Book Review: Slow productivity
Cal Newport’s book Slow Productivity - the lost art of accomplishment without burnout
For those feeling like they are scattered from one thing to another Cal Newport’s latest book Slow Productivity - the Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout is worth a read.
The book focuses on how productivity systems developed for factory type work don’t work well for those knowledge workers.
Reading the book is a good reminder about quality over quantity. Sometimes we need to do fewer things to get things done and to a good standard. Using all sorts of examples from Clive Cussler and Jane Austen, the book demonstrates the importance of where one works and periods of momentum to complete great works.
The book busts the myth of the overnight success and demonstrates that good things take time. While we may know this, in our modern world I think we are primed to think everything can occur quickly.
What I particularly find refreshing about the book is encouraging people to consider their plans will take longer than they estimate. For example, doubling project timelines. I know myself sometimes I’m too optimistic when setting project timelines or working out my to do list for the day.
In the book there are lots of tips and tools to help one refocus to doing less, like limiting the number of projects one undertaken.
One thing that sticks in my mind is the idea that not every working space is a good working space. The idea that there are places that make us feel more productive than others - with an example of someone that wrote in a noisey factory.
So if you are feeling a bit stretched, this book might be the perfect anecdote - permission to simplify your focus and give you some tools to adjust how you approach important work.
This book I’ll keep on my bookshelf so I can reread whenever I feel I am lacking progress on a key project (but may be being too optimistic) and if I need to mix things up because my productivity has declined.
Cal Newport’s book - Slow Productivity - The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
