So You Want To Be More Productive?
What the science of longevity & COVID-19 can teach us about leading a quality life
Life as we know it has ground to a halt. While much of the global supply chain struggles through shortages, many people find themselves with an unanticipated abundance of a truly priceless resource: time.
As the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools and businesses, the sudden influx of free time has left us reeling for direction, scrolling through listicles of quarantine activities, plant-based recipes, and at-home workouts.
So now that we finally have it, how do we make the most productive use of the free time we’ve been so desperate for? Should I learn a new language? Clean out my closet, perhaps? Start that book I’ve been meaning to write? Finally call the high school friend I haven’t talked to in years? For those with kids, the pressure is even higher: how will you ensure their time is spent productively?
If you find yourself as equally triggered by these questions as I do, fear not — I have great news for you. Everything you’ve been taught to believe about productivity is flawed, and the science of longevity proves it.
Traditional notions of achievement and success have led us to believe that optimizing efficiency — doing more faster — is inherently valuable. In reality, productivity without purpose is futile at best and dangerous at worst. And in my case, it nearly killed me. After spending the past year focused exclusively on personal improvement and optimizing performance, I suffered the most epic burnout imaginable. In the process, I discovered first-hand why productivity hacks so often fail or backfire:
- The Productivity Paradox. The more work I got done in a single day, the more was heaped on my plate. This bled over from the office into my personal fitness. When I accomplished a goal, I’d immediately set my sights on the next distance or the fast speed. But why? This leads me to…
- Priorities. I was pouring my effort into endeavors that were out of alignment with my fundamental purpose in life: to connect and contribute. I’d become so inward-looking and ego-driven that I was blinded to my true priorities: building meaningful relationships and serving others.
If you are a slave to your schedule, or regularly succumb to the tyranny of your to-do list, this is your path to freedom. Longevity research provides insight into how to reprioritize and rebalance in order to live a long and healthy life. With some simple tactics and only a few minutes a day, this step-by-step approach will liberate you from anxiety-inducing to-do lists and reduce unhealthy obsessions with exercise and dieting. In doing so, you stand to restore both purpose and pleasure to your daily life.
Dying to Improve
Life moves at a faster pace than ever before. Technology places the world at our fingertips, providing instant access to an infinite number of videos to watch, books to read, workouts to accomplish, etc. For me, this generates a suffocating pressure to be constantly “productive” — in motion, improving, digesting content, checking off tasks.
I’ve always found inherent value in improvement and progress. Even as a little kid, my competitive drive was insatiable — and my toughest competitor was myself. If I didn’t end the day better than when I’d started, I felt the day had been a waste. In my adult life, this obsession with self-improvement drove me into the world of biohacking and self-help podcasts from Tim Ferriss to Dave Asprey to Jocko Willink.
I, like many, assumed that today’s high-tech self-help world would make it easier than ever to improve health-span and quality of life. When my personal experience proved quite the opposite, I found myself asking: Why is it that at the same time we’re attempting to optimize and improve across every dimension that Americans are actually living shorter lives?
Americans’ average life expectancy has been declining for at least three consecutive years, falling further behind similarly high-income countries. This drop in life expectancy is attributed to an increase in midlife-mortality rates, defined as more deaths on average in people ages 25–64, across a range of causes: drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and organ failure.
Many theories seek to explain the rise in these ailments, all of which are various forms of self-destructive behavior. Most experts agree that there is a clear linkage with the parallel phenomena of a dramatic increase in rates of mental health disorders, namely anxiety and depression.
The pressure to thrive and succeed creates a scarcity mindset — I don’t have enough, I need more, I am not enough. It generates anxiety and leads to adrenal fatigue over time. Complete physical and mental burnout is never far behind. When attempting to maintain an unsustainable pace for too long, eventually our bodies simply can’t keep up. Therein lies the irony — the people most eager to accomplish everything life has to offer are also those literally killing themselves to get there. I know, because I’m one of them.
Discovering Longevity Science
Over the past year, I found myself caught in the race like many other young professionals. I worked twelve-hour days and insisted on filling my limited free time with all the endeavors society deems productive — intense exercise, self-improvement books, dietary restrictions, rigorous financial planning.
My entire perspective shifted when (while listening to podcasts over countless hours on the Stairmaster) I was introduced to the science of longevity and encouraged to reevaluate the lifestyle I’d ardently embraced for years.
