Sunday is when I’m supposed to write my blog weekly, but weekends don’t come with the same built-in writing window as my weekday commute. Today I spent most of the daylight hours driving from one errand to another.
First, though: Happy Mother’s Day to mothers everywhere. Thank you for everything.
I’ve spent the past couple of days reading the roundup from the latest BlogBlog.Club get-together. The theme was productivity—roughly, work efficiency—and Wen, the host, wrote a detailed introduction to every piece. I opened it on the first day and read carefully. After half an hour I looked at the scrollbar and realized I’d barely moved. The contributions were clearly made with care. I’d like to think I put care into mine too, but it got the “short and pithy” label 😅. That may be one downside of daily blogging: I seem to have lost the ability—and maybe the enthusiasm—for long posts.
The roundup, carrying the work of Wen and 102 bloggers, is well worth reading. One thing I enjoy is seeing how people can reach the same general conclusion from very different angles and experiences. This time, for example, many participants argued that productivity is toxic. But their routes into that view were wildly varied. That kind of convergence is fascinating. I often click through to the original posts as I read, and I end up discovering new bloggers along the way.
My own contribution was called “Try to Avoid Task Switching,” but what I really wanted to say was this: don’t walk down a road that makes absurd demands in the name of productivity. In three words: don’t join the rat race. If you’re not sure how to get out, maybe try sitting by a waterfall for a year and thinking it over. Are there industries that haven’t been swallowed by the rat race? Once you come up with one, then act. That seems far more efficient than following the crowd out of FOMO and boarding a last train that no one can confirm is heading anywhere worth going.
As for a weekly blog post—when the roundup already has 102 entries, is anyone waiting for mine? Thanks again, Wen.