Is it just filling the schedule and checking off boxes from the do list? A structured day guiding you slowly towards a better future? Living in the moment and taking it all in? Balance towards both? Just feeling satisfaction of getting a lot done to tell others? Or is it elevating the worth of yourself in the eyes of others?
Ehm, by definition in social psychology “Productivity is the relationship between the quantity or quality of output; capacity to produce goods, services, or contributions that have value; economic, social, or personal” according to the American Psychological Association.
Well, what does that mean? In basis, they’re stating the emotional, personal and economic pull on why you do everything and how you value it. Tying worth to how productive you can be in the eyes of others.
These outside pressures directly affect the way we feel in deciding, how far we can push ourselves to be “productive”.
Causing a disruption of the pursuit of true aspirations and dreams. Ignoring the true values, we hold to instead focusing on the pursuit of superficial productivity.
I’ve certainly thought that productivity meant everything. Get the degree, check, get the job and be useful, double check. Create value from being productive, stick to the main street of thinking. Do what everyone else is doing.
Or stick to who you are, do things for fun. Be the true and best version of yourself because you can.
Be free of the outside pressures.
Self-Worth is not based in productivity but in how it makes you feel. Pursuit of satisfaction and doing all little things you wanted. It makes you feel light and effortless. Pressure comes off and the work you do is no longer a drag. You look forward to the next post and refining it, to the next book you read, and the next adventure you take.
Productivity is just a word, in one language of many thousands around the world.
Only you give it power over you and decisions you make.
My pursuit is to do what I love every day.
And I’ll never regret, not being the most productive in the eyes of others.
Because it’s just a word, not a lifestyle.
It’s just better to be the true me.
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Productivity. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved September 14, 2026, from https://dictionary.apa.org/productivity
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