> [!INFO] Application > [[Slow Productivity Application]] ## Highlights There’s no reasonable definition of productivity that shouldn’t also apply to John McPhee, and yet nothing about his work habits is frantic, busy, or overwhelming. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hr9e394788gzbpksmrkk2bea)) - 💭 John McFee played the long game SLOW PRODUCTIVITY A philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner, based on the following three principles: 1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hr9e593xc2x3jmtfeng8pse7)) ### New highlights added March 7, 2024 at 3:23 PM . I want to instead propose an *entirely new* way for you, your small business, or your large employer to think about what it means to get things done. I want to rescue knowledge work from its increasingly untenable freneticism and rebuild it into something more sustainable and humane, enabling you to create things you’re proud of without requiring you to grind yourself down along the way. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrdcd4rp63xvwt9b9hxa41k7)) ^aso0hf It’s hard to overemphasize how unusual it is that an economic sector as large as knowledge work lacks useful standard definitions of productivity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrdcnr3na4fqr6x9bcc3wtf5)) ^jey6vy - 💭 basing it off of pages written might not be productivity because it could be s*** pages Without concrete productivity metrics to measure and well-defined processes to improve, companies weren’t clear how they should manage their employees. And as freelancers and small entrepreneurs in the sector became more prevalent, these individuals, responsible only for themselves, weren’t sure how they should manage themselves. It was from this uncertainty that a simple alternative emerged: *using visible activity as a crude proxy for actual productivity*. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrdd0b5j6pzwba4pp381b8kj)) ^p8zwhn - 💭 if you don't know how to track something you just try to overestimate to a point where we are perceived to have done enough PSEUDO-PRODUCTIVITY The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrdd3ehgtazmsnf3gxzjak2y)) ^eaueyr Petrini didn’t simply write a sharply worded op-ed about the corruptive forces of McDonald’s, he instead promoted an appealing new relationship with food that would make fast food seem self-evidently vulgar. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrddk4n384x1tq56vxm00jq5)) ^6sjpuq - 💭 It's about changing your mindset through these better alternatives and their exploration where you realize how your previous interpretation was not worth it once I personally started only working in 4-hour days I realized that it wasn't worth it to work 8:00 ### New highlights added March 7, 2024 at 4:29 PM The reality of our current moment is that professional seasonality of this type has become rare, especially in knowledge work. Outside of some full-time artists and writers, who like O’Keeffe can seek creativity in summer escapes, and educators, who work on an academic calendar, most people who toil at computer screens for a living do so twelve months out of the year with little variation in their intensity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrdm546jav2e9j7hr4jpp4vt)) ^gtlo5d - 💭 importance of [[Work cycles]], and encouragement of philosophies like the twelve week year KNOWLEDGE WORK (GENERAL DEFINITION) The economic activity in which knowledge is transformed into an artifact with market value through the application of cognitive effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrg49xeqqm2mnvsjnn58q1zr)) ^ce4jw1 3DO FEWER THING ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgaswnvn8sc1tzaf6w54zh5)) - Tags: #chapter Strive to reduce your obligations to the point where you can easily imagine accomplishing them with time to spare. Leverage this reduced load to more fully embrace and advance the small number of projects that matter most. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgb2tghhryvep8phad9p825)) ^4g4s8l - 💭 I wonder how this works for neuro Divergent people, on one hand we are prone to obsession and this can be done easily with the right thing, but sometimes you also do like to have a wide variety of things we are working on just because we are so interested in everything it’s not surprising that Jonathan Frostick had a heart attack and that his primary resolution on recovering was to escape this video conference hell ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgb7nraxxn530r01sbhq2tx)) In knowledge work, when you agree to a new commitment, be it a minor task or a large project, it brings with it a certain amount of ongoing administrative overhead: back-and-forth email threads needed to gather information, for example, or meetings scheduled to synchronize with your collaborators. This *overhead tax* activates as soon as you take on a new responsibility. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgbdns2n1ryp7v9s6kaf13y)) ^1e303s If, on the other hand, you agree to take on four different reports simultaneously, the combined overhead tax of maintaining all four on your task list will eat up half your day in logistical wrangling, effectively doubling the time required to complete a single report. