You Already Own Cal Newport’s Favorite Productivity Tool

00:00:00.000 | All right, so I want to go return to a segment we introduced a couple weeks ago, the habit

00:00:08.040 | tune up segment.

00:00:09.780 | The idea here is that I just take a piece of advice from the large toolbox of tips and

00:00:16.960 | tricks and rules I've written about or talked about over the years and just focus on it

00:00:21.280 | a little bit.

00:00:23.020 | And so in particular, today, I want to talk about what I think is the most important piece

00:00:29.080 | of productivity software that's out there.

00:00:31.760 | And I'll give you a hint, you all already have it on all of your devices.

00:00:36.040 | That's the good news.

00:00:37.660 | And that is my strategy of using a working memory dot txt, plain text file.

00:00:45.800 | So I have a couple different names for this.

00:00:47.080 | A working memory dot txt is one name for this.

00:00:49.160 | The other is what I call text file or plain text file productivity.

00:00:53.100 | Over the years, I've used both of those terms.

00:00:54.640 | But the basic idea is quite simple.

00:00:57.040 | You have on the computers you use a blank text file, and you keep it open.

00:01:03.940 | And it's always open on your desktop.

00:01:06.240 | I call mine working memory dot txt.

00:01:09.140 | I'm just using the text editor on my Mac.

00:01:12.120 | I don't even have rich formatting turned on.

00:01:14.280 | It's plain text.

00:01:15.280 | There's no bolding, there's no font size, it's just plain text, and you just have it

00:01:17.920 | open.

00:01:19.120 | And it is literally a way to offload things out of your brain, where you can still see

00:01:25.880 | them, look at them, organize and make sense of them, without having to keep all these

00:01:30.200 | things in your mind at the same time.

00:01:32.760 | And what this is recognizing, the reality this is recognizing is that we have very limited

00:01:38.200 | working memory.

00:01:39.200 | So we can only keep so much in our head at a time.

00:01:41.540 | And as I talk about all the time on this show, there's a real cost of cognitive context switching.

00:01:47.360 | So if you're trying to keep track of multiple different things at the same time, it's very

00:01:50.320 | difficult to sort of go back and forth between them, to see how they trade off, to see how

00:01:56.880 | you're going to make these things work, because your mind is trying to switch back and forth

00:01:59.200 | between all these contexts.

00:02:00.800 | If you offload things to a text file, you can just see them.

00:02:04.920 | It is a huge cybernetic boost to your organizational capacity.

00:02:11.820 | So now you can have lots of things written down, you can see them without having to hold

00:02:15.120 | them in your head, you can focus on one thing at a time at your head.

00:02:18.080 | You can also juggle a bunch of things and see their connections, because when you're

00:02:20.640 | looking down them all written down and not trying to hold them all in your head, you're

00:02:23.560 | not paying nearly as big as a context shifting cost.

00:02:26.600 | It's a huge secret to my success.

00:02:30.160 | So there's a couple ways you might use this.

00:02:32.840 | One would be you're trying to solve a complicated problem.

00:02:36.640 | You know, okay, how are we going to get we have this visitor coming?

00:02:40.880 | How are we going to get the travel logistics?

00:02:42.240 | What do we need to do?

00:02:43.240 | Man, this seems so complicated.

00:02:44.800 | Like how are they?

00:02:45.800 | Are they going to come?

00:02:46.800 | Are they going to need a hotel?

00:02:47.800 | How are they going to stay?

00:02:48.800 | So like you have a problem that's complicated, it has a lot of moving parts.

00:02:51.880 | You're not going to solve this in your head, you start typing everything out.

00:02:55.640 | Like what are all the different things that need to happen?

00:02:57.760 | You refine it and you combine it.

00:02:59.940 | You can start doing visual lexicographic thinking.

00:03:02.320 | Like, well, let me grab these three lines, copy and paste and put them down here and

00:03:05.880 | label them with, all right, this I can all offload to, you know, Jesse to do this I don't

00:03:11.800 | know about this, I'm going to move to Thursday, you can start labeling these things and categorizing

00:03:15.720 | them.

00:03:16.720 | So there's a very complex organization and thinking here that you would not be able to

00:03:19.520 | do very well just in your head.

00:03:21.280 | The text file helps.

00:03:23.040 | Another scenario where the plain text file is going to really help you is let's say as

00:03:25.720 | you're trying to get through your email, trying to clear out all this email that's built up,

00:03:31.040 | I have 50 messages and they're all different.

00:03:35.040 | They're dealing with different issues, all different cognitive contexts.

