Overcoming To-Do List Paralysis | Deep Questions With Cal Newport

00:00:00.000 | Let's start get back to basics a little bit do a habit tune up.

00:00:05.000 | So this is where I go and I take a particular strategy or tactic relevant to living a deeper

00:00:11.800 | more productive life and we we get into the weeds.

00:00:14.860 | This one is based off of my recent experience of coming back from a long vacation and that

00:00:21.900 | dreaded first weekday back after vacation where you you you face everything that has

00:00:28.000 | piled up you go through your inboxes you confront your calendar again you go to your long neglected

00:00:34.000 | quarterly plans and you realize okay I'm completely overwhelmed how am I ever going to get my

00:00:37.720 | arms around this it's never my favorite thing but I went through it but as I was going through

00:00:41.680 | this the Monday after I got back from my vacation it got me thinking about a bigger effect that

00:00:47.200 | I wanted to discuss.

00:00:48.700 | So here's the phenomenon that I think is common you have a big let's call it task list right

00:00:55.520 | you you go through your calendars your inbox you have all these various things you're writing

00:00:59.880 | out that need to get done you're looking at this list of all this wide variety of different

00:01:04.880 | types of things and you freeze it just seems impossible to even get started it's not that

00:01:14.720 | any one particular task is impossible to do or incredibly daunting it's just somehow seeing

00:01:19.760 | the combination of them seems to mentally speaking freeze you in place and it's very

00:01:24.240 | difficult to make progress you go online and you have to check baseball trade rumors and

00:01:28.360 | you go back and check your inbox again and you look at social media and you do anything

00:01:31.280 | you can but try to tackle this list something about something about it freezes you.

00:01:36.840 | So let me give you an example so we're going for those who are watching this on YouTube

00:01:41.080 | youtube.com/calendarportmedia I'm bringing up on the screen now a sample list let me

00:01:46.520 | scroll this slightly all right so if you're looking if you're looking at this on YouTube

00:01:51.840 | on the left here I have a list of just the types of things you would drop onto a list

00:01:56.400 | as you're trying to catch up after vacation so for those listing I have on here transfer

00:02:00.960 | money next step on dinner party new copy for Karen budget reply to Jennifer reply to mom

00:02:05.720 | add reminder to calendar for bill laundry notes to Alex order new cable update Amazon

00:02:10.920 | bio writing plan for rest of week a lot of these actually by the way came from my processing

00:02:17.040 | of everything not so long ago so when you face a task list like this it's common to

00:02:25.040 | freeze you feel significant resistance to action now what's actually going on here is

00:02:31.840 | there's a there's a neuroscientific explanation for this freezing if you get into the details

00:02:38.960 | of how the human brain actually plans and then motivates you to do non-simple physical

00:02:44.920 | action it gets pretty complicated but there's a whole what we call there's a sort of a

00:02:51.280 | plan execute reward loop where if there's something you want to do you set this target

00:02:58.720 | of what you're trying to accomplish this loop then accesses the hippocampus so it can

00:03:03.360 | look at memories and pull up memories of you executing this thing in the past so that you

00:03:07.960 | can simulate different plans and find one that works then there's a very complicated

00:03:12.480 | connection from here to the ventral striatum is a sort of complicated uniquely human part

00:03:18.520 | of the brain that's very involved in motivation for non-simple physical activity so I have

00:03:23.480 | to get up and get started working on the budget so it's not a simple physical activity such

00:03:29.660 | as I need to reach over here to grab this apple but something more abstract and complicated

00:03:33.080 | they all work together the motivation is generated and you start working when you see a list

00:03:38.160 | that's this long and this diverse so it's many different things and they are semantically

00:03:44.320 | unrelated what's involved in getting new copy to Karen is very different than what's involved

00:03:50.040 | in working on your household budget that apparatus can't function that apparatus is meant for

00:03:57.520 | this is the thing you want to do let's make a plan here's your motivation go and do it

00:04:01.200 | now you're done here's a dopamine yay it can't handle the idea of these 10 or 15 different

00:04:06.520 | things that all have to be done because it can't literally have the bandwidth to try

00:04:12.000 | to make a plan to envision a plan to pull out memories from your hippocampus and simulate

00:04:16.160 | your plan for 15 things at once so that feeling of task freeze that feeling of task freeze

