>[!warning] Status: Under Construction >I need to build out this note better. I have concerns about the various rabbit holes surrounding productivity culture. There is, in fact, a Christian subgroup within the category. > >There's a lot to gain in this arena. I've ran down some of these rabbit holes myself. But, that results in some warnings that need to be considered. ## What do I mean about Productivity Culture? I'm not sure exactly when the trend started, but for at least the last decade, an entire conversation and culture developed around the concept of “personal productivity.” The idea has existed since [the beginning of the knowledge economy back in the 1950s](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/office-space/the-frustration-with-productivity-culture). Stores have sold personal calendars and planners for a long time, and a steady stream of supposed innovations in these tools have promised to make people more productive. Conferences and seminars on how to be more productive have been around longer than I can remember. But in recent years, likely fueled by the new modes of communication through social media, the stream of products and seminars became a different thing. It is a community of devotees, making and viewing YouTube videos, creating online courses, and accruing massive follower counts on Twitter and other social platforms. There appears to be no end to the influencers promoting personal productivity systems or hacks, because there appears to be no end to the demand for these things. ![[productivity results.png]] The secret to personal productivity taps into a deep felt need, apparently. ## Why is Productivity Culture Appealing? - Appeals to a dissatisfaction that is often present in our lives. - We see imaginary silhouettes of other people's idealized lives through the window of curated social media content. It looks like they have their life together... but why don't I? - Productivity hacks and systems can appear to be the solution to discontentment. - We're notoriously bad in our culture at overloading with urgent but unimportant things. (Maybe here point to a created note about the Eisenhower matrix.) - We tie our identity to our productivity. ## Some Warnings concerning Christian Productivity Culture - **Productivity Culture Practitioner is now a day job.** - Many of the people making the YouTube videos, writing the Substack newsletters, and hocking their books on the topic fiddle with productivity techniques as their day job (or are trying to make it their day job). - I don't want to suggest there is no value to people who make hustle content their livelihood, but I do want to caution that it inherently warps their frame of view about what is possible. If your job is fiddling with productivity apps and cooking up workflows and systems, then you have more bandwidth to run those plays and workflows than someone who is just trying to get their job done and looking for ways to stop forgetting tasks. A system describes as simple or helpful by someone who only works on those systems all day may not actually be realistic in the real world. - Therefore, people who make their living as a full-time (or part-time) productivity guru actually have a product they are selling. - **Much content written on this topic is actually an advertisement.** - Videos and articles about that life-changing productivity app, the really cool leather-bound journal, and the new tablet that will finally cause you take better notes are often (usually) just trying to sell the app, journal, or tablet. - This content plays on our materialism, our lack of satisfaction, and our desire for something novel. - Beware content that is designed more to sell the product than provide the viewer or listener with truly helpful advice. One indicator is how many things the content channel tells you to avoid that might make them money to suggest. -