{"id":222020,"date":"2024-06-04T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/?p=222020"},"modified":"2024-06-03T12:23:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T16:23:39","slug":"using-quiet-quitting-to-add-seasonality-to-your-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/using-quiet-quitting-to-add-seasonality-to-your-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Using \u201cquiet quitting\u201d to add seasonality to your work"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting author Cal Newport on the podcast<\/a> to talk about his terrific new book, Slow Productivity<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n In the book (and in our conversation), Cal breaks down the three principles of slow productivity, which are:<\/p>\n As part of working at a natural pace, he talks about a new spin behind the concept of \u201cquiet quitting\u201d\u2014an idea that went viral over the pandemic.<\/p>\n The idea behind quiet quitting is simple enough: you no longer go above and beyond in your responsibilities at work, while doing enough to get by with your workload. For example, you may no longer:<\/p>\n The ideas behind quiet quitting are simple\u2014and in many cases, reasonable ways to define boundaries around your work.<\/p>\n That said, most of us don\u2019t have the desire to \u201cquiet quit\u201d all of the time.<\/strong> For example, I\u2019m lucky to love what I do for a living and also have the chance to help others out through my work. I\u2019m not planning to quiet quit any time soon. On top of this, some of us value achievement quite highly (though I don\u2019t personally<\/a> fall into this camp).<\/p>\n For these reasons, quiet quitting has never felt like an optimal way of working for me\u2014and maybe for you. I also care about how productive I am every day and find great joy in working hard to build something great\u2014especially alongside others.<\/p>\n Adding Seasons<\/strong><\/p>\n This is why I love Cal\u2019s unique spin on quiet quitting in the book. He writes, \u201cat the core of quiet quitting is a pragmatic observation: <\/strong>you have more control than you think over the intensity of your workload.\u201d<\/p>\n He continues: \u201cThis got me thinking. What if we stopped positioning quiet quitting as a general response to the \u2018meaninglessness of work,\u2019 and instead saw it as a more specific tactic to achieve seasonality? What if, for example, you decided to quiet quit a single season<\/em> each year; maybe July and August, or that distracted period between Thanksgiving and the New Year?\u201d<\/p>\n When our work is not seasonal\u2014it doesn\u2019t have rhythms of both intensity and rest over time, and stays intense most of the time\u2014we need to define better boundaries around it to practice rest. This technique can be a great way to define boundaries around work so you can benefit from greater rest when needed.<\/p>\n Cal suggests not making a big deal of the decision.<\/strong> Simply adopt tactics like the ones I listed in the section above to simulate an offseason for yourself\u2014a slower period of work that lets you recharge and invest in yourself again. Remember, this is a flexible approach that can be tailored to your needs and circumstances. He also recommends, as an advanced tactic, to \u201ctake on a highly visible but low-impact project during this season\u201d so you can both deflect new projects and project outward signs of busyness\u2014signals of productivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n This strategy is simple, and it may not work in every role. However, I personally find the idea of adopting it as a way of introducing a slower season into an otherwise busy schedule appealing. It\u2019s a great tactic for finding more time for reflection, calm<\/a>, and deliberate slowness, which can ultimately lead to a better work-life balance and increased productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adding yearly rhythms to your work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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