The Anti-Productivity Manifesto Part 2/5
How to let go of your invisible procrastination compulsion and create real momentum in your life.
(Read part 1 here… Virtual Reality)
“Everyday I’m hustlin’”
But have you asked why?
The way to get what you want in life is to step forward towards it
Obvious right?
But it’s not what we do
Instead we try and get ‘productive’
– and we take a step backwards
We end up further away from our goal and we can’t figure out what’s going wrong:
‘Productivity’ is leading us down a dark path in the wrong direction…
Productivity – What’s the aim of the game?
But hold that thought, first let’s look under the hood:
All of this obsession over Productivity –
What’s underneath it?
Yes, we want to make more money, get fighting fit, and still have time for our friends.
That’s the simple way to look at it.
Yet underlying that is something else…
Be the Creator of your Life
We have a desire to create our own life.
If you think about ’your dream life’- that’s what it is right?
A life you create, on your own terms.
People aspire to be rich
Why?
Because they can do whatever they want with their time
That’s the main the main thing money buys – choice
Yet the savvy know what money doesn’t buy:
The ability to use your time in a meaningful way
You can be money-rich and still stuck in a rut:
- Not growing as a person or learning anything
- Flitting around and wasting time
- Living a lavish lifestyle but not enjoying life
It’s wielding your time well that makes you captain of your own ship.
Otherwise you’re tossed among the rocks in a stormy sea:
Your life is dictated by other people’s demands
or by the hand of tech companies assaulting you with addictive content
Or you’re just sailing around in circles:
Distracted by your own superficial whims or compulsions that don’t lead anywhere
Not having a focus for what you want to do so you’re split between 57 pursuits
We all want to DO things with our life.
Things that we CHOOSE to do – play guitar, speak a foreign language, run a marathon etc
Yet it’s easy to get stuck in doing things OTHERS decide we should do – browse social media, watch netflix etc
The majority of people that spend too much of their time distracted by these things would (theoretically) rather be confronting challenges in their life and being ‘productive’ (at least the productivity-focused people reading this).
It’s why new year’s resolutions are so universal.
People want a transformation that will lead to the ‘good life’ they’ve conceived in their minds.
That’s what creating your life is…
And why do we want this transformation?
Strive for Self-Actualisation
Self-actualisation | ˌsɛlfˌak(t)ʃʊəlʌɪˈzeɪʃn | (British) noun
the realization or fulfilment of one’s talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.
We have a natural drive to move up Maslow’s hierarchy.
At the bottom we’re pouring all our time into scrambling for food and shelter.
At the top we’re pulled by vision and purpose and making the best of ourselves and our lives.
Moving up the hierarchy is an in-built desire.
We all want to pursue self-actualisation at the top –
“What does our potential look like?”
This is why we get engrossed in movies:
The character arc is a self-actualisation journey of the protagonist.
We go through it virtually by following along.
We all crave this.
Growing as a person. Stepping up to challenges. Learning new skills.
We yearn for it because it gives us meaning.
But often we don’t get to let our talents blossom.
We end up stuck on the lower rungs of Maslow’s hierarchy because we can’t wield our time well.
Either we have no time to spare or our spare time gets lost to distraction.
If you have spare time but you’re indecisive with it then you can’t get deep into any pursuit.
This encourages resorting to easy outs like watching netflix because there’s no good habits or structure to fall back on.
Or maybe you don’t have spare time because you spend many hours stuck at a low-paying job (that’s not teaching you new skills)
This also holds you back from exploring your talents.
Either way it feels like you’re on a treadmill and days are slipping away.
Your life doesn’t have the forward momentum to progress your story.
And it feels like you’re going to be stuck that way forever.
So you fantasise about productivity as a way to escape your situation:
a) Stop wasting your spare time and do something meaningful with it
b) Get more efficient at work – get paid more, get more done, get a new job etc – to open up more time or opportunities in life.
So underneath this pilgrimage to productivity is the quest for quality of life and satisfaction.
But… that’s not the result.
Productivity tips are a trap that keep you jammed in the same place.
The worst part is – you feel like you’re making progress…
But in reality you’re floundering because you’re focused on the wrong thing
You think you’ll find some magic bullet to make everything in your life fall into place.
Just like New Years’ Resolutions… we expect them just to ‘fall into place’.
But that’s not what happens is it?
To move forward with your story
You need to come at it from a whole new perspective…
This is part 2 of the 5-part Anti-Productivity Manifesto.
How to let go of your invisible procrastination compulsion and create real momentum in your life.
Read part 3 here…
Dark Force