00:04:22.440 | that we see when we have a long and diverse list is actually the neuroscientific correlate

00:04:28.240 | of our planning apparatus freezing itself it can't deal with it so it doesn't generate

00:04:33.480 | the needed motivation so this way of work and organization that's so common in modern

00:04:39.680 | life where we have a lot of very varied things that have to be done all mixed together all

00:04:43.880 | at once really is incompatible with our brain so I was facing the same thing I had a list

00:04:48.600 | like this longer but actually a lot of these things are from that list so what do you do

00:04:53.440 | here well if you understand if you understand what's happening in your brain you can work

00:04:57.840 | with that and what I do what I did the other day what I commonly do in these situations

00:05:03.800 | is I will begin sorting these lists and combining like tasks tasks that are a similar type of

00:05:13.560 | behavior using a similar part of your brain and I will sort them into standalone groups

00:05:19.360 | or piles so if you look on the screen here so again if you're watching if you're watching

00:05:23.160 | on YouTube you'll see I have one group where I have reply to Jennifer reply to mom next

00:05:29.040 | step dinner party and I've elaborated that task to say email restaurant because that's

00:05:33.880 | actually what the next step is I have to email the person at the restaurant those three things

00:05:37.760 | are together why because it's all the same type of thing I'm in email I'm composing messages

00:05:44.280 | to people that's a group then I have a separate group below that where I put add calendar

00:05:49.760 | reminder order new cable update calendar I should say update Amazon bio and start laundry

00:05:57.040 | by the way a lot of those are actually real Jesse so the new cable is I ordered an Ethernet

00:06:01.600 | cable for the HQ because we were having some connection issues with the NPR recording so

00:06:06.600 | I'm just going to hardwire this be straight to the straight to the modem update the bio

00:06:11.120 | my agent wrote me it was like you realize your bio on Amazon your author bio was written

00:06:16.800 | right when so good they can't ignore you came out in 2012 so it's a little bit out of date

00:06:21.120 | so these are actually real things but why are those four things together in this group

00:06:24.760 | because in my mind those are all what I would think of as small non-demanding task I have

00:06:30.080 | to add something on the calendar I could jump over to Amazon and order something I have

00:06:34.000 | to copy this bio for my website and log in so it's it's online minor semi-tedious but

00:06:40.720 | requires very little thinking type tasks next group notes for Alex notes for Karen now I

00:06:48.440 | put these together because these are things that are going to require time and non-trivial

00:06:52.160 | thinking these both actually came from my real list the other day notes for Alex Alex

00:06:56.680 | is my my doctoral student it's notes I owed him on his doctoral dissertation proposal

00:07:01.800 | Karen Karen is actually the the web designer and consultant that keeps Cal Newport calm

00:07:07.840 | up and running we're doing a revamp at Cal Newport calm and actually order some notes

00:07:12.320 | on the latest design so those are things that require thinking I got to sit down I got to

00:07:18.080 | load up a non-trivial cognitive context I have to give it non-trivial thought I put

00:07:22.360 | those together and finally I have budget transfer money writing plan in its own group budget

00:07:27.440 | transfer money these are kind of similar things you're thinking about your finances family

00:07:30.800 | finances you're in a planning type mode I felt like that was a good mode where you would

00:07:35.020 | also maybe want to work on a writing plan so I have I have grouped together like with

00:07:40.000 | like the final piece of the strategy is that you tackle one group at a time when you're

00:07:47.440 | doing that group that's what you're all in doing that group and then you step back you

00:07:51.080 | reset your rest you go get the new coffee you go for a walk then you come back and tackle

00:07:55.920 | another group take a break you know I'm going to go chat over here check in on whatever

00:08:02.040 | going on online then tackle another group this ends up being a much more effective way

00:08:07.380 | of getting through this work because what you will immediately notice is that when you

00:08:11.000 | are focusing on here is a group of similar tasks that I've grouped together and all I

00:08:16.200 | want to do is tackle this group your planning apparatus can deal with that oh it's email

00:08:21.040 | time all right let's get in that we can do that I get that we're going to go in here

00:08:24.600 | and send emails that we're going to be done that makes sense that's coherent here's the

00:08:29.560 | plan let's execute here's the motivation a little bit of oh you got it done when you're

