[[Notes]] - Topics: [[Productivity]] - People: [[Cal Newport]] - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HMjTxKRbaI --- ## Summary - Knowledge work emerged in the 20th century and has working methodologies originating from manufacturing. - Measuring output (value) in knowledge work is far less precise than in manufacturing. - [[Pseudo-productivity]] as formed, which favoured overall busyness of workers; resulting in less productivity as time was spent doing stuff, but not necessarily the stuff that mattered. - Favour [[Slow productivity]]. - DO LESS AT ONCE. A [[One-piece flow]] mentality to [[Any job, big or small, do it well or not at all.|getting it done]]. Reduce [[Attention residue]]. - WORK AT A NATURAL PACE. Adjust your productivity and output with the demands of seasonal input. - OBSESS OVER QUALITY. Understand the work. Focus on the work. Produce good work. - By slowing down, you're able to better control your attention to focus it on doing quality work. This results in improved satisfaction and happiness. ## Notes ### Burn out - Burn out often results from work encroaching itself into our personal lives (and personal time). - "We have a faulty definition of productivity that we've been following, and what we need to do instead is shift our focus on the outcome." ### Pseudo-productivity - The knowledge sector emerges in the 20th century. It's ways of working originated from manufacturing. - Manufacturing has a style of work that could be measured very precisely. Knowledge work is different because it isn't producing one thing but several things. - The several streams of work can be different from colleague to colleague, even if they're on the same team and are working (physically or virtually) in the same space. - We introduced a rough heuristic in an attempt to measure knowledge work productivity. "[[Pseudo-productivity]]", which uses visible activity as a crude proxy for useful effort. - Pseudo productivity results in busyness over productivity. [[Being busy means doing stuff. Being productive means getting stuff done.]] ### Slow productivity - [[Slow productivity]] is the answer to pseudo-productivity. - Slow productivity can be broken down into 3 main principles: 1. Do fewer things at once 2. Work at a natural pace 3. Obsess over quality ### Do fewer things at once - [[Context switching]] has a cost. It takes a while for your brain to reorient. - Context switching inefficiently results in [[Attention residue]] - Information about a previous context that you're holding onto (in memory). This takes up mental space and can result in producing worse work. - The accumulation of attention residue causes exhaustion and frustration. This results in the experience of work itself becoming subjectively very negative. - By doing less things at once, you can actually finish what you've started. A [[One-piece flow]] mentality to [[Any job, big or small, do it well or not at all.|getting it done]]. ### Work at a natural pace - It's OK to not redline it 50 weeks a year. - To alter between busy seasons and not-busy seasons. Busy days and non-busy days. - Adjust your productivity and output with the demands of seasonal input. ### Obsess over quality - "Identify the things you do in your work that produce the most value and really care about being better at that." - To understand quality, you must understand your own job. Once you understand it, you can better give your job the attention it needs to produce quality results. - Take your work more seriously. - [[You begin to see all those meetings, the emails, and the overstuffed task list, not as a mark of productivity, but obstacles of what you're really trying to do.]] - Understand the work. Focus on the work. Produce good work. ### Outcomes - By slowing down, you're able to better control your attention to focus it on doing quality work. This results in improved satisfaction and happiness. - This will produce a much more sustainable work environment, and "you're going to be doing the work that's going to make you better".