This is a short post about an attitude towards productivity.

The more I read about and understand the tools of productivity, the clearer it is that it’s more about a mindset than any specific tactic, habit or tool.

Infact, productivity is less about changing behaviors than it is about understanding yourself.

The self help industry is obsessed with the former. It can be insufferable with all the ideal morning routines, to-do apps and prioritization frameworks. These create more anxiety than motivation (ymmv), and often leaves me feeling worse about myself.

Contentment is the antidote. Contentment is a mental state of both accepting who you are today - and spending the time to really understand your own behaviour. Some other notes on this state:

• It provides a baseline and a springboard for any change. When you do go about applying a change after this, it doesn’t feel like you’re fighting yourself.
• Contentment changes your attitude about the day. Every day feels like an opportunity to reset and refresh and try things anew. You stop focusing on time counting down and more on your abilities compounding.
• Being in a state of simple acceptance of who you are, is kind of like an everpresent flow state - the state of “energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment”.

More on this topic in a previous post on self curiousity.