Slow Productivity Book Review
The latest from Cal Newport
I am a huge fan of Cal Newport and his previous book, Deep Work, which explored our ability to cognitively focus and perform tasks efficiently. When I discovered Newport had a new book releasing in 2024, Slow Productivity, I was really excited to read it. . Unfortunately, I was let down and did not enjoy it as much as his previous work
In this book review and post, I’ll go over some points I did agree with as well as more in depth critiques.
Book Notes
The book starts by going over our struggle to quantify productivity as we transitioned from a goods based economy to a service based economy. The increase in white collar and/or knowledge workers has had it hard to quantify their productivity. As such we have settled on “looking busy” or pseudo productivity. I can definitely relate to this as a former manager. It was hard for me to tell how well some of my reports were doing, especially if it wasn’t a role I had done before.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some good practical takeaways from the book. The book goes over 3 principles that Newport identifies as beneficial. I will go over these points as well as provide some real life examples of how they relate(d) to me.
Do fewer things.
This goes over some examples of how you can be over committed by having too many tasks. Newport mentions workers are usually at the edge of capacity and small commitments can come with high cognitive costs. This point made sense to me. It seems like the example of constantly updating your boss on the status of projects rather than working on them. I get this. In a prior life, I was a corporate trainer hired to show production floor technicians how to use a micrometer. Once I was hired and did my first class, there was so much pent up demand that my plate was overloaded. Keep in mind that I was a blue collar worker and the knowledge work thing was new to me and I was not great at advocating properly for my time. Eventually, however, I created a project list to go over with the general managers each month. It showed what I was working on, the status and what was in my backlog. It was up to them to decide what was the most pressing. I also gave an estimate of what amount of time each course took to roll out to the intended audience, the amount of time spent on administrative tasks and expected completion dates. It took approximately 3 months before I was able to offload the low value tasks and have a concrete pipeline of activities.
Work at a natural pace.
Newport goes over that we all have variations of intensity of the amount we can commit to our projects. Trying to work endlessly at a frantic pace isn’t going to yield great results over a long period of time. However, we can simplify our work by getting out of unproductive tasks. We can schedule things better in our calendar to tilt the scale in our favour from a productivity standpoint. For example, no meeting Mondays and giving ourselves permission to take a break from the grind.
My personal life example here is writing. I have days where I am motivated to write and days where I am not. Many times I have to “force” myself to start. But once I have the discipline to start, I usually get much more accomplished than I would have expected. The first draft of this post was while I was travelling and outside my usual routine. I slept poorly and had a million other things to do to get my kids ready for summer. I have a forced habit of writing each workday for at least 30 mins. The goal isn’t what I put out but building the habit to “do something”. I have now been at it for over an hour. I may have missed the point, but my “natural” pace would have been not to start today. Newport actually goes over examples of people leaving things for much longer lengths of time.
Obsess over quality.
This focuses on the idea that once you commit to doing something, you won’t tolerate poor quality. The focus on quality should naturally reduce your pace. There is a balance of being fixated on quality to the point of being a perfectionist and having nothing to show for it vs getting things out into the world.
So despite the label of this principal being horribly misleading, it resonated with me. The word “obsess” means different things to everyone. To me this comes across as having a level of attention to detail that may go far beyond what is required. I think the risk is that this point potentially freezes more people than encourages them to start.
My real life example is my squat for powerlifting. There are standards that I have to meet in powerlifting to consider my squat “technically correct”. After one of my competitions, I got in my head that my technique was holding me back. I watched so many form check videos that I convinced myself my squat was horrible. I spent over 6 months (yes 6 months) “overhauling” my squat. I tried squatting in a higher heeled shoe, squatting in flats, reducing my lean, pointing my toes perfectly forward, widening and then narrowing my stance, different cues on foot pressure, knee position, head position, etc. I could go on and on. What did I have to show for it after 6 months? Nothing. My technique was not holding me back but I “obsessed over quality” and have nothing to show for it. If anything, I lost 6 months of solid squat training. My squat was actually worse after the 6 months because I couldn’t train with the typical weight and intensity given all the changes. I should have picked one small change, tried it on a secondary day for a month and left the heavy squat day the same. With a proper feedback loop I would have found a slightly more optimal squat over time.
