ODR 012 - Arete, Ancient Wisdom, and Flourishing with Brian Johnson
1 May 2023
ODR 009 - Pardon Me, I Couldn't Help but Overhear or How to go from being an Ass-hole to an AYS-hole on Twitter
1 Apr 2023
ODR 008 – Philosophical & Psychological Diversions Part II - Naive Reality and the Fundamental Attribution Error
1 Mar 2023
ODR 007 – Liberterian Free Will, Blame and Shame
https://emcrit.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/KEiwXFf.jpg ()
This Article is a Must Read if you Found this Episode on Free Will Interesting
http://emcrit.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/The-Lucretian-Swerve.pdf (The Lucretian Swerve)
Attributions
While 1% of this episode may be independent thinking, the rest was surely based on influences too countless to cite. Some that clearly remain foremost as inspiration are the article above, Dan Dennett's work, Sam Harris' book, the book, Four Views on Free Will, and all by poor undergrad professors that had to put up with the utter annoyance of my stubbornness.
One of the Most Critical Articles to Read on the Topic
* Chun SS et al. Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nat Neurosci. 2008 May;11(5):543-5. PMID: 18408715
Image by Narcournus
Now on to the 'cast
1 Feb 2023
ODR 006 – Email Part 2 – Tactics & Logistics [Email Part 2/X]
More on Last Episode
https://ondeeperreflection.com/productivity/email-1/ (Email Part 1 - Email is Not the Problem, You Are!)
The Joybox
Deep Work
No Email You Don't Want to See
Turn off email notifications!
Receiving
* Touch Once (listen to https://ondeeperreflection.com/productivity/email-1/ (prior episode))
* Filter Relentlessly
* One Email Address but many! Add the dots! Then you can filter based on this
* Amazon filters to https://apple.co/3HBPMPq (Deliveries App)
* Filter all messages with the word "unsubscribe" into a separate mailbox
* Do not mark emails as spam UNLESS THEY ARE SPAM
* Mark Spam Messages as Spam
* Your Piss Poor Planning is not my Emergency
* Do not let your email inbox be someone else's To Do List -- Tiago Forte
Processing
* Stop Filing/Foldering
* Can Actually Link Emails to Your Task Manager
* Task Management on Calendar will have the link
* Better Yet, Create a Email Forward to Your Task Manager Inbox
* Future Homer/Ikigai
* Avoid the Snooze Button
* https://apps.apple.com/us/app/triage-2/id1585295768?itsct=apps_box_linkanditscg=30200 (Triage 2 App on IOS)
Sending
* Is this the right mode of communication
* https://ondeeperreflection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022-01-06-12-46-scaled.jpeg ()
* Craft a good, useful subject line
* BLUF-allows contexual understanding
* CTA upfront if you are making a pitch,
* Lose the Steps of Back and Forth
* Use Autofill and Templates
* Send Later (Boomerang)
* Emojis / Emoticons b/c tone is tough to relay
* https://iridakos.com/programming/2019/06/26/composing-better-emails?utm_campaign=Recomendoandutm_medium=emailandutm_source=Revue%20newsletter (Compose Better Emails)
* Use Scheduling Programs
* Send Less emails if you want less emails
* One idea per email
* Short is Better
* BLUF or TLDR
* Write email like you speak
* No Reply Necessary
* If it is important, do not put in the sender until ready to send
* Enable undo send in gmail
* Do not CC unless you need to
* Don't Reply All and Take it Off Default
* If you don't want the staff to respond to all, put them in as BCC
* Prune Forwards and Replies
* When the Subject Changes--Change the Subject
*
Following-Up
Loop Closure
Auto-Return if no-reply
Eliminate Email-Induced Anxiety
Random
Services Mentioned
https://www.boomeranggmail.com/referral_download.html?ref=cduhd (Boomerang)
Sanebox
Fastmail
Learn Search
Newsletters
RSS
Email Bankruptcy
* https://www.gmass.co/blog/send-mass-email-to-every-contact-in-gmail-account/ (Consider Sending Out a Message)
Other Stuff
Have a strong password
Consider 2FA
Never put anything important in your work account
Download and archive work email
Now on to the Show...
