Thoughts on slow productivity
Dec 4, 2023
Lately I have been grappling with the idea of productivity. I recently came across the idea of slow productivity in a discussion between Cal Newport and Tim Ferriss.
Slow productivity is the idea that we should be doing fewer things at a natural pace but focus on quality. What we do should be defined in relation to our long-term goals. But before diving further into this concept, let’s investigate the problem at hand.
Exhaustion and burnout
The internet led to many changes, not least to work life. With everything being connected, chronic overload has become increasingly common. We have too many things to do. This leads to three main problems:
Stress and anxiety because we realize we cannot keep up. The boat is sinking and we don’t have a big enough bucket.
The overhead that comes with all this work (preparing, planning, aligning etc.) takes so much time that we don’t have time to do the actual work.
No time to relax.
In contrast, our hunter-gatherer ancestors focused on skilled expert work but had a lot of idle time. They relaxed in between hunting trips. This is what’s natural for us.
We are not built for this relentless pace of work. It causes unhappiness and is something we need to solve. The idea of slow productivity proposes a three-faceted solution.
1. Doing fewer things
Just saying “do less” is not a solution. However, doing less is part of the solution. The key lies in prioritization and the approach to work.
Effectiveness > Efficiency
What you do is more important than how you do it. Doing the wrong things super efficiently is not very helpful. So, the starting point should be to establish priorities. I currently do this using the LNO framework.
The key to prioritize effectively, no matter what technique you use, is to recognize that a few tasks have a disproportionate impact on your productivity.
This is known as the Pareto principle which states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of the output come from 20% of the input. Roughly 80% of your valuable work comes from 20% of your tasks.
Knowing this, it becomes crucial to identify these 20% tasks. Even better, can you identify the top 10%, 5%, or 1% tasks? Only once this has been done, should we think of how to do our work more efficiently.
Clear deadlines
This is where Parkinson’s law comes in. It states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
We have all been there: you give yourself 2 weeks to write an essay and it will take 2 weeks; you give yourself 2 hours and miraculously you manage to do it in 2 hours.
This can be applied to all our tasks. Setting clear deadlines is the key to efficiency.
Deadlines should be short and feasible without being unnecessarily stress-inducing. This is s skill that comes with experience.
Deep work
These two principles can then be executed with deep work. My deep work strategy currently looks like this:
Daily 2-hour deep work session
No distractions; phone away, Gmail & Slack closed
Noise cancellation on
Focus on my #1 top goal for the day
The rest of the day should be more relaxed. Yours will be different. Experiment and do what works for you. This guide is helpful.
2. Work at a natural pace
Slow productivity requires adjusting the timescale at which you care about accomplishments. When you focus on your yearly goals, your daily tasks become a lot less stressful. It’s all about perspective.
3. Obsess over quality
Quality is the last facet of slow productivity. Do less, what matters, but very well. Focusing on doing what you do best even better makes it easier to say no to things that don’t matter.
The final formula
Continuously prioritize.
Focus on the top 20% most impactful work.
Obsess over the quality of that 20%.
Set clear deadlines.
Execute in deep work sessions.
Look at your accomplishments on a long timeframe.