The word productive is defined as ‘resulting in or providing a large amount or supply of something’ and the word productivity indicates the state of being productive. While one could just write off these definitions, I thought about how we would typically use these words: we can use them to describe the yield of the land, how good the output of a machine is, or how much work we humans do. And it seems odd that the word is applicable in all situations. Particularly, it seems unfair that we would use the same word to describe the sort of yield a human and machine produce. The use of the word in both instances perpetuates the idea that a human should provide something just as much or just as accurate as a machine. This is an absolutely unfair task and yet, society demands it to be done. Having grown up in this pressurising climate, we seek this high yield from ourselves as well. The moment we don’t match the goals of output that we impose on ourselves, we become disappointed, self-deprecating and even lose self esteem, leading to a never-ending vicious cycle of work and no play.
As a society, we have become obsessed with the idea of productivity. It’s not just something everyone is doing, it is something everyone is also posting about, boasting about. Running on coffee with a few to no hours of sleep, never stopping to give yourself a breather, continuing to work outside of working hours and lifestyles along these lines are applauded. It has become romanticised to be busy. You are led to believe that if you’re not functioning the same way, then you’re going at life wrong and you won’t be able to buy your house by the age of 20. Well, so what? While one could look at that as the loss, perhaps the bigger loss is living life this way and not experiencing the beauty of life we happen to live.
I had never paid for an app before until I bought what is known as The Forest app, back when I was 17 years old. With my finals around the corner, The Forest app was a crucial part of my quest to do better than my best in my high school exams. We live in extremely distracting times. With the world’s information at our fingertips, staying off our phones for extended periods of time becomes near impossible. The Forest app was marketed to me as a fun way to stay off my phone and be productive. You “plant a tree” on the app and if you were to leave the app during this course of time, the tree dies, and somehow that motivated me to stay off my phone and make more use of my time, i.e., be more productive. While I still use this app for more mindful use of my time, I think about all the times I pushed myself to go on for hours off the phone just to plant a few more trees in the quest to be productive, resulting in me becoming disconnected from family and friends. I thought that it would reward me with the grades or productive yield I seek. It is only recently that I have come to an epiphany of how the idea of productivity was really commercialised and sold to me. It‘s not just The Forest app that’s marketing this idea of productivity, it’s hundreds and thousands of journaling, note-making, to-do list and calendar apps that pitch a way to be the most efficient and the most productive. It is simple to think that these apps are making you productive, but really, you’re just adding on to the churn of the capitalistic wheel that is creating this desire and pressure to be productive. And we don’t seem to give this narrative and vicious cycle a second thought.
It is imperative to remember that a productive day looks different for everyone. Everyone works on a different timeline, someone finishing a task earlier or getting to a certain point in their life earlier, say moving abroad or starting a family, does not mean you’re behind. It is so easy to lose sight of your own path in the midst of all the Instagram stories and LinkedIn success posts we sometimes cannot avoid. We forget that people usually post the stars and rainbows online and more often than not we avoid talking about all the failures we went through in order to get to the stars and rainbows. While an engineer would look out for the fastest and most efficient way to solve a problem, an author would probably not, and probably should not, be writing a novel in the same amount of time. But to each profession, their success is their own even though the timelines it took to get there are so different.
In the quest for making the most out of our time, we forget to enjoy the process and just simply be proud of ourselves. We are our own bullies and it’s a shame that we push ourselves into a rat race that romanticises an unhealthy lifestyle. Taking a break is so important, but a break where you’re guilt tripping yourself into a “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” is not a break. Who are we trying to be productive for? Is it more for us or more for what’s expected of us? What does not being productive mean? Perhaps a happier life. One where we take things at our own pace, be more present in the moment and savour all that life has to offer.