00:03:39.080 | Trying to deal with each of those one by one as so many of us have learned can be devastating

00:03:43.680 | because you're switching context again and again, email to email and you burn out like

00:03:48.320 | I can't do this anymore and you start hunting for easy to reply to messages because your

00:03:52.000 | brain is tired.

00:03:53.960 | The alternative is using your plain text files, you start actually like capturing what's in

00:03:57.680 | these emails, what their request is, what you need to do in your text file.

00:04:04.240 | Just give each of them a different line.

00:04:06.200 | Now you have 20 or 30 different lines on here.

00:04:09.360 | You haven't had to solve any of these issues that you've just summarized all the emails

00:04:12.200 | with one or two lines on this big text file.

00:04:15.160 | Now you can start grouping, now you can start organizing, now you can start pulling everything

00:04:18.680 | related to one project, copy and pasting and put them next to each other and everything

00:04:22.600 | related to this project over here and things you have no idea how to answer over here.

00:04:26.980 | You're making sense of the information without having to dive into it, without having to

00:04:30.800 | try to keep track of all this stuff in your head.

00:04:33.000 | And then you go through and you answer all these emails at once, then switch through

00:04:36.560 | and put a calendar notice for answering these somewhere else.

00:04:39.720 | It is really like a organizational superpower once you get really good at using this plain

00:04:47.160 | text file to extend and organize what's on your plate.

00:04:50.080 | It's like taking your brain and making it a much better brain.

00:04:52.880 | And it's something I swear by, I keep the file open all the time.

00:04:57.480 | Stuff is just on there.

00:04:58.480 | If I just have a random thought, I'll just write it on there.

00:05:00.160 | And you know, by the end of the day, I try to look at that.

00:05:02.840 | Is there anything on here that needs to go back into a system?

00:05:05.080 | Was there a thought I dropped that I haven't handled?

00:05:06.800 | And I'll I'll look through and kind of process that working memory that TXT at the end of

00:05:10.240 | the day to see what's left on there.

00:05:12.560 | But it's always there.

00:05:14.680 | And it's storing all sorts of information and being used for all sorts of different

00:05:17.920 | purposes.

00:05:19.000 | And I cannot overemphasize once you get good at this simple but powerful productivity hack,

00:05:27.820 | how much extra capability that it gives you.

00:05:31.540 | How much extra capability gives you so stop trying to do all this stuff in your head.

00:05:35.520 | Use a simple text file.

00:05:37.240 | Can I ask a couple of follow up questions?

00:05:40.440 | Yeah.

00:05:41.440 | When did you start this?

00:05:42.440 | It's a good question.

00:05:46.240 | So there if you search, I wrote about it on my blog.

00:05:50.480 | Back in my MIT days.

00:05:53.040 | Look for if you want to do a Google search, I don't know if you have that up there.

00:05:57.440 | Work like me is plain text productivity, working memory dot txt.

00:06:01.080 | I don't know, but it would have been the original post on this would have been 2008.

00:06:06.920 | If I had to guess 2007 maybe a little bit later.

00:06:12.980 | Plain text productivity is what I used to call this I think or freestyle productivity.

00:06:16.080 | Yeah, I also used to call it freestyle productivity.

00:06:18.560 | So like forget, I don't care how you structure this or format this just like get stuff on

00:06:22.200 | the file and start rock and rolling with there's a plain text dash productivity dot net URL.

00:06:29.160 | I take full credit.

00:06:31.200 | I say before you go to the website and realize it's actually about like kidnapping children

00:06:37.360 | or something.

00:06:38.360 | So you're doing this in college or was it after college?

00:06:40.520 | After college, but definitely or pretty early in grad school.

00:06:43.640 | And then do you remember how you discovered it?

00:06:48.480 | That's a good question.

00:06:49.480 | 2009 freestyle productivity.

00:06:50.480 | 2009 there we go.

00:06:53.240 | Probably because there's a whole culture of this in computer science and developers.

00:06:58.060 | So developers, so people who write computer code.

00:07:00.800 | So I was exposed to this obviously as a computer science graduate student at MIT.

00:07:05.200 | They are really big on using these text editors like Vim or Emacs because that's where they

00:07:10.440 | would write their code and they customize it and they got really big on using these

00:07:14.020 | for all parts of their life.

00:07:17.280 | And probably I came across the original.

00:07:22.440 | So I'm really just a deep hole.

00:07:25.020 | I think Danny, I'm gonna get this name wrong.

00:07:28.360 | Danny Lewin maybe gave this famous talk where he introduced the idea of life hackers.

00:07:35.580 | It's like life hacking as a notion was introduced by a gentleman named Danny something and I'm

00:07:41.820 | going to look this up because I've got the actual name.

