There’s an App for That: Pervasive Media and The Push for Productivity
I exhibit, according to psychological categorisation, Type A behaviour patterns. One typical behaviour trait of this is a constant sense of time urgency, where Type A people seem to be in a race against the clock. Apparently, we quickly become impatient with delays or unproductive time, schedule commitments too tightly and try to do more than one thing at a time.
Well, consider me triggered.
My inherent tendency is to continually look for ways and organisational tools to do things more efficiently, in the least amount of time possible, for maximum output. Here, I make confession number two: I am an app addict. I have task apps, calendar apps, shopping apps, reminder apps, timer apps and scheduling apps. I have apps for my kid’s school, for uni and for work.
But am I productive and happy? Or am I just preoccupied and…appy?
Is Productivity Even A Worthy Pursuit?
The proliferation of productivity apps is the by-product of a larger, cultural obsession with productivity that has permeated our places of work. I am not alone in my fixation with better productivity and time management.
According to scholar and researcher at Intel Corporation, Melissa Gregg, this is the new workplace order, at least for knowledge workers. In her book Counterproductive: Time Management in the Knowledge Economy, Gregg critiques productivity as a measure of employee value and professional success. She challenges whether this is even the right measure, “given jobs with discrete, measurable outputs may be in decline.”
Gregg goes on to posit that the pursuit of productivity serves to isolate workers from each other and erases the ability to define work limits. This follows on from her previous work which documents the adverse impacts of mobile devices and social media platforms on work/life balance for knowledge workers. Gregg found workers feel constantly pressured to optimise their productivity and performance, despite increasing job precarity.
As media pervades our workplaces and life itself is hypermediated, the previously ordered, temporal approach of disciplined routine to achieve goals is outdated and mismatched to modern workplaces. As someone who is about to re-enter the workforce soon, is it time for me to delete my apps?
An Overabundance of Apps
While people have always sought to do more with their time, new digital tools designed to help increase efficiency have multiplied. A quick Google search results in millions of hits and recommendations for everyone, from entrepreneurs to busy mums and students.
Despite their popularity, journalist Caroline Beaton is not a fan of productivity apps. She believes productivity is an outdated purpose and a misleading feeling. She says:
“Hacks…condone replacing the hard and important with the easy and quick. What they ultimately accomplish is not progress on a large, important goal, but rather the feeling of productivity.”
Gregg concurs with this notion. She also reckons that apps being able to control life’s unpredictability is an illusion.
Short-sighted Shortcuts
Not only are we seeing task and time management productivity apps, we are also seeing a proliferation of summary apps such as Blinkist. This non-fiction book summary app helps us glean information without having to invest too much time in pursuits that will detract from our productivity- you know, such as reading an actual book cover to cover. Blinkist allows you to “fit reading into your life”, “absorb big ideas in 15 minutes” and is “perfect for quick knowledge hits in bitesize” according to their website. (Of course, they have a productivity category.)
Is self-improvement something we really want to rush? Is it just me, or is there something patently absurd about learning how to “Design Your Life” or absorb the takeaways from “The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital” in a matter of minutes?
I think Blinkist’s 11 million users may disagree with me.
While productivity apps turn everyday activities into measurable objects, there is no evidence that all this measuring and tracking translates to better outputs. App developers proclaim their inventions increase productivity, yet hard evidence is scant- if productivity is truly even quantifiable.
As I limp towards the finish of my undergraduate career and prepare to re-enter the world of work, most likely into an information or communications job, I think it’s time I push back against the propensity for productivity for its own sake and reclaim my right to do things just for enjoyment.
Is there an app for that?
