Strategically Small

Slow Productivity

Slow Productivity The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout Cal Newport (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2024) In the latest of his books relating to knowledge work, Cal Newport sets forth a vision of productivity which is deeply counter-cultural and, for many, counter-intuitive. Newport argues that much of modern knowledge work is dominated by a frenzied pseudo-productivity, in which visible activity is the primary means of measuring useful effort (22). What this means, functionally, is that if you are quick to reply to texts, emails, slack messages, and phone calls, then everyone (especially your boss) will see how busy you are, and that will translate into you being seen as a good employee. Regardless of whether you genuinely produce anything of value. Newport rightly sees that this is a completely nonsensical way to work. All of this fractured attention makes it nearly impossible to produce genuinely valuable work. The nature of this hyperactive pseudo-productivity means we’re tempted — nay, compelled — to be plugged into this work all the time. So we’re checking emails at our kids’ baseball games, taking our laptops on vacation, and sleeping with work plugged in within arms reach. But this doesn’t make us more productive. It doesn’t help us produce rare or lasting or valuable work. It just keeps us busy. There is a better way. Enter Slow Productivity. After briefly examining the problem, Newport spends the bulk of the book on three long chapters, each devoted to a core tenet of his slow-productivity philosophy: Do Fewer Things, Work at a Natural Pace, and Obsess Over Quality. Do Fewer Things “Do Fewer Things” feels radical in an age where we are bombarded at every turn with opportunities, demands, and expectations that more and more will be added to our plates. But doing fewer things is based on the acknowledgement that most of us have a very narrow range of activities that “move the needle,” as it were. For me, this primarily means studying and people-ing. There are, of course, admin tasks that must be handled. Newport has helpful advice (that won’t be new to you if you listen to his podcast). But he also has helpful advice on those big, important tasks. Such as, work on fewer things at a time (60-74). He also suggests taming your daily goals (75-76), which may be one of the most revolutionary and freeing ideas in the book for my life. I shouldn’t try to write a sermon, a newsletter post, and a paper today. I can batch study for those things together, but when I need to do the most cognitively demanding thing — writing — I should focus on one task per day. One more piece of advice in this section that resonated was his exhortation to hire professionals to do things you could but shouldn’t do. Spending money — on professionals, or good software that simplifies your life — can be invaluable in trying to find focus. Embrace the Natural In his second principle, Newport encourages the reader to work at a natural pace. The core insight here is that human beings are not machines, and mental work is fundamentally different than factory, assembly-line labor. Our brains do not produce widgets, and require rhythms of rest, seasonality, and reprieve in order to produce their best work. I was reminded of Douglas Wilson’s insight that we should desire to be fruitful like a tree (Psalm 1), not efficient like a machine. I was also pondering this as a pastor, and thinking about the value of having time to stew on a message. One thing I’ve started doing is trying to read in preparation for sermon series 6-12 months in the future. That way, even if that isn’t fresh in my mind, I’m not staring at the passage and thinking about it as a sermon text for the first time four days before I’m standing up to say, “thus says the LORD.” By having the text in my meditative consciousness for months on end I’m able to iterate different ways of structuring, illustrating, explaining, or applying a sermon. This principle also applies to my other writing, too. Rather than trying to dash off a paper or a newsletter post, starting early enough that I have time to stew always improves the quality of the final product. Some of Newport’s advice here is gold. “Double Your Project Timelines” and “Simplify Your Workday” (131-135) were particularly helpful. Though I can’t yet implement everything he suggests, there are pieces that I obviously need to — like scheduling study time in a way that treats it as almost sacrosanct. A large portion of this chapter was essentially devoted to the idea of seasonality and how to create seasons — even small ones — in your life. The practical tips were useful, but it did just make me think, over and over, how wise our ancestors were to have seasons of work, seasons of rest, and seasons of feasting and joy. Read through the Torah with an eye to rest and parties, and you’ll be surprised. Quality is What Counts The final element of Newport’s Slow Productivity philosophy is “obsess over quality.” And honestly, it’s the point that makes the book work. There’s a certain type of laziness that could find cover in the importance of “Do Fewer Things” (phew!) and “Work at a Natural Pace” (as little as possible!) — but would choke on this last point. Obsessing over quality doesn’t mean a perfectionism that refuses to “ship” work, but it does mean really caring about what you produce. As he does throughout the book, Newport draws on individual stories to draw general principles or lessons — and here he focuses heavily on the recording artist Jewel, who epitomizes a “focus on quality over quick” (170). The reality of such prioritizing sometimes means you will miss opportunities (173). But if you do, in fact, produce quality work, you will likely have something more important than short-term opportunities — long-term options. Such a pursuit will require cultivating taste (182-186), honest feedback (189-191), and real sacrifice (194-193, 205-208). It will also, at some point, require you to get clear on what you’re really trying to do. In regard to this, there was a line in this chapter that grabbed me, when Newport was discussing his own study of films, particularly Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. “Studying Tarantino, however, I realized that working with lower genre tropes when pursuing higher ends, if given the right formal attention, can be a powerful creative enterprise” (188, emphasis mine). That, I thought, is what my writing life is all about. I want to put the theology of Augustine and Luther and Calvin in the vernacular of the plumber and the mailman and the farmer. I want to take the interest in philosophy and theology and ethics that I find on Substack and put it in language that would communicate on Facebook. But that project is a lot harder than it sounds. It doesn’t come in snatches of time here and there, squeezed into the frenzied pace of life given to pseudo-productivity. If I’m going to do the work I’m meant to do, it will require a willingness to go deep, and go slow. It’s time to do fewer things. It’s time to work at a natural pace. It’s time to obsess over quality. Stopping to Think is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for reading Stopping to Think! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willdole.substack.com/subscribe [https://willdole.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Adoption

