As a freelancer, you have no choice but to be a jack of all trades. Between marketing your business, responding to clients, and managing your finances, it’s a 24/7 grind. The ability to juggle a million different priorities isn’t just an advantage — it’s a must. But what if all the phone calls, emailing, chatting,…
As 2017 draws to a close, we wanted to take the time to review some of our top productivity posts from the year. As always, we are incredibly grateful to the whole Freedom community and our many talented and knowledgeable productivity experts for sharing their expertise, experience, and advice on how to stay focused on the things that truly matter most. read more
A Social Experiment If you, like many people, use social media and generally agree that it’s an important technology, try the following experiment. Take out a piece of paper and list your most important uses for these services — the activities that social media is well-suited to provide and that unambiguously enrich your life. This…
Contemplating the Importance of Contemplation Franklin Foer has a new book coming out this week. It’s titled, World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech. (more…)
The Disconnected Life Aziz Ansari recently deleted the web browser from his phone and laptop. He also stopped using email, Twitter and Instagram. As he explained in an interview with GQ, when he gets into a cab, he now leaves his phone in his pocket and simply sits there and thinks; when he gets home, instead of…
The Complexities of Simple The core idea of digital minimalism is to be more intentional about technology in your life. Digital minimalists carefully curate these technologies to best support things they value. The idea sounds simple when presented at the high-level, but in practice it dissolves into complexities. One such complexity, which I want to explore here,…
Cal Newport: A Productivity Lesson from a Classic Arcade Game The Distracted Gamer A reader recently shared with me an interesting observation from his own life. To provide some context, this reader is a fan of the classic arcade game snake (shown above). This game is hard: as your snake grows, it requires an increasing amount…
Cal Newport: Why You Should Write an Attention Charter AMBIGUOUS DISTRACTION In the war to reclaim your attention, some battles have clearer fronts than others. It has become clear to me that these differences matter. Social media, for example, is digital nicotine. It’s engineered to hook you so you can be sliced and diced into…