Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity is a refreshing take on how we work, arguing that sometimes slowing down is the key to actually getting more done. It introduces three core ideas: focus on fewer tasks, work at a natural pace, and prioritize quality above all else. The book is filled with compelling stories from around the world, showcasing how individuals have found success and productivity by embracing a more deliberate approach.

I learned about slow productivity from the podcast Book Overflow, which I listen to each monday morning during my commute. With some recent vacation time, I’ve finally had the space to reflect on their review and consider how I can incorporate Newport’s advice into my own work life.

Slow Productivity challenges the conventional wisdom that constantly striving and performing is the only path to success, especially for those in "knowledge work". Newport argues that our current methods of tracking and measuring output are often flawed, leading us to chase the appearance of productivity rather than genuine results. He encourages a return to a more natural workflow – think the changing of seasons, rather than the daily grind.

Early in the book, Cal Newport poses a simple question to students and professionals: how do you measure productivity? Many responses focused on what they accomplished—quantity was assumed to be better. Newport’s observation was striking: productivity itself had no reliable measurement; what was being measured was simply the appearance of working, not the actual quality. As he writes:

The issue was less what they said than what they didn’t. By far the most common style of answer simply listed the types of things the respondent did in their job.

Newport shares a fascinating anecdote about the CEO of CBS, who, upon finding most employees had left work by 3:30 PM on a Friday, implemented a policy forcing everyone to adhere to a traditional 9-to-5 schedule. The underlying belief was that slackers would minimize effort without constant supervision. Yet, the book argues, this decision didn't change CBS's standing as the third-largest network. Instead, it was the signing of two successful shows – CSI and Survivor– and the dedication of the CSI screenwriter, who spent three years perfecting and pitching the show, that ultimately pushed CBS to the top.

“It’s a manager’s job to ensure enough work is getting done, because without this pressure, lazy employees will attempt to get away with the bare minimum. The most successful companies have the hardest workers.”

This raises a question: is it even possible to measure the productivity of knowledge workers? Is constant work truly necessary to make an impact?

Overview

Slow Productivity presents three core principles, illustrated through a variety of compelling short stories. These stories center on accomplished professionals in fields like writing, theatre, film-making, and music. What unites them is the understanding that creating something truly great requires time and effort. They are: 

1. Do fewer things
2. Move at a natural pace
3. Obsess over quality

By embracing these principles, Cal Newport argues that you can become more productive by allocating more time to higher-quality work, executed at a sustainable pace.

Do fewer things

Companies often compensate knowledge workers for their expertise and the tools they use to move quickly within a business environment. They utilize this knowledge to develop products and solutions that facilitate growth. However, in many organizations, the scope of a worker's responsibilities remains unclear. This lack of clarity can consume significant time, diverting it from productive work through unnecessary meetings and conversations.

This often leads to longer working hours to accomplish the same amount of work, contributing to burnout. The boundary between work and personal time becomes blurred, potentially extending into evenings or weekends. This book’s publication following the pandemic which fundamentally altering how we work very quickly. What was once a healthy separation – a time to return home, care for family, and attend to household duties – transitioned into a perpetually connected world, where employees could be contacted at any time. This shift fostered a culture where visibility was paramount, evolving from a requirement to be visibly working to a compulsion to be online and appear productive at all times.

Cal Newport recounts the story of a man who ended up in the hospital with a heart attack. Prior to this event, he had been living what seemed like a normal life, routinely working until 8:00 PM and occasionally on weekends. It was this experience that prompted a resolution to abandon unnecessary Zoom meetings and instead prioritize focused work.

“The Frostick incident caught my attention because of his resolution: “I’m not spending all day on Zoom anymore.” As he later explained in a Bloomberg interview, the demands of video calls had stretched his workdays, sometimes leading him to work weekends.

In this section of the book, Cal Newport provides recommendations for how to work effectively, with the goal of reducing workload and increasing control over the types of tasks you undertake. One approach was to implement a shared Trello board to visualize work progress; another was to adopt a pull-based system.

Pull based workflows problems

MIT created a bio-lab for doing some type of analysis. Initially, the lab could process requests in two days. However, due to a push-based methodology, the estimated turnaround time ballooned to 179 days, forcing scientists to seek faster results from other labs.

The problem stemmed from the lab’s initial approach: a push-based model where completed tasks were automatically forwarded to the next stage. Because different stages required varying amounts of time, the system’s progress was limited by the slowest component, creating a significant backlog.

To address this, the lab transitioned to a pull-based model, ensuring each stage accounted for its processing capacity and avoided overloads. This principle extends to computer systems as well; popular monitoring tools like Prometheus utilize a pull-based model to prevent system failures due to message overload, mirroring how programmers manage their backlogs.

Simulating a pull based model for work

Cal Newport suggests a pull-based system for individuals, even without a shared Trello board. When presented with a request, respond by requesting further details, outlining your current queue, and providing an estimated completion timeframe. Clearly defined tasks with set deadlines are then added to your backlog.

Each week, prune your backlog and communicate updates to requesters. If work is ongoing, keep them informed. If a task remains ill-defined, postpone it until sufficient context is provided. While your backlog can grow, limit your active projects to 1-3 at a time.

By making your workload visible, you establish clear boundaries, preventing unnecessary requests. This transforms you from a black box into a predictable system, fostering efficiency and respecting your time.

The goal of this system is to create friction, ensuring only the most critical work surfaces while relegating less important tasks back to their originators or deeming them ultimately unnecessary.

