Slow > fast productivity

In Cal Newport’s latest podcast episode he talks about prioritizing slow rather than fast productivity. He says we should measure goals and think in terms of months and years, not days and weeks. He also talked of his 40th birthday coming up.

Listening to him, I felt a small inner thrill. He was validating what I have come to understand - that consistent effort beats intense, short, sporadic sprints. I think Cal’s career has had such longevity partly because he works in such a sustainable fashion. When he talks and from the enormous amount of work he produces, one may think he is a hard-driving sprinter. Yet when one listens to him explain his schedule and how he time blocks his days, it becomes clear that he deliberately plans work to achieve at a measured pace.

Combined with asking myself “What if this could be easy? Effortless?” (cueing Greg McKeown’s work), I find myself minimizing laborious work and enjoying free time more. Before I would feel guilty for leaving a project incomplete, but now I understand more there’s always tomorrow. Before I would rather stay up than go to bed, but now I know 1 hour of lost sleep translates into 12 subsequent hours of sluggish and mediocre work.

I catch myself thinking of the future more, in a longer-term way. Part of that is associating with people who tend to make long-term plans too. Who think of the next year, 5 years, decade. I already wrote my Life Plan and put it online, but I think I shall do a more detailed writing of the person I want to become. To make that kind of “vision board” where I shall aim my efforts.

Slow productivity sounds boring but achieves big results. Fast productivity sounds fun but delivers less in the end. I want to be deliberate, not sloppy. Intentional, not careless.

Go slow, my virtual friends lurking on this blog! Go slow!