Abandoning Pretend Productivity

Resistance and procrastination often show up for me as pretend productivity.

I know it’s happening when I’m rearranging information on a Notion dashboard instead of genuinely making progress on a creative project.

Or I’m in a loop through my email inbox(s) disguised as doing something. Or exploring shiny-object ideas and deep-diving into un-helpful side quests that make me feel like I’m rearranging furniture on the Titanic.

Not literally of course. But it’s that feeling of being in motion that might feel helpful but isn’t actually steering the ship. Or truly helping at all.

An especially sticky spot for me is how easy it is to just continuing to learn more about a topic instead of practicing and applying what I already know.

Learning more and more is safe. It isn’t risky and it’s not vulnerable. And it very helpfully feels like progress.

We often associate being in motion with making progress. But motion itself -especially pretend productive and busy work - leads nowhere but feels like I’m doing something.

But instead of just doing something, anything, and everything - what if I just stood there?

What if my progress doesn’t look productive or busy? What if I’m at the point in the process where I’m quietly thrashing through the options, noticing details, questioning assumptions, thinking strategically, and subtracting alternatives instead.

Thrashing at the start of a project and a pivot is important.1 It requires taking the time to explore options and then discard or refine them before moving forward. Doing this work at the beginning means less sunk costs and opportunity costs.

But the other side of this is finding clarity through motion and not getting stuck in planning mode - another form of pretend productivity.

I’ve been trying to have a bias toward action, exploration, and experimentation while also giving myself enough learning to be supportive and structure to make progress.

A challenge and a gift of self-employment is that I have both the freedom and the responsibility to abandon ‘busy as a status symbol’2 and try to not get caught up in pretend productivity as is shows up in corporate 9-5 ‘ass-in-seat’ work hours.

Curiosity is a compass. And right now I’m following it.

I’m trying to put in my mileage to find clarity through motion and doing the necessary thrashing to build strong assets and shift my business.

Also, I’ve been working for myself for 10 years this January. I launched Daring Studios in January 2016. ⏳