The central goal of Slow Productivity is to keep an individual worker’s volume at a sustainable level.

When our work volume increases, so do the accompanying overhead and stress, reducing both the time remaining to actually execute the tasks and the quality of the results. If we can work more sequentially, focusing on a small number of things at a time, waiting until they're done before bringing on new obligations, the rate at which we complete tasks might actually increase.

As long as the economy rewards productivity and efficiency, there will always be people:

• piling on the work
• working on the weekend.

It’s nice to think that some companies might adopt anti-burnout measures—minimizing those small tasks, and doling o...