HOW I FOUND OUT “MY PRODUCTIVITY” ?
One morning, I woke up to my iphone notification. A screen popped open and I saw a report of my week long productivity. It displayed my screen time and categorized my usage neatly. On an average , each day, it declared, I was fruitful for barely a few minutes. And shamefully, that number was lower than the previous week.
I was surprised and anxious with this new discovery. I wondered what it meant and if I needed to improve my “productivity”? I turned to google to solve my worry. The search returned a gazillion results and I was amazed that the topic garnered such popularity.
AND THEN I DISCOVERED THE CHASE OF PRODUCTIVITY
Over the next few days, I received Linkedin feeds with tips to increase daily productivity. Good reads recommended self help books and Youtube suggested “Efficiency tips for all activities”. I felt chased by this whole new industry that was thriving out there and feeding on my worry. The need to be productive was packaged and marketed with several success stories. It was hard to question this need when everyone offered a solution already.
SO, I SEARCHED THE ROOT OF PRODUCTIVITY
I looked up further and discovered the history. The origin of productivity went back to 18th century. When agriculture couldn’t produce enough surplus, we devised the term -“land productivity”. It measured the yield of crops per hectare land and served an indicator of agricutural output. The idea was simple and implied improving material efficiency.
Then came the industrial evolution and productivity became an indicator of profitability. It measured the units of output produced per input cost. Labour was a cost. And in our bid to increase productivity (& thereby profitability), we started focusing on labour efficiency.
AND HOW IT EVOLVED TO HUMAN PRODUCTIVITY
The need for labour efficiency gave birth to the concept of human productivity. We became result centric and measured all activities in terms of productivity.
Our desperation to be fruitful, narrowed our choices. We pursued all actions that guaranteed an outcome and spent little time in self discovery.
Productivity equals success equals self worth became the idea and we tuned our minds to this assembly line thinking.
AND THEN I STOPPED WORRYING ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY
I decided, I no longer needed to be reminded of my productivity. I couldn’t let an industry thrive on my vulnerability.
I snoozed my iphone reports so my mind wandered free. I felt unburdened and suddenly relieved.
That’s when I started writing my two cents on productivity.
© Copyright 2020. Megha Gupta. All rights reserved.
Comments
19 responses to “My Tale of Productivity”
The never ending quest for Productivity. My phone has been telling me everyday at midnight to switch ZEN mode ON. Neither do I heed to it, nor do I switch it off 🙈
Whoa! I didn’t know about the zen mode feature. Just read about it. Seems like a solid controller. Glad u r able to ignore it!
Wow! Such a wonderful masterpiece. Yes the public relation and media industries have always thrived on our vulnerabilities.
Thank you John! 🙂
love it!!!
Thank you da-AL!
Hey Megha, this is a great read.Productivity during this time is something that I have been struggling with and have a mixed opinion about. I totally agree with the idea of not measuring our self-worth in terms of productivity. I am often guilty of it. But on the other hand, being productive also makes us happy and satisfied. Do you think that maybe we feel the pressure of being productive when we do not enjoy the process? I have realized that when I am doing something that I enjoy, productivity is not even a concern.
Hey Sri, I am glad you recognize the fact that we often end up linking self worth to productivity. I try hard to avoid the mental trap myself. In my personal experience, the pressure to be productive is felt primarily when we start comparing the outcome with others. Strangely, we measure also measure the outcome of our liesure time. It’s then, we forget that we are supposed to live and enjoy the process (of whatever the heck we are doing) without focussing on the outcome! 🙂
Love your post. As contradictory as it may seem, I’ve started to feel more qualitatively productive when I decided to not put so much pressure on myself and have fewer things on my to-do list.
Dear Julian, Thanks for the comment. I really like the term qualitative productivity! 🙂
Great piece! It left me writhing to learn what happened with you! It has anyway provoked me to measure my productivity!
Thanks Charles, I am glad you liked it! I hope the measure of your productivity does not disappoint you. 🙂
Hi, dear Megha,
we suppose the pressure of being productive makes us unproductive. To judge ourselves and others how productive we or they are is alienation.
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Well said Klausbernd! 🙂
Thank you 🙂
🙏🙏
All the best
Klausbernd
Thought provoking and informative. I like the ending.
Thank you Kinge. Glad you like the ending 🙂
Nice blog 💕
Thank you Saania. I’m glad you liked it 🙂