Slow Productivity for Busy Founders: Doing Fewer Things, Better in 2026
Edition Two
You’re not failing. Your system is broken.
Do you feel you’ve been sold the idea that the key to success is achieved by waking at 5 AM, stacking habits, and squeezing every possible task into the day? The result being a nervous system that never gets to rest, chronic overwhelm, and a kaleidoscopic to-do list. This relentless pace isn’t sustainable,nor is it strategic.
It’s time to stop fighting fires and start building a business that feels calm, clear, and genuinely sustainable. That's the essence of Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, this month’s Izz Whizzdom business book pick.
We live in a world that celebrates and encourages doing more, more output, more noise.
The idea is appealing: start your day early, stack habits, squeeze every possible task in before sunrise. But for most founders, reality is:
decision fatigue
chronic overwhelm
a nervous system that never gets to exhale
a to-do list that shifts like quicksand
The tools and life hacks designed to help us can become part of the noise and overwhelm. Having less, doing less brings more ease and space.
For these reasons,during a season of busyness and meeting demands of festivities as well as workloads, Slow Productivity by Cal Newport,is this month’s Izz Whizzdom business book pick.
The ideas behind slow productivity talk to meaningful progress rather than being against growth and ambition. The core philosophy is doing fewer things better because your clients pay for quality results, not for how early you woke up. This is about making meaningful progress over merely having 'more output”.
And founders, especially those balancing multiple priorities, client demands, or high-stakes operations, need this more than anyone.
The Founder Problem: Society Rewards Busyness and Early Morning Productivity
If you’re a founder, you probably recognise the pattern:
Being “busy” has become a badge of honour and signals importance.
You’re celebrated for being “productive.”
You’re expected to juggle multiple plates, stack habits, and even wake at 5am to maximise every hour.
We’ve normalised the idea that more means better.
More clients, more offers, more growth, more content, more visibility.
But this cultural script isn’t sustainable and it isn’t strategic.
And if you’ve ever felt like your nervous system is on permanent high alert, that’s not personal failure. It’s structural.
Stop Stacking Habits: The Power of Intentional, Grounding Rituals
One of my favourite insights in the book is the difference between optimisation and intentionality.
Optimisation: more habits, more efficiency, early starts, constant tweaking.
Intentionality: fewer, meaningful choices that actually matter.
Think of "Sarah," the agency owner who used to spend the first hour of every day deciding which "urgent" task to tackle. With Autopilot Scheduling, her "High-Value Client Strategy" time is pre-blocked every Tuesday and Thursday morning. That task no longer relies on willpower; it simply exists.
It is simple stuff but sometimes you need to reflect and hear it from another perspective to bring about effective changes. productivity be applied realistically in a reactive, high-demand business environment?
The 'Autopilot' Calendar: How to Protect Deep-Focus Time and Eliminate Decision Fatigue
Autopilot scheduling is one of the book’s most practical takeaways and the one I’ve found most useful in my business as an OBM and Virtual Assistant team.
Key Learnings and Action steps:
I apply my own version of autopilot scheduling to my life but when I really thought about it, I tended not to do this in my business since I am led by client requests and changing priorities. But I realised that I can still apply the autopilot scheduling to some degree. And I’ve found the more I commit to it, the more scheduling I have been able to do.
For example:
Ensure you have set times to check and respond to emails and enquiries - don’t be tempted to check emails at unscheduled times - it can derail you.
Set up team or client meetings on certain days and keep the comms to those meetings as far as possible. It keeps everyone on schedule and reduces random questions at unexpected times which, again, derails focus and therefore quality and energy over the long term.
Scheduling my marketing and content strategy monthly and using planners and scheduling tools to manage it has made a huge difference to my strategy and the quality of my output.
Why it works:
Anchored blocks reduce decision fatigue
Recurring tasks no longer rely on willpower
Predictable rhythms give the brain a baseline
High-impact work gets protected space
It’s not about squeezing more into early mornings or stacking 12 habits at 5am.
It’s about structuring your work to reduce cognitive load and protect energy, even in a fluid schedule.
Five-Year Planning: The Long View for Sustainable Choices
Slow Productivity encourages planning beyond the immediate week — not as rigid corporate strategy, but as a long-term intention framework.
For founders, this helps you:
Make better decisions today by seeing long-term impact
Separate urgent fires from meaningful priorities
Build resilience against reactive work
Align daily tasks with long-term business goals
It’s about embedding clarity and intention into your choices, so even a hectic week aligns with the bigger picture.
What Slow Productivity Looks Like in a Founder-Led Business
1. Reduce active projects
Focus on 2–3 meaningful priorities at a time. Everything else is intentionally paused or delegated.
2. Anchor meaningful rituals
Simple grounding rituals restore focus and energy — not habit stacking to extremes.
3. Autopilot scheduling
Weekly and monthly anchors for high-value work, protecting deep-focus time.
4. Long-term planning
A five-year lens guides which projects, systems, and priorities actually deserve energy.
5. Operational clarity
Clear systems, workflows, and support structures allow founders to slow down without dropping essential work.
The Reality Check: Can You Afford to Slow Down?
It would be really remiss to not give consideration to the other side of Cal’s philosophy. And that is, frankly, slow productivity isn’t universally accessible.
Retail workers, carers, hospitality teams, and factory employees can’t simply choose to slow down or rearrange their schedules. Their productivity is externally dictated.
Even founders feel this tension. The privilege of slowing down looks different depending on:
Revenue security
Available operational support
Degree of autonomy
Energy levels or chronic health factors
Regulatory or compliance pressures
Critics of the book note that many examples are people with financial cushions or established success making the philosophy feel like a luxury rather than a universal prescription.
I think it is fair to say that the concept is incredibly useful and won’t apply to everyone in equal measure.
FAQ: Slow Productivity for Founders
Q: What is Slow Productivity for founders?
Slow Productivity is a philosophy encouraging fewer, higher-quality tasks, intentional rituals, and sustainable work habits rather than constant busyness.
Q: How does autopilot scheduling support slow productivity?
It creates anchored blocks for key work, reducing decision fatigue and protecting focus even in fluid schedules.
Q: Can all founders apply slow productivity?
Not universally. It works best for founders with some autonomy over schedules and priorities. High-demand or reactive roles need operational structures to make it feasible.
Q: How does the 5AM Club relate to slow productivity?
The 5AM Club promotes early-morning productivity routines. Slow Productivity critiques this expectation, showing that meaningful results come from intentional prioritisation, not just early starts.
Q: How can an OBM help implement slow productivity?
An OBM builds systems, workflows, delegation paths, and scheduling anchors that reduce cognitive load, protect energy, and make slow productivity practical.
Call to Action
If you’re ready to stop firefighting and start building a business that feels calm, clear, and genuinely sustainable; let’s talk.
Whether it’s implementing autopilot scheduling, building operational clarity, or designing sustainable long-term plans, the right support can turn slow productivity from philosophy into practice.
*there are no affiliated links in this article. This is not an ad and I have not been paid or sponsored by anyone. I also bought my own copy of the book.
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