Happy Thursday, friends!
You guys, I hope this is you right now…
…because we are going to chat about books for the SECOND day in a row.
Now, stop, stop, STOP if you’re not a reader. Today’s post is nothing like YESTERDAY’S (which was FABULOUS by the way!). I think you can glean something from this post without ever reading this book (but you should totally read it if you’re a reader!).
Kind of sort of accidentally, every year, I read a handful of non-fiction books and one will just jump out and SCREAM AT ME and become a book that in a lot of ways changes my life.
For example, last year, I read DIE WITH ZERO. This one rocked both my world AND my husband’s. Andrew and I still give this book away to anyone we think will read it. It has truly changed the way we live.
A few months ago, I was here on Nantucket and popped inside one of the bookstores and saw this book…
…SLOW PRODUCTIVITY by Cal Newport.
I had heard of this author and heard his work mentioned before, but I had never read anything by him. I bought the book, took it back to Texas with me, and it sat next to my reading chair in McKinney…but for some reason, I never picked it up. In May, I brought it back with me to Nantucket this summer determined to read it and HOLY COW, I truly don’t think I’ve ever annotated a book more.
And as soon as I was finished, I started reading it all over again.
When you look through my copy, there is hardly a page where I haven’t underlined a passage and/or made a note in the margin. This book has already been so impactful for me that I thought it needed its own dedicated post before I mention it in this month’s book review.
I don’t want to give away too many of the insights and strategies from this book (as I would love for you to support the author and read it too!), but let’s be real, there is no way I could begin to do it justice.
Instead of recapping the entire book, I’m going to share 10 OF MY FAVORITE TAKEAWAYS and how I’ve implemented them in my daily routine to *hopefully* inspire and encourage you to read the book too.
As a small business owner, it’s easier for me to change workflow, strategies, “ways” of doing my job because I’m the boss. I know many of you are not the boss, and the author does a really great job of addressing these same strategies when you work in environments you have much less control over (teaching, nursing, etc). Needless to say, you don’t have to be self-employed to gain inspiration here. I even think if you’re retired you could read this book and reconsider your schedule/commitments/time restraints/overall sense of wellbeing around how you spend your time and if/how you could make tweaks.
I’ve already bought the book for one friend to read as well. I’m telling you, it’s one I will be sharing again and again.
Alrighty, here are 10 OF MY FAVORITE TAKEAWAYS (I could have done 100!). I am just going to give some quick notes below. In the book, he goes into great detail about each one, why it’s valuable (or not valuable), strategies to implement these things, real life examples of what happens when we do/don’t, and how it can positively affect us.
#1: GOOD WORK DOES NOT REQUIRE BUSYNESS
I know it’s the American culture to “be busy”, but I have to let go of the notion that “busyness equals good work”. I actually don’t love the word “busy” and have been trying to replace it with the word “productive” especially when talking to my kids. When we are chatting about our days, I have really tried to stop saying “I was so busy” and change it to “I was so productive” because (thanks to all of these podcasts and books that I keep consuming about living in the moment), I don’t want my kids to think I just rush around “busy” all day long. I want them to (hopefully) understand I used my time to be productive. My personality is one of “go, go, go”, and I’m quick to fill any and all free time with “more things”. I am trying to remind myself that producing “good work” in anything I do (my actual work, church stuff, stuff with my kids’ schools, etc) doesn’t have to “be busy” in order to be effective.
#2: DON’T CONFUSE ACTIVITY AS “EFFORT”
I can have a really really FULL day at my desk and yet not produce anything that really was valuable. I can apply the same principle to working out. I can be “really active at the gym” but not have given my best effort during that hour and thus, not produced any good results.
#3: TECHNOLOGY NOT ONLY DISTRACTS, BUT IT MAKES US FEEL OVERLOADED
I know we know this, but do we REALLY KNOW THIS? I always always feel better when I’ve walked away from technology and rarely (if ever) do I feel better when I’ve spent a lot of time on technology.
