Death to Pseudo-Productivity

I am, by habit and perhaps natural inclination, drawn to the Larry the Cableguy philosophy of productivity: “Git r done.”

That mentality is useful when it comes to ripping through menial administrative tasks, overcoming mountains of small physical jobs, or just generally getting my lengthy to-do list completed. It’s also a good way to make sure you rarely produce content that requires deep thinking or reflection. And, in many cases, it can lead to burnout.

Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity: The Art of Accomplishment without Burnout, is an attempt to shift knowledge workers from what he calls “pseudo-productivity” to meaningful results. He’s attempting to dampen the influence of industrialized thinking in the lives of people who do the bulk of their work with what Hercule Poirot calls, “the little gray cells.”

Pseudo-Productivity

I’ve since left the office, but one of my biggest frustrations while working in the nuclear industry was that everything had to be boiled down to a discrete process with boxes that could be checked, clear procedures that could be repeatedly executed, and productivity metrics that could be tracked. Even in the process of training nuclear operators we had checklists that had to be turned into graphs, which were meant to clearly indicate exactly when the turkey was done and the operator was ready to do her job.

From Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

There were processes (e.g., tests administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) in place to keep people from getting through that weren’t ready, but there was a lot of “busy work” that could be productive for some, yet was just a check in the box for others. These “check the box” sorts of tasks are what Newport calls pseudo-productivity, which he defines as “the use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort” (22).

Such metrics for productivity are the result of industrialized thinking. When a company is making widgets, the number of widgets rolling off the assembly line is a critical metric. The cost per widget is (often) tied to the number that are produced in a given day with a particular plant configuration. So, in a real sense, widget production numbers truly reflect a measure of success.

Unfortunately, knowledge work often doesn’t have clear measures that define productivity. At one level, we could define “reports completed” as the visible activity we measure, but reports come in different types and measuring the sheer number churned out is a way of ensuring the analysis in any report is surface level and asks only the questions required to minimally close out the task.

Defeating Goodhart’s Law

Pseudo-Productivity undermines real productivity because of Goodhart’s Law, which is summarized as saying that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” If the goal is to produce reports as a measure of success, then the number of reports will tend to increase whether they add value to the real mission or not. In other words, you get what you reward, not necessarily what you want.

Newport’s proposal provides a means of defeating Goodhart’s Law by “organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner” based on three principles:

1.       Do fewer things.

2.       Work at a natural pace.

3.       Obsess over quality. (8)

All three of these things entail shrugging off the short-term feelings of success that come through getting the most busy work done. They will all work in situations where an individual has some real control over their workload and work flow, as well as enough security to be able to “buck the system” until results start to roll in.

Limitations of the Method

Newport defines knowledge work as “the economic activity in which knowledge is transformed into an artifact with market value through the application of cognitive effort” (38). A large number of the examples in the book are artists, writers, philosophers. However, Newport also argues this includes “standard office-bound employees, such as computer programmers, marketers, accountants, [and] executives” (38).

I really think Newport is onto something, but I also think that, given his lack of personal experience in a cube farm (he’s been an academic and writer the whole way through), he may have too rosy a vision. Of course, he also anticipates this objection directly (pg 39), but it still stands. Nevertheless, the reality is that what Newport presents in Slow Productivity is an ideal that many people will not be able to realize—many office workers simply do not have enough control of their schedules. As a former manager, the professional costs of not meeting deadlines were too high to be worth bucking most of the time, so whether the report added value I had to ensure the widget came off the assembly line.

And yet, there is some value in his approach. Even if the useless reports have to get manufactured, by seeking to apply his first principle of “Do fewer things” we can avoid being the first volunteer for every new project in a culture that rewards the Larry the Cableguy work ethic. Part of this goes back to one of Newport’s earlier ideas, presented in the book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, which deals with the inherent value of work and the importance of quality over sheer energy. But you’ve got to be willing to take the risk that when the next round of layoffs rolls out you won’t get cut because of a lower widget number (sometimes managers don’t recognize or care about quality) and take the lumps on performance ratings until the quality of your work is recognized and valued. If you’re willing to take the risk, what Newport describes in the book can be helpful, especially in the long term, but we can’t neglect what it may cost.

Benefits of Implementation

Setting aside my qualms about the limitations, what Newport prescribes is beneficial, especially in the long term. For those seeking to write a book, a series of academic papers, or simply become an expert in a knowledge field, there is nothing that can replace the slow effort Newport describes. Sometimes the quality of a future book entails teaching fewer classes, turning down a few speaking engagements, and not jumping on the next faculty committee. For a pastor, it may mean declining to start a new ministry or jump into a new field of service so that the quality of sermons (a main task for a pastor) improves over time—without the pastor burning out.

In a culture that tends to see so many things in terms of quantitative production rather than qualitative excellence, even a dose of what Newport prescribes can be beneficial. Knowledge workers that reconsider their harried lives through his unhurried lens will find plenty of things to reevaluate, especially for those of use who recognize a purpose beyond income and self-gratification in our work.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

By Newport, Cal

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NOTE: I received a gratis advanced reader copy of this volume from the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.