Is Slow Productivity the Solution to Burnout?

This is a summary of a Podcast of Cal Newport - Ep 171 : Is Slow productivity the solution to burnout

The hectic pace of business can get overwhelming and left unchecked can lead to burnout. It’s hard to imagine a world where this can be better managed (short of working for yourself).

In this episode, Cal starts by looking into the past to see how our ancestors lived and worked. What he concluded was that they were involved with skilled and important work everyday. The difference is the work happened on a natural pace. They took breaks when it was too hot, or when the weather was bad. They didn’t have 500 emails to respond to while in zoom meetings.

He describes that we’re in a world of Chronic Overload - We have more things to be done than is possible.

Chronic Overload results in 3 problems:

1. Short circuits our brains

   1. The parts of our brains that plan and chase after goals is overloaded and we lose our ability to plan and execute

2. Overhead Spiral

   1. Every project that emerges requires a set amount of overhead

   2. Sometimes this overhead (meetings / emails / IMs)

   3. At some point, we spend all our time talking about the work and not having any time to execute on the work

3. Relentless in pace

   1. There’s constant pressure to do more, we always feel behind

   2. There’s no time to downshift and recover

How do we move forward? He recommends that we take the following approach:

1. Do fewer things

   1. If you’re a manager, you should prioritize the work for the individuals

   2. Make this transparent and allow individuals to pick up the work once they have space

2. Work at a natural pace

   1. Add seasonality to your work - Some days of the week should be more busy than others, some months should be quieter if you have to go hard in other months.

   2. Adjust the timescale - instead of thinking of what can be done in days and weeks, think in months and in years

3. Obsess over Quality

   1. Instead of rushing, get it done with quality.

   2. Improve your craft

When your main metric is how do I do what I do better, then you’re in a better place to say no to things and become more autonomous.