Productivity ≠ Self Worth
'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller
Societally, we venerate productivity. Or at least a flattened version of it.
Amanda Mull, staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote recently, “Americans invest personal productivity with moral weight, as though human worth can be divined through careful examination of work product, both professional and personal…Are you doing enough to hold on to your job? To improve your marriage? To raise well-adjusted kids? To maintain your health? What can you change in order to do more?”
Insistence on poorly defined and measured productivity leads to a multitude of negative effects. In Deep Work, Cal Newport writes, “in the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turned back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.”
Are you being productive, or are you just busy? Close examination of the question can lead to uncomfortable realizations.
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A high-powered lawyer I hold in high regard once shared that when people ask how she's doing, she never includes how busy she is in her response. There has to be more to it than busyness, she argued. She's right.
It's so easy to get caught in a trap of pseudo-productivity. We make ourselves busy, we turn on every notification, we email back immediately, we pack our calendars with meetings and tasks, we load up our to-do lists, all without much intention or self awareness.
And when we miss things, we feel like failures.
How can you put an appropriate amount of distance between how you evaluate your self-worth and the unstoppable reminders of what you are (or are not) getting done?
It starts with recognition that you are more than your to-do list, your job responsibilities, and the measurements of others. You are a whole-ass human with talents, desires, experiences, and qualities that make you who you are. A job is a part of you, and perhaps an important one. But it's still only one part of you.
My working theory is that detaching our constantly evolving self images from one-dimensional markers is a critical step towards actually getting things done. In other words, thinking less about productivity (in the classic sense) is actually a necessary step towards being more productive (in a more holistic sense).
If you are in a vicious cycle of self doubt, a refreshed to-do list isn’t going to magically pull you out of it. Start with honest reflection and take action towards building a healthier view of what it means to be productive. Giving yourself some grace goes a long, long way.
The prolific Adam Grant sums it up nicely: “Productivity isn’t a virtue. It’s a means to an end. It’s only virtuous if the end is worthy.”
Consider what a worthy end looks like for you, and plan accordingly. Yes, it matters how much you "get done" on a regular basis, but it also means living in alignment with your values, embracing your identity, and swimming deftly through the flow of unpredictable life.
Be productive towards your why, and understand that the path to get there is not a straight line.