A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload

by Cal Newport

For many different knowledge work positions—if not most—the ability to slow down, tackle things sequentially, and give each task uninterrupted attention is crucial,

Marshall focused his energy as a manager on making key decisions that would impact the outcome of the war.

I must have assistants who will solve their own problems and tell me later what they have done.”

communicating about tasks often gets in the way of executing them—the

In the modern world, knowledge workers now feel under siege by obligations.

As Drucker later recalled, Sloan once said the following about being a successful manager: “He must be absolutely tolerant and pay no attention to how a man does his work.”

Workflows, on the other hand, should not be left to individuals to figure out on their own, as the most effective systems are unlikely to arise naturally.

As we’ve known since the forward-thinking theories of Peter Drucker, however, knowledge work will always be defined by large amounts of autonomous action.

Become known as someone who never drops the ball, not someone who thinks a lot about their own productivity.

The first is to “celebrate wins”: if someone accomplishes something important, either professionally or personally, they might share it on the company Slack channel.

This is perhaps Optimize’s most important process of all: the process that helps improve the existing processes.

plan, ready, blocked, work, and done.

There’s really no reason why anyone should still have to waste cognitive cycles in dragged-out scheduling conversations.

he would keep all his emails to five sentences or fewer.

(1) What did you do since the last scrum meeting? (2) Do you have any obstacles? (3) What will you do before the next scrum?

As Hicks and Foster report, the regular rhythm of short meetings also creates a sense of “momentum” that helps people both feel better about their work and experience more productivity.