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgberw25xdv89cza3fdy7nn)) ^e5u6ql - 💭 if you focus on one thing at a time then there's less overhead that you need to get through before you actually do the work that matters The advantage of doing fewer things, however, is about more than just increasing the raw number of hours dedicated to useful activity; the *quality* of these hours also increases. When you approach a project without the hurried need to tend many barely contained fires, you enjoy a more expansive sense of experimentation and possibility. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgbfy7zvpcwxtkb5qcd119s)) ^nqe9m7 - 💭 you just have less things to need to attend to How do knowledge workers decide when to say no to the constant bombardment of incoming requests? In the modern office context, they tend to rely on stress as a default heuristic ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgbpms4g7m7pywp88m3s5qs)) ^hg57b2 The problem with deploying this stress heuristic, of course, is that you don’t start turning away incoming tasks until you find yourself already creeping up to the edge of unsustainable workloads. It ensures that you’ll remain permanently in this exhausting liminal space that immediately precedes the overhead tax tipping point. This is why so many knowledge workers feel vaguely overloaded all the time, and why we were so vulnerable to collapsing into full burnout when pushed by unexpected disruptions: the informal manner in which we manage our workloads ensures we always have dangerously too much to do. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgbrsery1yfbzd6pvjsjd78)) ^q48ha8 applying limits at different scales of work at the same time, from your overarching missions, to your ongoing projects, to your daily goals. Intentional limits set concurrently at all three of these scales are more likely to succeed than focusing on just one scale in isolation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc2wxk8pryq6bsaq4269kx)) ^uq2i7u LIMIT MISSIONS The term *mission* can sound grandiose. For our purposes, we’ll demote it to a more pragmatic definition: any ongoing goal or service that directs your professional life. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc3hcv3bmds7chkzqqxrj6)) ^kv4aln When I graduated from college, for example, with a major in computer science and a book deal with Random House, I decided to keep my work intensely focused on just these two missions: academic research and writing. This lasted until I was hired as an assistant professor, at which point I had to add a third mission dedicated to servicing the necessary nonresearch aspects of academic life, including class preparation and student supervision. Three missions still feel compatible with slow productivity, especially if I’m careful to control it ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc5fa8fm747pvtp11aqy7f)) ^kttrg3 She now works, on average, twenty hours a week and takes off two full months each year for vacation. It’s likely, of course, that Blake would be making more money if she hustled to support more missions. When you’re enjoying twenty-hour workweeks, however, it’s hard to care too much about such possibilities. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc6hmawp7ds4qqz1azqsx1)) ^byqxsj - 💭 true 🤣 LIMIT PROJECTS Missions require that you initiate “projects,” which is my term for any work-related initiative that cannot be completed in a single session. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc73tf9mn22nj78xk3fr8m)) - 💭 once or ongoing, kind of like nick milo simmering To do real good physics work, you do need absolute solid lengths of time . . . it needs a lot of concentration . . . if you have a job administrating anything, you don’t have the time. So I have invented another myth for myself: that I’m irresponsible. I’m actively irresponsible. I tell everybody I don’t do anything. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgc90f434m29951h2nykdv5)) ^0xlae8 - 💭 maker vs manager dichotomy, saying youre irresponsible makes people less inclined to go to you for help? maintain clarity and control over your schedule, and deploy it to keep your workload reasonable, regardless of how you define this condition. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcdk1w8ms0r4s5c9nkbsnc)) - 💭 this is universal because it can apply for anyone regardless of whether you're working 20 or 40 hour weeks LIMIT DAILY GOALS We’ve arrived at the smallest scale of work that we’ll consider for our limiting strategies: the projects you decide to make progress on during the current day. My recommendation here is simple: work on at most one project per day. To clarify, I don’t intend for this single daily project to be your *only* work for the day. You’ll likely also have meetings to attend, emails to answer, and administrative nonsense to subdue (we’ll talk more about these smaller tasks in the upcoming proposition about containing the small). But when it comes to expending efforts on important, bigger initiatives, stay focused on just one target per day. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcf3gr0aq086p4k0bnyjcw)) ^c5slst There’s a calibrated steadiness to working on just one major initiative a day. Real progress accrues, while anxiety is subdued. This pace might seem slow in the moment, but zooming out to consider the results that eventually accrue over many months reveals the narrowness of this concern. I was too young to appreciate this reality as a graduate student in my twenties, but I for sure recognize its wisdom today. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcfznkashbbbx79khgh6ag)) ^mw0un3 - 💭 I'm just questioning the motivation feasibility of just working on one thing at a time. I feel like sometimes you might want to do multiple things because you can only focus on one thing for so long effectively. I do want to have blind faith and believe that his reflection well also apply to me, that I will eventually learn to enjoy deep work I am in a fair way of having no other *tasks* than such as I shall like to give my self, and of enjoying what I look upon as a great happiness, leisure to read, study, make experiments, and converse at large . . . on such points as may produce something for the common benefit of mankind, uninterrupted by the little cares and fatigues of business. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcn345eg82aeg26cxmhd1f)) ^o8rzur - 💭 he was willing to get someone to do the admin work for him so he could focus on the high order plans I also like how this quote ends in business in a way that really makes you grapple with both definitions What makes Benjamin Franklin’s colonial midlife crisis notable to a modern audience is his general belief that taming the impact of small details in your professional life opens up space to pursue bigger goals. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcqxj2syh2kaggcrnzymrh)) - 💭 I wonder how we can leverage systems to automate this. we have zapier and AI now? Surrounding these books are numerous pages of articles and hours of podcast discussions where I’ve also tackled this topic in depth. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgct61pb802nrad93zb2acq)) ^sxgnxi - 💭 cal's deep dive books are a result of slow productivity PUT TASKS ON AUTOPILOT ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcvvh8h6a921zy2ra1xvm4)) This combination of ritual and location makes it more likely that our hypothetical professor will actually review those reports, week after week, without actual thinking much about it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgcxpstnef85vgfm1j2svgd)) ^76i1vb - 💭 so we can leverage routines to do the mundane stuff. my only problem is that when I did have pure time blocks to consistently work on things, yes you did work on them but sometimes it felt forced and went against the ability to also enjoy the journey rather than purely focus on the outcome. I think that is why I haven't been as rigid in my time blocks as of recently out of not solely valuing the outcome. What makes his story interesting, however, is not only his rise, but also his subsequent fall. Roughly three years after starting *43 Folders*, Mann grew disillusioned with the promises of systems like GTD to transform work. These styles of productivity hacks, he wrote, didn’t end up making him feel “more competent, stable, and alive.” He refocused *43 Folders* away from pure productivity and toward the woollier goal of producing better creative work. Then he stopped posting altogether. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgd3ajcr5f3amtdrc3acva0)) however, a lot of the activity that began dominating the attention of knowledge workers like Mann wasn’t the execution of discrete tasks, but instead interactions with others *about* these tasks. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgd6g1rr4q8ck5aqr8ehncq)) If someone sends you an ambiguous message, instead of letting it instigate yet another stretched-out volley of back-and-forth missives, reply, “Happy to help! Grab me during one of my upcoming office hours and we’ll figure out the details.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgd5ydkvqghbh6y8ev3b540)) ^4c6h4j When someone asks you to take on some small obligation, direct them to add it themselves to the relevant shared task list; writing it, for example, into the shared doc, or creating a new card for it on the shared Trello board. Critically, make it clear that *all* of the information you’ll need to complete the task should be included in their entry. Reverse task lists require people to spend more time specifying exactly what they need from you, which simplifies the later execution of their requests. You can also use these public lists to keep people updated on the status of the tasks you’re currently handling, saving them from having to bother you with “How’s it going?” messages. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgd9zprd68bdym1nd1yrj3x)) ^na9c79 - 💭 public availability AVOID TASK ENGINES ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdjd171fy19gmkb4hzczys)) When selecting new projects, assess your options by the number of weekly requests, questions, or small chores you expect the project to generate. Prioritize options that minimize this number. Most people focus on the difficulty of a project, or the total amount of time it might require. But once you understand the havoc wreaked by an overstuffed to-do list, it makes sense that the task footprint of a project should be taken just as seriously. