First, let’s look at the etymology of the word “Productive”. Originating from the 1600s, the medieval Latin term ‘productivus’ means “fit for production”. The word itself is associated with the effectiveness/ability to produce something, especially in large amounts.
A lot of us end up complaining to our loved ones, or even to ourselves, about how we’ve not been “productive” during our day or we find ourselves thinking about how much work we've done at the end of our working hours. Where does this come from? What leads us to think of this? It may come from the unrealistic goals we set for ourselves or the negative thought patterns of how we are not good enough. But the primary question here is, on what basis are we setting this bar in the first place? The answer most often, to that, is ‘when we weigh our worth in terms of the work that we do.’
Most of us working for companies and corporates are probably familiar with this concept of productivity too well. The problem doesn’t seem to be with ‘productivity’ in itself but how we have let it traverse into our personal lives. It seems to be the thing which dictates most of our behavior, every day. We start to really stretch ourselves thin/pressurize ourselves and set deadlines and criteria that we ought to meet, in order to feel good and feel worthy. Don’t you feel that this is unhealthy? An example of this is a market research conducted on the sales of daily diaries (yes, the ones we write our feelings in), which depicted an increase in the 1900s with the introduction of ‘to-do lists’ for the perfectly targeted, tightly scheduled population. Now, we aren’t saying that making a list is unhealthy, but gauging our own value based on how many ‘ticks’ we have at the end of the day, can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining. We are all much more than the physical work that we do. Our thoughts, our emotions, our skills, our breath, are all a part of us. It is important to acknowledge these as valuable treasures of ourselves and embrace them by giving ourselves the permission to spend time with them.
Reading, journaling, moving, cooking, playing sports, creating art or even just lying on your bed to take some time off IS productive, because you are responding to not just your physical needs, but also attending to your emotional and mental needs. Productivity isn’t just about how much you do, but it’s also about what you choose to not do, in order to take care of yourself and your own needs.
The take away from this is that, it is up to us to try and not make ‘being productive physically’ the only goal of our lives, even though our system is designed that way and we tend to fall back into the rat race. Once we are able to identify these patterns in our lives and find ourselves striving to meet these unrealistic standards, can we work towards disengaging from them and/or modifying them. Let’s try to allow ourselves to be in the present moment and take things at our own pace, bringing us closer to finding our happiness instead of driving ourselves away from it.
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Love and Light!
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