Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

-William Shakespeare from Romeo and Juliet

Hello,

Welcome to episode 25!

If you have listened to more than a couple of our previous episodes, you may have noticed that I am a fan of the ideas of a gentleman named Cal Newport.

Cal’s elevator pitch from his website is:

Computer Scientist & Bestselling Author

Cal is an MIT-trained computer science professor at Georgetown University who also writes about the intersections of technology, work, and the quest to find depth in an increasingly distracted world.

The links to his website, books, podcast, and New Yorker articles are in the show notes, and the transcript of this episode is on my website.

I can attest to Cal’s ideas as being on point.

I utilized his ideas and research from How to Become a Straight-A Student, to become a straight-A student.

I have based my learning and my application of skills based on his So Good They Can’t Ignore You. With amazing results.

2016’s Deep Work changed the way I schedule my day. Compounding this with the ideas from So Good They Can’t Ignore You has allowed me to obtain some amazing efficacy.

In 2014 I quit Facebook. As far as social media goes, I am still on LinkedIn and have a Twitter account with two followers. But the ideas from Cal’s Digital Minimalism, go way beyond just social media. Removing email notifications from my phone and computer, and adding specific times to my calendar to look at these and answer them has been an absolute game changer for my deep work and productivity.

Then COVID hit. Like you, and the rest of the world, things changed.

You know what I mean… In Masse, we began working from home. Alongside the kids who were now home all day too. It became a semi-controlled chaos.

But now, we have learned to adapt to the chaos. Maybe you are back in the office or have created systems for working from home. Either way, congratulations. You survived COVID.

In 2021, Cal released another best-seller, A World Without Email. which continues along the path of assisting us in creating far more effective communication and gives workers the autonomy to control their work and time. Good stuff.

Shortly after the release of A World Without Email Cal started talking about the next step. It is what he calls Slow Productivity.

This is what we will be discussing in this episode, Slow Productivity.

All of Cal’s books have great ideas and processes to help us become better at whatever we do. And remember, being fractionally better than the next guy, or 10x better than them is the goal, right?

The ideas we will be discussing on Slow Productivity are not out in book form yet, we have to wait for its release date of March 5, 2024, to be able to dive deep into the processes. But we do have a 2021 New Yorker article by Cal and comments from his podcast to work from.

In keeping with good form, let’s define Slow Productivity and work from there:

By cutting down on our hours but retaining the same workload, employees will be subject to even more stress due to the pressure of condensed deadlines. Slow productivity isn’t about mentally checking out. It’s just about working a little slower on fewer things at one time so that you enjoy the process of work a bit more. That way, productivity can be redefined based on the quality of your work rather than the quantity.

Slow productivity is a method of coping with something called the productivity fallacy. This is the idea that our ideal level of productivity will allow us to complete everything on our to-do lists so that we can have time to ourselves – almost like making sure we’re earning our time off by putting in the right amount of work. Many are used to setting the bar high, attempting to break their own personal productivity records, and continually taking on new projects. But this is a recipe for burnout. Enjoying life isn’t something to be earned; it’s something to be experienced.

In a time when, per the Digital Wellness Institute, almost 90 percent of employees feel burned out, and another poll found that 90 percent say that work-related stress is making their home life a mess. It’s time to rethink how we’re working and if it really is working. Now that we have titled a process as Slow, then the one we are trying to fix must be “Quick.” So, Quick productivity makes you feel like you’re accomplishing as much as possible during the workday. But if every day feels like running a sprint, how can you retain the energy for the marathon that is your career? You may need to take stock of your work habits and change them to retain the stamina you need for a happy work life. And the best way to do that is by shifting from quick productivity to slow productivity.

The idea of Slow Productivity is not new. But I think that Newport’s timing is key to its, inevitable (I believe) adoption.

A little history from Cal’s New Yorker article:

A growing portion of my audience was clearly fed up with “productivity,” and they are not alone. The past few years have seen many popular books that elaborate on this same point. In 2019, the artist and writer Jenny Odell helped start this trend when she published “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy,” which became a Times best-seller and was selected by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of 2019. This was followed, the next spring, by Celeste Headlee’s “Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving,” then Anne Helen Petersen’s “Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation,” and, earlier this year, Devon Price’s “Laziness Does Not Exist.” Though these books ultimately present a diverse collection of arguments, they are unified by a defiant rebuke of productivity culture.

A striking element of these books is the degree to which their message is born out of personal experience. Not long after Headlee’s book was published, I interviewed her and asked why she decided to write about this topic. She told me of a TED talk she had given about having better conversations that went unexpectedly viral, gathering over twenty-five million views. “I was inundated with requests for writing and speaking,” she said. She tried to say “no” more often, but found that “the offers got harder and harder to turn down.” She was soon overwhelmed. “I was more stressed out and busier, and sick,” she said, describing two prolonged illnesses that laid her low during this period. “That’s what made me realize I was in crisis: I rarely get sick.” Headlee concluded that humans were not wired to maximize activity—she argued that we’re pushed into this unnatural and unhealthy state by cultural influences that aren’t aligned with our best interests, citing “a combination of capitalist propaganda with religious propaganda that makes us feel guilty if we’re not feeling productive.”

