Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This thread is to discuss Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport.

Pages: 244 pages

Length: 1 month (January)

Participants: Elaine, Beth

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

[Sean]

Hoo-hoo, this just dropped through my letterbox... I think after my current book this one might just zing to the top of the list...

[Beth]

Just the book through Libby after a multi-week hold. Hoping to start in the next few days.

[Sean]

Hi Beth!

So, my pre-read comments -

I've read Deep Work by the author before and really appreciated it, so it was easy to jump on board this opportunity to read what feels like a natural follow-up.

I had a minor eye-roll when I finally got my hands physically on the book. It's a US Trade paperback of 219 pages (excluding the front- and back-matter) but looking inside the font size is rather massive and the amount of white space generous. Not unattractive by any means, but clearly stretching the content by quite a degree.

I find I don't mind that too much, I'll take a shorter book by Cal Newport over a longer one by most authors. Looking forward to it.

[Elaine]

I'm still on hold for a copy at my library so may be awhile yet...I'll pop in once I have an available copy.

[Beth]

Starting today.

Prior to starting
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
I'm always looking for strategies to simplify my life and eliminate some of the pressure I create for myself by being so busy. I also look for strategies to fight procrastination and to get tasks accomplished more efficiently.

Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?
Never read this author before.

[Beth]

Mid-read

**I'm not sure I've really answered either of these questions directly, but I'm sticking with these answers. 👍🏻

What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
It's been very interesting to read about the famous people and how they used downtime in various ways to allow themselves the freedom to think and make progress on big ideas. I particularly enjoyed reading about O'Keefe's and Curie's getaways and how they benefitted by that off time.

Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?
I like how he talks about implementing some of these strategies quietly: one example is "no meeting Monday"... no need to announce it, just suggest other days for meetings. I'm retired now, but as I've been reading this I've put myself back in work mindset, and I realize that's about the only way I could have implemented a lot of these suggestions.

[Beth]

Finished.

After reading
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
I liked that he was very clear on the target audience for this material. These are not suggestions that everyone can implement in their job - there might be something in there for a store clerk or a factory worker, but primarily, as the author said a few times, these are suggestions for workers who are fairly self-directed and office-based.

I didn't particularly enjoy his writing style. It felt very... academic to me. He took quite a bit of time telling me what he was going to tell me in the next section, which I found really tedious. And, frankly, I eventually tended to just skim when he started saying, "in the next section, I will outline..." Dude, you don't need to tell me. I'm about to get there and read it for myself.

Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?
I don't think so, no. A lot of his suggestions are fairly common sense and things I know my work colleagues and I would often discuss as a way to try to make some semblance of order out of the chaos of our workdays (especially the no-meeting Monday). He talks about people being overburdened with work commitments... certainly no news there.

With all that said, I did find some nuggets in the book I will be able to use in my own (retired) life: focusing on one thing at a time, take time to really think instead of barreling into solution mode, etc.

[Elaine]

I read part one this evening and it just seems very much a rehash of other work he has already written. I'm curious to see if part 2 has any new fresh ideas or if it will also feel like a retread of previous books/articles. Like Beth noted above, he also does a lot of noting what he will write next which just feels like he was trying to pad his word count, which for such a short book feels a bit like a red flag.

[Elaine]

Finished...Not sure how much new ground he broke in this book but I still enjoyed my read. I do enjoy his anecdotes of authors and other creatives who work outside the box. I'm not sure how much of his book applies to my personal career path but I do protect my outside-the-job time very fiercely and feel that (most days) I have achieved an attainable balance within my work hours as well.