How you can be unproductive better

Sometimes you aren’t going to be productive. That doesn’t mean you can’t use your time well.

A creak of the chair. Another shuffle to the kitchen to open the refrigerator door and stare inside, like an answer to my ennui sits between the ketchup and the peanut butter. Close the door because it’s beeping at me (damn the beeping) and frown at the living room. 

It’s a random Tuesday, and I’m not being particularly productive. The block seems to stem from my being in the middle of a number of large projects that take a long time to finish alongside a drone of genuine tiredness.

Yes, you can look at this situation and say, “Where’s your discipline? Sit down and just do it!”

I get it. I do. And sometimes, that is the answer. 

For most people, productivity means producing something. Maybe it’s a widget, maybe it’s finishing a new client project, maybe it’s a campaign deliverable. Whatever it is, you can put your hands around it and say, “Here it is!”

There’s satisfaction (at least for me) in having a productive day. Not being productive can leave me feeling quite discontent. Thus, I gene…