“Slow Productivity” book summary

“Slow Productivity” book summary

Slow Productivity – The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout” caught my eyes as everything in society today is about tempo, pace and efficiency. Personally I think that is a broken view on productivity. Newport share the same view apparently this; “The knowledge sector emerged as a major force in the mid-twentieth century . . . the old notions of productivity that worked so well in farming and manufacturing didn’t seem to apply to this new style of cognitive work.”

I also recognize that if I am seen in my office, or signs of productivity like email replies, chat messages then I’m doing something and the more I do (volume) there more evidence of work. Busyness as kpi for productivity; Newport calls this pseudo-productivity and his goals (with the outcome of the book); “My goal is to offer a more humane and sustainable way to integrate professional efforts into a life well lived. To embrace slow productivity, in other words, to reorient your work to be a source of meaning instead of overwhelm, while still maintaining the ability to produce valuable output.”

His take on slow productivity then is:

  1. Do fewer things. (trive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomplishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to more fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most. Slow productivity requires that you free yourself from the constraints of the small so that you can invest  more meaningfully in the big.)
  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.). 
  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. Slowing down isn’t about protesting work. It’s instead about finding a better way to do it)

Of course, the above is for the knowledge worker (research, managers, business owners etc. where you have cognitive challenge and workload) and not the worker that as actually have the task to do stuff repetitive and faster (they have a different challenge where automation, AI etc will solve that problem, but that is a different post 😉 ).

Newport urges you to step back from the daily grind and use a slower approach that is more likely to get you further in a more sustainable way.

Lots of open doors are knocked down, but still makes you reflect on what you do. So I was not diappointed but rather energized and encouraged to take some steps back in stuff I do and make new plans for them.

More info:

Categories: ProfLarsson