Happy to have stumbled upon this post Rick. Have you read The Pathless Path?
I'm 48, no longer need to work, and am in a similar phase. I think the test for how you are doing is how you feel about playing a video game or reading fiction during the day. I'm not comfortable yet, and might not ever be. And now I want to make getting comfortable the next "goal" - HA
Guilty as charged on your Invisible Productivity List - love the examples. While not mentioned directly, reading this post made me wonder: What exactly is wasted time?
I now believe that answer is very individual and contextual.
- Example 1: someone may call your extended rest = wasted, but it’s what you need
- Example 2: someone may call your years working hard = not wasted, but it was meaningless and soul sucking to you (and there were better alternatives available)
Both can be deemed wasted or not wasted depending on one’s perspective and needs.
Wow, this one was really useful Rick. I think I’m in the middle of figuring this unproductive stage out … and yet I still think there’s a conclusion, an outcome, to this stage. Is that itself an imposition of productivity culture? I’m not sure.
It’s maybe a little ironic that the form that you’re writing in (the structure and organization of your essay) feels very attuned to the productivity culture. It reads like a productivity article.
You're hitting on a subtle, but important layer I'm trying to get across here...
The big question is: what is really "being productive" anyways?
Is it the conventional "productivity" that our culture endorses?
Or is there a different/broader level of "productivity" that may make our actions seem "unproductive" at times, but in the grand scheme of Life (with a capital L), is really productive?
I'm not trying to redefine productivity as much as poke at it. And you correctly observe that I fool around with the format and words to make things a bit blurry.
Thank you for picking up on what I hoped to communicate!
Great article. Thanks for sharing!
Happy to have stumbled upon this post Rick. Have you read The Pathless Path?
I'm 48, no longer need to work, and am in a similar phase. I think the test for how you are doing is how you feel about playing a video game or reading fiction during the day. I'm not comfortable yet, and might not ever be. And now I want to make getting comfortable the next "goal" - HA
I have read the Pathless Path and recommended to many others! (also part of the Pathless community)
I agree with your comment. Have you seen my piece on being unproductive, where I cover similar ground: https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/p/unproductive
Guilty as charged on your Invisible Productivity List - love the examples. While not mentioned directly, reading this post made me wonder: What exactly is wasted time?
One decent heuristic may be… “on your deathbed, looking back at your life, was XYZ wasted time?”
That takes into better account of the totality of your life, and removes some of the external filters.
I now believe that answer is very individual and contextual.
- Example 1: someone may call your extended rest = wasted, but it’s what you need
- Example 2: someone may call your years working hard = not wasted, but it was meaningless and soul sucking to you (and there were better alternatives available)
Both can be deemed wasted or not wasted depending on one’s perspective and needs.
Wow, this one was really useful Rick. I think I’m in the middle of figuring this unproductive stage out … and yet I still think there’s a conclusion, an outcome, to this stage. Is that itself an imposition of productivity culture? I’m not sure.
It’s maybe a little ironic that the form that you’re writing in (the structure and organization of your essay) feels very attuned to the productivity culture. It reads like a productivity article.
You're hitting on a subtle, but important layer I'm trying to get across here...
The big question is: what is really "being productive" anyways?
Is it the conventional "productivity" that our culture endorses?
Or is there a different/broader level of "productivity" that may make our actions seem "unproductive" at times, but in the grand scheme of Life (with a capital L), is really productive?
I'm not trying to redefine productivity as much as poke at it. And you correctly observe that I fool around with the format and words to make things a bit blurry.
Thank you for picking up on what I hoped to communicate!
PS I'm going to hit on these type of paradoxes again in my next essay on "Ambition."
I’ll keep on reading … it’s fun to see someone else probing at what this experience looks and feels like.
Your journey sounds very familiar, I was obsessed with productivity and now feel more stuck at my current level
Your problem is more common than people talk about… which is why I wrote this piece!
Yeah good point, it's good to feel less alone on it