we go to work five days per week, but spend more than one of those days on average just looking for the information we need to do our work.

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.

There are lots of ways to slice 60 minutes. 1 × 60 = 60 2 × 30 = 60 4 × 15 = 60 25 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 60 All of the above equal 60, but they’re different kinds of hours entirely. The number might be the same, but the quality isn’t. The quality hour we’re after is 1 × 60. A fractured hour isn’t really an hour—it’s a mess of minutes. It’s really har