Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

Quality matters, but if it becomes everything, you may never finish.

The pursuit of quality is not a casual endeavor. If you want your mind on board with your plans to evolve your abilities, then investing in your tools is a good way to start.

Knowing how much I had spent, I figured, would make me more careful about what I wrote on its archival-quality pages, which would force me to be more structured and careful in my thinking.

Confronting the gap between what the masters produce and your current capabilities is disheartening.

Did you know, for example, that in Mad Max: Fury Road, director George Miller and cinematographer John Seale (who came out of retirement for the film) purposefully positioned the focal point of every shot in the center of the frame, defying cinematic convention but making the fast-cut action much more legible to the audience? Learning about this ce

Both Jewel and Paul Jarvis discovered a similar lesson in their careers. The marketplace doesn’t care about your personal interest in slowing down.

If you’re fortunate enough for your entrepreneurial endeavors to begin to succeed, he argues, leverage this success to gain more freedom instead of more revenue.

Obsess over the quality of what you produce, even if this means missing opportunities in the short term. Leverage the value of these results to gain more and more freedom in your efforts over the long term.

Seasonality doesn’t refer only to slowing work for entire seasons. Varying your intensity at smaller timescales can also prove useful in achieving a more natural pace.