A World Without Email

Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload

By: Cal Newport

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

New York Times best seller!

From New York Times best-selling author Cal Newport comes a bold vision for liberating workers from the tyranny of the inbox - and unleashing a new era of productivity.

Modern knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital conversations - a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing overall economic growth. Equally worrisome, it makes us miserable. Humans are simply not wired for constant digital communication.

We have become so used to an inbox-driven workday that it's hard to imagine alternatives. But they do exist. Drawing on years of investigative reporting, author and computer science professor Cal Newport makes the case that our current approach to work is broken, then lays out a series of principles and concrete instructions for fixing it. In A World without Email, he argues for a workplace in which clear processes - not haphazard messaging - define how tasks are identified, assigned and reviewed. Each person works on fewer things (but does them better), and aggressive investment in support reduces the ever-increasing burden of administrative tasks. Above all else, important communication is streamlined, and inboxes and chat channels are no longer central to how work unfolds.

The knowledge sector's evolution beyond the hyperactive hive mind is inevitable. The question is not whether a world without email is coming (it is), but whether you'll be ahead of this trend. If you're a CEO seeking a competitive edge, an entrepreneur convinced your productivity could be higher, or an employee exhausted by your inbox, A World Without Email will convince you that the time has come for bold changes, and will walk you through exactly how to make them happen.

©2021 Cal Newport (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A World Without Email crystallizes what so many of us feel intuitively but haven’t been able to explain: the way we’re working isn’t working. Cal Newport charts a path back to sanity, offering a variety of road-tested practices to help us escape the tyranny of our inboxes and achieve a calmer, more intentional, and more productive working life.” (Drew Houston, cofounder and CEO of Dropbox)

“The future of work demands new tools of collaboration. Cal Newport is on a quest to uncover better ways for knowledge workers to collaborate. Out of this will come the new work space.” (Kevin Kelly, senior maverick for Wired)

"Ford studied how to improve productivity and organize the factory floor. Now, Newport is doing the same for knowledge work." (Fortune)

Another one, nothing but net!

Thank you Cal Newport for reinvigorating my insane cleaning and organizing. This is especially helpful now as many of my other teachers are sinking into the bog of eternal stench.

Very interesting take on pervasive societal issue

Email drain most people time and attention and its detrimental impact to knowledge workers and career capital is profound. Cal did a good job discussing the issue and it's implications for non believers and people that ignore the issue. In my view the solutions proposed are not yet fully developed, but it is a good beginning.

Outstanding for anyone struggling with mental overload

Excellent book - well researched and outlined. There are 2-3 ideas I’m going to implement In my organization immediately… If not, attempt a total rehaul of how we work

Thanks to the author!

Thank you, the author, for investigating the topic of this book. Rarely does anyone think about the way email has transformed knowledge-work. This book is a great opportunity to understand that you are not just lazy or not canny enough to cope with the overwhelming number of undealt with mail. Thank you for the “interactive hivemind” term and for “hobzian dynamics” term. I have always though that i am the only one who thinks that sending numerous complex email or other requests to people would never help and would not derive the result needed or would, but only by chance, not routinely. However, this is a very obvious observation. Hyperactive hivemind mindset has turned many people into automatons ignoring this obvious fact. The hivemind feeds off its own outcomes and thrives on its own pervasiveness. Thank you for noticing this and conveying this thought to the readers. Based on this reading i can convey the concept further on to my colleagues so as to try defeat the hivemind together.

Worth more the than the investment

The concepts in this book are worth far more than the monetary and time investment required to consume them. I suspect the investment it will require to put the concepts into practice will also be small relative to the rewards they will yield. I started listening with the idea that Dr. Newport would provide suggestions for doing away with email altogether; a grand objective that might seem naive to most. I was excited to find that he addresses much, much more.

Important

This book is more important than you might think. Knowledge-worker productivity is not understood well. Cal Newport makes a strong contribution.

I related to this book more than any other book!

I could relate so much to every part of this book. I hope I could use what I've learned and make things better.

beautiful sequel to deep work

I was skeptical that I needed to read this book after learning so much in Cal's precious book Deep Work. I was wrong. This book is a phenomenal addition to the canon. It's mainly about productivity hacks and how deliberate work can integrate with technology like Trello or Asana to make you a better knowledge worker.

this book is a must read if you love deep work and are a part of an organization!

Makes you think about your work flow.

I have started to implement a few of these ideas into my daily workflow. And I have to say it seems to help! Just having a starting point and some guidance helps! it's about to you to follow through.

More than email

This book is more than just doing without email, and in fact you do not really need to get rid of email. Rather, use it in the most efficient and effective way for you. My profession does not fit the definition for a “knowledge worker” but there are many insights this book provides. Working through email was my goal many days, but this is ridiculous. I set up rules for certain types of email and schedule my days (mostly) now. And it’s amazing how much better I feel about work and how I feel when I leave work.