Move at a natural pace

The concept of constant work is a relatively recent development, stemming from our struggle to measure and optimize diverse types of labor. This contrasts with industries like manufacturing and warehousing, where productivity is directly linked to output or throughput.

However, production line work, while efficient, isn’t intuitively natural. Humans weren’t designed to perform repetitive tasks daily.

Henry ford was able to identify that having people work on one specific part of the car instead of the entire thing reduce the amount of time to manufacture a new Model T from 12.5 hours to 1.5 hours.

Historically, hunter-gatherer societies observed that individuals typically worked around 20 hours per week to meet the needs of the tribe, followed by another 20 hours dedicated to communal tasks or personal responsibilities. Their work patterns varied significantly, with resource-intensive hunts interspersed with extended periods of rest.

When humans began farming, they moved away from a nomadic lifestyle. Instead of responding to immediate needs, they could plan and grow food regularly. While times of hard work, like harvests in the fall and planting in the spring, still existed, winters offered a period of minimal labor, and many modern celebrations likely originated as a way to recover after that effort.

Newport highlights 37signals as a company that embraces a more human approach to work, mirrored in their book Rework. They operate on project cycles lasting 6-8 weeks, during which teams focus intently on previously defined tickets and plans. Following these cycles, they dedicate two weeks to recovery and planning for the next project. This schedule offers several advantages, but most notably provides time for reflection and prevents burnout as teams transition to new tasks.

Obsess over quality

When focusing on doing less, it's essential to prioritize producing your best work. Slow productivity isn’t simply about quietly disengaging; it's about fundamentally rethinking how you approach work in a world where productivity can’t always be measured. The principle is to focus on high-quality output, leading to better results simply because you’re handling a reduced workload. Clear communication is also key, ensuring that progress and outcomes are understood before work begins.

The section features a story about Jewels - a singer and song writer from Alaska - who overcame years of challenges to secure a record deal with a major label. They offered her a $1 million signing bonus; however, when she discovered the amount was a loan, she declined it. She knew she wasn't yet capable of producing music that would be able to repay the loan and wanted to avoid the possibility of being dropped by them. After three years of dedicated work, she ultimately achieved profitability.

Missing short-term results doesn’t equate to failure. It’s important to prepare for success, and that often requires pursuing “side quests” to discover what makes you unique and ways of working that work for you. Once you’re aware of that unique quality, you must obsess over delivering it.

Quality isn’t something that can be rushed; it demands that you slow down. By doing so, you create the time needed to produce truly unique and high-quality work. Even successful people often lack the time for reflection. One example comes from the creator of Fathom Analytics, a successful independent web developer who, after relocating to Vancouver Island and reducing his need for a high monthly income, found he could dedicate more time to creating new value through tutorial videos and an cloud hosted analytics platforms.

This is particularly relevant in today's age of LLMs. While you might be able to find a workable solution quickly, that doesn’t guarantee success, as good taste and discernment are just as important as the skills to execute the work.

Obsessing over quality doesn’t mean striving for perfection – though that’s a worthy aim. Instead, it’s about delivering consistently good or great work, and knowing when to move on. A key aspect of creating quality content and projects is a commitment to continuous releasing and testing what works and what doesn't.

Reflecting on "Slow Productivity," I found it to be surprisingly relatable—a framework for understanding the rhythms of my own career. My experience in programming often oscillates between a factory-like urgency to get something working and periods of deliberate research and study to discover new ways to automate unique problems.

Working at RBC

My time at RBC underscored the significant impact of workplace culture. I frequently found myself pulled into full-day meetings where limited actual work was accomplished. Senior management would often request solutions urgently, yet time miraculously appeared when those deadlines approached. While some observers may characterize large financial institutions as slow-moving, the cloud team where I worked was consistently striving for speed—a necessity given its role as a significant cost center.

The challenge wasn's a lack of time to complete work, but a constant responsibility for maintaining existing products, often diverting focus from creating superior solutions. This relentless context switching resulted in a decrease in team productivity, as the day was often consumed by small, reactive tasks. The focus was always on delivering a working solution, rather than meticulously evaluating its underlying quality. It becomes clear that chasing this speed often became a distraction from the larger problems.

Working at Pine

My current role at Pine, a Canadian mortgage startup, presents a stark contrast. The environment can be characterized as an engineer’s paradise, with only 2-3 brief meetings per week. We are granted considerable responsibility, trust, and resources to focus on producing our best work.

The difference in cultures was striking. A key advantage lies in the opportunity to build innovative solutions leveraging AI, rather than simply maintaining existing operations. Moreover, Pine emphasizes a laser-like customer focus—a requirement that drives us to obsess over the user experience and ensure customers love our product.

In conclusion

Having experienced this liberation from excessive meetings, the most valuable lesson from “Slow Productivity” is the need to shift our priorities. It's an opportunity to move beyond the idea that simply delivering a working solution is enough, and to embrace a more deliberate pace that could ultimately lead to greater productivity. Prioritizing quality, and working through tasks at a sustainable pace – as Newport advocates – promises to be a more effective, and ultimately more rewarding approach.

I hope to apply these principles where I can. I Recognize that focusing on quality and deliberate pace could lead to more valuable and meaningful contributions. The contrast between my experiences at RBC and Pine serves as a tangible illustration of the power of mindful work and the importance of intentionally slowing down to achieve sustainable impact.

Both rework and slow productivity argue that there are different ways to work, where you don’t need to spend all your time burning yourself into the ground. Instead, a better approach is a slow and methodical grind where you measure progress over months and years rather than weeks and days. The world moves faster now, no doubt about that, but that doesn’t mean you need to burn yourself out. You can find a way of working that works for you.