We’re perfectly productive when we accomplish what we intend to do. An intention for a day could be to write a few pages. And if we accomplish that, we’re perfectly productive. An intention for a day could also be to watch five episodes of a TV show and just relax. If we accomplish that, then we’re perfectly productive then as well.

Being intentional

So we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves.There’s a mechanism embedded within our mind’s prefrontal cortex called the novelty bias, whereby, for every new, novel thing we direct our attention at, our mind rewards us with a hit of dopamine

We’re wired for distraction

Learning to live with more boredom makes it easier for you to really feel present in every aspect of your life: work, relationships, and whatever else you want to do with your time that doesn't involve mindless scrolling on social media.

Accepting boredom

<ul><li>Hyperfocus: it means directing your attention outward. It's the most productive mode of our mind, when one task fills our full attention.</li><li>Scatterfocus: it means directing your attention inward. It's the most creative mode of our mind, when we deliberately let our mind wander.</li></ul>

Hyperfocus vs scatterfocus

The way we define the concept of "productivity" really influences our perception.For a lot of people, this word suggests something cold and corporate, that speaks about efficiency and becoming a robot.

How you define "productivity"

It has to do with focus and allows us to accomplish everything we want to do in a smaller amount of time, so we have more time for what’s actually meaningful to us. Because being able to focus on things, we see more meaning in them.

The best productivity advice

This story is part of a group of stories called In general, I find any advice on how to be more productive both insulting and somewhat morally repugnant, as though every message we've received in late 20th and early 21st century American society isn't already about how to squeeze as much monetizable output in as little time as possible from every single living person.

How you define "productivity"

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How to increase your productivity?

Choices define us

Our Expectations