Yesterday, I came across a YouTube thumbnail:
“Less work. Better results.”
Matt D’Avella.
A creator I respect, a filmmaker I’ve followed for years.
I knew I’d end up watching it.
But not right away. I was busy capturing ideas for my own monthly article.
Later that night, as I was lying in bed, the thumbnail flashed again in my head.
I thought to myself: “This sounds inspiring… but it might also be misleading.”
This morning, I hit play.
And I was right.
The video is brilliant. One of the best I’ve seen on YouTube in months.
But it misses something big—something that could hurt beginners who take it at face value.
That’s why I’m writing this article. First for myself, and then for you.
Because we all need to learn how to watch YouTube with a critical eye.
The Context: Two Extremes of Work
Today’s culture is loud about work.
On one side: hustle bros shouting “Work 100 hours a week, Elon does 2000!”
On the other: the “quiet quitting” crowd whispering “Do the bare minimum, pay your bills, rest.”
Somewhere in between stands Cal Newport, with his idea of Slow Productivity— do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality.
Matt embraced this philosophy.
He cut his workload from 50+ hours a week to 25, stopped 90% of his side work (shorts, podcast, newsletter...etc), and started producing only higher-quality long videos.
And it worked for him.
But here’s the problem: what works for Matt today might destroy a beginner tomorrow.
Do Fewer Things (But Not at the Start)
Cal’s first rule is to do fewer things.
Matt applied this by cutting his newsletter, podcast, shorts, side projects—all gone.
He now focuses almost entirely on long-form YouTube videos.
That’s fantastic… if you already have 4 million subscribers.
But if you’re just starting?
Doing fewer things doesn’t mean you’ll accomplish more.
It means you’ll accomplish nothing.
Here’s why:
Matt can release one video every two weeks and still reach millions.
You, with 100 or 10,000 subscribers, don’t have that luxury.
When you’re starting out, you don’t even know what works yet. You need volume, experimentation, feedback loops.
It’s like real estate.
A top agent like Ryan Serhant can sell one $200M home and live off the commission for a year.
A beginner? He has to grind dozens of smaller sales to survive.
Do fewer things only works once you’ve already found the thing that works.
Work at a Natural Pace (But First, Test Your Limits)
The second principle is to work at a natural pace.
It sounds wise. Sustainable. Balanced.
But here’s the question: how do you know your natural pace if you’ve never pushed past your limits?
For me, I only discovered my rhythm after burning out.
Some people collapse after 6 hours of work. Others can push 12, even 15.
You can’t know until you try.
I once experimented with working only 4 hours a day for a few months.
Surprisingly, I got the same results with less work—and I had time for family and training.
But I burned out anyway. Not from work, but from free time. I wanted to fill it, to push again.
That’s why in the beginning, sacrifice is part of the game.
You may not balance business, family, and health perfectly at first.
You’ll give up weekends, comfort, sometimes even sleep.
Later, yes—slow down. Reclaim your balance. Work sustainably.
But at the start, you need fire before you can earn slow.
Obsess Over Quality (Without Falling Into Perfectionism)
The third principle is to obsess over quality.
Matt argues that instead of chasing volume, creators should focus on making fewer but better pieces of work.
And now, he can afford to.
But rewind to his early days—he was pumping out content.
That volume was what gave him the skill, the audience, the leverage to eventually slow down.
Here’s the danger for beginners: obsession with quality can turn into perfectionism.
I know because I’ve lived it.
I usually spend a full week trying to film one Instagram reel.
I'm moving forward—I'm stuck trying to make it “perfect.”
In fact, videos that I made in two days or only one get more views than those.
And that’s the trap.
If you avoid publishing because it’s not good enough, you never learn how to make it better.
At the start, “good enough” is good enough.
Consistency builds skill.
Skill builds quality.
Only after you’ve put in the reps does true obsession with quality pay off.
What Productivity Really Means
Matt’s video is excellent. His points are true.
But advice depends on timing.
Slow productivity works once you’ve earned it.
At the start, you need volume and sacrifice.
Later, you can slow down and refine.
So watch his video, but watch it critically.
Ask yourself: “Is this advice for where I am, or for where I want to be?”
Because productivity isn’t about working less or more.
It’s about working on the right things, at the right time.
Talking about productivity, Matt struggled to define it at the beginning of the video.
But I will:
Productivity is getting things done that actually move your life forward.
And the Second Brain 6.0 system will help you achieve that in a short time.
Like, see how I completed 728 tasks in 8 months, and because I'm not perfect, I missed 51 :)
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Thank you for reading
Osama aka Ols
