The lost art of accomplishment without burnout | Cal Newport for Big Think +

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

This is exactly what I've been doing since I was a kid, and I was treated like a slow minded idiot for doing it despite me having the most consistient and high quality results versus my peers. Thank you for proving that my childhood self had it right the whole time.

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves. - Alan Watts

I love the ideas behind “Deep Work / Slow Productivity,” but I have some concerns about its practicality and accessibility for most people. Here are a few thoughts: 1. Only for the privileged: slow productivity seems like a luxury that only the wealthy or upper-middle class can enjoy. People with stable jobs or their own businesses might have the flexibility to adopt this lifestyle, but for the average worker, it’s often out of reach. 2. Not for middle-class workers: Middle-class employees, like those in enterprises, nurses, or supermarket cashiers, can’t really apply Slow Productivity. Their jobs demand constant, high-paced work with little room to slow down. 3. Academic privilege: It’s easier to come up with these concepts when you’re a MIT professor and have income from books and speaking gigs. Most people don’t have that kind of financial security or freedom in their jobs. 4. Systemic pressure: The pressure to be highly productive usually comes from business owners and upper management, not individual workers. Suggesting that people should feel responsible for being too busy or not achieving slow productivity can make them feel guilty and even more stressed, overlooking the bigger systemic issues.

I spent many years as a college professor. Every year the university hired more administrators who pushed busywork on the faculty. Some faculty members, especially those who went into administration themselves, also bought into this idea. Serving on pointless committees and filling out forms that nobody read became the main purpose of my job. As a result tuition skyrocketed and I was actually scolded for spending time meeting with students.

I agree. The problem is trying to explain this to management. Some bosses get it, but then there are those terrorists who think leadership is interrupting and hovering over a team that can get things done just fine without a supervisor.

I love how the most progressive scientific breakthroughs are just regressing back to doing things the way our ancestors did them…

Great stuff. It's reassuring that we're finally starting to move beyond 'Taylorism' management methods. Humans are not machines and we yield better outcomes when we aren't treated as such.

now show me a company that follows this. whenever i do this as an employee i get punished. what boss wants to hear "slow productivity"?

Cal is already so handsome, eloquent and explains everything very well, but in this video so much more. Thank you so much!

this viewpoint is good and healthy. but if corporate’s mindset doesn’t align with it then it is still wishful thinking.

This is insane. I opened the youtube app to look for “what to do against a burnout”. But thought nope, let me just scroll through my timeline, looking for something to distract me from it. First swip up: This video

Very clear and noticeably argued, although my understanding of what you're talking about is Talent. One cannot teach others how to be talented. Talented people do exactly what you are talking about, and do that with ease. This takes me, at least, to think about inspiration; therefore the question that arises, to me at least, is: "Is what you do for a living inspiring you?" And as for "You" I mean each and everyone of us. If that's not the case, something easier to learn and apply in one's daily life (which can help finding inspiration) is Meditation. Meditation, when honestly and deeply performed, will always pull talent out of people, infact most of the times you could find yourself having more that just 1 talent. Whatever is you do for a living, wrost scenario would be you leave your job for another that suits your talent(s) better. Love and prosperity.

Finally Cal Newport on Big think !!!

This is a fantastic outlook, and great advice. Happy to hear this said out loud. Will be buying this book!

Sounds great. Now try to explain it to employers

Sadly, it has been my experience that just having the word "slow" in the title will cause most shareholders to reject the ideas outright without investigation. The term "delayed gratification", a central principle in this post, is unknown to them. They will not pause nor hesitate to leapfrog over ANY idea which might cause even a temporary loss of profits, which is a certainty here. Only the most forward thinking of companies would adopt such strategies, of which there are very few.

Every C suite in the world should watch this and espouse it. We work against our own biological rhythms by being output-centered and constant push to innovate and iterate. The macro of that is pushing us to our own untimely demise as a species. Nothing in nature is rushed or in a hurry, only human beings.

I have left and lost so many jobs, and what I tried to make a career once, because I naturally followed the 3 principals outlined in this video. The one that NO employer will allow is working at a "natural pace" ! I have burned out and broken my body to work at the pace they deemed acceptable because some other idiot raised the bar by doing it faster. Or the guy that had been doing it longer was faster. If you're not as fast as them after learning the job in a couple weeks, you're done, or scolded until you rage quit because you can't stand being nagged by supervisors or customers. Nobody cares about quality. They just want it done NOW! Employers, from my experience, will always put their bottom line above your mental health!

Also writer deep work ❤