📚 Reduce your salary?!

As a self-professed terrible reader, it is quite uncommon for me to be at the end of a book with so much time left in the month! But, Slow Productivity, along with not being all that long, is such a page turner… I literally can’t put it down.

(I tried, but it’s still in my hand!)

Perhaps the reason for cracking through it so quickly is less to do with the number of pages or the size of the text, but rather the value of the message, and it’s timing in my life.

Of course, many of you are still reading so I won’t dive too deeply into them here. But suffice to say there will be a lot to discuss at our upcoming end of month call.

I can’t wait to dissect this book with all of you. There is so much to talk about.

We’re building an incredible community over on our Bad Ass Bookshelf Discord channel where over 110 of you have joined in the fun.

Here are some of the chats we’ve been having:

One of our amazing members, Antti, has written a short essay on productivity in knowledge work, taking inspiration from Slow Productivity as well as a number of other incredible books on the topic. Well worth a read here:

On productivity in knowledge work

If you designed your work in seasons, what would your next season look like and what would you focus on?

We’re getting into the home stretch of Slow Productivity by Cal Newport and the second half of the book really brings the practical advice to life.

Here are three key highlights that stood out to us:

1. Slow doesn’t mean passive
One of the biggest misconceptions Newport tackles is the idea that working slowly means working lazily or without urgency. In reality, slow productivity is about intentional focus. It’s choosing to invest deeply in fewer, higher-quality projects - not just coasting along doing less. Newport makes the case that this approach is not only more sustainable, but often leads to faster progress on what really matters.

2. The importance of ‘Seasonality’
Newport introduces the concept of seasonality. Recognising that our energy, creativity, and capacity naturally ebb and flow. Instead of expecting constant, uniform output, he suggests structuring work to align with these rhythms. That might mean alternating between seasons of deep, creative work and seasons of lighter, maintenance tasks. It’s a powerful reminder that productivity isn’t linear, and that respecting our natural pace can actually make us more effective.

3. Designing your own constraints
Perhaps the most practical takeaway is Newport’s emphasis on deliberately setting constraints. Whether it’s limiting the number of active projects, scheduling time for deep work, or creating clear ‘off’ hours, these constraints help contain the chaos. Rather than waiting for external boundaries, we can design our own; protecting time, energy, and attention for what matters most.

We’ll be diving into these ideas and how to apply them in our end-of-month book club call. Hope to see you there!

We're so excited to host our next Bad Ass Bookshelf bookclub call to discuss Slow Productivity at the end of July! Call details below:

Date: 31st July
Time: 17:00 GMT (12:00 EST / 09:00 PST)

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