Do you like the word productivity? You may not have given it much thought, but I have. And I have a declaration to…declare!
Here’s the thing.
The word productivity makes me think of cogs in machines. Of manufacturing and industry. Of faceless people in suits pointing at graphs in boardrooms.
We evaluate and judge ourselves based on our productivity. (It’s not our fault – society has programmed us that way.)
We have expectations about our ‘output’ and we measure ourselves accordingly.
We beat ourselves up. Berate ourselves for not achieving more. We rush, chase, push and fight to keep up.
I don’t like the word ‘productivity’ for all those reasons.
It used to bother me daily, which is a bit of a problem given it’s the thing I write about, talk about and support people with.
Until one day I realised that when I talk about productivity, I mean something very different.
When I talk about productivity I don’t mean pushing to do more in less time.
I mean connecting in with your vision.
Figuring out what’s important.
And getting the important things done with ease, so you can create space for what you love.
When you come at productivity from that angle, things feel less pressured. You can relax, knowing you’re making progress towards the life you want to create for yourself.
My definition of productivity makes it very clear that your worth as a human being has diddly-squat to do with how much you achieve (or don’t achieve).
In the old definition of productivity we keep our heads down. We keep our noses to the grindstone. We keep doing things the way we’ve always done them, in the hope we’ll get ‘there’ at some point.
My way? We raise our heads so we can see where we’re going. We stop to smell the roses. We get curious and find a flow that feels good so we can enjoy the journey now, not when we get to the end of our to-do list.
I’ve made my choice. How about you?
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