Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is an American author, consultant, and researcher whose work on the relationship between rest, technology, and productivity has influenced how organizations and individuals think about time, attention, and the conditions under which deep creative and intellectual work happens. He is a senior consultant at Strategic Business Insights and has been a fellow and visiting scholar at institutions including Microsoft Research, Stanford University, and the Oxford Internet Institute.
His 2016 book The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul examined the psychology of digital distraction and proposed practical strategies for achieving what he calls “contemplative computing” — using technology more mindfully and sustainably. His 2016 book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less synthesized research across neuroscience, psychology, and history to argue that deliberate rest — including sleep, naps, walks, and creative hobbies — is not a luxury but an essential condition for sustained intellectual achievement.
His most recent major work, Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less — Here’s How (2020), examines the growing global movement toward four-day work weeks, drawing on case studies from companies in Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, and elsewhere to argue that shorter work weeks increase rather than decrease productivity, employee wellbeing, and organizational effectiveness.
Pang has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and on BBC Radio, and continues to consult with organizations and speak at conferences on the future of work, technology, and human flourishing.
