Why we run to the productivity hacks

If there is one thing I want you know, to embody, to remind yourself every moment of the day:

There is nothing wrong with you.

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with you.

You are perfect the way you are.

The anxiety and stress we feel is not made by us.

It has been created and programmed into us. There are a myriad of systems, structures, societies, cultures, religions, industries, family, friends, acquaintances…that we have been influenced and molded by. Our personalities, our lives, have been created by these things AND spoken into existence by others, who want us to “succeed”, “be a good person”, “do the right thing”, “to take care of yourself.” (And remember most of these people are within, around and supporting all the systems and structures in the second sentence.)

That you know there is something else, something more - is radical.

To look behind it all, to seek something different outside of all of that - is radical.

Which is probably why that’s likely not where we start.

(It’s a little too extreme too quickly. Like coming into bright sunlight after being in the dark for hours. It takes some time to adjust.)

Most often, we start with trying to make the lives that we have (the ones that we bought into - created for us by society) easier. We know that THINGS ARE VERY WRONG. Yet we also know that we have people, bills and dreams counting on us to make things happen within these systems (wrong or not.)

So we look to make things easier. Maybe to get something off our plate - usually the unpaid, mental, emotional and domestic labor (usually unpaid) where we spend a ludicrous amount of time for our survival.

Our lives are created by and in the society we live in.

We turn to solutions by society. We run to the productivity hacks. Why shouldn’t we? It makes sense.

Our intention (which is what matters) is usually to help us get the time and space to be ourselves. Even if it might not look like that directly. It might look like: more time to be with family, to work on a hobby, to take on a project, to support the community, to do more.

Those can all be signs that we are looking to be ourselves in a different way. It might not be as direct, like “I want 30 minutes to read a book in silence, meditate, take a walk outside, figure out what I want to do and who I want to be.” But that’s what we are all striving for…even if we don’t realize it. (And if that is what you want, please proudly proclaim it as much as you can!)

The tide is turning. There are more and more people, acknowledging, insisting, and repeating that the productivity hacks don’t really work, at least not for what we were expecting them to do. (Even the productivity bros are coming around!) These techniques and ideas may save us time and energy, sure. But without a reason, without an intention, it’s just another thing to do, told to you by someone else. (PS: Make sure you aren’t doing more just to do more - that’s a sticky wicket we will cover another time.)

It’s like expecting to find freedom within the confines of a cage. We do this to ourselves.

Intention matters (that’s going to be a theme here FYI). Sometimes those tips and tricks to phone it in can be very useful. Again, if you have a healthy intention for yourself and not trying to “win” at productivity hacks.

It’s a well known desire. We all want to do “it right”, “the best”, “the perfect” way.

To quote a wise woman: “It, is good, enough.” Sounds like a good intention to me.

In Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin, MD (Read this book!) she talks about meal delivery services and other time saving strategies as being possible faux self-care. Like the productivity hackers, all the “fixes” for the world are just wallpapering over that gaping hole in the wall (or in our governmental, cultural and societal systems - you know, no big deal!).

At the same time, she also acknowledges that outsourcing can be helpful to free up time and space. If you know what you are using it for and it’s for you for a reason that is supportive and helpful to you.

(Again: These should not be used as the one more thing that you think you could/should/may do that will help you feel better as a person. These things may give you some time, but like all faux self-care, productivity hacks and well-meaning and well-intended advice from others. It should not be what you do to “feel better.”)

There is a story Danielle LaPorte tells in one of her books. I believe it’s about a friend who was getting ready to enter a stressful situation with an ex-husband at their child’s wedding. This woman was going to try to get through it naturally but was already on edge. She decided to take a Xanax just for that day. Her friends cheered and supported her on that decision. She might not have wanted to and it might not be the best long-term but for that moment, she chose it for a reason that she liked.

Are you happy and are you the one driving your reasons for doing things? Or are the reasons driving you? (Pssst…we are working on coming more from the first reason rather than the second reason.)

We run to the productivity hacks, the marketed time-savers, and the things of the world because they DO have something to offer us.

But just like most things, just because it worked well once, doesn’t mean it is always going to work. This “thing” is not the answer to everything (or maybe even the complete answer to this one thing.) Like most things in the world, we have to remind ourselves that just because it works now doesn’t mean it always will. Things could change.

Actually things will change. So knowing why we are doing what we are doing is going to help us ride that change and make things more easy for us. Productivity hacks and otherwise.