Ever finish a day packed with meetings, Slack messages, and emails and still wonder what you actually did?

That’s what Cal Newport calls pseudo-productivity — the illusion of progress. It’s that feeling of constant motion that doesn’t always translate into meaningful work.

In his book, Slow Productivity, Newport lays out a framework to fight that:

1. Do fewer things
2. Work at a natural pace
3. Obsess over quality

I love the simplicity of the framework, but also feel that these aren't the easiest to do, particularly if you're an individual contributor at a company and you can't always decide what to work on or the deadlines involved.

But no matter your situation, it's worth reflecting on these principles to think how your work can be more sustaintable.

Here's how I'm thinking through each one.

1. Do fewer things

Newport’s argument is this: you can’t do great work if you’re doing too much work.

He writes:

That phrase “time to spare” is what stood out to me. Because that almost never happens. And on the rare days it does, my instinct is to ask “What else can I squeeze in?”

It’s like having extra time feels wrong, like I misjudged the day or didn’t do enough. But Newport is pushing for a mindset shift where we expect and plan to have time left over.

That doesn’t mean you’ll always end early. It just means you build your day assuming things will take longer than they “should.”

Try this:

Block the final hour of your workday as “flex” time.

The goal is to finish everything before it starts. If something runs over, then you've got that time. If not? Great, you’re done early.

I’ve started using this during my own time-blocking experiments, and even shifted some meetings into that slot to protect earlier hours for deep work.

2. Work at a natural pace

When you’re a work-from-home dad, your time already feels squeezed. It's hard to even think about slowing down when you're got meetings, school drop-offs, unexpected kid sick days, etc.

But Newport argues that overstuffed schedules kill creativity and lead to burnout. He even recommends doubling your project timelines.

I thought 'this feels unrealistic' as I read that.

Particularly since I know that if you give something more time, you'll end up just taking more time (aka Parkinson's Law). But maybe that’s the point. Instead of cramming everything into the smallest window possible, let your work breathe.

When I was working at a previous company, I used to jam my days full. If one project took longer than expected, I’d start getting anxious. It messed with my overpacked plan. Back to principle 1, I was doing too many things that it wouldn't allow me to work at a natural pace. Everything had to be rushed.

These days, I'm trying to give my mind (and calendar) more space to let projects breath.

Rushed work is never good work.

Try this:

Pick one important task this week. Double the time you think it’ll take (and actually stick to it.)

See if anything changes, not just in quality, but in how you feel while doing it.

3. Obsess over quality

When you decide to do fewer things and work at a more natural pace, you finally have space to do your work well.

Newport warns that obsessing over quality can slip into perfectionism. But the goal is to bring real attention and intention to the work that matters most (not just nitpick things to death forever).

He quotes Company of One, which profiles a web designer who chose not to scale his business. Instead of building an agency, he just doubled his prices and focused on doing great work. Same income with half the clients and creating higher quality results.

That’s the approach I want for my own projects, including WFH Dads.

Focused work, done very well.

Try this:

What’s the core of your role?

• For a designer: effective visuals
• For a manager: a well-functioning team
• For a marketer: building the brand

How can you apply all three of Newport’s principles to that one thing and raise the quality bar?

Why this matters for dads who work from home:

Most dads I talk to aren’t lacking in work ethic; they work hard!

But they don't always spend their time working on the right things.

We say yes to too much, we sprint through our days, and the narrative we tell ourselves is that if we slow down, we will fall behind.

What Newport calls slow productivity is really about sustainability.

I don't want to burnout trying to do everything as quickly as possible in order to just do more things. I'd much rather do less and do it better.

Doing fewer things.
Working at a natural pace.
Obsessing over quality.

It's a better way to work and a better way to live.

Recommendation of the week

A simple interval timer app (iOS, Android)

Recently saw this doctor talking about the benefits of 4x4 interval training as a great 'minimum viable dose' for exercise.

It's a high-intensity workout that goes like this:

• 4-min cardio at 90% effort
• 3-minutes of rest
• repeated 4 times

So I started doing this for my runs once a week. I didn't want to fiddle with timers on my Apple Watch so I downloaded this simple Interval Timer app (iOS, Android).

And it also is super helpful because I've been wanting to do some mobility work a couple times a week (since more body parts just hurt as I'm pushing 40 🫠) and I was able to program the mobility circuit in the app so it tells me what exercise to do and when to transition to the next one.

Let me know if another newsletter issue about my running / mobility work would be helpful.

What about you?

Which principle do you think would be the hardest to implement in your role?

Email me at thom@wfhdads.com and let me know. I read and respond to all of them.

Thanks again for being a part of this community!

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

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