Productivity, Part One

Productivity. 

Talking about this word motivates me, but it also triggers guilt because I hardly ever feel productive.

It seems that at the end of every day I look at my to-do list, full of mostly uncompleted items, and feel disappointed in myself. Recently I wondered: “What am I doing wrong?”

I know I’m not the only one in this boat.

There are two main productivity thought trains that often expose themselves in personal or virtual conversation: either productivity is everything, or it is overrated.

What I’ve come to discover is that productivity is a worthy pursuit, if we pursue it accompanied and directed by something else.

“God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful.” – St. Teresa of Calcutta.

We do need to prioritize faithfulness over success, but that doesn’t mean that we separate faithfulness and productivity! By surrendering our duties and desires to God, asking him to simply help us accomplish what He wants, we give our desire for productivity over to Someone we can trust more than we can trust ourselves.

In doing this, we can be confident that we are completing (to the best of our abilities) the tasks God requests from us.

It might go without saying, but adopting the “surrender” mentality doesn’t give us leave to lapse into slothfulness.

Adopting this method and attempting to “be about” the business of God the Father, like the young Jesus in the Temple, means we need to pray for grace to keep doing His work (Luke 2:49).

At the beginning of every day, let’s put that surrender prayer before the to-do list. Because so long as we are being faithful, we are being as productive as God desires us to be.

So is productivity a big deal? Yes. But it’s time to start doing it right.

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Thanks for reading!