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdjv46zgq3v1dr795kpx29)) SPEND MONEY ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdk1hh76ks4fm983j7dhcs)) ^dvuhtj As she writes in her book *Free Time* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdkpnx16gwze93zqy0bbqh)) From the context of slow productivity, investments of this type make a lot of sense. The more you can tame the small commitments pulling at your attention, the more sustainably and effectively you can work on things that matter. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdmkmcnmv8vj1pxc12q9zc)) ^d49djc Hiring professional service providers is another effective investment for keeping your task lists contained. Returning to my own example, I pay an accountant to manage my books, a professional agency to handle everything related to my podcast advertising, a web consultant to keep all of my online properties humming, and a lawyer to answer the many small questions that pop up in the normal course of running my writing-related business. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdnw83vbbpep5f6j1thkqb)) - 💭 asked my cousin to handle my book keeping and tax returns ### New highlights added March 8, 2024 at 11:17 PM in the long term, this off-loading of the small can provide the mental space needed to make the types of large breakthroughs, and produce the type of value, that will make these monthly expenses suddenly seem trivial in scope ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgdq6wpgnybnytn4h55pw92)) Inspired in part by this article, I’ve become convinced in recent years that pull workflows are a powerful tool to avoid overload in the knowledge work setting. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrge6cnbd3bbnr2xs6s9bb13)) - 💭 so you can combine pull from the different statuses, and incorporate it into The hard limit of priorities. then with time blocking you can find time to consistently work on the non-urgent stuff and secure it in your day-to-day SIMULATED PULL, PART 1: HOLDING TANK AND ACTIVE LISTS ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrge9gkf0bkd7fkexyr35jx6)) When scheduling your time, you should focus your attention only on the projects on your active list. When you complete one of these projects, you can remove it from your list. This leaves open a free slot that you can fill by *pulling* in a new project from the holding tank. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrge9wfmqq4ty7zk45pq5pg1)) ^kfxcm9 For larger projects, you might want to instead pull onto your active list a reasonable chunk of work toward its completion. For example, if “write book” is in your holding tank, and a free slot opens up on your active list, you might pull in “write next chapter of book” to work on next. In this case, the larger project, “write book,” would remain in the holding tank until completely finished. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgeae3m2kz9wyk43tx9v0rg)) ^x06i4q - 💭 you are visualizing the actual work you are trying to do at once with this SIMULATED PULL, PART 2: INTAKE PROCEDURE When adding a new project to your holding tank, it’s important to update the source of this new obligation about what they should expect. To do so, send an *acknowledgment message* that formally acknowledges the project that you’re committing to complete, but that also includes the following three pieces of extra information: (1) a request for any additional details you need from the source before you can start the project, (2) a count of the number of existing projects already on your lists, and (3) an estimate of when you expect to complete this new work. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgecgqzqz8bkk75v2xejcp7)) ^x7ipco often believe those we work with care only about getting results as fast as possible. But this isn’t true. Often what they really want is the ability to hand something off and not have to worry about whether or not it will be accomplished. If they trust you, they’ll give you latitude to finish things on your own terms. Relief, in other words, trumps expediency. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgeec6kqhmw0nqcnxcprc5d)) SIMULATED PULL, PART 3: LIST CLEANING You should update and clean your lists once a week. In addition to pulling in new work to fill empty slots on your active list, you should also review upcoming deadlines. Prioritize what’s due soon, and send updates for any work that you know you’re not going to finish by the time promised. These cleaning sessions also provide a good opportunity to remove from your holding tank projects that are languishing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgegvnfm2jx5qth1m0kjc2t)) The great scientists of past eras would have found our urgency to be self-defeating and frantic. They were interested in what they produced over the course of their lifetimes, not in any particular short-term stretch. Without a manager looking over their shoulder, or clients pestering them about responding to emails, they didn’t feel pressure to be maximally busy every day. They were instead comfortable taking longer on projects and adopting a more forgiving and variable rhythm to their work. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgensww9sxdkpem0c3e7514)) ^fcu6hp - 💭 traditional jobs do not provide this feeling of seasonality aside from vacations Little value was to be gained in rushing, as the work itself provided reward. This mindset supported a Renaissance-style understanding of professional efforts as one element among many that combine to create a flourishing existence. “Alongside all this, Galileo had a full private life,” writes Gribbin. “He studied literature and poetry, attended the theatre regularly and continued to play the lute to a high standard.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrget9krwx1jwqekcecmtgc2)) ^b2nhw1 - 💭 I think this is also why I do enjoy the deep life philosophy, work does not have to take up 50% of our life in a mandatory fashion, it should be something we are eager to work towards PRINCIPLE #2: WORK AT A NATURAL PACE ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgex1mpaafe54c3hhev1e5a)) - Tags: #chapter For our purposes, the key observation from Dyble’s study is the uneven nature of the foragers’ efforts. A busy start to a fishing expedition might also involve a long nap in the boat during the midday doldrums. An exhausting hunting trip might be followed by multiple days waiting out the rain, doing very little. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgf712phbg0vpvx0apb9n09)) ^w1rmm2 Recall that the scientists with whom we opened this chapter leveraged the freedom of their rarefied positions to implement an up-and-down pace that more closely resembled an Agta forager than a modern office dweller. Freed to work in any way they wanted, these traditional knowledge workers—not surprisingly—returned to the more varied effort levels for which humans are wired. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfb816ps4ay334kbdxeqe5)) ^x3hrgu - 💭 benefits of a pathless path MAKE A FIVE-YEAR PLAN ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfhgymhswwchckq1vy38k5)) Planning at this scale is certainly necessary, as without it you might end up mired in shallow demands and never really move forward on anything important. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfhvd06wmza1y6pz7ypwex)) ^a4bgh5 If you instead give yourself more than enough time to accomplish your objectives, the pace of your work can fall into a more natural groove. A simple heuristic to achieve this latter state is the following: take whatever timelines you first identify as reasonable for upcoming projects, and then *double* their length. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfmnvcgc54hkynm6w9d3e1)) ^xbgcv4 We seem to seek the thrill that comes from imagining a wildly ambitious timeline during our planning: “Wow, if I could finish four chapters this fall, I’d really be ahead of schedule!” It feels good in the moment but sets us up for scrambling and disappointment in the days that follow. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfnkn512gd1641wgsz1fhk)) ^88z6yl To reap this benefit, however, you actually have to simplify your daily schedule. Toning down your seasonal and long-term plans won’t help if you persist in filling every hour of the current day with more work than you can hope to complete. All three timescales must be tamed together. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfq08s1ygw55dk863pwj42)) The first suggestion is simple to implement: apply the heuristic of reducing whatever task list you come up with for a given day by somewhere between 25 and 50 percent. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgfs1rtmwwnyxmgq8ah5hnb)) - 💭 counteract idealism by thinking about these daily scheduling heuristics as a default approach to be deployed whenever possible, you ensure that unavoidable peaks in intensity will be followed by more leisurely troughs. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgftm3mk2wcvmgys4k5daw3)) ^yl9byl SCHEDULE SLOW SEASONS ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgg85qwcmvmcevyqk4mrb5w)) in most knowledge work employment situations, it’s possible to surreptitiously slow down for a handful of months each year ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggb929r7h472s52dhgze5v)) No Meeting Mondays ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgghp3ttrvtzgp66yajy4dw)) it allows a more gradual transition from the weekend back into the week. Sunday nights become less onerous when the calendar for your next day is gloriously uncluttered. This reduced distraction also provides a consistent block of time each week to support progress on the types of hard but important projects that make your work more meaningful. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggjgmn8vc1skmh8jrzw9qt)) See a Matinee Once a Month ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggkf3kfzzp7ddvdfx8kggm)) The context is so novel—“most people are at work right now!”