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 17, 2020
Productivity & habits
10
Time management
9
Deep work & focus
6
Why your email inbox is a capture tray, not a storage system
Quarterly, weekly, daily planning is the foundation — everything else follows
Abstract skill-building without a concrete target rarely works