337 / Productivity’s empty promise
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337 / Productivity’s empty promise
Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won’
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
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 ... See more
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Slow productivity emphatically rejects the performative rewards of unwavering urgency.
Cal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster.
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
And this feeling of wrongness is only exacerbated by our attempts to become more productive, which seem to have the effect of pushing the genuinely important stuff ever further over the horizon.
Oliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
What’s needed is more intentional thinking about what we mean by “productivity” in the knowledge sector—seeking ideas that start from the premise that these efforts must be sustainable and engaging for the actual humans doing the work. Slow productivity is one example of this thinking, but it shouldn’t be the only one. My long-term wish is that thi
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