Productivity is dead
Let percolation reign!!! / Issue 1,192
Oh, hi friends!
Have you noticed?
Over the last few years, I’ve pretty much excised mentions of “productivity” in this newsletter.
It’s not that I don’t want to be productive. I want to produce things.
But I noticed that we are all thinking differently about grinding out our work, and “maximizing” our time, energy, and effort.
So I’ve been using another phrase, one that captures the free-flowing idea generation that I find more valuable and useful (and, yes, sometimes elusive).
Because my best, most original, or most fulfilling ideas arrived:
The day after a weeklong vacation
Idea: I’ll start a podcast!
As I was stepping out of the shower
Idea: The third journal should be about boundaries! I’ll call it, Do It (or Don’t)!
After gnawing an idea kernel for a few years until it popped
Idea: I finally know what this weird topic is — a nonfiction book!
A solid 18 months after that first meeting with a collaborator
Idea: Wait, this song cycle is actually a musical!
And in more unusual places, on strange or unpredictable timelines.
I have a new article in Quartz today about this idea (which I first wrote about in my Do It Today):
Obsessing over your productivity? Try percolating instead
Jerry Herman and John Steinbeck percolated. Twyla Tharp percolates.
If you’re looking for a gentler way to get inspired or get creative or work ideas flowing again, percolation can help.
And if you’re in the middle of something and can’t find the ending:
Remember that something worthwhile will take as long as it’s going to take.
You can read the article and its tips here.
I hope this might resonate with you, and would love to hear about your own percolations below in the comment section.
Are you over productivity? Do you percolate? Where do you find your best ideas???
Special thanks to Quartz’s Gabriela Riccardi for her wonderful editing expertise, and for finding me through this newsletter. And also for answering my email after it took six months to send her a story idea.
See, I percolate all the time! lol.
Love your articulation of this. I’ve been thinking a lot about inspiration and where it comes from, and how it transforms into ideas. There’s so much emphasis on getting inspiration from outside ourselves (I.e content) and hardly any on the internal reflection, which you’ve described so nicely as percolation. I think it’s because absorbing content makes us feel productive, and you can’t really quantify percolation. But as you say, ideas need time to breathe! Thanks for sharing this.
Yes! Love this. I call it putting something in the rock tumbler and then waiting to see what kind of gem comes out (or not). Might have to be an 80s kid to get this, but I love thinking of my mind as a rock tumbler working in polishing various materials.