Tag: “Self-Improvement”

In 1982, General Motors closed its plant in Fremont, California. It was GM’s worst factory: absenteeism routinely exceeded 20%, there were more than 800 pending union complaints, and wildcat strikes were almost routine. The cars coming out of that plant were of the lowest quality in the system. Toyota reopened it two years later as NUMMI, rehiring almost all of the same workers, including the former strike leaders. It used the same machinery. It manufactured similar cars. And in less than a year, the plant went on to have the best quality in GM. Absenteeism dropped to 2%.

The Golden Rule of Habit Transformation

In previous articles, we’ve talked about two of the three principles of Slow Productivity, a term used by Cal Newport in his book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout to show that another kind of productivity, one that’s more in tune with human nature and less rushed, is possible.

Sooner or later, all knowledge workers inevitably face a certain moment. It happens differently for everyone, but the conclusion is always the same: “I can’t keep all this in my head anymore.”

Habits are simple choices we make at certain moments and, over time, we stop thinking about them even though we continue to do them. The sum of all our small daily choices determines, in the long term, who we are: how we eat, how we work, whether we exercise, how we relate to others. An infinite number of small details that have a huge impact on all aspects of our lives.