Unpacking slow productivity: how artists can combat burnout and enhance creativity

Four years after the pandemic, every industry has grappled with definitions of productivity and work/life balance. In the creative arts industry, feelings of burnout and depression are common. In 2022, the viral trend of ‘quiet quitting’ began on TikTok and spread through many sectors. In its place, ‘slow productivity’ has become a buzzword, led by internet influencers and productivity experts. 

‘Quiet quitting’ required its followers to commit to their work and no longer go above and beyond to please their employers. Employees do the bare minimum and no more, insisting on turning off communication at a reasonable hour and keeping weekends to themselves.

Such boundaries prove more difficult in freelance industries like the arts, but the movement is still having an impact. Its high point has now passed, but in its place is the less hostile ‘slow productivity’ championed by influencers such as Cal Newport.

What is slow productivity?

Cal Newport is a professor of computer science and a writer for The New Yorker. His books centre on productive ideas for work. His latest, Slow Productivity, defines the movement as ‘the lost art of accomplishment without burnout’ and identifies three core values:

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

The movement is a deliberate reaction to the ‘grind’ culture of late capitalism. As Newport points out, the three values are demonstrated most famously in wildly successful creative artists. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius creator of Hamilton and writer for several Disney soundtracks, spent many years working on his breakout musicals. He would regularly interrupt the chaos of production weeks for Hamilton with walks around Central Park. 

Newport draws on examples from other artists, such as Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe, who embody slow productivity’s key principles.

How can slow productivity help artists?

Newport advocates for deep work that requires intense focus and leads to meaningful results. For working creative artists, this can mean assertively eliminating or batching small administrative tasks that can often take over entire days of planned creative work. Limiting commitments and using rest to recharge creativity are essential aspects of slow productivity. 

For many freelance artists, this means a disciplined and transparent approach to establishing boundaries and routines that allow for meaningful creative work. This may be a struggle, but witnessing the benefits of a short-term experiment may be beneficial.