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Lesson 1: Do Fewer Things (Principle 1) | Cal Newport

Big Think, 8 min, NaN views, Oct 13, 2025

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Picture a tightrope walker, carefully stepping across a wire hoisted high in the air. To do so without falling, they must maintain constant equilibrium paired with single-minded attention. Distractions are dangerous. In many ways, today’s modern knowledge worker needs similar balance and focus. Productivity expert Cal Newport believes one way to do this is to reduce the number of tasks we try to do simultaneously, thereby minimizing the administrative burden and bandwidth accompanying them. In this video lesson, Newport shares ways to “do less” while obtaining faster and higher-quality results. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Cal Newport: Cal Newport is an MIT-trained computer science professor at Georgetown University who also writes about the intersections of technology, work, and the quest to find depth in an increasingly distracted world.