23: Why I'm Dropping Productivity From My Vocabulary
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Welcome to episode 23 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about why I'm dropping productivity from my vocabulary.
For years, probably almost as long as I've been in business. I've been signing off my emails and this podcast with wishing you much productivity, peace and prosperity. And recently I was talking about the shift that I'm doing in my business. And I was talking about maybe adding productivity to my title in some way.
And a friend of mine said productivity has a negative connotation to me. I think of it as like the hustle culture. And I thought, wow, I've never thought of it that way. Productivity to me doesn't mean that you're hustling. It just means action. But I started looking into it and I was amazed at how many people think of it as a negative word.
And I can understand why, because. Often productivity is this pressure to produce or, It causes stress and burnout. And then there's the whole work-life balance and when you don't pair productivity with things that are going to promote, health, physical health, mental health, wellbeing. I can see where that negativity comes in.
So in my research, I see the, a lot of people don't like to be measured in what they're doing. They don't like to be comparing what they're doing with other people. They feel like they're not doing enough tasks. And obviously productivity is really about output.
It's important to know that what we're outputting is beneficial to us. I talk about progress tasks and maintenance tasks and having a nice balance of those. And it doesn't mean you need to do more. It's just, whatever is bringing you progress each day and then also maintaining your life because we can't just keep moving forward without taking care of what is already in place.
It's that overemphasis on quantity I think that really drives the negativity towards us. I just see productivity as being action. You're getting something done. I'm not looking at it as, the amount of stuff you've got done.
But that isn't the case for everybody. So I've decided to remove that word from my vocabulary, at least in my marketing, um, and how I, speak with people because. Really when I use that word, I'm not promoting everything, that goes along with the negativity. But I can see where the confusion is.
It's important for me to stress to people that, even if you get one thing done during the day to me, that's productive. But to most people, it isn't. So that's really why I want to remove the word because I don't want people to feel like if they come work with me they're now going to be doing a bunch of different stuff during the day.
So productivity in itself is not inherently negative, but when we don't pair it with, wellbeing, and purpose, which is potentially one of the words I'm going to replace it with. It can really throw us out of balance and affect our wellbeing,and really what we're what we're trying to achieve when we're focusing on getting stuff done
what is the purpose of that?
So I will be replacing productivity. With one or two words, haven't decided which, so if you're listening to this and you, you think one is better than the other. Reach out to me, let me know. It's either going to be purpose or it's going to be progress. Or I'm going to use both of those words and I'm going to replace prosperity.
Because as I started thinking about all of this. The word peace. I don't want that to go. But prosperity. Some people. Some people think of prosperity as only monetary. And when I think of prosperity, I'm thinking of yes monetary so that you can feel comfortable. You can do the things that you want to do.
But also for me, it's about prosperity in relationships and happiness.
So I may try out wishing you much purpose, peace and progress. Or progress, peace and purpose. I don't know. haven't really nailed that down. But I know for sure. I'm going to be letting go of the word productivity.
Now I have even more work to do because I've been playing around with different, new,business titles from shifting from professional organizer and I think I've got productivity in a lot of those.
So I need to scour through all my stuff. I am not going to remove productivity from any. articles and things that I've written in the past. It's going to be an intentional thing going forward. I'm going to use that word less and less. I'm going to try to not use it at all. But again, I don't see it as a negative word. But I want to be sure that I'm getting my message across because my message isn't that I want you to be producing, producing, producing.
I want you to be producing as much as you need to produce to meet your goals and to feel good on a daily basis and getting more done. If that is stressful, I don't want that to be the goal again. I just want people to be. In action. And, even if it's just one small thing each day and that one small thing could be, take the day off and relax, because to me, that's an action that is going to give yourself a future gift. You take a mental health day and then you go back and do work the next day.
So I'd love to play a little game with you. I don't really have to have these three P words. I really do enjoy having three words.
And you may be listening to this and thinking, why do we even need those three words? Words are really important to me. My life words are peace, love, and light. And I could use those as my sign off. And I would love to hear your thoughts on that, or I could shift it more towards business and, use that purpose, progress and peace in some way. Or you got another word, let me know. And I would also love to hear from you. if this resonates with you, if productivity has felt like a negative word to you.
And as always, I'm going to put my contact information in the show notes so that you can,reach out to me in whatever way feels comfortable. I would love to hear back from you.
And along with that if there's a topic you want me to discuss. Reach out. Let me know. Especially even if it's something I've touched on in the past episodes and you want me to go deeper,
And today, I'm going to wish you much peace and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
