In This Episode…
My dive into Cal Newport’s Deep Work continues as I explore how to train my mind for deep work. In this episode I briefly share a couple of his suggestions. However I go deeply into one of his suggestions which is uniquely linked to something I did a few years ago that has given me my 15 minutes of fame.
Episode Summary
00:14 – Background to this episode – Rule #2 in Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” is called Embrace Boredom. The name is somewhat confusing in my opinion because it is about resisting distraction.
01:13 – One of Cal Newport’s suggestion is to work like teddy Roosevelt who was famous for being able to focus his concentration and get a lot done very quickly.
02:22 – Meditating productively is another of Cal Newport’s suggestions. This is about mulling over a professional problem while doing something like walking or running. It involves 4 steps:
- Review all of the relevant variables
- Decide on a focused question.
- Ponder on the question and come up with an answer.
- Review the answer identified.
04:21 – The recommendation that caught my eye however was to memorise a deck of playing cards. This is something I did in the past when I won the silver medal in the 1998 World Memory Championships.
06:11 – How to memorise a deck of playing cards – the principles.
07:39 – You can find out how to do this in my book Instant Recall.
10:00 – My entry in the web site dedicated to World Memory Championship statistics – Michael Tipper
