Hidden from the world at Chawton cottage, suddenly, almost miraculously free of most responsibilities both domestic and social, Austen, for the first time in over a decade, had gained real and meaningful space to think and work creatively. It’s here, working at a modest writing desk by a window overlooking the road, that she finally finishes the

To create more reasonable workdays, I have two suggestions: first, reduce the number of tasks you schedule, and second, reduce the number of appointments on your calendar.

“The slightest interruption in the household routine completely de-rails me,” she wrote in a 1905 letter.

This philosophy can be understood as providing a more sustainable path toward these achievements.

Another strategy along these lines is to introduce processes that require your colleagues or clients to do more of the work associated with a given task.

For our purposes, the key observation from Dyble’s study is the uneven nature of the foragers’ efforts.

SLOW PRODUCTIVITY A philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner, based on the following three principles: 1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality.

As with growing crops, the key idea was to measure the amount of output produced for a given amount of input and then experiment with different processes for improving this value.

Containing tasks is not about escaping the small. It’s instead about making these efforts as painless as possible.