—that it shakes you loose from your standard state of anxious reactivity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggm552s9j2p9b2y4ky74fz)) Schedule Rest Projects ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggnc666262r2kzxykxdhne)) The idea is simple: after putting aside time on your calendar for a major work project, schedule in the days or weeks immediately following it time to pursue something leisurely and unrelated to your work. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggnpwbd52nwms03s0t7kqc)) ^x6q42i Work in Cycles ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggpbesv626cpe86vpgge6y)) MATCH YOUR SPACE TO YOUR WORK ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrggw71gsnez4b58gtw0rnr8)) - 💭 how am i supposed to do this when my work is digital? What counted was their disconnection from the familiar. A citadel to creative concentration need not be a literal palace. It just needs to be free of laundry baskets. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgh1gz8ag6ts2vg0zthfwst)) - 💭 i wonder how well vr environments can help with this then 5OBSESS OVER QUALITY ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgh6js1gx1p42sk2scsbyx5)) - Tags: #chapter There’s a reason why this principle is presented last: it’s the glue that holds the practice of slow productivity together. Doing fewer things and working at a natural pace are both absolutely necessary components of this philosophy, but if those earlier principles are implemented on their own, without an accompanying obsession with quality, they might serve only to fray your relationship to work over time—casting your professional efforts as an imposition that you must tame. It’s in the obsession over what you’re producing that slowness can transcend its role as just one more strategy on the arid battlegrounds of work-life wars and become a necessary imperative—an engine that drives a meaningful professional life. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghhwqc7prv7bp8kb1wg6nx)) ^3nqyfh The third and final principle of slow productivity asks that you obsess over the quality of the core activities in your professional life. The goal here is not about becoming really good for the sake of being really good at your job (though this is nice). As I’ll argue next, you should be focused on the quality of what you produce because quality turns out to be connected in unexpected ways to our desire to escape pseudo-productivity and embrace something slower. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghmqzxcsmt1yhzzt1vgr1t)) ^khlu9h obsessing over quality often demands that you slow down, as the focus required to get better is simply not compatible with busyness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghnaqrn4h19n66rnn09d7y)) - 💭 content vs originals, more to that I first encountered Jarvis when his editor sent me a copy of his 2019 book, *Company of One*. I was taken by the boldness of its premise: don’t scale your business. If you’re fortunate enough for your entrepreneurial endeavors to begin to succeed, he argues, leverage this success to gain more freedom instead of more revenue. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrght3780711wrdtx7rkp9nz)) ^oh6fyk What if after your reputation spread, instead of growing the business, you increased your hourly rate to $100? You could now maintain your same $100,000 a year salary while working only twenty-five weeks a year—creating a working life with a head-turning amount of freedom. It would of course be nice to earn a seven-figure payday ten years from now, but given all the stress and hustle required to build a business of the necessary size, it’s not clear that you would really end up in a more remarkable place than the scenario in which you’re right away able to reduce your work by half. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghv2ypdn7jgr43z233pqy6)) ^xobinr “My wife and I had just had enough of the city,” he recalled in a 2016 interview. “We did our time in the rat race, and we wanted something different.” Recognizing that his freelance design work could be accomplished from any location with an internet connection, they moved to the woods outside Tofino, on the Pacific shore of Vancouver Island, so his wife, who was a surfer, could enjoy the sleepy town’s famed breaks. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghwf3a276yhab49swj2tyf)) ^m1by8u - 💭 me It’s hard to detail the full list of things Jarvis has worked on in recent years, as his various ideas seem to come and go, leaving behind a trail of broken URLs and out-of-date websites: which is, of course, exactly what you’d expect from someone who isn’t trying to build the next Microsoft but is instead pursuing *just enough* work to engage his curiosity while supporting his slow, inexpensive lifestyle. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrghykcn9hzfxcb7g640bkre)) ^nqkrv7 - 💭 sounds like non-capitalst adhd We’ve become so used to the idea that the only reward for getting better is moving toward higher income and increased responsibilities that we forget that the fruits of pursuing quality can also be harvested in the form of a more sustainable lifestyle. