Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of …
Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.
From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.
Cal Newport’s latest advice book tackles the question of productivity in knowledge work. Factory work can much more easily be measured and systematized. Newport points out that office workers, writers, artists, and scholars are often assigned tasks and must come up with their own individual system to be productive. These systems are opaque to managers, who end up relying on “visible activity” (which many busy office workers are familiar with) as the proxy for productivity. Add in always-on email and instant messaging apps, plus a global pandemic and people trying to work from busy homes, and you end up with a lot of burnout.
I do enjoy Cal Newports work and his approach. This book builds upon some of his recent essays and podcasts, and is specifically targeted at knowledge workers. It's harder to measure work of this bunch due to it's often intangelibity. He wants through his advice to deal with this by doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality.
The book touches each topic and brings some recent and current day examples to the dialog. He hints at a potential series of titles about working in the modern age. Between this, his recent two titles "Digital Minimalism", "A World Without Email" kind of set the stage for a natural progression, all starting from "Deep Work".
It's written in a very readable tone, and might take a focused reader 2-4 hours to read speed depending from cover to cover. If you've read his other books, this is the …
I do enjoy Cal Newports work and his approach. This book builds upon some of his recent essays and podcasts, and is specifically targeted at knowledge workers. It's harder to measure work of this bunch due to it's often intangelibity. He wants through his advice to deal with this by doing fewer things, working at a natural pace, and obsessing over quality.
The book touches each topic and brings some recent and current day examples to the dialog. He hints at a potential series of titles about working in the modern age. Between this, his recent two titles "Digital Minimalism", "A World Without Email" kind of set the stage for a natural progression, all starting from "Deep Work".
It's written in a very readable tone, and might take a focused reader 2-4 hours to read speed depending from cover to cover. If you've read his other books, this is the same form.
Review of 'Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It seems that Newport has written what you might call a "Greatest Hits Album". If you are familiar with his writing and have followed his blog over the years, there is nothing new in it. He often references and cites his own articles and books. If you're not familiar with his works, this serves as an excellent starting point. For me, it was simply a reminder to revisit some of his advice.
