Slow Productivity

I learned something important recently I wanted to share with you.

I don’t particularly like the cult of productivity that’s sprung up online over the last few years.

You know the type. Advising you to start your day at 3am, to wear the same thing every day, or eat the same meal, in order to eliminate any need for conscious choice so you can be ultimately optimised … for what exactly? More work? Being quicker at responding to emails? Attending more meetings?

Life feels way too short to eliminate these small pleasures.

But listening to the audiobook Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport has really resonated with me.

The book’s key principles –

Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality.

The most important takeaway for me has been to think about productivity in terms of a decade, rather than a day.

I often set myself daily and weekly deadlines, and miss them, and then feel terrible for doing so. Modern life seems to set us up to fail.

If you’re measuring how much you’ve achieved day to day, it’s probably not a lot, and it’s easy to spiral and feel guilty.

But if we think of what we’ve achieved over a decade, we can see the bigger picture. Not every task can be completed in a few hours.

Cal’s advice – give yourself more time. Double the deadline. If you’ve given yourself one month to finish something, take two instead, but just don’t let that turn into six months.

Allow time for deep contemplation. Creative pursuits take years to master, and years to complete.

It’s done when it’s done.

Mary x

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