Brain Food

BRAIN FOOD

Statistics and community indicators are a starting point, only one component of the full story. The stories behind the numbers provide important context for our indicators, painting the more complex realities of society.

These discussion topics can help remind you of these larger narratives, shaping the way things are, the way things work, and the way things could be.

Consider this your BRAIN FOOD, nutrition for healthy thought!

Meg Norris Meg Norris

Podcast: How to be productive without burning out

In February of 2024 there was an episode of Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant’s podcast ReThinking (based on his book Think Again, which I *highly* recommend) about the challenge in measuring productivity. The episode is titled “How to be productive without burning out” and is in conversation with Cal Newport. Please give it a listen!

The entertaining conversation of two adept sparring partners is about measuring productivity in jobs that have hard-to-measure outputs. They reference the knowledge and service industries as case studies for the productivity dilemma, but I urge you to also think of the non-profit and social sector as you listen. The strategic question posed to me most often is: how do I measure the impact of _____ ? How can we count, measure, assess our work so that we can then determine whether it was “good”? These are really tough questions and this podcast was catalytic in my own thinking, which I now offer to the ACT audience. 

I hope you enjoy this listen as much as I did! How can we integrate Slow Productivity into our operating systems?

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