Saved by Keely Adler
The Problem of Productivity
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
The carefully engineered systems of factories were replaced with the “personal productivity” of offices,
Cal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Slow productivity is just one response among many to a much bigger problem: The world of cognitive work lacks coherent ideas about how our efforts should be organized and measured.
Cal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
There’s no reasonable definition of productivity that shouldn’t also apply to John McPhee, and yet nothing about his work habits is frantic, busy, or overwhelming. This initial insight developed into the core idea that this book will explore: perhaps knowledge workers’ problem is not with productivity in a general sense, but instead with a specific
... See moreCal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
The proposals making waves at the moment, however, feel somehow insufficient on their own. Moves to maintain telecommuting or reduce the workweek help blunt some of the worst side effects of pseudo-productivity but do little to address the root problem itself.
Cal Newport • Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
PSEUDO-PRODUCTIVITY The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort.