The only thing worse than being unproductive is making progress on the wrong things.
We’ve all been there before. Instead of working ahead on assignments, we catch up on our favorite shows or play video games or see what’s trending online. Sure, we might accomplish a lot in those areas, but what are we actually achieving?
The worst part is that these things can often make us feel productive. We know deep down that we could be doing things that actually benefit us in the long run, but in the moment, it still seems like we’re getting stuff done.
I often find myself guilty of this. I’m a heavy reader, so I tend to do this with books. I feel so accomplished when I see how many pages I’ve read—even if I’m ignoring all the books I’m actually supposed to read for class. I may still benefit personally, but most often I’m avoiding something else I should be doing.
I call this false productivity. If we’re not careful, we can trick ourselves into thinking we’re making headway on things when really we’re distracting ourselves from something else. And in the meanwhile, we somehow manage to still feel productive.
So why is this? How can we feel like we’re accomplishing something even when we’re not? The truth is that it all comes down to numbers.
Often when we set goals for ourselves, we have a vague idea of what we want to accomplish, without any measurable plan set in place. Say, for example, that I want to work ahead on assignments. Well, how much do I want to work ahead? If I’m writing a paper, how many words per day should I be writing? How much time should I carve out to do it? Without these objective markers, we generally end up aimless and distracted.
The things that lead to false productivity, however, have numbers inherently woven into them. How many times have you binge-watched a show and proudly declared, “I watched eight whole episodes today!” That’s a number that you can look at and automatically start to feel productive.
The same is true with my obsessive book reading. When I look at the number of pages I’ve read, I begin to feel oddly accomplished, even if I’m only reading the book for fun.
Perhaps the prime example of this false productivity is seen with video games. I’m currently 54 percent of the way through the latest "Assassin's Creed," and every percent increase is uniquely satisfying. But then again, it’s a video game—I’m literally getting nothing out of it. At best, it serves to turn off my brain for a while and help me relax. That may be beneficial, but I should never think I’m actually accomplishing something.
And yet, I nonetheless continue to run around in the game world collecting money to collect fake rewards that don’t translate to anything in the real world. It makes me think: how often do we do this with other things in order to feel productive, when in reality we get nothing?
None of this is to say that playing video games or reading books or watching TV is bad. But we certainly shouldn’t go on believing in this false productivity. It’s a counterfeit. It may lure you in to make you feel accomplished, but it’s just that—a feeling.
One of the greatest tests of false productivity that I’ve found is to ask a simple question: Am I going to thank myself for this later? Or is this just going to perpetuate the status quo?
Perhaps the best article on productivity I’ve read is by Ann Voskamp. She says, “Life is pain—and you get to choose: either the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.” False productivity creates the latter. True productivity requires the former. But the benefits of true productivity can be unspeakable.
And the biggest thing we can do to create actual productivity is simply to make things measurable. Once our goals move from the hypothetical to the achievable, little can stop us from reaching them. All we have to do is look at the numbers.
