（摘）MIT学霸Cal Newport的写作管理方法

以下内容摘自：Study Hacks （学习的黑客）

About the Blog

Who Are You?

My name is Cal Newport. When I started this blog in the summer of 2007, I was a Ph.D candidate at MIT. I’m now a computer science professor at Georgetown University (specializing in distributed algorithm theory, in case you’re wondering).

Along the way, I’ve also published four books.

I’m married and I have a son (my most ambitious and successful endeavor to date).

What Do You Write About?

In recent years, my blog has focused on two key questions:

1、How do people reach elite levels in knowledge work careers?

2、And of equal importance, how do they do so while keeping their work a meaningful and sustainable part of their life?

I explore these questions using a combination of personal experimentation, case studies, literature reviews, and unjustifiably confident philosophizing.

I’m motivated in this quest partially because I want to keep pushing myself in my own academic career, and partially because the topic fascinates me as a writer. I don’t have definitive answers to these questions, but longtime readers know that I’ve identified three ideas in particular that I think are important…

Idea #1: 

Deep work is crucial.（专心工作是最重要的）

To work deeply is to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. This skill is becoming increasingly rare as our society becomes more distracted, but I believe it’s the key to making an impact in this world. It not only allows you to produce high quality results at an elite level, it also puts you in a state of deliberate practice that rapidly improves your skills.

Here are some sample posts on the topic (last updated, August 2014):

Knowledge Workers are Bad at Working (and Here’s What to Do About It)

If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong

Why I Never Joined Facebook and Why I’m (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook

Don’t Fight Distractions. Make Them Irrelevant.

Idea #2: 

Productivity is an art that’s difficult to master. But it’s worth the effort. （效率是一门很难掌握的艺术，但值得付出努力）

My first two books were about the habits used by elite students. Researching and writing these books instilled in me an appreciation for the importance of a well-tuned set of habits and systems to support your efforts to perform sustainably at a high-level. Being a productivity master is not enough by itself to push to an elite level in your career. But it makes it easier and can radically reduce your stress along the way.

Here are some sample posts on the topic (last updated, August 2014):

Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Day

Deep Habits: Plan Your Week in Advance

Deep Habits: Using Milestones to Get Unstuck

Idea #3:

“Follow Your Passion” (and similar mantras) is bad advice that will hold you back. The reality of building a meaningful career is more complicated and interesting. （类似所谓“随心而动”是个糟糕的建议，它会拖你后腿的。其实真正有意义的工作是更复杂的过程，当然也会更有意思。）

I think the suggestion to “follow your passion” has generated more career unhappiness than all the law schools in the country combined! I love the idea of ending up passionate about your work, but this specific suggestion, which implies that we all have a preexisting passion and all we have to do is match it to our job for persistent bliss, is way too simplistic and emphasizes the wrong things. The choice of your job, for example, is way less important than what you do once you have a job.

In 2012, I wrote a book about this idea. It’s called 《So Good They Can’t Ignore You》.

Here are some sample posts on the topic (last updated, August 2014):

Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do

(For more on this topic, see the Rethinking Passion Archive.)

The Courage Crutch: A Remarkable Life Requires You to Overcome Mediocrity, Not Fear

The Pre-Med and Ira Glass: Complicated Career Advice from Compelling People

The Danger of the Dream Job Delusion

The Passion Trap: How the Search for Your Life’s Work is Making Your Working Life Miserable

On the Value of Hard Focus

Zen and the Art of Investment Banking: When Working Right is More Important Than Finding the Right Work

What Did You Used to Write About?

When I started this blog in 2007, I was a student. Accordingly, I used to write student advice. My focus was on strategies and philosophies for becoming a star student while still enjoying your life (at the elite schools where I spent the last 15 years stress and related mental health issues are a major problem).

Between 2005 and 2010, I also published three student advice guides that people seem to like:How to Be a High School Superstar (Random House, 2010),How to Become a Straight-A Student (Random House, 2006) andHow to Win at College (Random House, 2005). They’ve collectively sold something like 150,000 to 200,000 copies worldwide (and counting), and I’m proud of the impact they’ve had.

Below is a brief sampling of some of my student advice posts (last updated October, 2013). You can find more in the blog archives:

The Study Hacks Philosophy on College

How to Become a Zen Valedictorian: Decreasing Your Stress Without Decreasing Your Ambition

The Straight-A Method: How to Ace College Courses

How Double Majors Can Ruin Your Life: Two Arguments for Doing Less

The Danger of Deep Procrastination and How to Cure Deep Procrastination

Want to Get Into Harvard? Spend More Time Staring at the Clouds

How to Get into Stanford with B’s on Your Transcript

Some Thoughts on Grad School