Productivity, Un-Productivity and Other Random Thoughts

Uhhh, yeah, so it’s been awhile since I posted. Even sitting down at my computer and starting to write seems a bit strange to me. Now, I realize that taking a good two-plus month break from posting is not exactly the ideal strategy for creating a blog with a lot of followers…but, hey, that’s fine with me.

While I may have not been active on the Internet, including Twitter, following blogs and writing blog posts, I have been very active off the grid. This late spring/early summer has been a wonderful period where I have done some re-connecting with myself. In April I took an amazing trip to Mexico with my wife for a much needed break. I joined a local Vipassana meditation group, which was a wonderful experience. Sitting with others is a great way to deepen my practice. I also continue to meditate on a daily basis.

On the active side, I’ve taken up yoga. I’m practicing a form of yoga called dharma mittra, which takes traditional, hatha yoga poses and incorporates them into a flowing sequence. I’ve had some crazy, chronic lower back problems, so this is helping out quite a bit, plus the practice itself is amazing. I’d love to write some more about my yoga as well as my meditation.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about productivity and ‘doing.’ One school of thought out there says that in order to be productive you need to constantly do something or make some sort of effort towards something, whatever that may be. I get that, especially in my meditation. I made a conscious decision over six months ago to start meditating. It was something that always interested me and something that I read about quite a bit. I never really put it into practice though. I thought ‘oh, I get that….that seems pretty easy.’ Well, I’ve found that it’s anything but easy. In fact, it might be one of the greatest challenges I have taken on. I say that because once I made the decision to start, there was no turning back.

My meditation practice is more than just a process of sitting down every morning and just being. It’s a lifelong journey and inquiry that I have started. It’s a process of examining what it means to be ‘me.’ What is this ‘self’ that I’ve constructed and how has it defined me and possibly limited me? I’ve learned that it’s an evolving process and that it’s not about getting someplace because there’s no place to ‘get to.’ So, in doing this, I have definitely learned to relax quite a bit.

Getting back to my initial point on productivity, I do have a greater appreciation for the process of setting commitments and actually sticking with something whether I want to do it or not. There are plenty of mornings when my alarm goes off at 5:15am and I don’t want to get out of bed to meditate, but I do it anyway and I actually like that. It’s easy to do things only when we want to do them. Making a commitment and a total lifestyle change is much more difficult.

While I do feel that I’m being productive, I also realize that it’s good to have un-productivity in my life. I’ve written about information overload (information overload 1, information overload 2) before. It’s baffling how much information is out there and how fast it is increasing. I’m greatly interested in the impact this has and will have on our society from a psychological perspective all the way to health impacts. I recently read an article that stated in just six months (Dec 2009 – May 2010) Twitter went from 1 billion tweets per month to 2 billion tweets per month and there certainly aren’t any signs that it’s slowing down. Where is all this information going? Who is reading it? Do we have a responsibility to be more conscious and cognizant of the information we are creating and distributing? I personally think that’s a definite yes.

Where do we go from here?

For starters, try re-connecting by dis-connecting. Take a break from the web once in awhile. Lately, I’ve had many a nights sitting out on my balcony with my wife and dog enjoying the scenery and literally doing nothing. It’s moments like this that bring me joy. Being able to sit with each other and just enjoy being there.

Be conscious of the information you take in. Why are you reading what you’re reading? What about news? Do you take it at face value? Are you drawn into the drama that’s created and from opinions that you become overly attached to?

Finally, learn how to become quiet. When I started meditating I was shocked and taken aback by just how many random thoughts were popping into my head. It’s been interesting to observe this and I think you’ll find it quite a learning experience if you do the same. I’ll end with this:

You need not leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to become quiet,
and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you
to be unmasked.
It has no choice,
it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

– Franz Kafka