I’m not really keen on the idea of being productive.

In fact, the way the word is often used kind of skeeves me out – a sort of implication that you have to earn your place in the world by doing a certain number of tasks per day.

(Am I reading too much into other people’s uses of the word? Possibly. But I think it is still worth exploring.)

I have heard a definitely of productive that I like though. Years ago, on the I Have ADHD podcast, Kristen Carder described productivity as ‘doing what you mean to do when you mean to do it.’

And I love that definition almost as much as I love defining being organized as ‘being able to easily find the things you need when you need them.’ I don’t remember where I got that definition or if I extrapolated it from someone else’s framing but I love it.

Anyway, I hate the generally perceived notion of productivity as busily earning your space in the world and so I feel a bit off about the fact that getting stuff done makes me happy.

Yet.

YET.

I think there is a difference in getting stuff done in order to check stuff off a list and getting stuff done because those tasks align with your purpose or because they contribute to your happiness.

If I write a story, I guess I have been productive but I didn’t write it just to cross it off my list, I wrote it to express something, to share ideas, to show up creatively in the world.

I’m not worshipping productivity, I’m doing something that aligns with my purpose in the world. And both my purpose and my task were self-defined.

And, in fact, many productivity gurus would probably say that it wasn’t productive because it didn’t make money.

Anyway…

I don’t have these thoughts fully developed yet but I know I am on to something that is important to me.

I really want to sort out this apparent (and internal) contradiction for myself.