🍀 THE TIME TRAP OF PRODUCTIVITY- Issue 155

Hi, I am JOE and I write on "Mindful Productivity & Cerebral Happiness". My endeavour is to share life lessons, some thoughts, quotes & links to articles/podcasts/books, I discover during the week.

Hey Friends

In case you missed my LAST EDITION on🍀 Desired Behaviour Vs Default Behaviour -Issue 154, then you can read it here. And if you’ve not subscribed till now and want to become a patron of this newsletter then you can do this before diving into this week’s ‘SUNDAY REATZO’. You can support my work and get a ‘Productivity Planner’ worth $25 ( ₹2,000 ) free.

Having said that, I had spend this week in a semi-rural setting and realised that there is not much of a hurry in the people living in such an environment. Everything around them seems to have their own time clock.

For me, during the week, it was a lot of juggling around to full-fill many social obligations on multiple fronts. For the entire week, only thing I had kept my focused on ‘clarity of mind/purpose’ and didn't think of muti-tasking. This reminded me Seneca’s opening letter to his friend Lucilius where he writes:

Everything we have belongs to others; time alone is ours.

If I were to sum up the culture of productivity in one sentence, I would say that would be it.

The reason why time management software and note-taking apps are multi-billion dollar industries is because they help us manage the most precious resource we have.

I’ve written before that productivity is closely entangled with the fear of death. Without the awareness of our mortality, there may be no need for a shield to protect our hours from the onslaught of circumstance.

Simply put, I see productivity as a set of systems or rituals that protect us from future regret. Whenever we use Pomodoro techniques or time blocking methods, we understand the truth of our distracted minds.

But with that said, there’s an inherent stress that comes with it. The fundamental tension is this: - 👇

‘The more you view your time through the lens of productivity, the less you can see it through any other lens.’

Burnout is often associated with working too much, but the real reason it happens is because you have defined yourself by what you produce. It’s not just the exertion of energy spent during your working hours, but the exertion of thought spent during the time you’re not working.

For example - It’s about those times or moment where you’re physically with your family, but mentally planning out what you need to do next. Or when you keep looking at the time when you should just be enjoying lunch.

One thing we often forget is that our measurement of time is a mere tool. We have minutes, hours, days, and so forth because they help us plan when to meet, work, and rest. We categorized time in this way to have it serve us.

But in a culture so focused on managing time, we have become subservient to it. By scheduling your day down to the last minute, you introduce an anxiety from managing your real-time progress to an imagined vision. Each glance at the clock fires off a thought about whether your day is going like it’s supposed to, or if you’re falling behind.

This is what I firmly believe - 👇

A mind-set that always views the present through the lens of past and future, and can never be anchored in the “now.”

Time management is important, but I feel that true exploration cannot exist within the bounds of time. It can only arise when you have clarity of mind/purpose, and that’s what I optimize for instead of scheduling out my day down to the last hour.

Presence of mind is very difficult to cultivate within the bounds of man-made inventions. And that doesn’t just apply to productivity tools, but to the measurement of time itself.

For me, it comes down to a keep things simple with utmost clarity of mind or purpose.

Take good care & enjoy reading this week's dose of ‘Mindful Productivity & Cerebral Happiness’.

Joe

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❤️ 🧠 Stuff, I stayed invested during the week🧤🧤

ARTICLE - Why the World Still Needs Trade -The Case for Reimagining & Not Abandoning Globalization _By Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

📖📚MY ABSORPTIONS OF THE MONTH:-⬇️

1. The Course of Love __By Alain De Botton

2. The Unfair Advantage __ By Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba

3. Obedience to Authority( The Experiment that Challenged Human Nature) __ By Stanley Morgan

4. The Moral Animal __ By Robert Wright

5. Tribes __ By Seth Godin

6. The Maths of Life and Death __ By Kit Yates

7. The New Birth Order Book __ Dr Kevin Leman

8. Spare __ By Prince Harry

🧠Book, I’m Currently Reading:-📖📚⬇️

1. Electable: Why America Hasn't Put a Woman in the White House

🧠BOOKS ON MY RADAR FOR ABSORPTION IN MAY 2023:-📖📚⬇️

1. Powerful __By Patty McCord

2. Good Leaders Ask Great Questions__ By John C Maxwell

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