Want To Be Better At Work? Stop Working Faster!

If you think of productivity as your ability to do as many things as possible, you might want to rethink it. There’s a camp out there that says the slower you do work, the more productive you are!

Doesn’t make sense? Well, read on.

It’s called slow productivity, and it essentially means you do fewer things, work at a more natural pace instead of rush, rush, rush, and here’s the hook: It’s about being obsessed about quality, not quantity. Slow productivity was originally coined by Georgetown professor and bestselling author Cal Newport, whose book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout has changed how we should view what productivity truly means. Newport has a podcast too (Deep Questions with Cal Newport) where he discusses living and working deeply in what he calls an increasingly shallow world – take a listen if you want to know more!

Back to slow productivity: Notice how quickly you become burnout when you’re busy working, churning report after report, presentation after presentation? Working harder and faster on more tasks have caused many of us to move further away from achieving our real goal: To produce better work. We don’t blame you if you’re in Team Rush. When there’s so much on your plate, you just want to bulldoze them through so you can tick everything off your to-do list to feel accomplished!

Blame it on the focus of wanting to do more to be more! For years, we’ve often heard and read articles about how to maximise your day, how to be super productive with a to-do list, how to up your productivity…. but what if the real secret to quality work is really doing less?

There’s a reason why slow productivity works. Here’s how:

• People who work at a slower pace on fewer things have more energy and time to focus on their task at hand. They are not being pulled in different directions. Instead, they can 100% focus on doing that one thing great, and not have just 10% focus on doing 100 things.
• When you work slow, your work isn’t sloppy or mediocre. That’s because you have the time – and energy! – to double check the details of each assignment, increasing accuracy and precision. Imagine if a surgeon had to operate on 10 people a day instead of just one? Which do you think would be better?
• Many people are used to setting the bar high, attempting to break their own productivity records. Do you also know what they’ll break? Their mental health with all that stress and anxiety from the burnout they are bound to suffer from. When that happens, who’s being productive then? Definitely not you if you’ve been working long, long hours!
• Being constantly busy takes precious time away from you to concentrate on what really matters simply because you’re too busy to do anything else. Instead, slow productivity lets you focus on goals that are more realistic and more attainable, focusing on one thing at a time and not be distracted by the 101 tasks you have on hand.

The Three Principles of Slow Productivity
Now you know what it means and why it works, it’s time to put slow productivity to the test. Here are the three principles and how you can achieve slow productivity in your everyday work life:
#1 Do fewer things
The first and most important principle of slow productivity: Simplify your to-do list. Limit your daily task so you can create more space in the day to achieve what is important without feeling overwhelmed by wanting to do it all. If you can, automate. Put the tasks that you can avoid into autopilot – like doing all your admin stuff on Friday afternoon. That way, you block a day in a week to complete stuff that doesn’t really count towards your career goals but still need to be done anyway. Much better than having to spend an hour a day breaking your concentration from the important stuff to deal with them.

#2 Work at a natural pace
Constantly feel like you’re rushing your work because you just want to be done with it? Stop. Slow productivity is all about taking time to do your important work so you can be thorough and detailed. Work with a sustainable timeline, and not crunch everything with an unrealistic deadline that requires you to work late the entire week.

#3 Obsess over quality
Above everything else, think of doing great work, not mediocre! Immerse yourself into the task and really think of what you can do to get great results. Dive deep into it and give it all your time. The outcome will be worth it!

Still think productivity means hustling over your to-do list? Think again! Perhaps the secret is to practise slow productivity, do fewer things for greater outcome.

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash.