This is a quick video essay attacking the dysfunction of ‘productivity zealotry’. It makes good points, but perhaps is a bit one sided. The failure to address personal productivity is also a problem. But perhaps the biggest problem with ‘wasting time’ is not the failure to pack every minute with something productive, but in filling free time with shallow, unrewarding consumption or fretting. The focus on excessive productivity is the flip side of our culture of excessive consumption.
Discussions about personal productivity strategies has a place in our society, but not such a big place that we can have an entire self-help industry on the topic. Instead, we’d be better off if more successful public figures occasionally took a few minutes to share some of the strategies that have worked for them. It’s part of a well-rounded life, but not an achievement in and of itself.