Slow Productivity
By Cal Newport
- Genre
- Psychology, Philosophy & Personal Development
- Publisher
- Portfolio (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2024
- ISBN
- 9780593544853
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout is a work of nonfiction by the computer scientist Cal Newport, published by Portfolio in March 2024. It proposes a sustainable alternative to busyness-based work. A New York Times bestseller, it was a best book of 2024 for The...
Knowledge work has been colonized by 'pseudo-productivity' - the performance of constant busyness measured in emails, meetings and visible activity - and Cal Newport thinks it is burning us out while producing worse work. Slow Productivity proposes an alternative built on three principles: do fewer things, work at a natural pace, and obsess over quality. Drawing on the working lives of scientists, authors and artists who accomplished a great deal without frenzy, Newport, a Georgetown computer scientist, argues for a more humane and ultimately more effective relationship with our labor. intendle recommends it for anyone drowning in a to-do list that only ever grows, and skeptical that the answer is another productivity hack. A New York Times bestseller and a best book of 2024 for The Economist and NPR, it is practical without being frantic. Its counterintuitive promise - that doing less, better, is the path to real accomplishment - lands as both relief and challenge.