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Pseudo-Productivity Is a Disease, but Slow Productivity Is The Cure
Stop bragging about how busy you are.
How do you measure productivity as a knowledge worker?
Do you measure it by quantity — by simply ticking as many tasks off as you can?
Or by quality — by focusing on the more concrete and creative tasks that require deep focus?
Most people focus on quantity because it makes them feel good.
But feeling productive doesn’t equal being productive. You can feel productive yet spend your time in the most unproductive way — aka, you can be pseudo-productive.
Pseudo-productivity has become an increasingly popular coping mechanism. I’m worried, and you should be too.
What’s the issue with pseudo-productivity?
The biggest consequence of pseudo-productivity is that we don’t really know what really matters anymore. We over-obsess about small tasks and neglect the big tasks that really move the needle.
Pseudo-productivity deprives us of our ability to focus. And it even gets us to play lame social games of importance.
Pseudo-productivity brings us comfort, but it doesn’t bring any results. The stats don’t lie: on average, we…
