Slow Good!

1. Slow Good!

I am enjoying the latest book by Georgetown University professor and productivity guru Cal Newport, titled Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout.

At the risk of driving down the number of books Mr. Newport sells, I will now save you, the dedicated readers of “Thoughts for the Week,” the $27.00 cost of the book and the 6 hours and 18 minutes it would take to listen to on Audible, by giving you the CliffsNotes version of the book!

(Whoever said reading my drivel is a waste of time and money is WRONG!)

Mr. Newport states slow productivity “is a philosophy of organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner” based on the following three principles:

1. Do fewer things,

2. Work at a natural pace, and

3. Obsess over quality.

I am reminded of the fellow who showed up at the back door of our house in Lynchburg, Virginia, to pay his respects to my dear departed father, Chuck Perkey, in December 1992.

Dad had started a small business about ten years before his death. The best way to describe Dad’s business was “interior installations,” i.e., he made cornice boards and hung mini blinds and curtain rods and drapes.

Occasionally, Dad needed someone to help with setup when he was doing his job. That is where the dirty, smelly fellow at our back door came into the picture.

“Hey, Mrs. Perkey, My name is Larry. I just heard that Chuck had passed away, and I want to pay my respects to him.

“Chuck was a fine man, and he took a lot of pride in his work. I used to give Chuck a hard time about it, you know, I would say to him, ‘Chuck, you are really good at what you do, but you are really slow’…

“I’d say, ‘Chuck, you know what you are? You is ‘slow good’!”

I hereby anoint Chuck Perkey as “The Patron Saint of Slow Productivity”!

2. Don't Forget!

If you are anything like me, you too were awake at 2:00 AM this morning, turning ahead each of the clocks in your house one hour because of the onset of Daylight Savings time.

Now that we are empty nesters, this task has gotten MUCH harder.

In days gone by, our kids would dash around the house at the stroke of 2:00 AM, tapping buttons on our analog clocks so that time flew ahead one hour.

“YIPPEE! IT’S 3:00 AM!” they would shout. They were so cute in their matching Dr. Denton’s and so sleep-deprived.

Now it is just Jill and me, rushing outside in the cold, bleary-eyed, trying to remember how to change the time on the car dashboard clock to 3:00 AM. How is it possible that every year these German engineers can change the methodology for turning the clock ahead one hour?

One of these days, I will figure out how to move the time forward an hour on my iPhone. If I can do that, perhaps I will finally be able to arrive on time for morning meetings!

At 3:15 AM, when the clocks in the entire house have all been changed, we settle back into bed and turn to each other sleepily, and mutter:

“Where does all the time go?”

3. The Real Winner of "The Traitors" is Hereby Revealed by Alan Cumming!

I AM A FAITHFUL!