It’s understandable that authors such as Headlee, or the commenters on my essay, have become frustrated with the lionization of “productivity”: we’re exhausted and are fed up with the forces that pushed us into this state. But, before we decide whether we need to dispense with the term altogether, we should briefly revisit its history. The use of the word “productive” in an economic context dates back to at least the time of Adam Smith, who used it in “The Wealth of Nations” to describe labor that added value to materials. According to Smith, a carpenter transforming a pile of boards into a cabinet is engaging in productive labor, as the cabinet is worth more than what the original boards cost. As the formal study of economics solidified, “productivity” gained a more precise formulation: output produced per unit of input. From a macroeconomic perspective, this metric is important, because increasing it produces surplus value, which in turn grows the economy and generally improves the standard of living. On long timescales, improvements in productivity can be greatly positive. Writing in 1999, the management theorist Peter Drucker noted that the productivity of the manual worker had grown fiftyfold during the last century. “On this achievement rest all of the economic and social gains of the 20th century,” Drucker concluded. In other words, the increase in productivity is why today most Americans own a smartphone, while a century ago they didn’t have indoor plumbing.

If you accept that increased productivity helps the common good, the question becomes how to reliably achieve these increases. Until recently, the answer to this largely involved optimizing systems. In the seventeenth century, agricultural productivity was increased by the introduction of the Norfolk four-course system, which avoided the need to leave fields periodically fallow. Similarly, the productivity of early-twentieth-century car manufacturing leaped forward with the replacement of the crafting method (in which workers moved around a stationary chassis) with Henry Ford’s continuous-motion assembly line (in which the chassis moved past the stationary workers). The relationship between these optimized systems and the people who toiled in them was complicated and often quite dark. The introduction of the industrial assembly line, for example, accelerated the de-skilling of manual labor and made workers’ tasks more monotonous. Most relevant to this discussion, however, is how these optimization efforts were developed largely outside the scope of the individual employees included in the systems. If you worked on a Ford automotive assembly line, you didn’t need to read about the habits of highly effective people to do your job well.

Then came the rise of knowledge work. By the time this term was first introduced, in 1959, the center of gravity for the American economy had begun moving from fields and factories toward offices, and many of these office-based efforts evolved from rote clerical tasks to more creative and skilled initiatives. The importance of increasing macro-level productivity remained, but the way we pursued these increases changed. Instead of continuing to focus on optimizing systems, the knowledge sector, for various complicated reasons, began to shift onto the individual worker the burden of improving output produced per unit of input. Productivity, for the first time in modern economic history, became personal.

We should not underestimate the radical nature of this shift. Historically, optimizing systems to increase productivity was exceedingly difficult. The assembly line didn’t arrive in a flash of self-evident insight. Ford suffered through numerous false starts and incremental experiments. He had to invest significant amounts of money and develop new tools, including one particularly ingenious mechanism, which could simultaneously drill forty-five holes into an engine block. Now we casually ask individual knowledge workers to undertake similarly complex optimizations of their own proverbial factories and to do it concurrently with actually executing all the work they’re attempting to streamline. Even more troubling is the psychological impact of individualizing these improvements. In classic productivity, there’s no upper limit to the amount of output you seek to produce: more is always better. When you ask individuals to optimize productivity, this more-is-more reality pits the professional part of their life against the personal. More output is possible if you’re willing to steal hours from other parts of your day—from family dinners, or relaxing bike rides—so the imperative to optimize devolves into a game of internal brinkmanship. This is an impossibly daunting and fraught request, and yet we pretend that it’s natural and straightforward. It’s hard enough to optimize a factory, and a factory doesn’t have to worry about getting home in time for school pickups.

The issue is not how many hours you work but the volume of work you’re taking on at any one time.

By volume, I’m referring to the total number of obligations that you’re committed to completing—from answering a minor question to finishing a major project. As this volume increases past a certain threshold, the weight of these efforts can become unbearably stressful.

We, humans, are uniquely adept at crafting long-term strategic plans for accomplishing objectives. Our facility with planning, however, falters when confronting an in-box stuffed with hundreds of messages and a task list that fills multiple pages. When there’s too much for us to imagine actually completing, we short-circuit our executive functioning mechanisms, resulting in a feeling of anxious unease, stress, depression, anger…You name it.

These psychological struggles aren’t the only cost of having too much work to do. Most commitments bring with them the need to coordinate with others. This leads to several meetings and an avalanche of e-mails to pull together the necessary information and keep the project on track.

