Madeleine Dore
Appearances
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Hi, Mike. Thanks so much for having me.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
It is a curious thing, isn't it, Mike, that we are told to optimize our lives so that we have more time and then we just fill that with more optimizing of our lives. It's an endless game, it seems. And I think that it is a call for pause or a call for thought because isn't it that we should be optimizing our time so that we have more times for the things that are meaningful or important to us?
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And productivity, it can be fantastic. We all need to get things done. But it's the never enough, never quite reaching an end point that can have us on this hamster wheel in our days. And it can contribute to things like burnout and overwhelm and stress and perhaps take us out of our lives.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
It does. You can really spiral in these feelings of productivity guilt and you can write off the whole day and deem it a failure because of that one thing that you didn't get done or perhaps several things that you didn't get done. And so I think that where that really can stem from is this idea that in our society, we've tied productivity to our sense of self-worth and
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
and when we do that it what we do is never enough we never quite reach that feeling of being complete our to-do list is never complete and so i think we're set up to fail a little bit here because we're told that productivity is a measure of our worth but it's never quite enough and so we never quite get there and we pile on these feelings of guilt and shame at the end of the day and so i think it's really about untethering that idea that productivity is the sole measure of our worth
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And we can find some other things in our days to count amongst the doing. And so it's always curious to me that you can get to that end of the day and have that guilt feeling and focus solely on the thing that you didn't do and overlook all of the treasures and all of the perhaps moments of connection that you had or the moments of kindness or what you learned, even the mistakes you make.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Yes, I agree. I think that there's many, many categories in between. And even what we deem wasted time, I think is worth getting curious about because we're quick to call ourselves lazy or we're quick to say that we're wasting time. We're quick to say that we're procrastinating. But when we inspect that, we can actually see that
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
sometimes it's those moments that are incredibly valuable are we procrastinating or are we actually thinking about the problem in a deeper way are we letting ideas sort of roll around in our minds before we take that action and i think it's an interesting thing because we we tend to worry about the time that we're wasting and
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
If anything, I think the surest way to waste time is to worry about wasting it. So if we take away the worry about wasted time and we get curious about those moments, maybe we can see that the time that we enjoy wasting is actually not wasted time, or we can see that it's thinking time, or we can see that it's an all-important moment of rest and downtime.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Yes, exactly. And something that's been really helpful for me is actually returning to one of my favorite books by Arnold Bennett. It's called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, and it was written in 1908. And so it's always a gem to kind of return to these texts and see that we've been grappling with these things. quandaries for many decades and centuries even.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And what Arnold Bennett points out is that we cannot waste time in advance. So I think sometimes when we're caught in that productivity guilt feeling or we're worrying about wasting time, we lament the morning that we might have wasted, for instance. And we carry that worry into the afternoon when actually we can't waste time in advance.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
So instead, we can have this opportunity to turn over a new leaf. And what that means is that we can see that this moment in front of us is so far unspoiled. Instead of falling further down that spiral that we can fall into, we can turn it over and begin afresh.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
It's inevitable. It's life. And so perhaps if we can build in some buffer room in our days and in our plans for those inevitable surprises, distractions and interruptions, perhaps that would be what can lessen that tension.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
productivity guilt that we experience because we can see, oh, okay, so I didn't get the thing done that I thought that I needed to do today because of this emergency and interruption. And that's life. And so I'm not solely to blame here. I think there's a fine line in terms of, obviously, there's these things that we want to accomplish in our lives to have a sense of meaning or satisfaction.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And in many senses, we do need to find that motivation within ourselves but i also think that we need to acknowledge when perhaps there's things outside of our control that you know knock over our plans for the day
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Well, I do have a suspicion that perhaps people aren't getting as much done as they might portray they are on social media. I think that it's so easy to curate our lives. And even when we look on social media, we know that it's curated. We know that we're looking at a highlight reel intellectually, but it can be difficult to untangle that feeling of comparison where we fall short.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
So I think that there's two things at play here. And the first is that there is a level of curation happening and that can mean that we spiral in comparison and we see our real life and our incomplete to-do list. But really it might be that other people also have things that are incomplete. It's inevitable as well where no one is perfect. But the other side of this is that
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
perhaps there are some people that have a greater capacity for productivity and perhaps they do get more done. Perhaps they have higher energy or more attention or more resources. Maybe they've got more assistance in getting things done.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Maybe they've got a home gym and they're able to kind of get their 30-minute run in early in the morning because they don't have to sort of commute to a gym or something like that. There's all these different tweaks in our lives. And I think that when we're comparing, we have to remember that we're comparing apples and oranges because we're all individuals with variances.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And I think that that can be really comforting to remember that we live in our day and nobody else's.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Potentially. People do, but I think that There's so many suggestions out there in terms of how to get more done. And there's some really helpful tips. There's some great systems that work for people. I found that when I was in pursuit of being perfectly productive, I found that the hacks and the time management techniques worked.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
