What it means to be productive
I’m reading through three books I bought as a bundle by an author named Carl Newport. The first book is named Deep Work. It shares some ideas and anecdotes about the value of doing deep work, together with the challenges of being able to ever get to that state.
The second book I’m reading currently is a similar theme, names Slow Productivity. It challenges the idea that the 9-5 system of working that was inherited from the industrial sector makes sense for what he calls ‘Knowledge Work’. Much of the book is about how to work around your job commitments, to somehow get close to where you need to be, to actually be productive in a useful way. It speaks volumes that do be able to do good work, you have to find tricks and hacks to get around the obstacle of the expectations your employer has of you.
It’s an interesting read from my perspective, a recently cancelled Software engineer, now completely at liberty to work how and when I want. Both books have resonated with me. I really don’t believe the 9-5 40 hour week of the lanyard class is useful. He gives examples of how people who have achieved great things, and who are largely regarded as productive, or even prolific, in fact, spend long periods on their work, and often long periods not working. He gives an example of a writer who spends two weeks just sat thinking before figuring out how to put together a huge body of work. A mathematician that will go down in history as the man who solved a problem that has bested some of the all time greats, literally had to fake his own productivity to his employer, in order to secretly skive off and work on this problem.
As I’m settling into my new routine, I’m determined not to make the mistake of measuring my work in hours, and believing that longer hours means more output, or faster output. Hard problems take time, learning takes time, quality takes time, but most of all, the healthy way to live, is not to smash out as many hours working as you can. I mourn the number of hours of my life I’ve lost, to benefit a company, working on someone else’s problem, for someone else’s benefit. I began to resent my old job so much, the time, the energy, the life it stole from me, all just for some money. And of course, the vast majority of us are trapped in exactly that situation.
It’s been less than three weeks, but already I know, I can’t go back. I have no choice but to succeed in making an income on my own. No wonder then, that knowledge work has ended up in rigid time-for-money contracts of employment. The truth is, and I don’t think Newport has thought of this, there is no motivation in pursuing someone else’s goals, meaning the only motivation for employment is the money, which for most is just enough to be able to continue living, so that we can continue working. This is the true reason we practice quiet quitting, this is the reason the UK has such low productivity. People will follow the path of least resistance, but also the lowest effort. People don’t care about being productive, because their work is not for them. They’re paid by the hour. The public sector are the worst effected, and needless to say, it’s a disaster zone of bloat and waste. To me, now, the whole concept of employment doesn’t make sense. We phrase it as an opportunity, to get to work for whatever employer, as if being allowed to work for them is somehow the motivation. It’s total rubbish, we want the most money for the least effort, that’s it.
My routine
Whether I can really call it a routine after such a short time, but I now wake to no alarm. I wake up naturally, and I don’t care what time it is. I go downstairs without my phone, and read for as long as I want, which may be a few minutes, or over an hour. Then I go to my maths textbook, as I slowly re-learn the maths that I’ve not used since school. Then, before I’m allowed a shower, I force myself to hop on the treadmill. Today I did 1k, which is no achievement whatsoever, but it’s 1k more than I ever ran before work while employed full time.
After I’ve had a shower, I start my “work”, on my SaaS products, and I just stay there as long as I want. Often, because I had no breakfast, I have a lunch break an hour or two after starting. I’ve found that I run out of steam after lunch a little bit, so that’s the next thing I need to fix. Either way, for the first time in a long time, I’m actually relaxed. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, to the point that it doesn’t really feel like work.
In the past, when I’ve taken a week, or even two weeks leave, I’ve tried to do this, but the anxiety of the fixed timeframe gnawed away at me, and I always just failed to do much, felt lousy about the waste of time, and ended up in a negative feedback loop.
Now I have no time limits, I’m working slowly, but I’m getting more done in a few days than I did in my “free time” over 10 years of full time employment. Rather than feeling guilty if I don’t get much done in a day, I end up looking forward to the next day. It’s a good place to be.