"Activity is not productivity."

I came across this article from the Globe and Mail and it really made me pause and reflect… (In case you are a non-G&M subscriber, the article shares about Cal Newport’s book, Slow Productivity)

I digress.

How often do I use activity as a measure of my productivity, or even further, as my worth as a human being?
How often do you use activity as a measure of your productivity, your self-worth?
How often do you use activity as a measure of someone else’s productivity, someone else’s self-worth?

I remember reading in The Subtle Art of Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson, he talks about the Self-Awareness Onion and asks, “How am I choosing to measure myself? By what standard am I judging myself and everyone around me?” I don’t imagine I am in the minority when I say that productivity is very high on this list.

Why this matters
Metrics are how I assess my progress toward a certain value/goal. By what standard am I judging/assessing myself? If productivity is my value, measurable by checkmark-able activities, is there anything I am missing? What does this “frenetic” activity really achieve?

Georgetown University computer science professor and productivity writer Cal Newport advocates in his book, Slow Productivity, for a different way - “Languid Intentionality”:
- Do fewer things
- Work at a natural pace
- Obsess over quality

How often have I rushed a process in a frenzied determination to reach the destination, the “ultimate goal” until it is reached and replaced with the next destination, the next “ultimate goal”.

Yet, we know that self-work cannot be rushed. Inner process cannot be rushed. Love cannot be rushed.

May we honour the internal climate of our hearts and minds, and in turn, honour that in those around us.

”Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” - Lao Tzu