Notes

Notes are short quotes that might stimulate a reflection or act as a quick tip to change practice. Sometimes they include a brief comment.

  • [Note] In the knowledge sector, systems are left up to each individual

    “In the knowledge sector…decisions about organizing and executing work are largely left up to individuals to figure out on their own. Companies might standardize the software that their employees use, but systems for assigning, managing, organizing, collaborating on, and ultimately executing tasks are typically left up to each individual.” – Cal Newport

  • [Note] Ask your coworkers to push back

    “Ask your coworkers’ to push back. The most basic way to understand what people think of you is to ask them. If you’re not soliciting dissent, it’s unlikely you’re hearing the truth about what it’s like to work [with] you.” – Ron Carucci

  • [Note] Arbitrary and ossified processes

    “…how we work in the knowledge sector today is ossified into tradition and conventions, some of which are arbitrary and some of which are borrowed from different, older types of work.” – Cal Newport

  • [Note] Treat perfection like a process

    “Treat perfection like a process, not an achievable state. Perfectionism is crippling to productivity. I’ve known academics that can’t even start projects because of perfectionism.” – Matt Might

  • [Note] Rebuild knowledge work into something sustainable

    “I want to rescue knowledge work from its increasingly untenable freneticism and rebuild it into something more sustainable and humane, enabling you to create things you’re proud of without requiring you to grind yourself down along the way.” – Cal Newport

  • [Note] When time management was easy

    “…in my own work on these topics, I describe more complicated time management strategies with reluctance. My bigger wish is to help reform office work to the point that they’re no longer needed…” – Cal Newport

  • [Note] What if good scholarship looks like laziness?

    “To put it another way: become hard to reach, avoid new tech tools, be slow to answer e-mails, become blissfully ignorant of memes, turn down coffee requests, refuse to “hop on” calls, and spend whole days outside working in a single idea—these are exactly the type of lazy behaviors that can change the world.” -…

  • [Note] Adapting to machines and their standards

    “We find ourselves adapting to machines and hold ourselves to their standards: People are judged by the speed with which they respond, not the quality of their response.” – Robert Poynton

  • [Note] Hobbies are a way of letting stress go

    “Even the best jobs create stress. Hobbies are a way of letting stress go before it explodes.” – Matt Might

  • [Note] Send a voice note instead of a text

    “Send a voice note instead of a text; they sound like personal mini podcasts.” – The Guardian

  • [Note] Urgent email is not a thing

    “Questions you can wait hours to learn the answers to are fine to put in an email. Questions that require answers in the next few minutes can go into an instant message. For crises that truly merit a sky-is-falling designation, you can use that old-fashioned invention called the telephone.” – Fried & Hansson

  • [Note] Write what the reader wants

    “Great writing requires you to position your idea in a way that will resonate with the reader. Average writers start with what they want to say without considering how it will land with the reader. Great writers understand the journey starts with what the reader desires.” – Farnam Street