00:08:33.720 | done when you group like by like your brain can get in the game and you get rid of the

00:08:39.040 | task freeze and you can actually make progress now why do you take a break between the groups

00:08:42.560 | because you have to let that cognitive context begin to dissipate so you're not stuck in

00:08:47.040 | the email context you're not stuck in the doing difficult notes to students and web

00:08:51.800 | consultant context let the context dissipate let your brain catch a breather and load up

00:08:56.920 | that whole planning apparatus for the next group so I think the name for this habit tune

00:09:02.520 | up I was I was used in my notes is task list are inhumane and what I meant by that is just

00:09:09.800 | staring at a task list like the one I had up on the screen on the left there where it's

00:09:13.400 | 15 different unrelated things is literally in human in the sense that it does not match

00:09:20.200 | the way the human brain works and so we have to work with our actual cognitive apparatus

00:09:24.960 | grouping like by like tackling groups with rest in between that's the way to tackle long

00:09:31.680 | diverse task list at least that's the way I did it and it got me through catching up

00:09:36.520 | when I got back from my trip so is that test list and you're working memory dot working

00:09:41.600 | memory dot txt exactly I don't want frills I want to just type as fast as I can to a

00:09:46.240 | text file then it's then it's so easy in a text file to copy and paste and move things

00:09:50.240 | around and just put a bunch of equal signs to put little dividers between them I love

00:09:54.320 | the simplicity of it and then also when I'm tackling individual task and I have my working

00:09:59.200 | memory dot txt plain text file open I always just have a buffer section where I can copy

00:10:03.920 | text and write text and put notes to myself just to extend my working memory and help

00:10:08.820 | me tackle the task in front of me so yeah when I'm going through a list like this and

00:10:14.060 | organizing it grouping it and executing it the number one tool that ties that all together

00:10:18.720 | is that plain text file plain text tile on my desktop is organizing extending my brain

00:10:24.320 | organizing all this work so all of this stuff I did in a text file on my desktop and then

00:10:29.560 | when you when you're on vacation you have certain things that come up you just write

00:10:32.920 | it down your moleskin right and then transfer that over when you get back to a computer

00:10:36.080 | yeah whatever capture you want to use yeah or I had a paper notebook the bigger spiral

00:10:41.160 | bound notebook but yeah you capture wherever and then you just when you need to deal with

00:10:45.480 | it transfer it all into the text file go through your calendar to see what's coming up transfer

00:10:51.000 | the relevant things to your text file go through your inboxes transfer the relevant things

00:10:54.600 | your text file just dump the whole thing you'll have task freeze this list is just completely

00:10:59.560 | freeze your mind but don't stop there sort get it into the groups and then you can actually

00:11:04.920 | you can actually start executing it's all brain hacking it's all brain hacking and it's

00:11:08.680 | it's almost miraculous how it works because it's it's a weird effects task freeze is a

00:11:12.320 | weird effect it's why can't I do the first thing in this list it's easy I have to send

00:11:17.760 | one email why can't I do it it's because your brain is looking at the whole list and says

00:11:21.000 | I can't handle that if I can't handle it I cannot get the proper whatever elements of

00:11:27.280 | the cortex the ventral striatum operating properly and if that doesn't operate properly

00:11:32.280 | you don't get motivation you need the brain for motivation it's chemicals it's neurons

00:11:37.600 | it's not some dualistic you have your soul that that is motivated independently of your

00:11:43.040 | of your hardware as a human it all goes together so if you're getting back from vacation I

00:11:48.360 | would suggest that I'll say just my wife knows me well she said I'm clearing my schedule

00:11:55.960 | I'm clearing your schedule I I'm going to take the kids I don't have anything to do

00:12:00.680 | with you on Monday the Monday after vacation because she knows how like upset and cranky

00:12:05.340 | I get when I have to that I mean these lists get long for me when I'm away for two weeks

00:12:09.520 | there's a lot of things that build up and she's like it always stresses you out and

00:12:13.000 | it always takes you longer than you think and so like I'm taking the kids to the pool

00:12:16.480 | and I have no expectation of seeing you until the evening and she was right took all day.

00:12:20.800 | [MUSIC]

Overcoming To-Do List Paralysis | Deep Questions With Cal Newport

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