Snippets about: Work
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Slow Productivity Doesn't Mean Low Productivity
A common misconception is that working slower means getting less done. But as the hunter-gatherer example shows, a fluctuating pace doesn't necessarily lower overall output. In fact, the intense bursts enable higher quality efforts that can produce outsized results, making up for any "lost" time spent resting or recharging.
As you experiment with slow productivity, embrace this underlying truth. Judge your success not by how constantly busy you are, but by the ultimate results you're able to generate by working at a more natural rhythm. You may be surprised by how much you're still able to achieve.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
Technology Supercharged Pseudo-Productivity
The rise of digital communication tools like email and instant messaging in the 1990s and 2000s turned the proxy of visible activity into an arms race of electronic busyness. Knowledge workers could now signal their "productivity" by sending messages at all hours, leading to an onslaught of low-value communication that left everyone feeling overwhelmed but still under pressure to keep up the charade of looking busy.
This state of affairs, which Newport terms "pseudo-productivity," is neither sustainable nor conducive to getting the right things done. But it remains the dominant way work is organized and evaluated in many organizations.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
Slow Productivity Focuses On Meaningful Accomplishment
Here's a key tenet of slow productivity - what matters is the ultimate result, not the appearance of staying busy. As you evaluate your own work habits, consider where you may be conflating the two. Are you spending time on things that look or feel productive but don't meaningfully advance your most important projects? See if you can shift more of your time and attention to the efforts that make the biggest difference, even if they unfold at a slower pace. Don't use busyness as a proxy for effectiveness.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
Reproductive Labor: The Hidden Economy
The economic value of motherhood and caregiving remains systematically obscured and devalued. In 2016, the ONS found that unpaid childcare in the UK was worth £351.7 billion, with overall unpaid household service work equivalent to 63.1% of GDP—yet this work remains invisible in economic calculations.
This undervaluation serves a specific purpose: by framing care work as 'natural' satisfaction rather than labor, society can extract this value without compensation. As economist Nancy Folbre notes, this allows both men and employers to 'free ride on voluntary contributions to the production and maintenance of human capital.'
The reality is that this work forms the essential infrastructure propping up capitalism. Without workers, there is no work, making reproductive labor the largest and most necessary section of our economies.
Section: 5, Chapter: 12
Book: Matrescence
Author: Lucy Jones
The Rise of Psuedo-Productivity
In the absence of more sophisticated measures of effectiveness, we also gravitate away from deeper efforts toward shallower, more concrete tasks that can be more easily checked off a to-do list.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
When It's The System, Not You
Amy, a registered nurse in North Carolina, felt intense shame about sometimes delaying giving scheduled medications while chatting with colleagues. Despite her genuine dedication to patient care and professional advancement (she earned her master's degree while working), she couldn't understand why she sometimes procrastinated on essential tasks.
What Amy failed to recognize was that her procrastination wasn't a personal failure but a systemic one. Over the years, the patient-to-nurse ratio had steadily increased. Then came the pandemic, flooding hospitals with urgent cases. A moment to chat with colleagues became her only chance to regain equilibrium in an overwhelming environment.
The breaking point came after losing a patient during the pandemic partly due to being stretched too thin. Only then did Amy and her colleagues realize: "This isn't a personal failure, it's a systemic failure." The workplace culture had already celebrated nurses who pushed themselves to the brink with more responsibilities and longer hours, while taking time off was frowned upon.
After this realization, Amy reevaluated how the system impacted her mental health and left her hospital job for an administrative position. By the time she departed, she had accumulated 300 hours of unused paid time off.
Section: 2, Chapter: 5
Book: Tiny Experiments
Author: Anne-Laure Le Cunff
The Value of Care Work
'Care work is hardcore. It is life and death work. It is fevers and risk and birth and illness and screaming and love and transference. It is transformation and hope. It is quick thinking and deep patience. It is resentment and anger. It is sacrifice and gift... It took me to the edge of what it means to be human. It tested my empathy to the limit, it challenged me intellectually, it required me to answer and ask questions constantly, to consider metaphysics and the origins of matter.'
Section: 5, Chapter: 12
Book: Matrescence
Author: Lucy Jones
Every Morning, At About 9.30
Every morning, therefore, at about 9.30 after breakfast each of us, as if moved by a law of unquestioned nature, went off and "worked" until lunch at one. It is surprising how much one can produce in a year, whether of buns or books or pots or pictures, if one works hard and professionally for three and a half hours every day for 330 days [a year]. That was why, despite her disabilities, Virginia was able to produce so very much.
