I’ve watched the engineering industry glorify speed over sense for years. We praise people who respond to emails at midnight. We celebrate those who jump from meeting to meeting without breaks. We reward constant availability over actual output.
Let’s call this what it is. Broken.
I recently came across an article on Nature.com that introduced me to slow productivity. This is the idea that slowing down actually helps you achieve more. And no, we’re not talking about meditation or mindfulness. It is about fixing a fundamentally broken way of working.
Here’s what our current “productivity” looks like:
- Engineers rushing deliverables without time to think them through
- Back-to-back meetings that could have been emails
- Last-minute demands treated as emergencies
- Constant context-switching that kills deep work
- Rework. Endless rework.
The result? Burned-out teams producing mediocre work they’re not proud of.
We need to stop pretending this is normal. Want to know what real productivity looks like? It’s not about working faster. It’s about:
- Blocking time for deep work and actually protecting it
- Saying no to meetings that lack clear purposes
- Setting boundaries around response times
- Automating the repetitive stuff
- Making time to think before doing
Will some people resist this? Absolutely. They’ll say “we’ve always done it this way” or “we need to stay competitive.” But the truth is that rushing work doesn’t make you competitive. It makes you sloppy.
Quality isn’t about speed. It’s about giving your brain the space to solve problems properly the first time. It’s about respecting that good work takes time. And it’s about understanding that your team’s burnout isn’t a badge of honor – it’s a sign of failure.
Try this tomorrow. Block two hours for focused work. Turn off notifications. Work on one thing properly. Then tell me you’re not more productive than eight hours of constant interruptions.
Slow productivity isn’t about working less, but rather it’s about working right.
We just need the courage to try it.
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