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
Habit tune-up: time blocking, document collaboration, and protecting focus
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 3, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
6
Inflate time block estimates by 50% — your instincts are wrong.
Executives: a fixed morning boundary beats mid-day deep work fences.
Satisfaction comes from mastery, not the subject — stop switching.
An entrepreneur's practical guide to goal setting
Noah Kagan
June 29, 2020
Goal setting
9
Productivity & habits
6
Three goal types cover almost every business situation differently
Wrong goal choice caused a podcast burnout and six-month break
Goal plus deadline plus reward equals fulfillment — a usable formula
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport on productivity, email habits, and training focus as a skill
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 28, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Productivity fixes how you work, not how much lands on your plate.
Announcing email boundaries backfires — just quietly check less often.
Concentration is a trainable skill; schools should treat it like one.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Should you write a book? A framework for deciding
Noah Kagan
June 25, 2020
Identity & self-belief
8
Branding
7
Content marketing
5
No deep personal why means the book will defeat you.
Authors outrank founders in status — even with far less real-world impact.
Fear of identity change, not lack of information, stops most writers.
Resilience & grit
YouTube
16 fastest-growing remote jobs in 2020 and how to land one
Noah Kagan
June 22, 2020
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Delegation
5
Do the work for free first — then ask to get paid.
Offline businesses moving online created 16 concrete job opportunities.
Avoid freelance marketplaces; direct outreach gets you paid far more.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Deep work, productivity systems, and the case against social media
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 21, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Processes & SOPs
5
Why procrastination is really a trust problem, not a discipline problem
Capture, configure, control: the three pillars of any working productivity system
Social media's character limits make nuanced thinking structurally impossible
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
10 challenges to overcome fear and build self-reliance
Noah Kagan
June 17, 2020
Identity & self-belief
7
Deep work & focus
6
Silence and solitude unlock creativity most people never access.
Self-reliance beats waiting for someone else to fix your problems.
Ten concrete weekly challenges to disrupt comfort and grow faster.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport answers deep work, social media, and career questions
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 14, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Niche selection
6
Facebook traded its network-effects moat for an addictive scroll feed
Rare, valuable skills are career capital — relocate them, don't abandon them
Structure beats motivation: task boards, calendars, and time blocks outperform inbox-driven work
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
How Tom Bilyeu thinks about money and spending wealth
Noah Kagan
June 12, 2020
Getting rich didn't fix a single insecurity — money never does.
His real safety net is skill, not savings.
Wealth matters only as fuel to build what you believe in.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport answers productivity, technology, and deep life questions
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 9, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Social media rewires your brain to fear judgment — here's the fix
Why Newport went from lazy student to straight-A Ivy Leaguer
Working backwards from a positive vision beats eliminating negatives
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Navigate crises by building networks and seizing emerging opportunities
Masters of Scale
June 3, 2020
Resilience & grit
8
Identity & self-belief
6
In chaos, established patterns break—exploit the openings for emerging opportunities.
Build networks early; their compounding value over decades determines career trajectory.
Seek roles at industry hubs where smart people and momentum concentrate.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport on concentration training, deep work culture, and choosing what to focus on
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 1, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Processes & SOPs
6
Productivity & habits
5
Concentration is trainable via boredom tolerance, reading, and timed sprints
Ad hoc email workflows structurally prevent deep work — fixing culture requires fixing workflow
Choosing what to focus on deeply requires reflection, experimentation, and high information intake
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Managing multiple projects without burnout: Deep work strategies
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
May 28, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Burnout comes from deadline pressure, not workload volume; spread work across time to avoid stress
Michael Crichton published five books during medical school by writing opportunistically whenever possible
Email-driven work pushes deep focus outside office hours, creating inequity for people managing childcare
Resilience & grit
Podcast
The mindset of an extreme winner: Larry Ellison's relentless competition
Founders
May 20, 2020
Resilience & grit
9
Motivation
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Extreme winners create games within games to sustain competitive intensity over decades
Will and desire to win trump talent every time—how Ellison rebuilt Oracle and won America's Cup
Sports provide unmistakable feedback; business's endless quarters lead nowhere without competition
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Charles Kettering: The professional amateur inventor
Founders
May 15, 2020
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Case studies
6
Progress comes from unusual people with imagination and willingness to work independently and courageously.
Treat yourself as a professional amateur: embrace learning through trial and error and repeated failure.
The unknown unknowns far outweigh what we know; approach all work with humble curiosity.