(typewriter typing) (ping) - [Cal Newport] I'm Cal Newport.

And this is A World Without Email.

A book about how we got to that point in which work has evolved into constant communication, why this is a problem and what we can do about it.

- You're a computer science professor at Georgetown, (laugh) you published a number of academic papers, and that has led into writing the book.

- I wrote Deep Work, which really was about technology and its impact on the world of work.

And then I wrote Digital Minimalism, which was about technology and its impact on our life outside of work.

The new book, A World Without Email, which is back to the theme of technology in the world of work.

And these two different identities began to come together.

(instrumental music) - [J.T.

Ellison] Let's talk about A World Without Email.

- I start by cataloging why the high rate of back and forth communication, that defined so much knowledge, what really is a problem.

It's really making us worse at our jobs.

It really is making us miserable.

(instrumental music) Once you have more than one person you're talking about, and more than one or two things you're trying to figure out, the sheer volume of communication becomes unmanageable.

And your day then devolves into just trying to keep up with all of these different asynchronous back and forth conversations, because each one is like a virtual ping pong match.

And as these balls come over the virtual net, you have to hit it back real quick so that the game continues.

And then we end up checking email, checking slack, checking text messages once every six minutes just to keep up and no other work can happen.

So how do we fix that?

Well, if you're an individual, you can begin rethinking.

You have full autonomy to begin rethinking.

Well what are the alternative ways I want to collaborate with all these different people.

(instrumental music) - Cal, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you for watching a Word on Words.

I'm J.T.

Ellison.

Keep reading.

(instrumental music) - [Cal Newport] Life is too short to not enjoy your work or get deep satisfaction out of it.

The very natural way of collaborating.

It's how we've always done it in the context of you and I are in the same room trying to figure something out.

(music fades)