{"id":181270,"date":"2024-03-06T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=181270"},"modified":"2026-09-07T11:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T16:03:10","slug":"slow-productivity-cal-newport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last several years have seen the rise of a sort of anti-productivity movement. Knowledge workers who feel burned out and that work is pointless, meaningless, and grinding, have been talking more about opting out, &#8220;quiet quitting,&#8221; and doing nothing.<\/p>\n<p>My guest would argue that, in fact, productivity itself isn&#8217;t the problem and that most people actually want to do good work. Instead, he says, it&#8217;s our whole approach to productivity that&#8217;s broken and needs to be transformed.<\/p>\n<p>Cal Newport is a professor of computer science and the author of books like <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/49zU9ZQ\"><em>Deep Work<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/49RClJG\"><em>Digital Minimalism<\/em><\/a>. His latest book is <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Tly1gb\"><em>Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show, Cal explains what&#8217;s led to the rise of what he calls &#8220;pseudo-productivity&#8221; and the fallout when we apply the structures of the industrial revolution to modern work. He then unpacks the tenets and tactics of the &#8220;slow productivity&#8221; approach to work, and how to implement them whether you work for yourself or for a boss. We discuss why you need to do fewer things in the short-term to do more things in the long term, the artificiality of working at the same intensity every day and how to inject more seasonality in your work, the role quiet quitting can play in achieving greater balance, and many other ideas on how to make modern work more sustainable, humane, and fruitful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last several years have seen the rise of a sort of anti-productivity movement. Knowledge workers who feel burned out and that work is pointless, meaningless, and grinding, have been talking more about opting out, &#8220;quiet quitting,&#8221; and doing nothing. My guest would argue that, in fact, productivity itself isn&#8217;t the problem and that most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,42377,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-finance","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Slow Productivity: Embracing a Meaningful Approach to Work | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is your productivity approach broken? Slow Productivity offers a transformative perspective on accomplishment and well-being.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is your productivity approach broken? Slow Productivity offers a transformative perspective on accomplishment and well-being.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/finance\/career\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-06T14:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-07T16:03:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/972.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett &amp; Kate McKay\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e4ed6cc1b40b6de48739267a953ef2b3\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-06T14:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-07T16:03:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":250,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/972.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Career\",\"Finance\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2024\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/\",\"name\":\"Slow Productivity: Embracing a Meaningful Approach to Work | The Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/finance\\\/career\\\/slow-productivity-cal-newport\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/972.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-06T14:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-07T16:03:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e4ed6cc1b40b6de48739267a953ef2b3\"},\"description\":\"Is your productivity approach broken? 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