Perhaps the most popular longevity research stems from Dan Buettner’s book “The Blue Zones.” Blue Zones are regions of the world with higher than average rates of centenarians, people living past one hundred. While Buettner’s analysis captures a full range of lifestyle factors, most mainstream articles focus almost exclusively on diet and nutrition. This isn’t much of a surprise — society tends to single in on factors we can control as individuals (evident in our obsession with fad diets, exercise, and quick-fix “biohacks” to physical health).
In contrast, the most interesting of Buettner’s “Power 9®” factors are those that have received the least attention — those focused on mental and emotional health: connecting with people, belonging to a community, putting loved ones first, having a positive, purpose-driven outlook, and taking the time to unwind.
Beyond Buettner’s study, there is a growing base of research showing that strong social cohesion and a sense of belonging are closely linked to favorable physical health outcomes among aging populations. In fact, close relationships and community interaction are stronger predictors of longevity than all traditional notions of health: diet, exercise, smoking, cardiac health, and clean air. In contrast to everything we’ve been taught, longevity requires holistic health, derived as much from social realms as physical fitness.
The Productivity Paradox
The more I learned about the Blue Zones and related research on health-span, it became increasingly clear my approach was failing. No matter how much I optimized my efficiency at work, I never left before 7 pm. No matter how fast or far I could run, or the number on the scale, it was never enough. I tried every sleep hack in the book and found myself continuing to battle insomnia and fatigue. Even my love of learning seemed to wane; the podcasts I once enjoyed devolved into monotone droning as I began questioning the point of this so-called self-improvement.
All this effort, and for what? I’m trying to improve my health to buy time for more of this? I was perpetually sprinting on a treadmill that only seemed to speed up the faster I went.
Sure enough, despite exceeding my career and fitness goals for the year, I was utterly miserable. I’d reached maximum speed only to reach maximum burn-out; wearing down my body, sabotaging my health, and undermining my enthusiasm for work and life itself.
Along the way, I had neglected relationships and the most important people in my life. I treated others as instruments to self-interested means, instead of as autonomous, thinking, feeling human beings. My obsession with productivity and self-improvement fueled an entirely counterproductive lifestyle — one that led sooner to mental, physical, and emotional burnout than it did the long and quality life I’d been aiming for.
In Western society, the desire to experience everything and achieve greatness drives us to race through life at break-neck speed. Ironically, this approach often produces the opposite effect by generating prolonged stress and chronic inflammation that causes the biological clock to tick faster and faster, trimming entire years off of one’s life.
Focusing on optimizing every minute of every day at the expense of one’s holistic wellness is almost certain to backfire. Increasing efficiency may prove fruitful in the short-term, but obsessing over productivity enhancement can lead to an insidious spiral where you cram more and more into each day. Instead, long-run productivity (not to mention contentment) is best pursued through a longevity strategy, which requires putting equal effort into social, mental, and spiritual wellness as physical health.
Reassessing Priorities & Restoring Purpose
Flash forward to March of 2020 — the virus that was a joke a few short months ago is now a full-blown pandemic, killing thousands and infecting countless more. Like most everyone, I’m “working from home” and wondering how to optimize my time. Instead of waffling on whether I should try to learn piano or finally start meditating, the urgent threat of coronavirus made my priorities clear: stay tuned in with family, reconnect with friends and check-in on those who might be struggling. People are the priority.
Longevity science helped me understand that invisible factors — mental, social, and spiritual wellbeing — are equally as important as physical health when it comes to living a long, healthy, and fulfilling life. I see this reality in everyday existence amidst the coronavirus, as we struggle to stay socially connected despite physical distancing measures.
I’ll be the first to admit that pulling myself out of the insidious cycle of productivity obsession is still a work-in-progress… but it’s been made easier in these challenging and uncertain times — one in which priorities couldn’t be more clear.
I’ve always sought greater productivity because I want to make a difference and, like many people, I fear a premature and irrelevant death. But beyond those ego-driven fears lies my fundamental desire for life: I cherish experiencing the world and the fascinating people in it. Because I don’t want to miss out on that — on the people that matter most to me — I must make a conscious choice every single day to slow the f*ck down.
Practical Application
- Strategize. In other words, find your why. This isn’t as intimidating as it may sound. Simply think about those aspects of your life that genuinely excite you. What motivates you to wake up a little earlier in the morning or stay up far too late working on? Perhaps it’s for a serene moment of alone time, an intense workout session, or to write a few pages of the book you’ve been working on. Now, ask yourself why am I doing this? Is it out of passion and sheer enjoyment? Is it to earn a living wage to support your family? Is it for material gain or vanity? Driven by self-interest, ego, or the desire to display a certain image to the world? Something else?
