The Different Forms of Productivity: What is Wasted Time?

Productivity Guilt

I struggle with productivity guilt. Always feeling like there’s a more efficient way to spend my time, like I’m wasting it in some way or another.

However, recently I’ve been thinking about the nature of “wasted time”. What turns time spent into time wasted? After some thinking, I believe I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s far more difficult to actually waste time than some might think, although it is definitely still possible.

The Forms of Productivity

Productivity is something I would consider foundational to my identity, and I believe it’s important to always be making progress towards a greater goal or sense of self. But something I’m only starting to understand is that progress takes on many forms.

Active Productivity

Of course, there is the cookie-cutter image of progress: completing tangible tasks. These tasks can also be subdivided into those that are external and those that are self-imposed. This version of progress is the one that feels most productive, and it’s the only version I believed existed until recently.

We put so much emphasis on this “active” model of productivity because ticking off tasks not only provides immediate feedback and a consequential dopamine hit, but in many cases, it also incites external validation.

Maintenance Productivity

Next, there’s maintenance productivity, another widely recognized mode of making progress.

Humans are (unfortunately) incapable of redlining their physiological engines 24/7, and more often than not, sleep alone is insufficient rest for the constant stress and stimuli we expose ourselves to. We need time to do restorative activities that give the brain and body time to recover.

To any skeptical reader who assumes that rest is for the weak and the grind never stops (as I was and still sometimes am), there is real science behind why rest is important for preserving your mind. I don’t want to turn this into a scientific paper, but among other biological factors, mental exertion results in a buildup of metabolites that inhibit your cognition. Not taking breaks is the same as making an active effort to not reach your goals.

Passive Productivity

Lastly, the mode of progress I only recently discovered and one that I think is most overlooked, is passive productivity.

This has some overlap with maintenance productivity, in that it represents (almost–I’ll touch on this in a moment) everything that isn’t a tangible step forward your goals. Playing video games, reading fiction, socializing, working on passion projects, etc. These activities are often categorized as leisure, separate from “real productivity”, but I think that perspective is misguided.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, the brain is constantly working and processing. I’ve recently been reading more on human psychology, and while I haven’t even scratched the surface of the iceberg that is understanding the brain, one common theme consistently reappears: the two minds. Whether it’s Malcom Gladwell’s “unconscious thinking”, Daniel Kahneman’s “System 2”, or Barbara Oakley’s “diffuse mode”, it’s undeniable that there is a region of our brain constantly working in the background.

This is how leisure becomes productive; standard task-oriented and maintenance productivity tend to the conscious mind and the physical body, but passive productivity tends to the unconscious.

Circling back to Oakley, I really like her description of the brain’s “diffuse mode”. She talks about how although most active work is done in “focus mode”, where direct attention is given to a specific problem, the brain’s “diffuse mode” forms subconscious mental connections to gain a better understanding of the problems it faced while in focus mode. This is the essence of creativity, and is why completing tasks that may not necessarily seem immediately productive is critical to grow and progress towards greater goals.

Exposing yourself to new experiences creates more nodes to form connections with in the background. Although you may not actively see how time spent playing video games could serve any purpose in your professional life, the novel mental bridges built during your “leisure” could ultimately be a critical part of the path needed to solve an otherwise unsolvable problem.

So is that it? Everything is productive? You can forget about any of your life plans and party rock for the rest of your days?

Not quite.

What is Unproductive?

One critical element of diffuse mode thinking is that it only works provided sufficient stimulus and proper instruction. Sure, connections are always being formed in the background, but the purpose of these connections is to tie loose ends into something greater. Without some sort of active productivity, these connections will be made purposelessly.

Consider clean energy, like solar, hydro, and wind. Nature will produce these forces regardless of what we do, but bouts of active effort can set up systems that will utilize them productively.

Moreover, there is a subset of activities that I do believe is entirely unproductive: completely passive consumption (e.g., doomscrolling, mindless binge watching).

I’m painfully aware of this cliche “self-help” advice, but I thought it would be interesting to consider the topic of passive content consumption from the perspective of these three modes of productivity. This doesn’t classify as active productivity, clearly, but what about maintenance or passive productivity?

Maintenance productivity refers to activities that take your body and mind away from complex stimuli, and give them a chance to rest and recover. Aimless content consumption, although seemingly not requiring an active cognitive effort, is still activating the brain, stressing your central nervous system. It isn’t restorative, and the mental space allocated for it distracts unconscious connections from being formed.

So it isn’t active or maintenance productivity, but what about passive productivity? You’re still consuming knowledge, so it should still be forming useful nodes for your diffuse mode to act on, right?

Sort of. Content consumption can definitely be a form of passive productivity, but not through doomscrolling or similar mindless activities.

For the mental connections that characterize passive productivity to be formed, a sense of presence in the moment is required. Consider this: do you have any recollection of any of the last few videos you watched during your last scrolling session? More importantly, did you consciously make the decision to engage in your last scrolling session?

Don’t get me wrong, passive productivity does not mean remembering everything you do and consume. Rather it means intentionally choosing your activities and being mentally present during them.

Concluding Statement

And that’s what this all really boils down to. As a TL;DR to this article: wasted time is time spent unintentionally. It’s important to make active efforts towards your goals, accomplishing definite goals and completing tangible tasks, but the other activities that fill your day are often just as important to building the brain and character of the person you want to be through the engagement of maintenance and passive productivity.