00:07:44.420 | But anyways, it was this famous talk he gave about life hacking and how computer developer

00:07:51.660 | types life hack.

00:07:53.620 | And on I believe Boing Boing, Cory Doctrow, if I'm remembering this right, posted his

00:08:01.260 | notes from this talk and it was a pretty, oh, Danny O'Brien, not Danny Lewin, Danny

00:08:07.060 | O'Brien.

00:08:08.060 | 2005.

00:08:09.060 | So look, I'm looking it up in real time.

00:08:15.460 | Blah blah blah.

00:08:16.700 | The term life hack was coined in 2004 during the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.

00:08:21.900 | It's coined by technology journalist, journalist Danny O'Brien to describe the embarrassing

00:08:27.740 | scripts and shortcuts productive IT professionals use to get their work done.

00:08:32.920 | And then Merlin Mann ran with that notion.

00:08:35.340 | Okay, so Danny O'Brien was talking about how IT professionals use these macros and

00:08:40.580 | shortcuts in a text editor.

00:08:43.320 | How they would run their whole lives out of these text editors.

00:08:46.980 | So real early in this notion of digitally enhanced productivity was this idea of life

00:08:51.060 | hacking, which became to encompass everything.

00:08:54.000 | But when it was first introduced, it was what IT nerds would do to track their life and

00:08:58.540 | they would keep track of everything in their life in these text files.

00:09:01.100 | And so I'm sure that's where I was exposed to it through Merlin Mann and 43 Folders in

00:09:07.060 | that 2007, 2008 period.

00:09:08.060 | So I bet that's how I was exposed to it.

00:09:10.940 | But that's it.

00:09:11.940 | It's a whole interesting history, by the way, the whole life hack history.

00:09:18.020 | What about when you're walking around?

00:09:19.020 | Do you have like a file on your phone?

00:09:22.500 | I don't.

00:09:23.500 | I don't.

00:09:24.500 | So it depends on how long the walk is.

00:09:27.420 | So I'll typically have my bag with me.

00:09:29.260 | I'll have a notebook in it and I can capture thoughts.

00:09:31.860 | But yeah, if you're on foot and this is like a productive meditation, right, is working

00:09:36.460 | through ideas just in your head.

00:09:38.960 | You're much worse at it than if you're sitting at a computer with the plain text file.

00:09:44.260 | But it's a really good exercise because A, it expands your ability to concentrate and

00:09:47.700 | focus just that discipline of keeping track of things in your head.

00:09:51.220 | And B, the walking can unlock things.

00:09:53.220 | It can unlock creative connections that you don't get sitting down.

00:09:55.920 | So you almost have two options here.

00:09:59.180 | And I'm focusing now on trying to have big ideas or like original ideas.

00:10:03.580 | You can sit at a screen and expand your working memory with a plain text file and try to move

00:10:07.820 | ideas around and figure things out.

00:10:09.580 | Or you can go for a walk.

00:10:11.580 | You don't have as big of a working memory to work with, but you get the ambulation bonus,

00:10:15.980 | this idea that walking can unlock other types of connections.

00:10:18.380 | So it's sort of like two different types of cognition.

00:10:21.260 | But certainly I am kind of committed or I don't know how to plan anymore, especially

00:10:27.220 | planning email, trying to figure out, OK, I have to book my travel for something.

00:10:33.260 | Those type of seemingly mundane tasks actually have with them seven or eight different things

00:10:37.940 | that have to happen that connect and dates that matter.

00:10:40.420 | I don't know how to do that anymore if I can't have a text file to start moving all this

00:10:44.380 | information.

00:10:45.380 | Right.

00:10:46.380 | Part of it, too, is like my next question is when you're writing, do you like and you're

00:10:50.500 | working on whatever you're working on, do you and something comes up that's not related?

00:10:54.660 | Do you write on that a lot?

00:10:56.660 | Yeah.

00:10:57.660 | Yeah.

00:10:58.660 | Does that happen a lot?

00:10:59.660 | Yeah.

00:11:00.660 | Look, I have my computer open.

00:11:01.660 | So let me load this up.

00:11:04.100 | All right.

00:11:05.820 | So on mine now, it's called WM2.txt.

00:11:09.220 | WM2.txt was my working memory text file.

00:11:13.140 | It turns out when you keep a text file open on your computer for years, like weird stuff

00:11:17.460 | happens at some point.

00:11:18.580 | I don't know.

00:11:19.580 | I just couldn't access that file anymore.

00:11:21.020 | So I moved on to WM2.

00:11:23.860 | And I'm looking at it now.

00:11:27.380 | The first item is a GU mailbox colon to grade request.

00:11:32.380 | So there's like two students who are asking for their current grades.

