Slow Productivity May Get a Boost
Is Cal Newport finally embracing Nature?
I had a long overdue epiphany the other day as I rewrote, yet again, my multi-page list of tasks.
What if I flipped the script and reset my expectations to align with my personal, internal rhythm instead of an imposed productivity metric from god knows who and where?
What if I stopped silently and constantly measuring myself against some invisible societal standard of hyper-productivity to come up short? What if I embraced less is more? What if I leaned into doing fewer things more slowly?
That's what I've been doing anyway, I reminded myself, but with overriding guilt about my slow pace.
The hell with productivity gurus
I shouldn't be surprised at the dissonance I'm feeling. I came out of a project-managed work environment where I had to critique and measure my weekly accomplishments. Since leaving that job I've relished the concept of moving at a slower pace akin to Nature, but still habitually overload my daily task list.
It's a perpetual cycle of overwhelm and disappointment, plus the waste of limited mental and emotional energy. Sound familiar?
For years I've also watched the optimize productivity online trend become wildly popular, promoted mostly by earnest younger men who are hell-bent to master the formula, master themselves and change the world. I call them young warriors and because I'm in a different phase of life, sift their advice cautiously. Only one of their productivity techniques has stuck with me — the Pomodoro technique.
Which, of course, leads me to ask, what is my innate rhythm?
What if we took our rhythms from Nature?
What if I deeply accepted — into my cells — that my internal rhythms are aligned with the Nature we're immersed in?
Nature, where oak trees don't apologize for taking 300-400 years to become towering sentinels of the forest and don't feel guilty comparing themselves to the faster growing pines.
What would that look like on my daily to-do list? What's the opportunity I'm missing?
All of these questions came into sharp clarity the past several weeks as I worked on the structure of a coaching program I'll be starting in March to help overwhelmed professionals reclaim their screens, attention and time to refocus on what matters most. As I focus on significant milestones I keep asking:
How much change is realistic to ask?
How much will people actually do?
How much, or how little, teaching will they need to shift their mindset?
When learning masquerades as action
My previous experience as a coach in learning programs created by others who believed more information is always better has shown me that giving more information is counter-productive: While people love the learning, they stop there and don't take that learning into action.
The learning masquerades as the action. At the end of the program there may be warm fuzzy feelings about what they've learned but there is no significant change in their lives, no clear result.
It's no secret we learn best when we experience something ourselves. The guiding principle I'm keeping in mind is to present fewer but more impactful challenges and give people the the time and space to experience and allow the natural rhythms internalized in our DNA over millennia to take root.
The trick, I’m finding, is aligning our beliefs with what our internal systems are already doing.
The slow work movement has been a long time coming
Less is more isn't a new concept. I'm catching up with a quiet movement toward slow work and slow productivity that may have started with Carl Honore's 2005 book, “In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed.” Nearly 20 years later, slow productivity may suddenly get a popularity boost next month.
Best-selling author Cal Newport is publishing his latest book, “Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout” in early March. Newport's previous books “Deep Work,” “Digital Minimalism” and “A World Without Email” succinctly gave voice to the harms of technology many feel, making the Georgetown associate professor the center of a resistance cult.
While Digital Minimalism inspired me to quit Facebook cold turkey in 2020 and I deeply appreciate Newport's influence in awakening people to what humans are sacrificing to technology, his approach so far has been within a vacuum divorced from the impact of the natural environment.
To be fair, Digital Minimalism does discuss Thoreau, but only from the angles of his "new economics — trading life for goods" and the benefits of ambulation — walking — for cultivating solitude and productive aloneness. Deep Work spends time on how Newport's choice to walk everywhere is key to his productive meditations while walking to focus on professional problems.
Unfortunately, there isn't any discussion about being outside in Nature to experience Nature’s daily small wonders, cultivate awe or feel part of the larger, non-human living world.
If the cover of this newest book is any indication I'm hoping that will change.
Is Cal Newport embracing Nature?
The cover of Slow Productivity shows an idyllic natural scene with a cabin atop a steep-sided mountain canyon. Evergreens abound. A stone path meanders through the trees. It's a marked departure from the stark, graphic, non-representational covers of his previous books.
Could this mean that Newport has finally realized the critical role that Nature plays in our mental, emotional and creative health? That without Nature, everything else are theories in a lab, that lab being the flattened screen reality of millions of humans.
The book is organized around three of Newport's long-standing principles:
Do fewer things
Work at a natural pace
Obsess over quality
There are few tantalizing clues in the pre-publication materials: the phrase 'natural pace,' the idea of 'seasonal variation,' and the fact that he's taken cues from "history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers (who) mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power."
Let’s all walk with the sages
He calls history's greatest minds "traditional knowledge workers." Oy.
Mentioned are Isaac Newton (apple under a tree) and Georgia O'Keefe (giant flower paintings in a desert studio). The fact that philosophers, sages and artists across centuries have relied on Nature for deep and continued inspiration just by being present in Nature gives me hope Newport has gained that insight.
Because the book hasn't been released yet (March 5) we can't check the table of contents on Amazon to see the topics. But many of his loyal followers will do what he tells them to do and I'm hoping that means making Nature a routine part of a slower workstyle and lifestyle.
Fingers crossed.
Now, go have a wander.
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Note: Amazon book links are affiliate links.
Resources for you
It's Time to Embrace Slow Productivity by Cal Newport This piece appeared in The New Yorker two years ago.
Shortly after that best-selling author Karla Starr wrote this article, calling out Newport for trying to claim the movement, which she said should really be be called sustainable productivity. Starr also writes the Substack The Starr Report.
Is Slow Productivity the Wave of the Future? Another take on slow productivity on the Hive.
Questions for you
Reflections, questions and ideas to break the digital spell.
Q: Who or what is the voice judging your productivity in your head? Is the voice helpful and supportive?
Q: What would happen if you evicted the voice?
Tell me below in the comments!
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Hear, hear on the slow productivity! It’s a message that needs to spread far and wide.
It’s sometimes difficult, living in a city, to get deeply into ‘nature’ on a daily basis, although I’m thankful to live in Germany and in an area with a lot of public green spaces. I do find spending time outdoors restorative and walks promote good thinking.
Looking forward to hearing more here about your coaching program! It sounds like an important offering. 💖
Incredible isn't it, that we have to coin a new term "slow productivity" to negate the association of productivity with speed, when productivity is actually all about effectiveness and not at all about efficiency. Most productivity gurus are output focused. They teach you how to speed up your hamster wheel - whether that's your own creation or your employer's - without ever considering whether that output takes you where you want to go, let alone get you to consider where that is!
Btw, thank you for pointing me to Cal Newport. Very curious about his new book now.