Last Friday I picked up Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, from the library. Before I had even started reading it I could feel that sneaky high that comes from reading a self-help book. I even made a chart schedule for this upcoming week! I know, so cute.
I’m about halfway through Slow Productivity. It’s edited well to be a short, simple, and hopefully impactful read. A couple highlights so far:
Slow productivity is essentially about doing less work at a higher quality. Very “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
I think it’s important to know going in that Newport is writing primarily about knowledge work — his case studies are mostly scientists and writers — but I also think it could apply to craftsmanship as well
One change I made already was that I was going to take small bites out of all my active projects this week, spending 30-60 minutes on each every day, but Newport points out that this is a crazy way to approach quality work. It’s better to focus on one main project each day
I’ve taken some other notes as well but they won’t terribly useful until I am in an office environment again. If anything, the writing is good and the stories are mildly inspiring. Cal is easy to read.
Today I…
Grocery shopping: I made it to Trader Joe’s at 8:15 and made it out in less than 20 minutes. It felt really good.1
Job boards. I broke down and applied to the two mid-level software dev positions open in my area.
Worked on formatting the Pen Pal Posts e-book in Canva. I started with a Word doc and a blank Canva template at 10:30 this morning and I’m 90% done.
Today I felt…
I feel a buzz today that is likely a combination of reading Slow Productivity, feeling loads better after the head cold wiped me out last week, and having the house to myself after a bit of a long weekend.2
I was excited that I stuck with the e-book work all day and didn’t get derailed. I think I’m going to keep working on it tomorrow as well.
The weather is gorgeous this week, so I’m going to pick up C and go to a local park for a walk before working on dinner. Until tomorrow,
I started trekking to the West End to go to Trader Joe’s 90% because of the bagging situation. It’s worth it even though there’s “nothing like a grocery story that makes you have to visit another grocery store right after.” (Abby Jiminez, Just for the Summer) I went thru the self checkout at Walmart this morning which refused to take my card, so I had to use Walmart Pay which I have but makes me feel squidgy. And for my four-item stop at Food Lion, I got four bags. Ack.
On the other hand, as Lorde says, “Don’t know if it’s love or if it’s ovulation.”