00:11:35.940 | And I came across that and I know I need to do that.

00:11:38.660 | And so I'm just noting it there to there's another.

00:11:42.980 | And it's literally just a hyphen, plain text hyphen.

00:11:46.860 | The next thing says schedule new haircut.

00:11:49.300 | So I was supposed to get my haircut yesterday.

00:11:52.140 | My stylist got COVID.

00:11:53.140 | They're like, I have to reschedule.

00:11:54.820 | And I was like, I can't do this right now.

00:11:56.700 | So I just wrote down schedule new haircut.

00:11:57.940 | And now that's going to sit there and I'll see it.

00:11:59.940 | I'm not going to forget.

00:12:00.940 | And then I have 330 office hours Zoom because there was, as I mentioned, I was like, oh,

00:12:06.100 | at the last second as I was coming over here, a student asked if they could ask me some

00:12:09.980 | questions about an exam on Zoom.

00:12:11.420 | And I told them we could use the office hours, Zoom room, et cetera.

00:12:13.940 | Boom, it's just on here.

00:12:15.580 | And I see this every time I open it.

00:12:17.260 | So this is just stuff on my mind is no longer on my mind.

00:12:22.860 | And the other thing I'll do is I'll put equal signs, a bunch of equal signs to make divider

00:12:28.340 | horizontal divider lines.

00:12:29.480 | So if I want to just have a space for just messing around with things, I put a bunch

00:12:32.300 | of equal signs and like below it, I'm just messing around with notes.

00:12:35.280 | And typically at the top of my text file is like things I don't want to forget tasks to

00:12:38.980 | deal with or process.

00:12:40.460 | And then if I want to think about another thing, I might put another bunch of horizontal

00:12:45.060 | equal signs and so kind of create these little spaces where I can just mess around with.

00:12:50.220 | I guess it's one last clarification question.

00:12:52.280 | So like when you're walking around, like doing an errand or something and you don't have

00:12:56.320 | like your phone or you don't happen to have a notebook, what do you, I guess you always

00:13:00.740 | have like a piece of paper.

00:13:01.900 | So you just write it on that.

00:13:03.100 | Yeah.

00:13:04.100 | And if I don't, I just, you know, holding it.

00:13:06.100 | Yeah.

00:13:07.100 | Got it.

00:13:08.100 | Yeah.

00:13:09.100 | And then you write it down at the end of the day, you look at that notebook and then

00:13:11.460 | you look at your file.

00:13:12.460 | Yeah.

00:13:13.460 | So if I'm just thinking about something when I'm walking and I just have it in my head,

00:13:16.060 | I'm going to write it down as soon as I get back.

00:13:17.900 | Got it.

00:13:18.900 | Yeah.

00:13:19.900 | And that's another great thing.

00:13:20.900 | It's an incredibly low friction to just drop it into a text file.

00:13:23.660 | Just whatever, however you want to summarize.

00:13:25.180 | That's why I used to say freestyle productivity.

00:13:26.620 | I don't care how you do it.

00:13:27.620 | Just get it in there.

00:13:28.980 | You know what you mean.

00:13:30.680 | Whatever formatting you want to do, just get it in there and then it's out of your head.

00:13:34.780 | Yeah.

00:13:35.780 | So anyways, that is the most important piece of productivity software that you already

00:13:39.100 | own, but you're not using is your text editor.

00:13:43.220 | And maybe in the future we'll have like an augmented reality thing or wherever you are,

00:13:48.540 | it's like, boom, you pull up this thing.

00:13:50.020 | I can just like drop thoughts into it and then boom, like make it go away.

00:13:53.820 | It's like always kind of there with you with some sort of like AI agent that like help

00:13:57.940 | you like a Siri type thing.

00:13:59.260 | I can see how this goes.

00:14:00.740 | I mean, we could try, this would be difficult, but we could try to have a high price software

00:14:04.980 | project product.

00:14:06.620 | It's actually just a text file.

00:14:08.640 | In the meantime, I think we had like really good marketing for it.

00:14:11.660 | And it was, there was like a really compelling YouTube video where people are getting on

00:14:15.340 | private jets and this and that.

00:14:16.900 | And it's just like a really slick sound effect when it turns on.

00:14:21.140 | And in the end people don't realize that it's just the text, the text editor for only $49.95

00:14:28.940 | a month.

00:14:29.940 | You too can unlock your productivity brilliance with WM2, the most important piece of productivity

00:14:37.820 | software, which is true, ever invented.

00:14:42.300 | And all it is is like a little script that just opens a notebook.

00:14:48.260 | [Music]

You Already Own Cal Newport’s Favorite Productivity Tool | Deep Questions Podcast

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