There’s work, something top of mind on a given Wednesday, and equivalent to drudgery. And then there’s productivity, that dream you had on Monday, the hope that you’d accomplish goals and arrive at Friday feeling strong and successful. Work is often viewed with dread, while productivity is studied, sought-after, and admired.
Of course, you can’t be productive without putting in some work, and you can’t do work faithfully without being productive at least on some level. Work and productivity are two sides of the same coin.
Our economy and cultural morés lead us to emphasize work, though, and let productivity take care of itself. Many people today would be happy to get a job, any job.
For this Wednesday’s rag, I’m proposing that we take the opposite viewpoint for a while. Instead of obsessing over work – getting it, getting to it, dealing with it, worrying about it, being exhausted from it – what if we turn our attention to productivity?
1. In your journal, make a list of your attitudes toward work on one side of the page and a list of your attitudes toward productivity on the other side.
2. Now make a quick map, timeline, or list of your life as a series of productive events. Include the past, present, and future: this is, think about the past as well as what productivity is yet in store for you before you go to meet your maker.
3. Finally, write a plan for tomorrow that is focused entirely on being productive. That means, instead of planning to go to work, plan how you will use time all day long with the intention of being more productive.
Here’s the catch: in order to change your mindset this way, you have to focus on productivity goals that are intimately yours. Trying to be productive for the boss’s sake or to please your spouse won’t work over the long term. Pick productivity goals that have to do with your personal desires and ambitions.
You still have to go to work, probably. If your personal productivity goal is to eat better, for example, or to be less negative, or to have a cleaner house that doesn’t mean you get to quit your job. Ask your journal how to synthesize your work with your personal productivity dreams. It has solutions for you.
I’m thinking that if we start viewing our situation from the standpoint of personal productivity, supported by journaling, we never need be slaves to work again. Maybe even mid-week blahs will disappear!
For lots more on this same subject, please see my ebook, Do What You Love, with a seven-day series of exercises designed to shine the light on your special personal gifts.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/barockschloss/3885937227/
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