Be Productive to Be Creative
Photo by Plush Design Studio on Unsplash
Over the past few weeks, I have written a lot about productivity. The question that I have left unanswered is why we should be focused on productivity.
G.K. Chesterton in his brilliant book Heretics decries "efficiency for efficiency's sake." He claims that progress must be aimed toward some goal, or it is not actually progress.
I think that everybody must individually answer what goal they are striving toward. Still, I would like to offer one idea that should help you to form a reason for your productivity.
Be productive to be creative. Becoming more productive with your time allows you to spend more time doing the things that bring you the most joy. Focus on those things when you are struggling to stick to the timelines, routine, and habits you are attempting to form.
When you are in the midst of a pile of tasks, tell yourself that you are going to start that project, hobby, or book that you have been wanting to. You probably have not had any time for it the last couple weeks, and you are tempted to push it off further because you feel like you are out of time this week.
This is where you need to make an extra effort. Force yourself to finish the tasks at hand, and then, equally important, force yourself to actually start the creative project.
Before I sat down to write this, all I could think about was going to sleep. Despite this, I decided to set a goal of finishing this post in time to play some guitar. I have been wanting to pick the guitar back up for a while, but I feel like I never have the time. Today, the incentive of playing the guitar has caused me to be more productive, and happier while I have been writing because I am looking forward to playing guitar.
Suddenly, efficiently completing the tasks of your life will become more enjoyable. The efficiency will be directly tied to activities that bring you joy. Think about the creative endeavors that you are interested in pursuing and connect them to your productivity goals.