Here's the thing. Work in progress limits have been around forever. If you ever wanted to learn about kanban on a Saturday afternoon, you'd come by the term of

Here's the thing. Work in progress limits have been around forever. If you ever wanted to learn about kanban on a Saturday afternoon, you'd come by the term of "WIP limits" and a reasonable number like 3 at a given time. I think the author is jumping the gun a bit based on their previous work "A World Without Email" in which he hints at the "hyperactive hive mind" being an entity in which everyone is fighting for each other's attention unknowingly. This article somewhat assumes that because we're part of this hive mind, we don't actually get time to actually work deeply on one thing at a time and thus "slow productivity" is the solution so we can actually complete things. > The autonomy that defines the professional lives of those who toil in front of computer screens has led us into a trap of excessive work volume. We cannot escape this trap by expanding the weekend. We must ultimately brace ourselves for the larger challenge of slowing down the pace of the workday itself. Want to know the secret to these things? Read books. Seriously, some of the best books on this topic are by the very author of this article. Read High Output Management, The Effective Executive, Deep Work, Four Thousand Weeks, Thinking in Systems, An Elegant Puzzle, etc. These books should empower you to take back control over your work life balance and hold others to a higher standard. Most of the time the "hyperactive hive mind" is simply your line manager and some middle manager's todo list sitting in your inbox because you're the one who can actually do anything about it. Yes, the very same boss who always changes your priorities last minute is surprise just serving their selfish needs through you. How about flipping the script instead? You should give your boss a list of your priorities and tell them to not bother you until they are done. You should hold your boss accountable for the time they steal from you every week to discuss or talk about something that isn't one of those things. And ultimately, you should be in control of what you want to work on. You only live for so long, might as well be on things you actually believe in and can make an impact with, not some nonsense pushed down from the top or your boss's big breakthrough idea that everyone knows will flop. Ever since I did this, I've been happier, healthier, and more impactful at work. Setting boundaries is fucking hard, but necessary to get anything done at a big company. The IC has the ultimate power. Don't be a doormat.