I Am Not a Productivity Machine
Getting things done. Making it better every time. Achieving goals. Doing more in less time. Finishing every item on your to-do list to make room for… for what?
Full disclosure: I love productivity content. I enjoy learning about other people’s systems for managing their to-dos, organizing their calendars, and keeping their chore lists neat and tidy. Why do I love that? I guess it's partly because I genuinely enjoy it and partly because it’s a great way to procrastinate on my actual tasks. (I don’t have the perfect system yet! I must reorganize everything in this new app!)
While I do love productivity content, I think it often misses a crucial part of the bigger picture: why do we want to be productive? Productivity itself is not a goal, just as “I want to be rich” is not a goal. Why do you want to be rich? What would you do if you had more money? Similarly, what would you do with your free time if you were more productive?
The (fun or not-so-fun) discussion about being more productive must be paired with the (hopefully fun) discussion of what we want to do with our free time. What are the things you want to do but can’t find time for? Without answering this question, we are nothing more than productivity machines.