“An encouragement to subtract can be seen in various forms of the so-called slow movement, which include calls to reduce the length of the standard workweek from five days to four. The idea is a good one, but as Cal Newport argues in Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, many employees aren’t burdened by how many hours they work, but by how much work they’re expected to do during them. What we need, Newport says, is to rethink how we measure productivity—as well as to reduce the volume of work employees have to do in the first place.”
