At some point, I suspect this blog will just be a regurgitation of Cal Newport's own blog and podcast. Until then, it will wander, trying to find my voice. Today, we return to the deep life. Autumn is here, so school is in session, and those not in school are slowly waking up from their summer nap and preparing to sprint until the holidays. In a recent podcast episode, Cal talks about his "Laws of Less," which is a practical take on his advice on slow productivity. He has long advocated for doing less, and I enjoyed this particular codification. 1. Accomplishment is non-additive. Our standing in the professional world is often categorized by what we've done best. We can't add up multiple things at a lower level of quality. I heard M. Night Shyamalan explain on a podcast that many aspects of his life try to take away from what he thinks is the only thing that matters about his job - film writing. The only thing that matters to him and to the rest of the world are the movies he makes, not managing the production logistics, going on press tours, or participating in film festivals. Now, there are examples where one's accomplishments get one in trouble. For instance, if an academic receives a prestigious award like the Nobel Prize, they might think they have license to study aliens. Or someone might try to spread misinformation by citing their credentials. So our goals should focus on making our best work as impactful as possible because that will: a) matter the most in the long run and b) be how people categorize us. 2. Simultaneity breeds stress. If you have multiple projects with deadlines around the same time, it's much harder than if the deadlines were scattered. The stress comes from constantly switching between tasks, missing details, and not having enough time to dive deeply into any single one. To the extent possible, working on one thing at a time before moving onto the next will reduce the cognitive load and allow for deeper engagement with each task. The more intentional you are about your work scheduling, the closer you will come to reducing simultaneous tasks. 3. Overhead destroys originality. Coordination, admin, and logistics. One project is manageable, but as the number of projects increases, so does the overhead. Say you’re a professional blogger and for every blog post you need to publish, that requires roughly 10 Zoom calls. If you're working on 3 projects, you'll have 30 Zoom calls. Eventually, all of your time will be spent on Zoom calls, with barely any left for writing. Get rid of overhead as much as you can. An artist who starts managing a studio can end up spending more time on hiring staff, scheduling, and accounting, than on their creative work. The overhead slowly dilutes the time and mental energy they can dedicate to painting or sculpting. If they hire a manager or assistant to handle logistics, they can stay focused on their creative work. While we don't always have the means to hire an assistant to handle our overhead, something like buying prepared meals or eating out can save time – and I think it's worth it. 4. A slower pace is deeply fulfilling. In general, humans are happier working on fewer things and spending more time on them. An artist working on a painting or a sculptor working on marble – week after week, month after month – finds deep fulfillment. There's a certain identity associated with being busy and managing lots of hard tasks, but I don't think it hits the human spirit in the same way. An overworked project manager, whose every minute is consumed by one or more meetings—sometimes requiring them to be present in multiple places at once—ends up burnt out rather than fulfilled. So let's work on only a few things. One way you can go slower is by artificially shrinking your calendar. I came across an article by Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman at LinkedIn, called The Importance of Scheduling Nothing, where he writes: "If you were to see my calendar, you'd probably notice a host of time slots greyed out but with no indication of what's going on. There is no problem with my Outlook or printer. The grey sections reflect "buffers," or time periods I've purposely kept clear of meetings. In aggregate, I schedule between 90 minutes and two hours of these buffers every day (broken down into 30- to 90-minute blocks). It's a system I developed over the last several years in response to a schedule that was becoming so jammed with back-to-back meetings that I had little time left to process what was going on around me or just think. At first, these buffers felt like indulgences. I could have been using the time to catch up on meetings I had pushed out or said "no" to. But over time I realized not only were these breaks important, they were absolutely necessary in order for me to do my job." 5. None of this works without discipline. Doing one project at a time won't matter if you can't stick to it until its completion. You also need to have the discipline to say no to new things. We want to say yes, but by saying no, we can deliver our best work for the people we've already said yes to.