cal newport – Scott Loftesness

Over the weekend, I started reading Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, and was very pleasantly surprised.

As someone who’s grown jaded from reading too many formulaic productivity books, I expected more of the same. Instead, I found a refreshing departure from the norm.

Given my bias, I initially skipped ahead to the third major topic, “Obsess Over Quality.” But Newport’s engaging storytelling drew me in, and I was hooked. He uses the singer-songwriter Jewel’s story to illustrate the importance of prioritizing quality over quick returns. Jewel’s motto, “hardwood grows slowly,” resonated deeply with me, and I found myself invested in learning more about her journey.

Newport’s storytelling is excellent, and I enjoyed Jewel’s story so much that I went back to the beginning of the book and started reading again from the start. What a delightful experience! Instead of a formulaic productivity book, Newport uses storytelling to great effect, developing and explaining his key points in a compelling and relatable way.

Highly recommended!

Note: also check out this edition of Mike Schmitz’s Bookworm podcast for a review of Slow Productivity where he rates it 5.0 out of 5.0.

Slow Productivity – in Retirement

Computer science professor Cal Newport has authored a new book titled “Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout“.

In a New Yorker article a couple of months ago, Newport wrote of a climate of “Great Exhaustion” in the workplace – a “vibe of weary disappointment”. He talks about a side effect of the covid pandemic being a greater quantity of digital communication (email, chat, video, etc.) and goes on to relate how recent research correlates an increase in this kind of digital communication with decreased satisfaction.

A big part of the problem seems to be the endless context switching these digital tools can create generating significant fatigue and feelings of overload. Our “work becomes inescapable” to use his words.

Of course, this has its worst impact on us while we’re still working and has its least impact after we are retired. Retirement may introduce other stresses – often creating feelings of guilt from not bringing in an income or grief from a work life left behind. But even in retirement we can become overwhelmed and might benefit from his recommendations on dealing with the issue.

His primary prescription in this article for this problem is to take steps to dramatically reduce these digital communication intrusions into our lives by using techniques as simple as scheduling office hours for dealing in bulk with needed interactions between individuals or small teams. In other words, slow down the impact of the interruptions and batch them up for efficiency. In other words, “slow productivity”. That slowness helping to improve our efficiency thereby producing better outcomes and increase satisfaction.

Of course, even small steps like these require cooperation and common understanding among the participants to make an impact. One of the challenges with email in particular is how someone else can insert themselves into your train of thought completely without your agreement.

As Newport reminds us, “Achievement is most satisfying when it arises from a sense of control and purpose, not from the pressure of constant busyness.” It’s time to reclaim our time and rediscover the joy of getting things done, not just being busy doing them or, worse, constantly having to shift our focus in reaction to the tools in our digital lives.

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