“There is a massive potential productivity currently latent in the knowledge sector,” declares Cal Newport, “[…] The right answer is unlikely to involve checking email [and instant messaging applications] once every six minutes.”

The author resumes where Deep Work stopped. If staying focused during long hours seems appealing but not directly applicable to your job, this new book will convince you that you are surely wrong; and that there is still hope to make work productive, and enjoyable, again.

A World Without Email is not perfect. I find the first part (the “why”) more persuasive than the second (the “how”). The book doesn’t reasonably contain all the answers. But it has the potential to ignite change. We need to reinvent a culture where ignoring Slack doesn’t mean that you are slacking off. A culture where technology will be used to produce work, and not make us busy. A culture where we end every day with the satisfaction of a productive day, and stop feeling depressed by having more and more work to complete.

“A world without email is not a step backward but a step forward into an exciting technological future we’re only just beginning to understand.” There are more and more knowledge workers. Maybe it’s time to unleash our true potential.