This is a card in Dave's Virtual Box of Cards.

Anti-Productivity

Page created: 2023-04-17 , updated: 2023-04-19

There are plenty of reasons to not pursue productivity all of the time.

You’ll explode.
Thinking about productivity all the time robs you of living in the moment.
You have to re-charge and re-fill (writers need to read, artists need to experience art).
Working hard on something and then resting is how you get great ideas.
What is all this productivity for?

I think there is also a really important distinction between being intentionally "not productive" (also known as having "down time") versus procrastination and being distracted.

That really deserves its own card, so here we are: intentional-rest. And related: ramp-down.

Extracted from the Productivity card:

2022-09-27: I just finished the book Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee, and I’ve gotta say, it made me re-think my desire to be "productive" all the time. Part of me already knew I needed to allow plenty of downtime in my day, but the book put that in a new light for me. (Additionally, it’s challenged me to consider how little in-person socialization I currently get outside of my atomic family.)