Productivity Needs a Reframe

What does it mean to be productive?Although I couldn’t account for much of my day and it was already 3:30 in the afternoon, I decided to get out and take a hike. Sometimes I get so involved with what I am doing, my exercise takes a back seat. For those of you who know me, that’s unusual.

While embarking on my hike this beautiful Spring day, I was berating myself for not having checked off anything on my “to do” list.

I tried to remember exactly what I did. Let’s see . . . working on the water filtration system–trying to get it to work;  b-bye plastic bottles, finally. But not. A friend who is quite talented at these things and my landlord both have wrestled with this thing and nary a drip is coming out of the faucet. That accounted for at least 1.5 hours of time yielding only some diagnostics, but no water and no answer.Another 1.5 hours spent watering my newly planted vegetable garden and pulling out unwanted greenery (aka weeds). One Skype call with a friend and colleague, dishes, some social media time and poof the workday had almost completely passed!As I turned my attention back to the beauty around me–the fiery bouganvilla in full regalia, inhaling the sweet perfume of orange blossoms, the vast expanse of limestone peaks set against the blue sky . . . suddenly . . . a light bulb moment. A question that had been vexing me for days was answered. I wasn’t even thinking about it and I can’t even remember the thought thread that lead me to the answer. Eureka!I know this, you know this . . . relaxed mind yields answers, insights, access to intuition.

Productivity needs a reframe.

Taking care of myself by taking care of my health, giving my mind a chance to wander and allowing time for integrating the many inputs, all adds to my productivity rather than taking away from it. Why not reexamine how we think about productivity? And you? When do you feel most productive? When do your "light bulb moments" happen?