On Productivity

This cult of productivity is inextricably linked to work, or more specifically, a certain kind of work—the work of people like you and me whose jobs mostly involve looking at the internet. In this context, it makes sense—productivity breeds success and productive people become successful people. Except that, mostly, isn’t true. In my experience, our industry (the vague “I work in digital”) rewards people who work a lot of hours with little consideration for what’s done with all that time. Years ago, I worked with a guy who was always the last one to leave the office. He worked all the goddamn time. It wasn’t until years later some of us realized his giant yeti-paw hands made him the slowest typer we’d ever seen. He was anti-productive, but again, always stayed late. Today he’s a VP somewhere. Now, I just made about 50% of that story up, but that means the other half of it is entirely true—namely the bit about the people who work a lot getting the promotions. As the saying goes: “Work expands to fill time.” This is a universal truth, but if you want to get ahead in your career, you’ll still need to put in 16-hour days.

Maybe you keep a Bullet Journal to help you manage your workload a little better. That’s fine. But like any good cult, this one often becomes a pathology. When you are a Productivity Person, being busy is no longer the problem, but the goal. True productivity cultists make lists simply so that they can complete those lists, which is both batshit crazy and a sign that their lives might be lacking something. You can always spot a truly fulfilled person by their willingness to lounge in bed until only hunger or a strong urge to piss drags them into the day. That’s not laziness, it’s contentedness.

Now, it’s not really your fault if you feel compelled to get out of bed at 5 A.M. so you can reflect in your journal, update the family Trello board, and get in your 7-minute workout. You are a product of what Marshall McLuhan called our “age of anxiety.” You live in a world filled with distractions. Hell, your job probably involves building apps that create distractions for other people. You’re a victim who got their wires crossed and their priorities fucked just by living in a world where Twitter is a thing. Here’s some truth: being productive won’t make you a better person, it’ll just make you a busier one—and probably an unhappy one. If productivity is filling the hole in your life usually reserved for religion or alcohol or fantasy baseball, then maybe add “Reevaluate Decision-Making Paradigm” to your Apple Reminders, because the solution to “Man, I need to stop procrastinating and get this thing done” isn’t “Let’s bleed usefulness out of every waking second and, you know what, fuck it, I’m going to start listening to podcasts in my sleep!”