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgj01scghcnv6farzc8ja31)) ^6xl383 - 💭 this is the path i have chosen by quitting SAP and working on my own business while part time with Nick It’s more exciting to focus on effort, drive, and diligence—but no amount of grinding away at your proverbial radio program or novel manuscript will lead to brilliance if you don’t yet have a good understanding of what brilliance could mean. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgj75s6j4nbd21bqbwv8gvs)) - 💭 mastery portion of deep life stack BECOME A CINEPHILE ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgj7gpbd49jxn8w67k7fh0t)) Understand your own field, to be sure, but also focus on what’s great about other domains. It’s here that you can find a more flexible source of inspiration, a reminder of what makes the act of creation so exciting in the first place. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgjbhechsfqwjsph4ypafzf)) ^2nwsqw - 💭 with different mediums you feel less inclined to compare and you get inspiration from the novelty of the presentation START YOUR OWN INKLINGS ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgje4547ejgx6s9bxtr4cpd)) When your output is only one step among many on a collaborative path toward creative progress, the pressure to get everything just right is reduced. Your goal is instead reduced to knocking the metaphorical ball back over the net with enough force for the game to proceed. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgjrgyp80kmkwgxz2s2mpq5)) ^z9aqpj - 💭 having a higher order perspective helps you realize that your sacrificing the future development by fixating on unnecessary perfection WRITE AFTER THE KIDS GO TO BED ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkeh7g7t5k5q1yxcpxvnxj)) ^zn0iji - 💭 reminds me of the advice in "someday is today" where he uses all small chunks of time. does this not go against the problem of cognitive overload and task switching, if you are to do it during small talks of time? just a rephrasing of consistency? he claims to use the time, then falls back saying you shouldn't do this all the time. so where is the insight or suggestion? temporarily dedicating significant amounts of free time to the project in question. The stakes here are modest: If you fail to reach the quality level that you seek, the main consequence is that during a limited period you’ve lost time you could have dedicated to more rewarding (or restful) activities. But this cost is sufficiently annoying to motivate increased attention toward your efforts. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkjr92mcrkbm9f8jksnkes)) ^j22w46 REDUCE YOUR SALARY ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkk3hz7s52bmbqxmxthwfc)) Don’t haphazardly quit your job to pursue a more meaningful project. Wait instead to make a major change until you have concrete evidence that your new interest satisfies the following two properties: first, people are willing to give you money for it, and second, you can replicate the result. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkn52bb184tk5x11js1cae)) ^4cslbt - 💭 1 is proven through 2+ years of consistent income from my digital products Once you’ve passed these thresholds, however, take action. This doesn’t necessarily mean quitting your current job completely. It might instead mean that you reduce your hours, or take an unpaid leave. The key is to harness the stark motivation generated by the need for a pursuit to really work out. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkpdk1gtxe7j3mnzecc9wm)) ^txqh3u - 💭 i did this by switching to part time work ANNOUNCE A SCHEDULE ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkqvvbffsp801p9c3m3612)) - 💭 not related but the reason why this generic advice are not completely useless is because they are the most relevant actions for the solution he is trying to build. natural third option is to leverage your social capital. If you announce your work in advance to people you know, you’ll have created expectations. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgktj3bwzd9y1a1e0876fvw)) ^7dm358 - 💭 doesn't this kind of go against the power of slow productivity since you're just imposing deadlines again? When someone has invested in your project, you’ll experience amplified motivation to pay back their trust. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgkwj8mss478vat9q6vew5a)) ^q8n1cw - 💭 I just find it interesting that he is advocating for this external force dictating your work, instead of a pure bootstrapped indie creator he encourages you to take a venture capital route I have two goals for this book. The first is focused: to help as many people as possible free themselves from the dehumanizing grip of pseudo-productivity. As I noted in the introduction, not everyone has access to this outcome. The philosophy I developed is meant primarily for those who engage in skilled labor with significant amounts of autonomy. This target audience covers large swaths of the knowledge sector, including most freelancers, solopreneurs, and small-business owners, as well as those in fields like academia, where great freedom is afforded in how you choose and organize your efforts. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hrgm3hmhj7219m41gdf8x6v4)) ^52dw8d