Slow

Slow Food. Slow Cities. Slow Medicine, Slow Schooling, Slow Media. Slow Cinema

The author Cal Newport is one of my favorite thought-leaders. His newest book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout crossed my desk this week, and the timing could not have been better, because “burnout” is exactly what I’m feeling. When I read the words, “Slow food. Slow Cities. Slow Medicine. Slow Schooling. Slow Media. Slow Cinema,” I wanted to quick, jump off this careening train I’m on and hop onto whatever one Newport is conducting.

A slow meal in a slow city sounds just about right. What about slow media? Ban the pings. Bring back the newspaper and a half-hour of television news. (Of course if we do that, then cocktail hour would have to become mandatory.)

I’ve read a number of Newport’s books, among them Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. In it Newport spoke up early and argued persuasively in the debate about the isolating effects of smartphones. My takeaway from that book was: Calling is good; texting is bad. For more than five years, I have tried to make a couple of phone calls a day, if possible.

I hope that reading Slow Productivity will help ease up current levels of commitments and yield a less encumbered schedule. The idea of stepping back into a less frenzied pace holds great appeal. This makes me think of my father’s home office, his version of a man-cave in the finished basement of our family home. In it sat an executive desk and behind that, his typewriter on a stand. On the shelf next to the typewriter was a monkey dressed in a costume with a little sign that said “Too soon old and too late smart.”

While in a previous life I might sneer about someone’s lack of ambition—how they set out to do just two things a day— today I think: Maybe that person was on to something.

In the spirit of slow productivity, today I will attempt to complete one dreaded task and live with slow progress.

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