"Slow Productivity" by Cal Newport explores the flaws of modern productivity standards in knowledge work, which often equate visible activity with true productivity. Newport advocates for a slow productivity philosophy grounded in three principles: doing fewer things by limiting projects and daily goals; working at a natural pace by embracing seasonality and simplifying every days workload; and obsessing with quality by focusing on excellence and investing in yourself and tools. This philosophy aims to combat the superficial busyness driven by constant connectivity, fostering deeper, more meaningful work.

Foundations

• Knowledge work is the economic activity in which knowledge is tranformed into an artifact with market value through the application of cognitive effort
• Problems with productivity criteria for knowledge work
  • Vagueness of the criteria
  • Lack of clear metrics and concrete steps for performing tasks
  • Workers largely define for themselves how to perform a task
• Visible activity as a proxy for Productivity, that is pseudo-productivity (Always online, lots of email and chatting)
• Mobile devices and ubiquitous internet have made things worse
• The slow alternative to pseudo-productivity consists of the following 3 principles

Principle 1: Do Fewer Things

• There's an administrative overhead to every project or initiative we're involved in (and hence, less focus)
• Limit the Big
  • Limit the number of missions (2-3 at most)
  • Limit the number of ongoing projects
  • Limit the number of daily objectives (ideally, focus on one project per day)
• Contain the Small
  • Autopilot for tasks: schedule certain categories to execute without thinking
  • Regularly synchronise with colleagues to avoid extra communication via email and chat
  • Get others to do more when it comes to burdening you with extra work - through forms and processes
  • Avoid projects that generate too many tasks
  • Outsource some work to consultants or buy software to reduce the number of tasks for yourself
  • Implement a pull system instead of a push system (basically, the Kanban system)
    • Two lists: active projects and holding tank
    • New requests: let the requester know what additional information is needed, how many tasks you currently have, and estimate when the new request will be done
    • Maintain the system: update deadlines, remove outdated requests, etc.

Principle 2: Work at a Natural Pace

• Seasonality, which was present in earlier societies (nomadic and agricultural) is now lost; as a result we have more monotonous work
• Take more time
  • Make a plan for years ahead of what you want to achieve to establish baseline for how you assess your productivity
  • Double your estimates for your initiatives to allow for more natural rhythm
  • Simplify your days: schedule less work, avoid unnecessary meetings
  • Avoid procrastination by focusing on progress and next steps
• Embrace seasonality
  • Work without changing intensity is not natural for us
  • You have more control over your workload than you think
    • Don't take on extra work
    • Finish work at strictly defined time
    • Say No to extra requests
    • Don't be online all the time answering emails and chats
  • Build small seasonal variations into your daily work
    • Take days off 1-2 times a month in the middle of a week
    • No meetings on certain days, e.g., Mondays or Fridays
    • Finish work earlier to attend some cultural activities
    • Intersperse periods of high intensity with short periods of low intensity
    • Work in cycles (Basecamp: 6-8 weeks, then 2 weeks of low intensity)
  • Work "poetically"
    • Don't work from home as home errands get in the way
    • Follow rituals to get into the right state of mind

Principle 3: Obsess with Quality

• Cultivate a taste for quality in yourself by interacting with great works of culture
• Arrange a club of like-minded people to get their early, qualitative feedback on your work
• Invest money in expensive professional services and tools to imrpove the quality of your work
• Bet on yourself.

Further Reading

• Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee
• Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen
• Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman