Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

I came to believe that alternative approaches to productivity can be just as easily justified, including those in which overfilled task lists and constant activity are downgraded in importance, and something like John McPhee’s languid intentionality is lauded.

“To lack confidence at the outset seems rational to me,”6 he explained. “It doesn’t matter that something you’ve done before worked out well. Your last piece is never going to write your next one for you.”

A slower approach to work is not only feasible, but is likely superior to the ad hoc pseudo-productivity that dictates the professional lives of so many today.

1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality.

I think that’s where the burnout really hurts—when you want to care about something but you’re removed from the capacity to do the thing or do it properly and give it your passion and full attention and creativity because you’re expected to do so many other things.