The Best of Cal Newport: Intentional Productivity & Thoughtful Living — Roxine Kee

This article is a curation of links and resources from Cal Newport over the past 12 years.

In 2012, my family immigrated to Canada from the Philippines and I started Grade 12. I struggled to adjust to the new school system, find friends, and juggle applying for university and swim training (15-20 hours a week).

Around that time I stumbled on to Cal’s blog. It changed my life.

“Study Hacks”, as it was called back then, documented his journey and strategies in studying more efficiently as a graduate student. The blog morphed into reflections and experiments on finding work one loves as he himself become a tenured professor at Georgetown University.

Eventually, the blog came to be about living a life of focus and meaning, as he published books, grew his audience, and now, started his podcast all without having a social media presence.

In the 9 years that I’ve been following his blog and books, Cal’s work has helped me get a 3.8 in my first year of university (until I got lazy), land my dream job (“finding your passion” is for suckers), and cultivate a life of calm and focus (I recently deleted Instagram).

In this article, I gather the best resources Cal’s put out over the years. Whether you’re a student, a knowledge worker, or a recovering dopamine addict, he has a book, a blog post, or a course that addresses that. I’ll update this page as I finish new books of his or resurface more content.

A few notes before we get into things:

I’ve put book titles in italics and blog post titles in “quotation marks”
The book links are Amazon affiliate links. You know the drill: if you buy anything from this list, you’ll help support the blog (and fuel my 5:00 AM writing sessions).
I don’t recommend anything I don’t like. Unless otherwise noted, I’ve personally read and enjoyed every book and article on this list.

A short message before we dive in: If you’re a Cal Newport fan, then you’ll probably enjoy my weekly newsletter on web3, creativity, and the creator economy. Subscribe below to get more posts, or check out previous editions to “try before you buy”.