A Few Words Against Productivity

I have a confession to make.  I’m a productivity fetishist.  (Get your mind out of the gutter–I’m talking about the other definition).

I know what you’re saying.  ”What the heck does that mean?”

I read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People before I was 10.  I’ve got a whole shelf in my library devoted to titles like: The Power of Focus; The NOW Habit; Getting Things Done.  There’s a David Allen tattoo on my chest across my heart.

Okay, just kidding on that last one.  But I think you get the idea.

And while there’s nothing wrong with any of that, often it seems like productivity is a vice in my life.  For example, I always wait to do the dishes until the sink’s full.  Same with laundry; I may have plenty of dirty clothes to get in the wash, but as long as I’ve got clean clothes somewhere I’ll put it off.  For writing, I tend to wait for a deadline before setting off on a new story–if Writers of the Future didn’t have their quarterly deadline I’m pretty sure I’d never have anything to submit to them.

I’ve been this way all my life. College paper due? I’ll start it as late as possible.

Throughout my life I’ve tackled this problem as if it were Procrastination, but lately I’ve come to realize that’s only part of it.  I like the thrill of being massively productive.  That’s why I put  things off–not because I’d rather see what’s on TV (although I’d make an exception if Pushing Daisies was still on the air), but because I’d rather feel like I’m being insanely productive for a short period of time.

There are times in my writerly life that I’ve been very focused and productive without having a deadline poking me in the ribs.  Things like NaNoWriMo, for example.  Or when I wrote my partial and synopsis for Dave Wolverton’s novel writing workshop.  With these there’s not a deadline per se, but I’ve always succeeded in carving out a block of time in which I have nothing to do but write.  I’ve eliminated all other distractions from my life, taken time off of work–whatever it takes to devote myself completely to being insanely productive.

This is why, if you look back in the archives of this blog, you’ll see a lot of entries about absolutely crazy goals: NaNo; Mike’s July Writing Challenge; A Story a Day during the last Olympics.

I don’t believe in these goals any more.

This is new for me, so bear with me while I explain myself.

November was NaNoWriMo.  I’d been in touch with a few writing friends–most of them from last year’s Master Class–and had set a bunch of very productive goals for myself: I was going to write a play AND write two short stories a week.  At work, it looked to be kind of a down month with not a lot that absolutely had to be done. I’d cleared my plate.  Nothing was going to stop me from hitting these goals.

<sarcasm> Right.  </sarcasm>

First came the cold, which lingered for a week and became pneumonia.  While laid up I was unable to focus on anything.  I couldn’t read.  I had a hard time following story lines on TV shows. I tried to write, but after just a few minutes I’d start feeling antsy and jitery.  Can’t write–gotta blow my nose.  Gotta hack up a lung. What was I writing?  Oh yeah, it was… no, that wasn’t it.  Then my team at work got reassigned; another group was behind schedule and had an end-of-month deadline, so crank up the pressure and hold on to your hats.  A few family emergencies came up.

By the middle of the month I’d given up.  There was absolutely no way to meet my goals.  Productivity Fail.

I don’t regret it at all.  Here’s why:

As I was gaining lucidity and the ability to focus I had this insight about my “addiction” to productivity, and I realized that I’ve had the whole thing backwards throughout my life.  Productivity doesn’t matter.

Let me say that again:  Productivity doesn’t matter.

Oh sure, there are going to be times when there’s a deadline and I just have to get things done.  In the grand graph of time vs. stuff that gets finished, I’ll be able to look at the peaks and say, ‘Hey, I remember that deadline.  That was a crunch for sure.”  But if my life-graph is made up of peaks and valleys, I’m living life the wrong way.

It’s not about productivity.  It’s about consistency.

Or, as Dean Wesley Smith would say, “Do the math.”

In one of Dean’s lectures he breaks down what it takes to write a novel in a year.  Do the math.  I’ll wait here.   …….  Done?  Good.  250 words a day is easily doable, isn’t it?  I mean, that’s only 15-25 minutes, tops.  Want to write two books a year?  Spend half-an-hour to 45 minutes a day, and that dream can be yours.  I’d seen Dean break it down.  I believed it–after all, the math doesn’t lie.  But I was still so addicted to “insane productivity” that I didn’t really “get it.”  That failure of productivity in November may actually turn out to be one of the bigger blessings in my life.

And putting emphasis on being consistent works in all areas of life, not just in writing.  I won’t have to worry about when people might stop in for a visit if I’m consistent in getting those dishes done instead of waiting for the pile-up.

At this time of year, when so many are setting New Years Resolutions, I offer you this challenge:  Don’t set goals based on productivity. Be consistent instead.

“I want to lose 25 lbs. this year” is a productivity goal.  Don’t do it.  This is my goal: “I will exercise 5 days out of every week.”

“I will write at least 500 words a day.”

“I will have an empty sink three times a day.”

Take care of the consistency and productivity will take care of itself.

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