Dave's book review for Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Author: Cal Newport
Pages: 256
Finished reading: 2026-06-30
Back to my books page for more reviews, etc.
My Review
It’s also my first Cal Newport book, though I’ve been so steeped in the world around Deep Work and Digital Minimalism that it almost feels weird that I haven’t read them yet.
Slow Productivity is a quick read. A decent chunk of the end is devoted to the (excellent) footnotes.
There’s always a concern when I read a book I expect to agree with so much: That I’ll nod along with it, but not actually get much value out of it. That did happen to some degree (a lot of vigorous nodding), but I still got plenty out of it and it was worth my time.
There’s one very important thing to keep in mind while reading Slow Productivity and Newport is very clear about it: Unless you are an academic, self employed, or otherwise in charge of your own schedule, you may not be able to implement a lot of what he’s recommending. So do be aware that this book may make you feel even worse about your situation because it may give you additional reasons to be unhappy with your current lot.
With that out of the way, here’s my rough notes. These are mostly for me to remember some of my favorite bits. (I’m trying to "take a page" so to speak from Derek Sivers’s book notes (sive.rs):
My notes are not a summary of the book! When I’m reading and come across a surprising or inspiring idea, I save it. That’s all my notes are. I’m not summarizing the book. I’m just saving ideas for myself, for later reflection. It helps me remember what I learned from it.
(I tend to turn everything into whole-ass prose and I suppose it’s good writing practice, but it also means it takes me ages to capture all of the cool ideas I might find in a book. For an extreme example, see Dave’s book review for The Art of Doing Science and Engineering!)
Do fewer things!
Newport makes a very strong case for why we "knowledge workers" ended up with an inhuman work culture of "busyness". (I think it carries over into our personal lives as well.)
Don’t let "busyness" get in the way of the handful of really important things you want to do.
In many cases, it’s not an actual task that distracts you from more important work, it’s the "effort required to remember it, to worry about it, and to eventually find time for it in your schedule. Try to cut down on that sort of "overhead tax" where possible.
Work at a natural pace!
The great thinkers of the past would have been aghast at the frantic pace we work at.
Newport references the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey several times, as do I in my card: The ridiculous lives of certain famous productive people.
Now I’ve got amend that card! Those people weren’t ridiculous. Our modern lives are!
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Note
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I’ve also linked this book review from my general card on Productivity. |
Until farming came along, it was not natural for human beings to work on a single monotonous task all day long.
The Industrial Revolution made this even more extreme. Now we’re not just doing the same task all day week after week, we’re doing it without change all year round!
Do fewer things, yes. But time not spent hammering away on your most important goals isn’t time wasted. Don’t grind yourself to death. Breaks aren’t just humane, they’re important!
Become comfortable taking longer on important projects.
Accept that your productivity will come in fits and spurts.
Make a five year plan. Without planning on this scale, it’s too easy to lose sight of the big/important work. (Five is not a magic number, but think multiple years.)
However long you think it will take to do something, double it! That will allow you to slow down and do it more naturally. Don’t be scrambling to hit your targets.
So plan for multi-year efforts, but work in a natural, seasonal rhythm like a human being.
A key tenet of slow productivity is that grand achievement is built on the steady accumulation of modest results over time. This path is long. Pace yourself.
Make rituals. This can be hard if you work at home:
The problem is that the home is filled with the familiar, and the familiar snares our attention, destabilizing the subtle neuronal dance required to think clearly.
(You know the laundry and dishes need to be done, which keeps you from fully immersing in the deep work.)
Obsess over quality!
To get out of the busyness rut, concentrate on doing it right, not just keeping busy.
Two reasons:
Once you commit to doing something very well, then busyness becomes intolerable.
And:
It’s in the obsession over what you’re producing that slowness can transcend its role as just one more strategy on the arid battlegrounds of work-life wars and become a necessary imperative - an engine that drives a meaningful […] life.
(And yes, Newport does address perfectionism in this section. You are looking to produce something "great" but not perfect. Tricky.)
I enjoyed the description of John McPhee’s writing process a lot. It sounds like this description comes from McPhee’s book Draft No. 4 and I’m betting I would enjoy that book.
John McPhee on his process:
It painted me into a corner, yes, but in doing so it freed me to write.
In conclusion, slow productivity recognizes that there are a bunch of tasks that you need to get done that have nothing to do with your important work, but you can change your perspective about how everything gets done. Working slowly is better for everyone involved. It’s better for you. It creates better work. It’s how important stuff has always gotten done in human history (the last 70 years are an anomaly).
What ultimately matters is where you end up, not the speed at which you got there.