Slow Productivity
The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
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Slow Productivity
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Narrated by:
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Cal Newport
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Written by:
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Cal Newport
About this listen
A New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and IndieBound bestseller
"Brilliant and timely"—Oliver Burkeman
~ Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality. ~
From the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, a groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload
Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers–from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe–Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.
From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.
©2024 Cal Newport (P)2024 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 371
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
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2 out of 5 stars
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Written by: Cal Newport
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Supercommunicators
- How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
- Written by: Charles Duhigg
- Narrated by: Charles Duhigg
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 61
Come inside a jury room as one juror leads a starkly divided room to consensus. Join a young CIA officer as he recruits a reluctant foreign agent. And sit with an accomplished surgeon as he tries, and fails, to convince yet another cancer patient to opt for the less risky course of treatment. In Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg blends deep research and his trademark storytelling skills to show how we can all learn to identify and leverage the hidden layers that lurk beneath every conversation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good info, but the covid/vax section didn't age well.
- By Sam on 2024-06-12
Written by: Charles Duhigg
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Same as Ever
- A Guide to What Never Changes
- Written by: Morgan Housel
- Narrated by: Chris Hill
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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5 out of 5 stars
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- By Amazon Customer on 2023-11-27
Written by: Morgan Housel
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Hidden Potential
- The Science of Achieving Greater Things
- Written by: Adam Grant
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Didn’t finish
- By S on 2023-12-18
Written by: Adam Grant
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Quiet
- The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
- Written by: Susan Cain
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 581
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 482
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 478
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I’ve listened to this 4 times already
- By oogles on 2018-05-23
Written by: Susan Cain
What the critics say
"This brilliant and timely book is for all of us who've grown disillusioned with conventional productivity advice, yet still yearn to get meaningful things done. With his trademark blend of philosophical depth and realistic techniques, Newport outlines an approach that's more human and vastly more effective in the long run." —Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks
"With profound insights backed by research, analysis, and examples from the lives of scientists and artists, Cal Newport explores a better way to work—one that promises more calm, clarity, and creativity." —Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
"Cal's mix of storytelling and practical advice makes this a super engaging read that you'll want to revisit repeatedly." —Ali Abdaal, author of Feel-Good Productivity
What listeners say about Slow Productivity
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amanda d
- 2024-04-02
Simple yet impactful
Cal nailed it again. I wish I had this book last year, it would have helped me avoid burn out. These simple strategies could help anyone who finds themselves in an overly fast paced environment struggling with the never ending to-do list while struggling to maintain a healthy work life balance. I would love to share a copy with every one of my former colleagues.
One negative take away though is I found the book to be too heavy in stories of celebrities who implemented the strategies. This book could be condensed down to a Coles Notes version without losing it's impact. I enjoyed the stories but I don't feel it added much to the overall teachings.
Thank you Cal for another life changing book.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- E. Haggerty
- 2024-06-12
Anecdotes strong, would have enjoyed more supporting evidence
The author makes his points with anecdotes. What I would enjoy seeing in addition to these great stories would be more broad-scale evidence. Overall, while I believe in his general ideas, and found some inspiring, I don’t find his reasoning as compelling as I would have liked. For example, the case he tries to make for a consultant working less and having a great income by charging more bases his calculation on a 40-day work week being fully billable. It doesn’t seem realistic to me and there were a couple of other moments where I thought a fuller discussion was missing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kobi
- 2024-03-23
Practical information you can customize to your own life!
Cal is such a great critical thinker. I recommend this for anyone who is looking to accomplish a project or advance in their career or business.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- aydimir
- 2024-05-17
Pull based method!
I’m building my team management system based on the method I just learned in the book, thanks Cal!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- G
- 2024-06-27
Mehh
For all we follow his podcast, this material is pretty much a resume of it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-10-21
Très in comme concepts
Un peu comme moi j'utilise le temps que j'ai de libre durant mon travail pour apprendre le piano. Aussi à la maison. Ça fait déjà depuis 2023, que je fais ça. Il y a de l'amélioration à chaque jour. C'est pas du jour au lendemain. C'est difficile de comprendre ce qu'il veut dire. Mais j'ai finalement compris à la fin du livre. Je recommande à tous.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Matthew Willox
- 2024-04-13
Too Anecdotal
I find it unlikely that this book will help anyone but in the most specific of circumstances. Unless the people you are trying to convince will accept flimsy folk tales about what famous people may or may not have done, this book will not help you (lucky for you, the bar for convincing people seems lower than ever).
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-06-09
Boring, unimpressive audiobook
Nothing of note. it’s a boring tale on how to be productive at work with no substance whatsoever. Add sleep- inducing narration and you get a disaster of a book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- TG
- 2024-05-01
Great in theory, unrealistic in practice
I typically like Cal’s writing and approaches, but this book suffers from theoretical recommendations that haven’t really been used in practice.
Very VERY few people will actually be able to implement this. Knowledge work is naturally messy, trying to shoehorn a dynamic knowledge workflow into a rigid structure is near impossible to do.
The entire section on doing less shouldn’t be about actually doing less, it should really be about how to identify the very few really critical things to work on. That skill will be useful in any job, while the tactics recommended in this book will apply to very few jobs.
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