Since 2012, Cal Newport has been sounding the alarm. First, he criticized knowledge workers for seeking job satisfaction through “following their passion” rather than building skills through what he called “deep work.” By incorporating regular, focused skill-building sessions, or “deep work,” into their day, Newport argued knowledge workers could create higher quality output, which in turn would provide leverage to gain ever greater autonomy for honing their craft. His new book, Slow Productivity, further develops this formula, but it feels increasingly out of step.
Contemporary knowledge work can sometimes seem like a satire. A 2023 Microsoft report found that “the average employee spent 57% of their time using office software for communication — in meetings, email, chat.” Because so much of the workday is spent talking about work rather than doing it, people end up logging in early, late at night, or on weekends. During the workday, there’s no time to actually work.
“Collaboration tools” like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams that are supposed to streamline workplace communication easily become productivity impediments with their pings and the pressure to stay always available. Toggling between all these tasks takes a toll since our brains cannot change operations as seamlessly as our computers can. One UC-Irvine study found it can take up to 23 minutes to return to full focus after a distraction. Newport calls these constant distractions “productivity poison.”
This work style of keeping plates spinning and endless meetings has made many malcontents, and “burnout” is a household term now. At
