Zen, Lifehacker and Productivity

At this week's Etech conference in San Diego, Lifehacker's Gina Trapani told attendees that becoming more productive doesn't always mean keeping up with the latest killer app, funneling your whole being through a sieve of uber-efficiency, or even staying on task all the time. A truly productive life and career also requires contemplation, vacation, and, yes, sometimes rendering yourself incommunicado.

This is the angle I find so refreshing about the 11 Tips for Improving Productivity that InformationWeek culled from Trapani's presentation.

What turns people like myself off of many productivity systems is the seemingly relentless nature of it. Many of us derive a perverse pleasure from going with the flow at times, and streamlining your whole life makes the whole enterprise feel a tad robotic. To keep body, soul, calendar and headspace at peace, Trapani preaches organization when it counts and wasting time when your soul requires it.

Amen.

(Picture of Zen rock garden via flickr user CyboRoZ, CC 2.0)