Another similar point is that if you want to do something, you have to balance initial quality vs. getting things out there. What you are capable of producing on day 1 or day 10 is likely way below what you are likely to produce on day 100 or 1000. If you become too obsessed with quality you may not get to day 1000. The goal is to get to day 1000. I would reframe this to say something like “have a quality feedback loop” or “incorporate a continuous improvement system”.
You can tackle this by having specific time or “modes” for each task. My example is writing. I have a mode where I may just type anything and everything to get it out of my head. Then when it’s time to edit, I switch modes to focus on quality and removing or rephrasing. This is all done before it’s looked over by another person whose sole role is to be an editor.
My More Critical Thoughts
Here are my main critiques:
We are not the cherry picked examples in the book. You likely don’t have decades to show results if you are looking to grow something like a side hobby/hustle. Yes there are people who have the autonomy to let something rest for the length of time given in the book, but there are many more examples of people who do not.
The work at a natural pace mindset is great against grinding endlessly but what about stopping for days, weeks, years, etc. How about all those who decided to “take a break” from something and come back to it later but ended up quitting or losing interest. Do those people get a mention in the book? Of course they don’t. For example, Ryan Holladay says when he finishes one book, he starts another. Yes, his pace may slow but he doesn’t stop.
I don’t interact with “regular” people as much as I used to but my experience in the corporate world is that the principles in the book may lead many astray. I don’t think if they worked at a “natural” pace, they would have anything extra to show for their time. Call me a pessimist, however, I think I’m being a bit pragmatic. I am a believer of showing up when it isn’t easy, natural or fun. Waiting for inspiration feels a bit dangerous to me.
I mention the “fixate on quality” principle is a bit misleading to what Newport means. I worry taking the principle too seriously would leave someone feeling paralyzed about putting things out there. Small incremental improvement as part of a system that piles up over time seems more likely to be successful, then continuing to edit and tweak endlessly only to put out a small percentage of work.
Most of the people in the book were very hard for me to relate to.For example, the book draws from the life and work of Jane Austin. Originally, she was believed to have been sneaking in short bursts of writing while having space between family and (and servants). This would be the “grinding” that we like to glamorise, and imagining that Austin was shoving writing into the nooks and crannies of her day to day. The reality, however, was that once she was removed from the busyness of her rest of the world in a cottage in Chawton, she was able to focus with less obligations in her life. Newport also pulls from other successful individuals such as Jewel, Isaac Newton, Steve Jobs, Alanis Morrisette and others. It was difficult to find these examples and individuals relatable, or even applicable to the average person. . I understand at one point they started from humble beginnings, but I would have appreciated hearing more about people who I have never heard of doing incredible things without ever being popular.
Personal Examples
I am no stranger to “slow” productivity and long term initiatives. I could mention my starting from zero in finance to becoming financially independent in 15ish years as an example, but I think I have even better examples:
This blog is an example. I have been writing to some degree for over 10 years now. I have recently put more energy into writing. Had I hit pause (like I have so many times over the years) I would not have put out, at least, a post a week for over 6 months.
I built my home gym and workshop over the course of 2-3 years. I could have blitzed it, but I honestly didn’t know what the end product was gonna be until I rolled up my sleeves and started. Things have moved/changed so much that even if I knew all the equipment I would eventually get, I would not have been able to get it to this place. I didn’t yet possess the skill to know that.
I have mentioned that I grew up around cars. I have watched my father do some pretty incredible things. He has restored several cars, renovated houses, and each one gets better as he does them. I have asked him over time how he approaches things. He isn’t great at articulating his thoughts, but it seems to come down to “just get to work and get better over time”. Bring what you learned on the last one to the next one.
Closing Thoughts
I felt the book was forced. It almost feels like the book was based on an idea and then a bunch of anecdotes were pulled from the past to justify the concept. If you haven’t read a productivity book then I think you can read this one and not be worse off. I would give it a 3 out of 5.
If you want to read a Newport book, I would strongly recommend Deep Work.
What do you think? Did I miss the point? I would love to hear what you thought of the book if you read it.
Thanks for reading.
Dean