Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

by Cal Newport

during the first year of the pandemic, he dedicated an increasing amount of time to video calls. As a result, his workdays began to stretch out. “Whereas before I would finish sensibly anywhere between five and half past six, I’d be finding myself there on a Friday at 8 o’clock at night exhausted, thinking I need to prep up something for Monday and I haven’t got time,” he said. “I started then to actually work weekends.”10 Frostick wasn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed by his schedule during this period. A work trends report published by Microsoft revealed that time spent in meetings had increased by a factor of 2.5 during the first year of the pandemic, while the quantity of instant message chats and emails received also exploded. As the report summarizes, “The digital intensity of workers’ days has increased substantially.”

Typical change for knowledge workers working remotely