Slow Productivity - A Review
I finished listening to Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity last week. It was a fun and easy listen with a lot of good points about how the productivity of knowledge workers need a philosophical shift. I’ll leave the nuances (including fun anecdotes about Jane Austen and Ben Franklin) for your own discovery. His three main pillars for slow productivity are 1) do fewer things, 2) work at a natural pace, and 3) obsess over quality.
There’s a couple of things to keep in mind when you look at his pillars. First, they are specifically focused on knowledge workers who want to create or do something especially meaningful. He spends a significant amount of time discussing the differences between industrial or factory style workers and knowledge workers. With factory-style workers productivity is measured by the amount of product that is completed by the end of the workday. Knowledge workers, however, have a harder time “showing” productivity and often get stuck using “busy-ness” as a way to prove they are being productive. “Busy-ness,” Newport argues, is a form of false productivity and can keep you from accomplishing the things that matter most.
My greatest takeaway helped me highlight that I need to watch the places where I’m trying to be busy for busy sake instead of engaging in the work that matters most to me. Newport’s three pillars will be helpful for me especially in terms of energy management which is a key part of my burnout recovery journey. I’ve discussed each in more depth below:
Do Fewer things
I’m a notorious over-achiever. I’m naturally curious and interested in trying and doing many different things. I also have a penchant for people pleasing which means I often say yes to doing things that I don’t have bandwidth for. Using the pillar of “do fewer things,” I’m learning to pause before jumping to that immediate yes. I’m still engaged in many different pursuits, but I’m better at being selective as to where I put my time and energy. This pillar is also helping me re-evaluate when I find myself stressed and then giving myself permission to renegotiate commitments as they pile up.
Work at a Natural Pace
Another toxic trait I engage in that has exacerbated my burnout is what I call “pushing.” This looks like pushing to get things done, pushing to maximize my time, pushing a deadline so we can get results faster, pushing my limits to see how much further I can go, etc. This kind of pushing is ok every now and then, but in many ways, it became an addiction for me, and it has been hard to allow things to happen at a natural pace. My brain unhealthily latched on to the old business adage, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” However, what I failed to acknowledge is that growth can be incremental. It does not always need to happen in tidal wave style campaigns that force all your energy and leave you feeling lifeless after it has passed.
Obsess Over Quality
Do not mistake this phrase to mean you have to make your tasks or ideas perfect. There is no room for perfectionism in slow productivity. Perfectionism will make it no productivity. I’ve written those notes mostly for me because perfectionism has been something that has held me back many times. (Anyone else feel that way?) I’ve found that if I’m working at a natural pace with an objective of quality, good ideas come along in a comforting and peaceful manner. However, if I’ve put undue pressure on myself and am worried about making it a mind-blowing idea (that I probably should have been implemented yesterday), all I feel is anxious and shallow. I’m learning to pair this idea with Adam Grant’s ideas in Hidden Potential – that you need a lot of quantity to get to quality. Meaning, it’s important to allow yourself to learn and grow through the act of doing because then you can build your skills and ideas into their best quality potential. If we also add in some insights from Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, we can realize that obsessing over quality means using your system 2 thinking to be reflective in deep-thinking mode instead of the system 1 reactionary thinking that drives most of my perfectionism.
Does a slower pace have to be earned?
I’m looking forward to applying these three pillars to my work as I do want to create something meaningful. I also need to prioritize caring for my mental and physical health and the lure of a slower way of doing things is tantalizing. My only critique of the book is the fact that it never answered my question about who qualifies to participate in slow productivity. By the end of the book, I still felt like you must earn the right to be able to participate in slow productivity. Newport’s shares stories of people who were able to prove that they create quality work when allowed the slower pace, but often these people have had enough success or qualifying events that others were willing to allow this to happen. Do we have to have had an experience either with burnout or some other form of enlightenment to justify a slower way of working? Is this something that you must “put in your time” for first to earn the right to? I am uncomfortable with the fact that I meet the criteria I’ve described. That I worked hard, had a successful business, hit burnout and closed with enough cash on hand to buy me time to work on my recovery. As I reflect on the journey that got me to the point where I’m allowed to prioritize slower productivity, I don’t know that I would have ever been allowed a slower pace before now.
I wish I knew more about how to prevent the overload. However, for now, I’ll simply continue to research. I’m hoping as I come to better understand issues like burnout and languishing, that I can also better understand the behaviors that leads us there and how to change them. One thing I know, survival mode is simply not sustainable.
Thank you for reading with me today. I hope you find a way to slow down a little today.
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