In isolation, this overhead is not unreasonable. But when you’re tackling too many such projects concurrently, the combined impact of all of the corresponding meetings and messages can take over most of your schedule, creating an out-of-control spiral in which you spend more time talking about work than actually getting it done. Ultimately, leading to burnout.

The central goal of Slow Productivity is to keep an individual worker’s volume at a sustainable level. A natural fear is that reducing the amount of work each of us tackles at any given time, it might reduce the total amount of work an individual is able to complete, making them less competitive.

This fear is unfounded. When an individual’s work volume increases, so does the accompanying overhead and stress, reducing both the time remaining to actually execute the tasks and the quality of the results. If you instead work more sequentially, focusing on a small number of things at a time, waiting until one is done before bringing on the next obligations, the rate at which you complete tasks will increase.

I believe that Slow productivity is the wave of the future because 2023 will be a year of mindfulness in work culture. Other buzzword trends like quiet quitting or downshifting your career have a similar idea behind them – people are tired, and they’re looking for a way to enjoy life more without investing all of their mental energy in a career that didn’t give back to them during the pandemic.

Attempting to manage their work/life balance, employees are realizing that work doesn’t need to be all stress so that life can be all fun. Sometimes, life outside of work can be stressful as well. And when that happens, you want a job you can find respite and solace in rather than one that upholds you to a standard of productivity that drains you.

I am sure that Cal will details and supply ideas and systems that can be put in place within organizations to facilitate worker’s slow productivity in his coming book. But that is not the area of Slow Productivity we are talking about here. We are looking at how we, the individual, can improve our lives through the personalized application of slow productivity.

Slow Productivity at the individual level aims to provide a harmonious environment that allows your work and home life to flourish. To do this by we need to think differently about what it means to be productive.

•  In what environment do you produce your best work?

•  What practices support sustainable productivity (think marathons vs sprints)?

•  What kind of work are you doing, and does it demand speed or thought?

As we have discussed before, according to Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast, and Slow, there are two systems that drive how we think (and consequently the results we achieve): System 1 for fast, intuitive emotional responses (gut-based decision-making) and System 2 for slower, more deliberative, and more logical thinking (strategic decision-making). With increased pressures on time, attention, and workloads, the temptation is to default to System 1 thinking, cranking through tasks at light speed, often at the expense of quality, accuracy, other people, and even our own happiness.

“I love that idea in theory, but I just don’t have time to slow down.” You say?

I argue that you don’t have time to not slow down. In the past year, polls show that 40% of individuals report that they are making flawed decisions due to digital distraction (they need to read Digital Minimalism). Going too fast has long-reaching impacts not only on our work but also on our physical and mental health.

Learning to slow down is a hard lesson to learn (and apply) in our fast-paced world. In the past few years, productivity demands have increased, outpacing even the most efficient workers’ ability to keep up and do quality work. Employers are realizing that no amount of gym memberships or meditation apps can compensate for the increased stress and decreased quality of life. Employees today are looking for something more–more humane policies, more aligned leadership, more connectedness, and more meaning.

How do we put it into practice?

Rather than considering slow productivity as a way to work less, try conceptualizing it as a way to work smarter. Automating the tasks that you do on a regular basis can cut the fat from your day and allow you the space and time for slow productivity to thrive. Turn to project management software, AI or machine learning (ML) tools, some light coding, or other options that might lighten your load. Maybe online pick-up or delivery of groceries. Grow from a to-do list to a more adaptable Kanban-style board, like Trello.

Take walks. Cal has mentioned time and again how Sir Isaac Newton, Darwin, and Churchill all made sure to take solo walks in places that allowed them to think without distraction.

Listen to our podcasts on Great Learning (#16) and Creative Thinking (#14) for ideas on utilizing your brain’s ability to learn and create.

Step back, take a moment, and give intention to our time and attention. To get started practicing Slow Productivity, here are a few tips:

