What we're doing less of #4 - worrying about productivity
“Fitter, happier, more productive.” Radiohead
If you search on the term “productivity” on the Harvard Business Review website there are 1,621 articles returned. On the site Lifehacker (tagline: “do everything better”), there are 3,643. Clearly productivity is a thing. So why do I feel so out of step?
For a long time I bought into the productivity culture. Perhaps I saw it as a way to succeed. Perhaps it actually was. Generating more output than my peers became a way to move past them. But the last few years, it has seemed less interesting, that there’s way more to life than producing.
One thing, when you’re producing, you’re not reflecting, or wondering, or imagining. Those things take time and mental bandwidth - both of these are at a premium when you’re racing to get stuff done. I’ve made a concerted effort, even though I still have a demanding job, not to let it take up all that bandwidth, and to contain the time I spend on it. I am not getting feedback that I am not “stepping up” or otherwise doing my job. Quite the opposite.
Take a few minutes and think on that.
Postscript on productivity: I recently read an arresting blog post on productivity’s corollary - multitasking - from the writer Ted Gioia. The title alone grabbed me and the content didn’t disappoint. I recommend it to you as well: "Multitasking Isn't Progress—It's What Wild Animals Do for Survival."