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit willdole.substack.com [https://willdole.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] Adoption is the giftof being brought in.My life must now shift—He has taken my sin,

Strategically Small

Brandon J. O’BrienThe Strategically Small Church2nd Edition, Baker Academic, 2025 Stopping to Think is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Brandon O’Brien argues in this book for a different ministry paradigm than has been the norm in evangelicalism over the past 50 (plus) years. Rather than seeing “small” churches as anomalies, or problems to be fixed, small churches are the norm both globally and historically. Therefore, we must alter our perceptions. Instead of viewing the small church with a scarcity mindset (“we don’t have the talent, the budget, the facilities, etc., to do effective ministry”), we should instead see our normal churches as loved and graced by God with everything necessary to please him. O’Brien devotes one chapter to giving examples from few large ministries attempting to “get small” in order to be more effective. The upshot of this is that your normal church already is small, and therefore positioned for effectiveness. He then goes on to discuss the authenticity of a fully local (as opposed to regional) church, the value of being focused and program-lite (he uses the term nimble), the opportunities small churches have to empower community ministry, the immense value of cross-generational relationships, and the unique characteristics of worship in a small church. O’Brien’s style is engaging—he does a good job of writing about ministries in various settings in a way that invites you to consider the possibilities in your own context. I often skip stories in non-fiction books because they feel like a ham-fisted way to connect with the reader or an easy way to puff an article-length idea into a full book. Not so here. Whether the congregations in question are Lutherans in western Washington or Baptists in southern Arkansas, O’Brien helps you catch a glimpse of how God is at work in congregations all over the place. That “all over the place” is theological, not simply numeric or cultural. O’Brien operates in this book with what he calls a “minimally viable ecclesiology” (p. 21) and will later refer to a “minimally viable theology of worship” (p. 115). That might bother you. It would bother me in a theology class, an elders meeting, or a sermon. But in the context of what he is doing with this book—trying to shake loose your dusty paradigms about church health and success—I could get past my own disagreements and value the lessons there were to learn, even from those with whom I profoundly disagree. In the end, I share O’Brien’s vision of the normal church. These churches may be poorly positioned, much of the time, to attract religious consumers. But they have been given by God himself everything they need to make disciples. And, “[t]he church’s God-given job description is to make disciples, not to attract consumers.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willdole.substack.com/subscribe [https://willdole.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Marriage Bed

A Reading of Chapter 5 from my book A Healthy Marriage (click on the title to go to the Amazon page…) Stopping to Think is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for reading Stopping to Think! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willdole.substack.com/subscribe [https://willdole.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Communication

a reading of Chapter 4 from A Healthy Marriage [https://a.co/d/09VBQBWB] Stopping to Think is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for reading Stopping to Think! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willdole.substack.com/subscribe [https://willdole.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]