Cal Newport
If you are a knowldge worker, you’ll like Cal Newport’s latest book.
He makes the case for “Slow Productivity” – a philosphy for organising knowdlge work effors in a substainable and meaninful manner, based on 3 principles:
- Do fewer things.
- Work at a natural pace.
- Obess over quality.
I’ll just extract the essence of what he recommends.
Principle #1: D0 Fewer Things
Strive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomlishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to more fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most.
Principle #2: Work at a Natural Pace
Don’t rush your most important work. Allow it instead to unfold along a sustainable timeline, with variations in intensity, in settings conducive to brillance.
Principle #3: Obsess Over Quality.
Obsess over the quality of what you produce, even if this means missing opportunities in the short term. Leverage the value of these results to gain more and more freeom in your efforts over the long term.
If you are looking for an alternative approach for hyper-pseudo productivity that just burns you out, you’ll like his stories of many people who’ve practicised Slow Productivity.
If not, good luck continuing the hive mind of never off action for the sake of action,.