'...be a little underemployed'

Getting good work done without burning out

Welcome to the Salience Network, a new section on the Brain Pizza substack, exclusively for paid subscribers. The title is a loose pun on the brain’s ‘salience network’ which has the job of monitoring striking or unusual external inputs as well as internal brain events; it has a central role in identifying important biological and cognitive events. Here, you'll find new material beyond the regular newsletter, all through a psychology and neuroscience lens.

Here’s a quote from the late Amos Tversky I often think about:

‘The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.’

Slow Productivity: Exploring Cal Newport's Philosophy

Newport’s principles: Doing Fewer Things, Working at a Natural Pace, and Obsessing Over Quality¹

I've just finished reading Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport. Newport argues that in our frenzy of busyness, we're not taking the needed steps back from the work we have at hand to try to figure out what is truly important about what we’re trying to do.

There's lots to admire in this book, and there are lots of lessons knowledge workers can take away from it.

Newport opens the book with a story about the celebrated American writer John McPhee from nearly 60 years ago. While I'd recommend reading Newport's book for the full story, there's a beautiful phrase employed by Newport to describe McPhee’s creative process – “a languid intentionality” of accumulating detail and information, and then stepping back from the problem to contemplate it from various angles, rather than immediately attacking it head-on.

TL,DR

1. Slow productivity encourages knowledge workers to prioritise deep, meaningful work over the constant busyness of immediate tasks.

2. By embracing slow productivity principles, individuals can cultivate a focused mindset, leading to more innovative problem-solving and higher-quality outputs in their professional work.

3. By slowing down and engaging in focused, distraction-free work, workers can achieve greater productivity and make significant contributions in their fields.

Newport argues that knowledge workers often get caught up in the urgency of immediate tasks like emails and messages, neglecting the critical thinking and creativity required for their roles, leading to the obvious and detrimental effects of multitasking and constant distractions on cognitive performance and creativity.