1. Space deadlines out. One of the main problems with productivity, as it stands, is that there are too many deadlines in too quick of a succession. Sometimes it can feel like you’re under a time crunch to do just about everything, and it will make the quality of your work suffer. Instead, try out setting deadlines far in advance or making shorter deadlines more reasonable.
2. Prioritize. The basis of slow productivity is to scale back on the less important features of work and focus on what really matters. Be reasonable about your expectations and ensure you’re not placing undue importance on tasks that are less consequential than others. By making everything seem urgent, nothing will seem urgent – you will feel simultaneously resentful and overwhelmed.
3. Give yourself permission to slow down. Often, we are our own worst taskmasters. Remind yourself that Slow Productivity will actually help produce better results and bring you greater happiness in the long run. Whether you pause for 5 minutes or 50 minutes, your brain will appreciate the opportunity to slow down.
4. Set yourself up for success. What’s the point of slowing down if you’re still stuck in a vortex of distractions? Turn off unnecessary notifications.
5. Prepare for the Treadmill Effect. When you step off a fast-moving treadmill, you are likely to feel like the world is rushing by you. That’s what implementing Slow Productivity will feel like initially. Notice it, feel it, journal about it. While it may feel weird at first, your mind is tuning into the world around you in a new way.
6. Redirect your attention. Slowing down doesn’t mean spacing out; it means intentionally giving your mind space to make new connections. Go for a walk outside and let yourself walk extra slow; take the moment to meditate and watch your breath go in and out; read a book, but let your mind linger on the words or concepts. By moving away from a state of hyper-focused, task-based attention, you have the mental capacity to not only regenerate your mental energy but also make more creative connections.

We are trained to work at hyper speed, multi-tasking with aplomb, and striving to exceed even our own personal record for productivity. Why? Because time and time again, we fall for what is called the Productivity Fallacy, thinking that if we just work hard enough or fast enough, we will finally have time to get to the things we enjoy doing the most.

By practicing Slow Productivity, we tap into our full potential. We become more efficient–not by working harder or faster–but by being smarter and by prioritizing the tasks that move you forward in meaningful ways; we become more thoughtful and connected to the people and places around us; and ultimately, we become a better version of ourselves.

When Cal, and others discuss the benefits of slow productivity, the key word is “quality”.  It comes back the Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 thinking. When we go fast, are rushed, timelines loom, and quality thinking and work are hindered.

But, If we slow down, push those timelines, and give some “breathing room”, then we can put more effort into System 2 and get great quality work done. And feel good about it.

My life is no different than yours. We all have work and family responsibilities.

I am, among other things, a father, husband, neighbor, son, son-in-law, homeowner, and podcaster.

It is as the role of a podcaster that I feel the constraints of “quick productivity”.

The hours needed to research, write, record, perform post-production, publish, and advertise for the weekly podcast episode is extensive.

I see that it erodes my time with family, hinders my ability to get work around the house done, and puts me into a stressed panicked, System 1 thinking state, thus creating a less quality podcast than I want to be doing.

While writing this episode, I listen to a newly re-posted interview with Naval Ravikant on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish. (amazing podcast by the way).

During the interview Naval discusses the ideas that he strives to be present in mind. He noticed that he was always thinking about things, and it was keeping his thoughts removed from the reality of the moment. His happiness was lost, in thought.

This struck me, I have been in this mode for quite a while. Because of the pressures and desire to be creative for work, and this podcast, I have allowed myself to always “be in my head”. I actually like it, there is some level of personal pride that I have been taking in being able to “deep think” almost all the time.

But a conversation my wife and I had last week about this primed me for Naval’s take on it. Coincidence, I think not.

Naval discusses what he had to do to become present in his mind. It resonated with me.

When I started this podcast, I thought I needed to publish a new episode every week. I felt it was what made good podcasts.

Now, after studying Slow Productivity, and taking a look at what really matters in my life, and the lack of quality I am able to give A New Order of Things, I have decided to slow down.

I am changing the podcast from being published weekly to a monthly release.  This may change over time, but for now, I am going for a high-quality, slow roll.

I hope my decision to make the difficult decision to practice Slow Productivity will empower you to do the same.

Well, I think we have done a good job of diving into Slow Productivity. In coming episodes, we will continue to dive deeper into these ideas, their reasoning, and the real-world observations and how we can ensure leverage and its lever, technology can drive us to excellence, and how well-managed use of Slow Productivity affects our creativity, our lives, and our businesses and organizations.

Links to all the quoted resources are in the show notes and in the transcript on my website, Eddiekillian.com

Join me on our next episode as we continue to travel the path of what is difficult, perilous, and uncertain as we explore introducing A New Order of Things.

I am your host, Eddie Killian. And this concludes Episode 25.

References

Newport, C. (2012). So Good They Can’t Ignore You. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Newport, C. (2016). Deep Work. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Newport, C. (2019). Digital Minimalism. New York: Penguin Random House.

Newport, C. (2021). A World Without Email. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.

Links:

Cal Newport: https://calnewport.com/blog/

Cal’s New Yorker Essays:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/office-space/the-frustration-with-productivity-culture  (possible paywall)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/office-space/its-time-to-embrace-slow-productivity

(possible paywall)

Cal’s Podcast: https://www.thedeeplife.com/

The Knowledge Project Podcast: Naval Ravikant: The Angel Philosopher (2017) [The Knowledge Project Ep. #171] https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/

Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyblankson/2022/10/24/the-rise-of-the-slow-productivity-movement/?sh=66635fcf2c1a

Hive.com Essay: https://hive.com/blog/slow-productivity-meaning/