became something that was something that I tripped over or became even further entangled by because here was this promise, this solution, this hack will help you get more done, this hack will make you more successful and happier. And when I tried that and it still didn't work or I wasn't able to stick to it,
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
I fell further into the productivity spiral because then I sense that, oh, well now not only am I feeling I'm falling behind, but I'm also failing at this simple hack that's meant to be able to sort of offer this cure and solution. And so I found that again, this can contribute to the spiral. And so instead of looking for this one size fits all solution, It's about finding what works for you.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And it was a very freeing thing I found because those hacks can work for some people. And if it's working for you, that's fantastic. But if the issue comes when it doesn't work for you and you feel further entangled, perhaps that's a sign that you're looking in the wrong direction for the solution. And it really has to come back to finding what works for you.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Yes, I think the key to getting curious is definitely it requires a sense of being honest with ourselves. And so if you are spending that 20 minutes scrolling social media mindlessly, I think that it is about asking yourself whether that is a waste of time or whether maybe it is. Sometimes we need those moments of mindlessness and they have their place.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And again, acknowledging that we have been set up to fail here and that these platforms and these devices are do have a very addictive quality to them and so they're designed to distract us um but when it comes to tackling those distractions in our days again it's it's acknowledging that there's in an inevitability to them An antidote can actually be to apply attention to things.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
And so rather than trying to eliminate distractions, I think that we would be chasing our tail all day if we're trying to do that, we can focus our attention instead. And one suggestion could potentially be to set an attention hour. And so that's where you... have this moment to really assess what you've been paying attention to.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
So if you pay attention to what you're paying attention to, you'll actually really be able to see this inventory of your life and you'll be able to see whether it is, whether you're spending your time the way that you wish to. And perhaps instead of saying, okay, well, I'm going to eliminate that distraction of social media.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
You can say, I'm going to pay my attention to cooking this beautiful meal for somebody or on this creative project that I really want to pursue.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Yes, there can be a real cult of busyness and busyness can be worn as this badge of honour. We ask people how they are and they often say busy. And I think that there's lots of different categories as well of busyness. Sometimes busyness is circumstantial. Sometimes busyness is something that we ignore.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
have put in place because we find that we need the momentum at this point in our life, or it could be even our natural frequency. Some people are, they thrive off being busy. It's that sort of adage of ask a busy person to do something. And so, but then there's another category of busy where it is this badge of honour and they're busy to prove their sense of worth or to prove that they're
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
in demand or that their lives are are full and i think that that can be if it's your natural frequency and if it works for you then that's great i think that you'd find that those types of busy people aren't complaining about being busy it's those that are complaining about being busy and it's by their own design that perhaps is worth inspecting and it it differs from
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
being productive in terms of those moments of true productivity when we're engaged and when we're perhaps in flow and we have that element of that creative lens applied to it. But when we're just busy for busy's sake, we're crowding our schedules without really thinking about whether these things that we're doing are what we wish to be doing in the limited time that we have.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
balance is often portrayed as the cure-all. It's a balance people say, or you just need to find a work-life balance. But when you think about balance, if you think of it as a scale, it's constantly balancing. There's no such thing as a perfect balance, because if there were, our lives in many ways would be stagnant. They'd be unmoving. And we're constantly balancing. And I think that
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
In many ways, I like to think of it as a wobble that we have in daily life. We wobble towards different priorities. Again, we might wobble towards different emergencies or interruptions that might occur in our day. And sometimes there's moments in our lives where different things take the priority. And so instead of finding this perfect balance where we're unmoving,
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
if we embrace the fact that we're constantly in flux and we do wobble within our days again maybe we could find some more kindness towards those wobbles rather than judging them and we could see that it's just part of the living and so we can sort of take this idea of balance off its pedestal because we will never really arrive and if we did maybe we'd find it's kind of dull anyway
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Yes, it can feel electric, can't it, those days, Mike, where you do somehow manage to check it all off or the day unfolded in the order that you thought it would. And you feel like you're firing on all cylinders. It's a wonderful feeling. And I think that's perhaps why we chase productivity, because it does feel good on the days that we do the thing. But I think that it feels so good because...
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
In many ways, it's a small miracle of those days that they feel more enlivening because it doesn't happen every day. And so when they do happen, I think there should be a wonderful appreciation for them. But it's acknowledging that not every day is the same. And in many ways, we don't necessarily want that. that would become a groundhog day.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
If what was once electric, if it happened day after day after day, it would lose its shimmer. And so I think we do want the variance and perhaps it's about finding what works for you to set up the day in a way that might put you in a position to have one of those days, but acknowledge that we also have days that that are littered with distractions and sometimes the day is just not our day.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
But that doesn't mean that we are a failure and we need to spoil it completely. We can still find the small good things within days like that as well.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
Thanks, Mike. It's been a delight to speak with you.
Something You Should Know
What Your Senses Can’t Perceive & What Happens When You Are Too Productive - SYSK Choice
We tend to worry about the time that we're wasting. And the surest way to waste time is to worry about wasting it. So if we take away the worry about wasted time, maybe we can see the time that we enjoy wasting is actually not wasted time.