Why looking like a busy little very important squirrel isn’t going to save the universe.
Out of all the concepts that live a lonely existence of being completely, utterly misunderstood in today’s society, I have one favorite. It’s a word loved, hated and feared by companies, politicians and individuals alike: productivity. Now what on earth is it, really?
Don't worry, I am not talking about the typical news media laziness in using the concept mathematically accurately (that topic is a story of its own – but let’s not get confused here). I am talking about the way in which we as individuals define the productivity of our actions - and kid ourselves every single day. And how the little groups we form, like companies and associations, kid themselves, too. And how that actually does matter.
Most of us skip the philosophy and semantics of productivity and take care of the little bastard by defining a way in which we feel productive. In a world overly appreciative of rational thinkers, I have seldom run into a concept as widely treated as feeling-based as productivity. You don’t agree? Think about large companies and their struggles today. They may be totally lost with how to boost their productivity, and look around in an office full of half-asleep people due to so many factors (lack of motivation / sense of direction / skills / speed / smarts / incentives), and feel so powerless that they give up on the analysis. Some organizations do try hard to tackle the problem, which of course is a great step out of the ignorance. However, often that analysis and hence its conclusions fail to be truly effective due to the restrictiveness of the solution space: If we rule out things like motivation, sense of purpose and individual flourishing as huffy-fluffy ambiguous distraction, and instead give the problem cheap explanations (like “Shirley is sleeping on her desk because she’s lazy and getting old” or “John is running around like a crazy squirrel, so he must be productive!”), we do not give our efforts a chance to succeed.
Now, one can define “productive action” in a few different ways, depending not only on underlying values, but also on the resilience given to exploring this concept.
Possible definitions include:
It is quite easy to do something productive as defined in definition 1 - just don't slack on the couch all day. It is also relatively easy when using the second definition - at least as long as you have a job or can generate one for yourself. The game gets really interesting only after you enter the third definition. This is due to the facts that A) many people do not know what they aim at, B) many people seem to think it is okay not to know what they aim at, C) only few people really are curious towards what we do, why we do it – and what could thus drive us to be better as an organization, a local society, a global society, a universe.
Now, my education in engineering was not entirely just Finnish tax payers’ money down the drain. I have a great tendency to squeeze stuff into equations, to make them look more scientific. With productivity, I argue that all of us have an implicit or explicit personal equation for it, which we use for allocating our energy between numerous competing objects (iPhone, work calendar, reading a book your friend gave you, actually doing your work, talking about your work with your colleagues, sleeping, ...) around us.
My equation used to be something like this:
Out of all the concepts that live a lonely existence of being completely, utterly misunderstood in today’s society, I have one favorite. It’s a word loved, hated and feared by companies, politicians and individuals alike: productivity. Now what on earth is it, really?
Don't worry, I am not talking about the typical news media laziness in using the concept mathematically accurately (that topic is a story of its own – but let’s not get confused here). I am talking about the way in which we as individuals define the productivity of our actions - and kid ourselves every single day. And how the little groups we form, like companies and associations, kid themselves, too. And how that actually does matter.
Most of us skip the philosophy and semantics of productivity and take care of the little bastard by defining a way in which we feel productive. In a world overly appreciative of rational thinkers, I have seldom run into a concept as widely treated as feeling-based as productivity. You don’t agree? Think about large companies and their struggles today. They may be totally lost with how to boost their productivity, and look around in an office full of half-asleep people due to so many factors (lack of motivation / sense of direction / skills / speed / smarts / incentives), and feel so powerless that they give up on the analysis. Some organizations do try hard to tackle the problem, which of course is a great step out of the ignorance. However, often that analysis and hence its conclusions fail to be truly effective due to the restrictiveness of the solution space: If we rule out things like motivation, sense of purpose and individual flourishing as huffy-fluffy ambiguous distraction, and instead give the problem cheap explanations (like “Shirley is sleeping on her desk because she’s lazy and getting old” or “John is running around like a crazy squirrel, so he must be productive!”), we do not give our efforts a chance to succeed.
Now, one can define “productive action” in a few different ways, depending not only on underlying values, but also on the resilience given to exploring this concept.
Possible definitions include:
- Doing something (as opposed to being idle)
- Doing something that someone pays you to do (common definition used unconsciously in everyday discourse, as well as the underlying assumption in traditional thinking of productivity in economics)
- Doing something which takes you closer to your real priorities
It is quite easy to do something productive as defined in definition 1 - just don't slack on the couch all day. It is also relatively easy when using the second definition - at least as long as you have a job or can generate one for yourself. The game gets really interesting only after you enter the third definition. This is due to the facts that A) many people do not know what they aim at, B) many people seem to think it is okay not to know what they aim at, C) only few people really are curious towards what we do, why we do it – and what could thus drive us to be better as an organization, a local society, a global society, a universe.
