Catching up on monkish things
Productivity is a sham
Day 17 of #100DaysToOffload
(3 days in a row! minor miracle....)
In looking through some of my started but not ever finished and posted stubs of written work this past year, I came across this bit from Scott Nesbitt and some related pieces that had jolted together in my mind months ago as something important. As I take a bit of a breather from a period of excessive work, with 7 day workweeks and too many 16 hour workdays, I suppose these resonate even more.
Don't jump on to the assembly line of productivity just for the sake of productivity. Don't believe that everything you do needs to be practical or useful or serious. Don't feel the need to get more done.
https://scottnesbitt.online/its-not-a-waste-of-time
Hear! Hear!
Additional fodder: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/why-time-management-is-ruining-our-lives
Those links above were what was on my mind before heading into this period of overwork. Now I would add anything from the rich literature on the problems of productivity capitalism: https://medium.com/against-productivity/if-you-want-to-know-why-silicon-valley-is-evil-you-need-to-understand-startup-productivity-culture-d39680baea0c or https://notesfrombelow.org/article/silicon-valley-startups-doing-evil-again-and-again or ... well, just google silicon valley and any word that sounds negative and you'll get there.
I think about all this because I'm reminded of the need for a break, not because it's lounging on a beach (which would be great, but isn't happening), but because it's just a break from productivity. It took months of peak work to get back here, to a place that knows that productivity is often unproductive.
Glad to be back.