📖 Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
July 29, 2024 | Melissa McHenry
Introduction: Understanding Slow Productivity 🐌
Cal Newport has heavily influenced me. His book Deep Work has helped set me apart from others in my career. Once a busy bee, I learned to embrace a “less is more” approach to my projects. Once again, Cal delivers with his latest book, Slow Productivity. Cal’s insights highlight that meaningful and fulfilling work arises from working at a sustainable pace, not from constant busyness.
Part 1: Foundations 🏗️
Chapter 1: The Rise and Fall of Psuedo-Productivity 🏭
Newport traces the history of productivity metrics, initially designed for agricultural and industrial sectors, to the modern knowledge work environment. He critiques the shift towards “pseudo-productivity,” where visible activity (like constant emailing) is mistaken for actual productive effort. With blurred lines between work and life due to continuous connectivity, the modern workplace often leads to burnout and decreased meaningful output.
Pseudo-Productivity
The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort.
📉 Key Insight:
As knowledge workers, our work should be measured by the quality of our output. If we are required to work a certain amount of hours, it’s our responsibility to manage our time in a way where we can maximize the quality of output. It’s about creating work that is meaningful and valuable.
Chapter 2: A Slower Alternative 🌱
“Slow Productivity” is introduced to counter the high-speed, high-stress work culture. Drawing inspiration from the slow food movement, Newport suggests a slower, more deliberate approach to work.
Slow Productivity
A philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable manner, based on the following three principles.
1. Do fewer things.
2. Work at a natural pace.
3. Obsess of quality.
🌟 Key Insight:
In the author’s words:
“To embrace slow productivity, in other words, is to reorient your work to be a source of meaning instead of overwhelm, while still maintaining the ability to produce valuable input”
– Cal Newport
Chapter 3: Do Fewer Things 📝
Principle #1: Do Fewer Things
Strive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomplishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most.
Newport emphasizes the importance of reducing obligations to focus on what truly matters. He cites historical and modern examples, such as Jane Austen and Benjamin Franklin, who thrived by limiting their commitments and concentrating on deep, meaningful work.
For each project we take on, there is an “overhead tax”: the meetings, coordinating, scheduling, emails, and messages. By having fewer projects, we reduce our overhead tax, having more time and less chaos resulting from the “overhead tax.”
Cal is also an advocate for a pull vs push model of work. He shared the case study of the Broad Institute, which was behind on its sequencing. They moved to a pull mode where once the tray was full of samples, it meant that the team on the next step was too busy, so the group filling the tray of samples would move to help the team that was behind. This change drastically improved their turnaround time.
💡 Fostering teamwork and encouraging cross-training among team members can lead to a more resilient team, making it easier for individuals to transition between roles and reducing the risk associated with turnover.
To apply this as a knowledge worker, create a public task list with the projects you are currently working on and another list that shows the projects in your queue to be started. Cal emphasized that it is vital to communicate with the people assigning you work when they can expect you to start working on a project and how long it will take to complete. He also suggests having an intake procedure for projects that involves the person assigning the work doing more upfront work for you.
In this chapter, he suggested that we intentionally set limits, having 2-3 missions (in Cal’s situation, his two are author and professor). Within each mission, you have projects. Try to limit working on one project per day and ensure that all of your projects have enough time scoped so that you can work at a natural pace.
💡Key Insight:
In most work settings, reducing the number of projects you work on will require good communication. You’ll need to indicate how long a project will take to complete or when you can start on it. You will need to convey that you have not extinguished ambition; instead, you find meaning in creating quality work. Clearly communicating what you will and will not commit to makes it easier to follow this first principle in the work setting.
Consider setting limits on different types of projects you work on so your brain juices don’t get spread too thin or wasted on a certain type of project. For example, when recruiting, I like to cap the number of open positions I am working on because recruiting has such a large overhead tax, and it can begin to feel like busy work, and I miss doing deep work.
Chapter 4: Work at a Natural Pace 🌿
Principle # 2: Work at a Natural Pace
Don’t rush your most important work. Allow it instead to unfold along a sustainable timeline, with variations in intensity, in settings conducive to brilliance.
Newport compares the monotonous work of the industrial era with the flexibility needed in knowledge work. Cal highlights that some managers need to learn how to accommodate the autonomy and variety of work within the knowledge sector; instead, many managers have created an “invisible factory.”
He proposes that we take longer and give ourselves more than enough time to accomplish objectives. Humans aren’t great at estimating cognitive endeavours, so he suggests that you estimate a reasonable amount of time to complete a project and then double it. By doing this, you counter this instinct toward unjustified optimism.
He also suggests embracing “small seasonality” or periods when you either work less or your cognitive efforts are less demanding. For example, schedule “rest projects” that will require less cognitive effort. Embrace working in cycles rather than maintaining the same amount of effort at all times.
🌟 Key Insight:
Working at a natural pace also embraces seasonality and cyclical working. Expecting yourself to work at the same pace all the time is setting yourself up for failure. Instead, design your work so that you are over-scoping the time it takes for cognitive efforts and build opportunities to slow the pace at which you work down even more to provide space to rejuvenate through “rest projects.”
Rushing compromises quality. Working at a natural pace helps sustain high-quality output and personal well-being.
Chapter 5: Obsess Over Quality 🎨
Principle #3: Obsess Over Quality
Obsess over the quality of what you produce, even if this means missing opportunities in the short term. Leverage the value of these results to gain more and more freedom in your efforts over the long term.
Newport argues that prioritizing quality over quantity can lead to long-term success. He shared the story of Paul Jarvis, who used the success of his entrepreneurial endeavours to gain more freedom instead of revenue (time freedom over money is a massive motivator for me).
Quality is not perfectionism, he warns; give yourself enough time but not unlimited time.
“Focus on creating something good enough to catch the attention of those whose taste you care about, but relieve yourself of the need to forge a masterpiece.”
Cal Newport
🎯 Key Insight:
Obsessing over quality is not perfectionism. We can be proud of quality work, which makes our jobs more fulfilling and motivating while preventing us from the “busyness” that comes when we slap our work together and jump from project to project.
Practical Applications for Company Culture 👥
1. Avoid Pseudo-Productivity: Encourage employees to focus on meaningful work rather than constant activity. Measure success by output quality, not by hours worked or emails sent.
2. Communicate Openly: Foster a culture of transparency about project timelines and workloads. Realistic timelines and scope adjustments can reduce stress and improve output quality.
3. Implement Slow Productivity Frameworks: By adopting Newport’s principles, companies can create a healthier work environment where employees feel proud of their work, less rushed, and more valued.
Personal Impact 🌱
Applying Newport’s principles as an entrepreneur has significantly influenced my approach to time management. By focusing on fewer tasks, working at a natural pace, and prioritizing quality, I have seen improvements in both personal fulfillment and work output. These principles can transform company culture, making it more supportive and productive.
Conclusion: Embracing Slow Productivity 🐢
Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity offers a compelling argument for slowing down our work to achieve better results and personal satisfaction. By doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality, we can create a more fulfilling and productive work environment. Let’s embrace the slow and see how it transforms our work and lives. 🌟
📖 If you are curious and want to read any of the author’s books, you can find it on the author’s website or borrow it from your local library.