The Productivity Beast

Peggy Marco via Pixabay

One night last week, I went to bed feeling "out of sorts" as my dad says. It had been a good day -- a productive day. I'd revamped the small closet in our bedroom so that it was uncluttered (for the first time in longer than I can remember) and more accessible. I'd spent over an hour on a writing project I'd been avoiding and I'd had a Zoom call with a group of old friends. Why did I feel so...off?

Upon reflection, it occurred to me that although I'd checked a lot of things off my list and I'd even socialized, I'd moved parallel to my family in the process. It was an everyone-doing-their-own-thing kind of day and, on that particular day, it bothered me.

So, the next morning, I chose a word to represent the new day -- something to keep in the the forefront of my mind. I'd seen people do this on January 1 for the coming year, but I'd always avoided it because a single word seemed so small to capture 365 days. But that morning, it seemed perfect. My word?

Connect.

What I meant at the outset was to connect to family -- to those closest to me both physically and emotionally. But, as the day wore on, my chosen word in the forefront of my mind, I found other examples. Texting a friend. Connecting my iPad to the newest software so it would stop flashing notifications at me every time I picked it up. Connecting online through blog posts, event planning and my Facebook page. Playing Words with Friends with friends I can't currently see in the real world. These things, if not done carefully, could quickly overrun the true intent behind my choice. Sprinkled in throughout the day, however, they could enhance it, weaving relationships of all kinds into the fabric of my day in a way I hadn't really thought about.

A funny thing happened on this day that wasn't dramatically different from many other days: I got a lot done. I'd gotten a lot done the day before, too, but it had left me feeling out of sorts, I'd been driven to accomplish, and accomplish I had but, at the end of the day, all I could see was what remained to be done.

Productivity is a hungry beast. Rarely satisfied with what we feed it, whether it's a major project or a succession of items from a to-do list, it always wants more. It's a bit of a bully, too, insisting on its way, lurking in the corners of our minds, ready to tear us down it we don't meet its impossible standards.

Our desire to accomplish, achieve, and thrive works in concert with the productivity beast. Dangling "more" and "better" before us like a carrot and threatening us with the stick of labels like "lazy," it pairs up with productivity to drive our fears of amounting to nothing if we opt for an apple instead of the carrot. Together with the productivity beast, it is quick to remind us not of what we've accomplished, but what still remains to be done.

geralt via Pixabay

When these two pair up, we can forget that we're in charge. We can forget that a daily dose of carrots, while good for us, isn't enough. Sometimes, we want an apple or a cookie or a T-bone steak and, when we indulge these desires and broaden our options, we can indeed grow stronger and -- ironically -- more productive and accomplished.

We can even thrive.

I've read many times that each of us gets the same 24 hours every day and our happiness and success depend on how we spend those 24 hours.

How will you spend yours?

What word will define you today?