#4: DO FEWER THINGS FOR BETTER RESULTS
Less is more, less is more, less is more. I am chanting this to myself often because I am not one who practices this well at all. Newport gives so many great examples of really accomplished people (artists, athletes, entertainers, scientists) who did much less to achieve some of our most remarkable accomplishments.
#5: SO MUCH OF WHAT WE DO IS SELF-IMPOSED
This. One. Hit. Home.
For years and years, I have started my day with my daily “to do” list that includes everything I “need” to accomplish. This list has a whole bunch of work related things, doctors offices to call for appointments, reminders about school things, maybe a note about changing out a kiddo’s sheets, a grocery item I need to get…it’s a full and comprehensive list of things for me to do each day. And now after reading this book, I look at that list and think about how so much of it is self-imposed “stuff” that really doesn’t have to be done that day (if at all) and just by looking at it, it creates this false sense of “you have a lot on your plate, you have a lot to do today, hurry through A, B, and C because you have to get to D, E, and F). I am giving myself more work to do than really necessary and many, many times no one would notice if I didn’t do those things.
He has a quote in here about how so much of our cognitive exertion comes from remembering all these “things”, worrying about completing them, and then moving them around on our schedules when we don’t get them finished (and thus making tomorrow’s list even longer).
#6: DON’T LOSE YOUR DAY TO THE FEEDBACK LOOP
I don’t know about you, but so many times, I spend more time going back and forth with people over email when I could just have a two minute phone call and get it all sorted out. Newport encourages readers to have real conversations instead of being on this feedback loop. This loop just keeps our inboxes full and pinging and creates extra minutes of having to explain, ask follow up questions, wait for replies, ask more questions and on and on when one call would probably get it done. This doesn’t just apply to work situations but any communication where you’re constantly going back and forth via text or email.
#7: I NEED SOLID BLOCKS OF TIME
I’ve mentioned this before, but YES, I thrive on solid blocks of time. This book has so many strategies for carving out solid blocks of time to get projects done instead of small blocks sprinkled over the day(s).
#8: SIMPLIFY MY WORKDAY
The author has a lot to say about simplifying the workday and like I said at the top of the post, he doesn’t just speak to the self-employed. He touches on this topic throughout the book but in one example, he speaks directly to teachers (who have very little control over their day). We are in control of simplifying more of it than we think.
#9: DOUBLE MY PROJECT TIMELINES
Newport says “to become comfortable taking your time”. I’ve been implementing this over the last month, and it has been one of my favorite takeaways. For example, *typically* if someone emails me (a coworker, a client, a coach, someone I’m volunteering with at church, etc), I see it in my inbox and reply right away and take care of it right away because I don’t want to let them down. The approach I’ve been trying to implement this month is to email back with a more appropriate timeframe because…they’re not asking me to rush around and handle it right then and there. I’m reading into that. I’m putting that pressure on myself. Now, I’ve been emailing back, but I have been giving them a longer, more reasonable timeline for when I will get back to them with whatever they need from me. And you know what? So far, not one single person has said “no, I need it sooner”.
Another version of doubling my project timeline is, for example, let’s I am going to work on a recipe…I might give myself an hour out of my day to do that when the reality is that I need to carve out more time. I might only need an hour to work on the recipe but I need more time to get out the supplies and ingredients and then more time to clean up after I’m done. If I have something on my “to do” list happening immediately after that hour, I will be rushed/late/frazzled when really, all I needed to do was give myself more time (the actual time I really needed).
#10: REALIZE THAT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE WORK TO DO
I really really really like to check things off my “to do” list. The problem with life though is that there is always going to be more to add to that list. I will never “finish” all the things I could “be doing” because that list is endless. Instead, I need to prioritize and then give myself some breathing room without immediately filling my list back up.
I could keep going, friends!
I loved this book!
Whew.
Okay, I know he has authored other books, so if you have a rec for the next one I should read, please let me know! I believe he also has a podcast as well, and if that’s something I should start listening to, please let me know. I finished this book and felt very encouraged. We can change our ways/our habits/our schedules. We can!
Feedback in the comment section if you’re a fan of Cal Newport too!
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Happy happy Thursday!
I’ll see you back here tomorrow. xx
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