5 Jan 2023
ODR 005 – NonViolent Communication
This episode is based on one of the most important books I have ever read: NonViolent Communication - A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg
https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Life-Changing-Relationships/dp/189200528X?crid=1JM1I0HYDGMVFandkeywords=nonviolent+communication+by+marshall+rosenbergandqid=1639500482andsprefix=nonviolent%2Caps%2C172andsr=8-3andlinkCode=li2andtag=emcrit-20andlinkId=ffd38beff6d2bd762ae967323bc97a91andlanguage=en_USandref_=as_li_ss_il ()
Nonviolent Communication is one of the most powerful ways of speaking with people that I have ever come across. It eliminates useless strategies like judgment and proving yourself right and instead gives you absolutely tactical techniques to get the things you need for happiness for yourself and your interlocutor.
NVC is not a new, gimmicky set of dictum. It boils down the philosophies of Stoicism, the psychological approaches of CBT and cognitive psychology.
Marshall Rosenberg was a psychologist trained in the classical analytic, but found it unsatisfying and for the most part, unhelpful.
Speaking Giraffe vs. Speaking Jackal
NVC is not really a theory or a guide to behavior--it is a language!!!
Giraffes only hear feelings and needs, never thoughts
Jackal language is about judging, criticizing, analyzing, moralizing and accusing. When we feel unfairly treated, accused or when we want to impose our wishes, we tend to use the language of the jackal. Jackal language is separating. Giraffe language is unifying.
The System
There are essentially two major parts--The four component speech creation and emergency empathy
The Four Components
1. Observation without Evaluation
There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Shakespeare in Hamlet
Avoid generalization, only specifics (generally good to avoid the past as well)
Separate the observation from the evaluation or better yet, eliminate the evaluation
You are the most inconsiderate person--you are always late
J Krishnamurti: "observing without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence"
See page 30 for more on pitfalls in observing
2. Feeling
Internal emotional states vs. thoughts/judgment
If you can replace I feel with I think--then it is not a feeling
If I feel is followed by: that, like, or as if then it is not a feeling
If I feel is followed by a name or pronoun (whether he, you, or I), then it is not a feeling
Eliminate the feel--and see if it still works I feel sad to I'm sad works. I feel
Could you feel it alone on a desert island--Ignored is not a feeling, unimportant is not a feeling, resentment is not a feeling b/c they require another to judge/act. It is a thought about how someone else is judging us
https://emcrit.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/words-that-arent-feelings.jpg ()
p.45 has a list of positive and negative feelings
Stoicism/CBT--We are the only ones responsible for our feelings
We are responsible for everything we do (Replace I have to with I choose to)
Do not connect the feelings to the observations through cause and effect. They relate--they are not caused by.
When I observe X, I feel Y
Even break it down to good/bad
People are disturbed not by things, but by the view they take of them --Epictetus
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" from "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare
...
10 Dec 2022
ODR 004 – Email is Not the Problem, You Are! [Email Part 1/X]
The ODR Podcast
On Deeper Reflection is a podcast on making our lives as happy and productive as possible! Today's episode deals with the bugbear of many in medicine--email.
https://ondeeperreflection.com/productivity/email-tactics/ (Part II is now Up as Well)
1. Understand the Technology
* Email is an amazing Technology!
* Async-Mail
* Sync-Phone, Telegraph, Text, Chatapps,
* Email-Asynchronous with instant delivery--but this should not mean instant viewing
* Philosophy is wrong, not tactics
* Bad Solutions
* An https://nypost.com/2016/05/20/the-path-to-happiness-is-ignoring-emails-not-deleting-them/ (article) on just keeping emails in inbox misses the entire point. There are only two acceptable solutions and ignoring email is definitely one of them, but inbox zero is the better version of that.
* Inbox Zero
* Arrival Rate vs. Departure Rate
* Every inbox item costs you decision dollars
* We don't want to make decisions
* Too Much Email-No!!!!! Too Much Stuff
* I Just Check Once Per Day
* Vs. I set aside time to do Deep Work
* Analogous to I took Facebook off my phone...
2. Email Should Spark Joy
* Used to have combined work and home
* Never, ever do this!!!! Separate Work and Email
* Work Check Once, while at work or every day depending on your job
* Horrible human being would email on Friday afternoon with something horrible
3. Don't treat an async tech as sync
* Don't expect or encourage real-time use
* It is fine to reply right away, but dissuade the belief that you will consistently
* Pacing
4. Your Email Inbox cannot be your ToDo system
5. Just 1 Touch
* DoIt
* SystemIt
* DelegateIt
* SaveIt
* UnsubIt-goes back to brings joy, true joy--not dopamine hit
* FilterIt
* Trashit (actually archive)
* SpamIt
* Maybe-Bringit Back Services
6. Archive, Don't Delete
7. Search, Don't File
8. Inbox Elimination to Keep You Honest
* Too Many Inboxes
* Gmail Mailboxes
9. Cut out Back and Forth Steps
10. For Some Use cases, Are Slack/Basecamp/Teams the Solution?
Books to Read
* https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35GWO3CX33V82andkeywords=0804137382andqid=1641486029andsprefix=0804137382%2Caps%2C251andsr=8-1 (You need to prune down to what is important!!!)
* https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/0349411905/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NCZ50XJ62D3Tandkeywords=0349411905andqid=1641486076andsprefix=0349411905%2Caps%2C97andsr=8-1 (Life Changing! We'll do a book club on this one ASAP)
Now on to the Podcast...
https://ondeeperreflection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/get-shit-done-mug-4.jpg ()
So my friend Michelle Lin was kind enough to solicit a "http://www.aliem.com/scott-weingart-work-smarter/ (How I Work Smarter)" piece on her excellent ALIEM blog. One of the things I mentioned in that piece was a book called Getting Things Done. I've since gotten a bunch of questions and comments about the book. I'd like to take a brief diversion from the main topic of EMCrit and discuss a bit about the book and productivity for docs and resuscitationists.
GTD on ODR
The Books
* http://emcrit.org/gtdbook (Getting Things Done by David Allen) (A new edition, the first in years will be out in 3-4 months)
* https://www.amazon.com/The-Organized-Mind-Thinking-Information/dp/052595418X/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=emcrit-20andlinkCode=w01andlinkId=YWEIKQL4MKCLXCH2andcreativeASIN=052595418X (The Organized Mind)
The Philosophy
A clear mind eliminates stress and allows creativity, so...
Capture all the things that need to get done into a logical and trusted system outside of your head and off your mind, and...
Discipline yourself to make decisions about all the inputs you let into your life, so that you will always have a plan for next actions that you can implement or renegotiate at any moment
(altered from Mindzone Wiki)
Problems with the Book
* Mindset of the Author
* Based on an erstwhile paper-based world
* Can be read as Dogma
The Steps of GTD
Collect/Process/Organize/Review/Do
1. Collection/Universal Capture
* Index Cards
* http://agiletortoise.com/drafts/ (Drafts for IOS)
Inbox(es)
* Email
* Paper Landing Station (The Traditional/Actual Inbox)
* http://getpocket.com (Pocket for Web and IOS)
2. Process
What is it?
Is it an action, spam, or something non-actionable you want to keep?
Action Processing
* Decide if you want to Do it, Don't do it, Delegate it, or Put it in your system
* Is it a project?
* What is the physical next action that must occur to bring you 1 step closer to completion
Next Actions and Projects
https://ondeeperreflection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cascading-for-gtd.png ()
Reference Processing
Things you just want to keep or references for actions
Eliminate Paper!
* http://evernote.com (Evernote)
* https://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX1500-Document-Scanner/dp/B07J3DB57C (Scansnap Scanner) (this item will change your life)
https://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX1500-Document-Scanner/dp/B07J3DB57C ()
3. Organize-If you are not doing it right now, put it in the system
* https://www.nirvanahq.com/ (NirvanaHQ) or https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus (Omnifocus)
* GCal with Fantastical
* Add all reference material as links in your system
Calendar
Only things that absolutely must happen at this date/time
Lists on Task Management System
https://ondeeperreflection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SNAG-0010.png ()
Especially important to have a someday/maybe list, a waiting list, and have a thorough understanding of scheduled events.
4. Review
Daily
* Try to process all email
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
4,773,758
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
17 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
9
Social presence
0
YouTube
93
Engagement
51
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