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.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Deep work habits: relaxation, time blocking, and managing unpredictable schedules
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
August 6, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
7
Management
5
Complete mental shutdown is rarely the restoration most people need.
Revising your time block plan beats abandoning it when chaos hits.
Teachers' shallow work overload routinely blows past a full working day.
Resilience & grit
YouTube
Scaling up in uncertainty: stress, thinking time, and business pivots
Bill Gallagher
August 5, 2020
Resilience & grit
8
Pivoting
7
Remote teams
6
Believing stress is harmful makes it physically harmful — mindset is the lever
Think time must be scheduled like client work or it disappears
Separate what you deliver from how you deliver it to find your pivot
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport answers deep work, tech, and life questions
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
August 3, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Sequentiality — one thing at a time — applies to every role, not just programmers.
Twitter's political influence comes from less than 1% of the US population.
Personal improvement and systemic change reinforce each other, not compete.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Balancing writing, side careers, and life buckets with Cal Newport
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 29, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Work-life balance
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Writing side careers only get hard once you actually succeed.
Support roles need sequential task execution, not just fewer distractions.
One tracked daily keystone per life bucket prevents any area hitting zero.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Deep work environments, career advice, and applying deep thinking to social change
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 27, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Processes & SOPs
5
Big law's billing model structurally rewards inefficiency over focused thinking.
Social media posts are not rare or valuable — career breaks come from skill.
Cicero, Lincoln, and MLK show deep problems demand deep thought, not just passion.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Building a sustainable YouTube career: lessons from 10 years and 130M views
Noah Kagan
July 23, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Motivation
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Starting for fun, not money, is what enables a decade of consistency.
One upload per week beats twice-weekly if quality suffers.
Your creative environment shapes output more than discipline alone.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Office hours, rabbit holes, and deep work productivity habits
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 23, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Replace email with office hours to handle complex questions in minutes instead of days of back-and-forth.
Use idea notebooks and delayed review to satisfy curiosity without letting rabbit holes derail your schedule.
Checklists (not willpower) solve perfectionism: surgeons and pilots use them to eliminate doubt and move forward.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Amantha Imber: resetting work habits, the four-day week, and life after CEO
How I Work
July 22, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Management
6
Processes & SOPs
5
Why productivity experts fall into the same email traps as everyone else
The 100-80-100 four-day work week: same output, one day back
Identity-based rules beat willpower for breaking bad work habits
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Work, Technology, and Deep Living: Practical Advice from Cal Newport
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 20, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Capture tasks with extreme low friction using plain text files to prevent overwhelm.
Face overwhelming workloads head-on by seeing them clearly instead of avoiding them.
Do less, more intentionally: focus on essential priorities to eliminate work resistance.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
10 career lessons for ambitious people in their twenties
Noah Kagan
July 13, 2020
Identity & self-belief
9
Niche selection
7
Communication
6
Geography shapes your peer group more than most people admit.
Failure is only useful if you reward yourself for attempting.
80% of long-term net worth comes from relationships, not skills.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Escaping the shallow life: email, deep work, and purpose
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 13, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Fix email overload by redesigning the workflows that generate it
Deliberate practice gives knowledge workers an outsized edge over peers
A concrete five-bucket game plan for escaping chronic shallowness
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport on smartphones, deep work habits, and training focus
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 9, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
7
Remove apps where companies profit from your attention — keep the rest.
A 10-second daily deep work tally is the keystone habit that drives all others.
Focus is a trainable skill; productive meditation and Roosevelt dashes build it.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Innovation and reinvention as a daily business practice
Bill Gallagher
July 8, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Processes & SOPs
7
Pivoting
6
Standing still in a changing market is the highest-risk move.
Small daily creative acts build the muscle for big breakthroughs.
Deconstructing your own process can double performance without new products.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Careers, productivity systems, and building a deep life with Cal Newport
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 6, 2020
Productivity & habits
10
Deep work & focus
9
Work-life balance
8
Passion follows mastery — career capital beats follow-your-passion advice.
The configure step is where most productivity systems silently break down.
Five buckets — craft, health, community, philosophy, competency — rebuild a lost life.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
A six-step morning routine to engineer a great day
Noah Kagan
July 3, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
5
A repeatable six-step formula to prime mind and body each morning
Phone-free mornings and single-tasking build lasting focus
Start with one step, commit 30 days, cut what doesn't work