Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

by Cal Newport

View on Goodreads
Personal Growth & Leadership

If your job rewards looking busy, Cal Newport has a name for it: pseudo-productivity. His premise is that treating visible activity as real effort drives overload and burnout, and his alternative borrows from the Slow Food movement and the working lives of Galileo, Jane Austen and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Core ideas
  • Do fewer things: Reducing your workload is the first of three principles, with practical advice on handling email, meetings and workflow.
  • Work at a natural pace: Knowledge work shouldn't copy industrial labor models, he argues, so your working rhythms should vary with the seasons.
  • Obsess over quality: The third principle puts the quality of the work first, and he concedes the approach mainly fits skilled workers with substantial autonomy.
Published2024
Pages244
ISBN9780593544853
ReadApr 2024

Connected to 4 other books

See the connection map
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport Deep Work Cal Newport Read Mar 2024 Newport's argument is that your ability to concentrate on demanding work without distraction is getting rarer just as it gets… Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal Indistractable Nir Eyal Read Jan 2023 Most of what pulls you off task isn't your phone. Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential by Tiago Forte Building a Second Brain Tiago Forte Read Oct 2022 Capture, Organize, Distill, Express. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin The Creative Act Rick Rubin Read Mar 2023 Not a method, and not a manual.