What is productivity? Whta is there such a huge focus on it? What is the point? There are so many 'productivity gurus' these days, it's hard to avoid seeing their content. Everything is prefixed by 'productive'... I'm waiting for a "How I open the fridge door productively".

There is this cult(ure) of always being on the go, to always be being productive and hustling. I've been a victim of this mindset for a while. Watching productivity focused videos telling me how I should be cranking out 400,000 words a day or else I am just a loser.

When I hear Americans talk about their work, I'm always so surprised when they say they work 70+ hour weeks. Being from the UK, a full time job will be between 35 and 40 hours a week normally. We also get sick pay and usually around 5+ weeks off per year. Americans push it with only having 2 weeks off!

Don't get me wrong, I understand if you don't put in the work, you don't get anything out of it, but 70+ hour weeks is just killer, especially when you aren't even working for yourself, doing something you really enjoy.

Anyway back to the point. For so long I was a slave to the idea of being rubbish and a failure because I wasn't busy busting out tons of extra work on top of my day job every week. Now I have realised and settled... I do want to be creating more things (more than almost zero last year), but I just need to make sure I am doing so for the right reasons. Not because some productivity guru guilt tripped me into buying a course and make me feel like crap for not busting work out. Not for no reason...

I am going to create for me. Because I want to. Because I feel like a have a message to share. Do I have a particularly engaging voice? Not yet, but I hope to find it. I hope to look back and see consistent progress of becoming better every day.

Note: I'm not calling out any particular person, and the examples are exaggerations for the purpose of making a point. I'm not aware of anyone who peddles a course and tries to make anyone not churning out 400,000 words a day feel inadequate. If you know of one, please watch/read/take with a pinch of salt.