Increasing productivity may help us achieve or goals or complete our job. From this logical idea, has arisen a less positive internet “hustle culture” showing people 10 tricks to complete their ToDo list or The system that helps them write 1000 words a day. These articles, tweet threads, blog posts are sold by hucksters looking to capitalize on people’s desire to do better or be better. Another angle laid out by Caleb Schoep terms productivity porn as hollow informational activities about achieving something (e.g. business success) that we consume that tricks us into thinking we are doing something productive towards that goal. The take away is that we must not think about doing something, we must do it1.
More fundamentally, Adam Mastroianni argues that not wanting to do things is not necessarily a sign of laziness2. Rather, it might be a sign that you are not doing what should be doing. Success in highly compensated careers is sometimes based on how much tolerance you have for doing things you do not want to do (send emails, write mundane reports, etc.). This can lead to cognitive dissonance when the person is rewarded handsomely for doing these things but ultimately is not happy. In short, rather than assuming you are lazy, you should check if you are doing what you are meant to be doing.
1. Schoepp, C. Productivity Porn. (2022).
2. Mastroianni, A. Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs. (2022).