Reading Corner: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport

By João Ferreira Jul 21, 2024 Books 0 Comments

Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, is a must-read for every knowledge worker. In current times, it seems that everyone is focused on achieving more and more, following rules and patterns that no longer make sense as they were developed to limit physical fatigue of factory labor or maximize the use of solar light.

As we sprint towards the goal of always achieving more, we tend to add more tasks and responsibilities to our lists, ultimately leading to anxiety and having a negative impact on productivity. The book starts with an introduction to Pseudo-productivity, a concept used to describe the use of visible activity as the primary means of measuring actual productive efforts.

The timing to read it couldn’t be better, as I like to spend my vacations disconnected from technology as much as possible, allowing me to better immerse myself in reading. In this book, Cal Newport explores three principles that will help us achieve more:

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

Each principle is described in its own chapter, and Newport does so with an engaging writing style. Each topic is introduced by a story that explores the problem he is about to address, making it easier for the reader to relate to the problem and the proposed solution.

This book really inspired me to change some of the things I do at work. At the same time, it confirmed that Copilot and Microsoft 365 can really help achieve slow productivity. Stay tuned for a follow-up article where I’ll share how Microsoft tools can help you with some of the concepts explained by Cal Newport.

Update: You can find my follow-up article in the link below.

• Embracing Slow Productivity with Copilot and Microsoft 365

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