What I’ve gotten wrong about productivity so far, and what I’m planning to do about it.
Writing this post is hard. Not because I don’t know how to say what I’m about to say, but because I feel like I have too many thoughts for one post.
But first: the promised apology.
I’m sorry that, up to this point in WorthyHours’ history, I’ve focused on the wrong things.
I’ve been focusing on quick tips and practical insights for how to cram more into your days. I’ve assumed that the only thing holding both you and me back from our dreams is that we don’t have enough time for them.
I’m sorry that in the process, I bought into the standard hype around time management, plunging into creating more content the world doesn’t need instead of pausing to think about how I can best serve and contribute to the conversation.
I’ve been inspired by life lately (and reading this excellent book) to change my ways. And henceforth, I shall do better.
Because here’s the deal:
We only have so much time. There’s nothing you or I can do to change that.
But what we can change is where we put our focus.
We can choose to chase the things that really matter.
We can decide that we’re going to get serious, really serious, about what those things are.
We can stand up and say, “No more!”
No more letting society, other people, or the flow of life determine what gets our attention and what doesn’t.
No more fixating on squeezing the most out of every minute and cutting out the things that matter most: connection, wonder, and vulnerability.
No more feeling bad about ourselves because we can’t get everything done. Instead, realizing together that getting everything done was never the point. A life well-lived often has a few threads left unraveled.
In the coming days, I’m planning on doing less advice-giving and more listening. More learning. More sharing. And then, maybe together, we can start to look at how we use our time in a way that’s true to the nature of life and good for our souls.
Some things you can look forward to in the coming days:
- A review of Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (it’s excellent- we’re going to dive into why it’s so good!)
- Some things take the time they take
- Experiments with doing nothing
- Learnings from more books. On my TBR for WorthyHours are books like Essentialism by Greg McKeown and A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt
I can’t wait to share this journey with you! If you’d like to subscribe to my email list for updates on this conversation, you can do that here.
-Julianne