This is a summary of what we covered in the 5-part Anti-Productivity Manifesto
(If you just landed here… here is part 1 – Virtual Reality)
Time Enrichment is the key to a life well-lived
Don’t get taken by the Dark Side
What you want from Productivity:
- To make the most of your day
- Create space to do the things you want
- Have something meaningful to show from your hours
But what you get from Productivity = a dangerous preoccupation.
- Trying to fit in as much as possible in denial of a day’s limited hours
- Feeling like you can never do enough
- Forgetting to stop and enjoy the moment and feel grateful for what you have right now
The concept of productivity ENCOURAGES preoccupation.
Because you’re focused on scarcity – the limited hours into which you’re trying to cram infinite tasks.
And you forget a simple fact:
Producing MORE does not equate to life enhancement.
Engaging in MEANINGFUL work does.
What’s more – something’s been omitted from the conversation:
We need time to rest and relax.
Without recovery we can’t perform.
Athletes at the highest level optimise more for recovery than for training – it’s the biggest factor in performance.
Productivity = hustle, grind, keep going – don’t stop to smell the roses
How can you constantly do more things and add more overwhelm to your plate?
This attitude rockets you towards burnout.
Fixating on productivity is drawing on the dark side of the force.
It’s the evil little rush of feeling in control.
Of being able to run from your anxiety.
Of clinging to certainty.
The light side of the force is to make your time rich…
How Time Enrichment is different
We have the wrong word.
We don’t want to produce more just for the sake of it.
We’re not machines, nor would we be very satisfied if we were.
We’re seeking a deep sense of quality from the hours that we have.
We want to use our time in the most enriching way possible.
To BE fully present in the moment,
while within that moment we DO the things that are important to us.
We need to balance this interplay of DOING and BEING.
Life can only be experienced in the present moment – here and now.
It’s the only time you can DO anything.
When we’re distracted – instead of focused on what we’re doing – we’re ineffective.
Focusing on the thing we’re DOING requires BEING in the moment.
So doing springs from being.
Yet we get pulled away from this.
Lost in a deadly distortion called ‘preoccupation’.
Preoccupation is living in the past or the future:
Obsessing over mistakes we once made…
Or planning and endlessly over-analysing a future that hasn’t arrived.
Preoccupation is a state of worry, anxiety, or overwhelm.
It kills the magic because it removes us from life.
It is generally agreed that no activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied…since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply…Living is the least important activity of the preoccupied man.
Seneca
TIME ENRICHMENT =
- We move towards Satisfaction We put our time into the service of something that’s truly fulfilling us (even though it often feels inefficient to do so)
- We decide our Destiny We make a choice about what we do. We take control by detaching ourselves from the temptations of the internet, phone notifications, and the demands of other people (stay on the trail tracking your satisfaction don’t get lost in the thicket)
- Priority guides our Path We see through the noise and continuously ask – what is the most important thing now? (rather than ticking off meaningless to-dos for the sake of ‘producing more’)
- We act from Here and Now We inhabit the present moment so that we are brought IN to life (rather than withdrawing from life through preoccupation or distraction)
Time Enrichment
Throw ‘productivity’ out the window.
You’re not a machine.
Don’t abdicate your satisfaction.
Instead…
Aim for ‘Time Enrichment’
Productivity = producing more in less time like a machine
Time enrichment = Make the most of your one precious life by engaging with the time you have
Feel the appreciation for every invaluable moment you’ve been blessed with –
while also advancing boldly towards your potential.
Time enrichment frees us from the shackles of preoccupation.
We participate in our lives instead of being locked in endless thought spirals.
Time enrichment leads to true fulfilment because it allows US to steer the ship to create the life that we want to live.
Not society, not notifications, not the internet.
We captain our own ship.
