productivity is long term
Let's say you're a writer who writes 10 books in 25 years.
Productive? For sure.
Zoom in.
You write a book that takes you 2.5 years.
Still productive? I think so.
Zoom in.
You're taking a day or a week just to slack off and relax. Maybe you write a lot of terrible or useless stuff just destined for the bin. Or perhaps you're just going through the stages of existential dread, feeling like a complete failure. Anything but writing good or useful text.
Well, that's definitely not productive.
Right?
Now things get interesting. The answer is not clear. Or rather, it's impossible to know for sure. You see, zoom in close enough, and you're only able to see whether you're busy or not. You can see the hours you've put in and the hours you did not. But you can't see what ultimately comes out of it.
That's why real, meaningful productivity can only truly be measured in long enough time frames.
But you're probably judging yourself on the shortest of time frames? Just looking at how much you have managed to produce on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis? Because otherwise you feel like you're wasting time, lazy — failing.
Silly you.
Zoom out.