Productivity

A lot of us won't admit it, but there is a point during almost every work day, when we know for a fact that we will do nothing at all productive for the remainder of the day.  Sometimes there is no reason behind this, it just happens and we have to ride it out. 

Sometimes I don't even have to be at work and I will still find myself up against this conundrum.  For instance, I tell myself I'm going to sit on the couch and watch the remainder of a TV show.  This leads into sitting through another show, and another, until I look at the clock and decide it's too late in the day to start any other projects and I resign myself to sloth-like status for the remainder of the evening.   I'm not exactly proud of these moments, but I'm only human and they happen to everyone.

It is entirely my nature to be a productive person.  I don't feel truly at ease unless I have about five different projects happening simultaneously, and five more waiting on the back burner.  Usually when I get home from work my first move is not to sit down and relax but to do the dishes, walk the dogs, sort through the mail, anything to make me feel like I am being productive.

Ahhhh, productive.  How we love to throw that word around.  Doesn't it just elicit warm, happy feelings?  Doesn't it just completely reaffirm your self-worth?  Case and point: if you are being productive you are not being lazy, and if you are not being lazy you are not a worthless human being.  Yes, I would say that's an instant mood booster.

Of course, it isn't enough to just be productive at work.  Most of us will try to continue the trend into our non-work lives as well.  We pack our weekends with an endless list of To-Do items, we try to think of every little possible thing we have been putting off and decide that this is the weekend it's all going to get done.  We say this on a Friday, and when Sunday rolls around we think, "Well, guess I'll get to that next weekend."

Maybe not everyone faces this dilemma, but I for one feel strange when I am not being productive.  I find it hard to sit still, hard to turn my mind off and focus, hard to just.....relax.  

I fear I may suffer from over-productivity. 


Where does this obsession come from?  Is it a cultural thing?  A genetic thing?  Or do some of us just get a natural high from checking things off a list? 


A couple posts back I wrote about time, and the feeling I constantly have that there just isn't enough time in any given day to do all the things I want to do.  Perhaps these two feelings are connected.  If I am being overly productive, I am in a sense in a race against time.  I am getting things done even with limited hours, even with the clock bearing down on me and ultimately forcing me to call it quits.  Is this normal.....or slightly disturbing?


Whatever the case may be, I honestly feel that To-Do list or not, sometimes it's better if we allow ourselves the freedom to be unproductive.  To just be.  


For some us, being able to do that might be the best productivity of all.