Now, my education in engineering was not entirely just Finnish tax payers’ money down the drain. I have a great tendency to squeeze stuff into equations, to make them look more scientific. With productivity, I argue that all of us have an implicit or explicit personal equation for it, which we use for allocating our energy between numerous competing objects (iPhone, work calendar, reading a book your friend gave you, actually doing your work, talking about your work with your colleagues, sleeping, ...) around us.
My equation used to be something like this:
I bet you can spot multiple problems in my former equation. For me, there were two that eventually led me to ditch it:
The reason for using very bad, downright dysfunctional and illogical equations in our lives is – well, human. It is simply because: we don't have a better one. And why do we not know of a better one? Because we have not answered to our priority 1 question in life: What should I as a free, capable and loving human being do with all that has been given to me on this planet? Now, that question can be a real bitch. Mainly for one reason: no one can answer it for you.
I don't mean to be harsh, but let's face it: We are quite lazy when it comes to answering that most important question in our lives (What actions should I take within this lifetime, that branch out from my immediate survival, well-being and convenience?). We hope someone else would provide an answer for us, and at the same time conveniently give us an insurance against the plan backfiring right in our faces. (Also, the society as we have designed it today does not exactly support embarking on the journey of really answering that question. We are constantly lured to skip the question and find a short-cut through catching that great place to study, awesome job that no one else can get, beautiful partner that will lift us up and make us happy, etc.)
For me, a concrete outcome from answering the question what should I do with all that I have been given has been an Excel file (once a consultant, always a consultant!) and a firm commitment to it. The file has in it all the things I want to change in this world, their order of priority, their sensible timing given that I am only one 29-year-old woman with two hands and one brain. The commitment is my most sincere, most solemn vow to dedicate my energy to the things I really value – and do it consciously, not just drift along the river of life as a passive observer.
As you may have guessed, I no longer use my old equation. My new equation is:
- Any random outcome (even if it made someone else satisfied and/or happy, looked good on my CV or even earned me money) did not fulfill my need for meaning, which inconveniently lies behind my existence.
- "Time needed" did not take into account all the energy I borrowed from my days to come, as time is not a very good measure for holistic effort. I was not living as an energy-neutral human being, at all. Quite the opposite, I was systematically using up all the energy I could possibly generate / borrow / steal from other activities. Thus, the divider “time needed to produce the outcome” became a very unreliable downstairs neighbour.
- (The equation made me miserable.)
The reason for using very bad, downright dysfunctional and illogical equations in our lives is – well, human. It is simply because: we don't have a better one. And why do we not know of a better one? Because we have not answered to our priority 1 question in life: What should I as a free, capable and loving human being do with all that has been given to me on this planet? Now, that question can be a real bitch. Mainly for one reason: no one can answer it for you.
I don't mean to be harsh, but let's face it: We are quite lazy when it comes to answering that most important question in our lives (What actions should I take within this lifetime, that branch out from my immediate survival, well-being and convenience?). We hope someone else would provide an answer for us, and at the same time conveniently give us an insurance against the plan backfiring right in our faces. (Also, the society as we have designed it today does not exactly support embarking on the journey of really answering that question. We are constantly lured to skip the question and find a short-cut through catching that great place to study, awesome job that no one else can get, beautiful partner that will lift us up and make us happy, etc.)
For me, a concrete outcome from answering the question what should I do with all that I have been given has been an Excel file (once a consultant, always a consultant!) and a firm commitment to it. The file has in it all the things I want to change in this world, their order of priority, their sensible timing given that I am only one 29-year-old woman with two hands and one brain. The commitment is my most sincere, most solemn vow to dedicate my energy to the things I really value – and do it consciously, not just drift along the river of life as a passive observer.
As you may have guessed, I no longer use my old equation. My new equation is:
There are two main differences compared to my old equation:
All in all, pretty eye-opening thoughts have entered my mind lately. You would think a recovering perfectionist/overachiever like me would be dying to find a legitimate justification for my existence through some very familiar friends of mine – achievements. What is at the same time shocking and pretty spectacular is that I am actually, for the first time in my life, not just feeling but being fully productive. That means I am actually using my energy to approach my top priorities in life.
And let me tell you, it feels pretty damn good.
- I no longer value any random outcome, any change in the status quo as a leap of achievement, but rather have a carefully defined and conscious mission for my existence (e.g. “always act with responsibility and genuine love towards yourself and other people”). For me, this is the only way to stay sane in this “doing and achieving like busy little rabbits, thinking only when absolutely necessary” society.
- I no longer simplify my input resources to “time” as if I was a machine with 24 running hours per day, but rather talk about energy for which time is only one component of many.
All in all, pretty eye-opening thoughts have entered my mind lately. You would think a recovering perfectionist/overachiever like me would be dying to find a legitimate justification for my existence through some very familiar friends of mine – achievements. What is at the same time shocking and pretty spectacular is that I am actually, for the first time in my life, not just feeling but being fully productive. That means I am actually using my energy to approach my top priorities in life.
And let me tell you, it feels pretty damn good.
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