Hidden Power of Unproductive Tasks
The Myth of Bought Time
Open any productivity book, and you'll find advice like, "Hire someone to handle household chores for you—you'll spend money but save time."
In other words, delegate those chores.
The logic behind this advice is simple and straightforward. Time is a precious and irreplaceable resource, whereas money is replenishable.
By the time someone starts to focus on building a career or business, household duties have usually become utterly tedious.
Seriously, who enjoys chopping fresh carrots or dusting every day? Consequently, the idea of buying more time for exciting career challenges seems sensible and appealing.
Like any modern, career-oriented person, I followed this advice.
It wasn't that I made a deliberate decision to eliminate all time-wasters; the whole infrastructure of modern life was pushing me in that direction.
For a long time, I didn't do anything domestic. I relied on meal delivery services, and a professional cleaner took care of my house.
As you might guess, I work from home. And I also decided to cut out daily walks to optimize my time.
Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't just lying immobile in bed, with my fingers barely moving to hit the keyboard.
I'm a very rational person who knows how to take care of my health.
I know that physical activity is necessary and important. So I calculated how much time and calories I'd spend walking or meditating in the nearest park versus how much time I'd spend running on a treadmill at the gym around the corner. Running seemed more efficient.
And I was quite happy to shed all those unnecessary duties. No more wasting time.
I didn't measure my productivity. I can't say for sure whether I was working more at that time. My feeling is that I wasn't.
And I didn't end up accomplishing more, either.
The saved time just seemed to vanish into thin air. It's very hard to squeeze more intellectual output out of a person than what their nature allows.
But I wasn't really worried about that.
After some time, my life spiraled out of control, and I fell into depression. No, it wasn't just because I had removed "all the unnecessary stuff" from my life.
There were many reasons. But only after going through depression did I finally start to understand my desires and what brings me happiness.
And I realized that ridding myself of simple life tasks like tidying up the house had contributed to my depressive state.
I realized that my happiness and pleasure come from simple things. And that my brain needs a reboot, a shift to some mechanical activities not related to programming or learning.
Interacting with food is incredibly important for mental health. You go to the store and choose, touching all these fruits, vegetables, meats (if you eat it), spices. It’s like simulating the ancient process of food gathering: foraging or hunting.
Cooking is a creative process and allows you to meet your needs in a more refined way. You know, only I can prepare food exactly how I love it. Some places cook the way I like, but that doesn't replace the joy of creatively engaging with food during cooking.
I just missed being outdoors when I was running on a treadmill. Instead, I wanted to go to the mountains and run there—even though it takes much more time and is, frankly, irrational.
And it's great if you have a job you love that truly makes you happy. But what if you're stuck in a job you dislike, that irritates you or has grown tiresome, where there is no room for creativity—but you always push yourself to work more and strive to be productive?
Then, cutting out these small tasks from your life may push you closer to burnout.
Heck, washing dishes by hand turned out to be a meditative process.
And cleaning the house is one of the simple ways to see immediate results of your efforts and "refresh" your brain. It's no wonder Jordan Peterson advises cleaning your room.
In my life, there was nothing left but work, study, and meetings with people I didn't need. When you're not focused on your desires, just trying to "be productive," you lose the need for travel, visiting new places, entertainment, and everything else that you're obsessed with.
And the brain rebels against that, saying: I'm not here for all this productivity of yours.
What really needs to be removed from life are aimless hours on social media or procrastination. Truly meaningless tasks are those that don't bring you pleasure, those from which you personally suffer.
I know some people hate household chores. They don't see much joy in personally going to a vegetable market, feeling and smelling the products, exchanging a few words with the vendor. Then, remove that from your life.
If it's a heavy duty for you, if you have to take care of a whole family and it's hard for you, of course, delegate some of the work if you can. Try to free yourself from suffering.
But the simple thought I want to convey with this text is that such optimizations do not always and in all cases positively affect your productivity and mental health.
I'm urging you to be more thoughtful about what constitutes 'unnecessary time-consuming tasks' for you, and what is actually quite beneficial.
We are humans, not task-executing machines.
Our lives have many facets, and balancing attention to each of them can actually increase our productivity in the long run.