- Leonard Woolf
Section: 2, Chapter: 13
Book: Meditations for Mortals
Author: Oliver Burkeman
Self-Regulation Keeps Knowledge Workers On The Edge Of Overload
For knowledge workers who have some autonomy over their workload, overcommitment often stems from a flawed strategy of self-regulation. We say yes to new requests until we feel so stressed and overwhelmed that we believe we have an unimpeachable excuse for saying no. This guarantees we'll be permanently teetering on the edge of being overscheduled.
A more sustainable approach is to proactively contain your commitments well before you hit a breaking point. Establish clear policies for what you will and won't take on, communicate these boundaries and defend your limited capacity so that you never end up with more on your plate than you can handle.
Section: 2, Chapter: 3
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
The Polarized Views of Working Mothers
New mothers face contradictory societal messages about work and motherhood. Once a woman has children, she feels intense pressure to be self-sacrificing and fully devoted to caregiving, yet simultaneously experiences pressure to maintain her career and professional identity.
Society remains deeply ambivalent about whether and how much a mother should work in her child's early years. Women who work full-time show stress indicators 40% higher than women without children, while those who stay home often face financial penalties and career limitations.
These conflicting expectations leave most mothers caught in an impossible situation: working part-time (putting themselves at economic disadvantage) or experiencing significant stress balancing full-time work with intensive mothering expectations. The 'having it all' myth obscures the reality that without structural changes, this conflict remains unresolvable for most women.
Section: 5, Chapter: 12
Book: Matrescence
Author: Lucy Jones
Quality Enables Autonomy
An obsession with quality isn't just about the nobility of doing good work. It's also a savvy business strategy. When your output is in high demand because of its excellence, you gain leverage to dictate the terms of your working life. Clients seek you out and are willing to pay a premium. Collaborators value your contributions and defer to your judgment.
With an exceptional track record, you can be more selective about what you take on and design a schedule that suits you. In this way, quality and autonomy become mutually reinforcing - doing excellent work earns you the freedom to keep doing excellent work on your own terms.
Section: 2, Chapter: 5
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
Against Productivity Debt
Many people begin each morning in a kind of "productivity debt" which they must struggle to pay off throughout the day. This mindset means:
- You feel you haven't justified your existence until you've accomplished enough
- Success becomes a punishment, as each accomplishment sets a higher standard
- Your self-worth becomes tied to your output
The solution is to keep a "done list" instead of just a to-do list. Rather than measuring your accomplishments against all you could potentially do (an infinite standard), you compare what you've done to having done nothing at all – providing perspective and motivation.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Meditations for Mortals
Author: Oliver Burkeman
Productivity Is Hard To Define In Knowledge Work
Productivity is a well-defined concept in sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, where outputs and processes are concrete. But in knowledge work, which emerged as a major economic force in the mid-20th century, the nature of productivity is much more ambiguous.
Managers didn't know how to measure or improve productivity for these more cognitively-complex jobs. In response, they defaulted to using visible activity, like hours spent in the office or messages sent, as a proxy for productivity. The more activity you see, the more you assume an employee is contributing.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Slow Productivity
Author: Cal Newport
Never Miss A Tuesday Dinner
For over thirty years, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph maintained a non-negotiable weekly ritual: every Tuesday at 5 PM, he would leave work to spend the evening with his wife. Despite building one of the most transformative companies in history, this commitment was absolute.
"Nothing got in the way of that," Randolph explained. "If you had something to say to me on Tuesday afternoon at 4:55, you had better say it on the way to the parking lot."
This simple ritual wasn't just about dinner - it was about symbolism and signaling priorities. It showed his wife, children, and employees what truly mattered to him. It created positive ripple effects throughout his world, strengthening his marriage, providing security to his children, and encouraging employees to set their own boundaries.
Section: 0, Chapter: 4
Book: The 5 Types of Wealth
Author: Sahil Bloom
The Fisherman And The Banker
A wealthy investment banker meets a fisherman in a tropical village. Noticing the fisherman's small catch for the day, the banker asks why he doesn't fish longer. The fisherman explains he has all he needs: "Each day, I sleep late, fish a little, spend time with my family. In the evening, I drink wine, play guitar, and laugh with friends."
The banker proposes a plan: fish more, buy a bigger boat, build a fleet, move to the city, and take the company public. "Then what?" asks the fisherman. The banker replies, "Then you could retire to a quiet town! Sleep late, fish a little, spend time with family, and in the evening, drink wine and laugh with friends."
This parable isn't about right or wrong choices, but about defining what success means to you and building a life that meets that definition.
Section: 5, Chapter: 27
Book: The 5 Types of Wealth
Author: Sahil Bloom