- Envision. Picture the type of person you want to be, not the tasks you want to accomplish. Every morning, take a few minutes to set your intent for the day. I do it while brushing my teeth. Ask yourself — what imprint do I want to leave on the world today? These are small things, like showing kindness to a stranger, or patience with a frustrating colleague at work. One of my favorites is “today I will listen more than I speak.” If you’re having trouble where to start, make a gratitude list. Now, think about how you can show your gratitude either by repaying or paying it forward. Start small. In the morning, you are (or soon will be) very thankful for your cup of coffee. Why? It energizes you, gives you focus. Now reverse that impact and your intent is obvious: Today I focus on bringing energy and focus to the room- whether at work or home or school or simple daily interactions.
- Eliminate. In order to dedicate more time and attention to your daily intent, you need to reevaluate your existing obligations. If you’ve thought long and hard about “why am I doing this” for a certain activity or behavior and still can’t connect it something you deeply value — scrap it. Right now. Make the decision to cross it off the schedule and walk away. It’s okay to shred the to-do list and start from scratch. Sure, it’d cool to learn guitar or prepare the five-start recipe or train for a marathon, but are any of those goals connected to your purpose and priorities? What will you have to sacrifice to achieve them? Critically assess the “what” behind your productivity — if it doesn’t connect to the “why”, just stop!
- Preserve. Protect the open space you’ve created like gold. In fact, go ahead and shade that new block of time in your planner with a silver or gold Sharpie. You’ve done the most difficult task of all — creating blank space, the place where magic happens, where creativity flourishes. Free time is valuable in and of itself; it is the greatest gift in the world, allowing endless opportunities for human interactions, soaking in nature, spontaneity, playfulness, small sparks of creativity, of joy.
- Indulge. As your free time approaches, you might have anxiety about how you’ll spend it. Fear not! Freedom — the ability to choose how to spend your time — will feel new and unchartered to anyone typically held hostage by a rigid schedule and task list. Stick with it. Soon enough these blocks of time will be a refuge and the most cherished part of your day, whether you choose to meditate, play outside with your kids, or get lost in a book.
- Interact. Every single day, connect with at least one person. Even casual interactions can boost neurotransmitters in the brain — dopamine and oxytocin — providing a miniature high and helping reduce stress. Every morning while you’re setting your intent, think about one person with whom you’d like to connect that day. Perhaps it’s a quick chat with the barista prepping your coffee, or engaging with the cashier checking-out your groceries. Don’t know what to say? Simply ask how the person’s day is going. Comment on the weather. The topic doesn’t matter, they will simply appreciate being seen and heard as a fellow human being. You’ll gain empathy and come to appreciate the village that supports you. This is the one change I’ve made in the last three months that has had the most obvious positive impact on my mood and overall outlook.
- Invest. Close relationships are fundamental to health and longevity. And here’s the thing… you already have them! It’s time to reprioritize and double down on the friends and family in our lives. The people we could call in the middle of the night to bail us out of jail. If this seems insurmountable, start small. Make a plan to call a family member once a week. Send a text to an old friend just to check in (trust me, they won’t think it’s weird! Everyone is flattered to know they are thought of). And remember… if you “don’t have time” for lunch with a friend, it’s because you’re choosing to spend your time elsewhere. Your schedule doesn’t run your life, you run your life. What will you choose?
By following these guidelines, you’ll slowly move from placing value in checking off the to-do list towards a broader conception of productivity, one rooted in longevity science and holistic wellness. In time, you’ll come to find that a 20-minute yoga session, a hike, or a phone call with Mom will pay off tremendous dividends in bringing you closer to your priorities, your intent for the day, and your overall purpose in the world.
Conclusion
I hope to live well past one-hundred, but I know if I continue the lifestyle of my 20s into the next decade, I’ll be chasing false idols down a path that leads only to loneliness, emptiness, and aching regret.
Now is the perfect time to reset, to reevaluate. Join me in making a conscious choice to step off the hyper-efficient hamster wheel of productivity. Seek out human connection (from six feet away) and embrace opportunities to listen. Learn to accept an imperfect day, discover peace in stillness, potential in boredom, and humor in the inevitable disruptions and inconveniences.
So slow down a little. You might be surprised by how productive you become.
