Don't Worry About Your Productivity, Worry About You

October 21, 2012

After years of roaming the Internet, its video clips, its news aggregators (I’m looking at you Reddit and Hacker News), I’ve become very familiar with a feeling of restlessness. Like I want, or need, to constantly feed information to my mind.

Now I think I’m not alone when I say this frequent need to consume content has taken a toll on my productivity. At the very least, if it hasn't been too detrimental to my work, it might not be the best use of my free time.

But, as with all things enjoyable (and Internet seems to be in good standing with the short-term pleasure centers of our brains), it’s a very tough habit to kick. Ultimately you’ll always wonder why abandon something you enjoy, and you’ll think about going back often.

Today, I’m happy to say I have kicked this particular habit, and I don’t think I’m going back, ever. And the reason is precisely the restlessness I mentioned earlier. I realized, in fact, I was no longer enjoying the moment. I couldn't pause anymore. I felt averse to things that didn't hold my attention like my computer screen can.

So I stopped. I stopped using Internet as a time-filler. I stopped time-filling altogether. My overarching philosophy now is to immerse myself completely in what I’m doing at any given moment, to do only what I’ll be glad I did later, when I look back, and to always take my time.

This for me means no more Reddit and Hacker News, no more casual Youtubing, no more games for gaming’s sake. I’ve stopped using my Rapidshare account aggressively. I’ve even cut back on listening to music while I work. I already didn't Facebook or Tweet.

Instead I read carefully selected books. I write, I exercise, I spend time with the people I love. Sometimes I do nothing, because sometimes nothing needs to be done.

I don’t plan my next entertainment fix halfway through the present one. I don’t feel guilty for squandering my time. I’m not as stressed as I used to be. The realization that this was really having an impact came to me in my car, actually. It struck me that I wasn't paying close attention to my speed anymore, because I didn't care about going as fast as I could. I didn't care about passing other cars, or getting to places quickly for no particular reasons. I didn't mind red lights or small traffic jams. I could coexist with a population of idiot drivers.

As far as I can see, cutting back on constant content consumption has been the root cause for what feels like a very refreshing change of pace. This to me holds infinitely more value than the idea of “being more productive” and it goes to show that these habits can in fact be detrimental to our mental health and to our enjoyment of life in general.