A mother exercises in front of the television while her baby rests on the couch.South_agency / Getty Images
The philosopher Blaise Pascal said: "The unhappiness of the human being is based only on one thing: that he is unable to remain still in his room." Pascal lived in the 17th century and already people were obsessed with doing something instead of doing nothing. Four centuries later, the daily hustle and bustle has increased remarkably, supported by technological advances that colonize all aspects of our lives. There is a cult of productivity, and not only in the workplace, but also in the so-called “free” time, of which, as seen in the pandemic confinements, we try to make the most of it through artistic creation, Pilates classes or the noble craft of home baking. There were those who reminded the public that Shakespeare wrote
King Lear
during an incarceration for bubonic plague.
The general objective is to work more, consume more, train more or live more experiences than later to give a good account on social networks.
The minute is squeezed to the maximum and life is shortened with respect to its desired content.
But Pascal's unhappiness is still there.
More information
Working less is more productive
The pandemic causes toxic productivity: how to identify it and get rid of it
The capitalist system has always been prone to promoting personal productivity. "But more recent developments have removed some of the buffers that prevented lifelong colonization by the drive to be productive: unions and the welfare state are in decline," says writer Oliver Burkeman, author of
Four Thousand Weeks. : Time Management for Mortals
(4,000 weeks: time management for mortals; it will soon be published in Spanish by Planeta). The rise of the
gig economy
, in which there is a much closer link between personal efficiency and income, generates new anxieties in the use of those 4,000 weeks that, as Burkeman notes, are those that have an average life. “We are the time that we have left,” wrote the poet Caballero Bonald, and, from the point of view of the cult of productivity, what we produce at that time, in a context of diminishing vital security, will be what we are and what we we have, where we go. All our activity seems to have to be directed to a specific purpose, while it generates guilt, and can even be suspicious, that of "wasting" time.
Technology allows us to do more things in less minutes, and makes the work demand or the possibility of carrying out many activities accompany us at every moment and place: it gives us the impression that we can get much more out of our days. At the same time, through the process called
infoxication
, can overstimulate us through continuous messages, warnings, emails, notifications, and undermine our attention span in exchange for small doses of dopamine, making us in everything and in nothing at the same time. For many, it is already difficult to draw a line that clearly separates what is work time and leisure or care time. We simultaneously do chores and jump from one thing to another, be it chores or entertainment, at full speed. "We move faster and faster, but we get more impatient and frustrated, because as we get closer to the mirage of 'total productivity' and perfect optimization, it becomes more and more irritating that we never quite get it," he says. Burkeman.In YouTube videos or on the shelves of bookstores we are offered manuals or tutorials to get the most out of our time and, at the same time, methods to try to stop: the poison together with the antidote. The fact of being in the world is increasingly problematic.
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The epic of entrepreneurship and the slogans of positive thinking place all the responsibility on individuals and not so much on their circumstances: they penalize those who do not "succeed" or who do not do things well as "guilty" of their own situation, time growing precariousness and vital instability.
"There is nothing wrong with training, acquiring skills and knowledge, the problem lies in the logic that moves it," explains sociologist Jorge Moruno, author of books such as
I don't have time.
Geographies of precariousness
(Akal). People are impelled to constantly build their personal brand, to give an image of success, to adapt to the demands of the market in all aspects of life. The online course to speak in public generating impact, the photo on Instagram of the twilight on the beach, the hours of
fitness
to show an attractive image, the fun challenge that is proposed this week on TikTok, the constant training during work life for adapt to an increasingly changing market, in step with continuous technological innovations (which do not always have to be identified with progress). "But it is never questioned whether the market responds to the needs demanded by society, because it acts as an all-embracing God emancipated from any democratic control," says the sociologist.
Curiously, the commitment to constant productivity does not have to result in higher effective productivity, or a better life: we have limits and we need physical and mental breaks. "Although we think that running and busy we are doing much more and being more virtuous, behavioral science has discovered that shortage of time creates a phenomenon called tunnel," explains Brigid Schulte, author of
Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the time
(overwhelmed: work, love and play when no one has time) and director of the Better Life Lab at New America. It turns out as if the peripheral vision darkens (metaphorically) and we move into a darkness in which it is difficult to make correct decisions, taking into account the big picture and not just the brushstroke. According to Schulte, when we are in that tunnel our IQ can drop by 13 points. “So the mess doesn't make us productive. It does not improve our lives. But it is very difficult for people to get out of the hustle and bustle because we live in cultures that value it very much, ”says the author.
Other options are proposed to occupy our time. For example, artist Jenny Odell, based in busy Silicon Valley, rebels against this cult of productivity in her book
How to Do Nothing. Resisting the attention economy
(Ariel). Inaction is for her a form of protest against the unbridled capitalism that has dominated every corner of our time: simple activities that result in personal well-being and nothing else, such as bird watching (one of her hobbies) or dedicating herself to giving. Long walks can improve our lives and even be seen as an intimate act of political resistance. "If the citizens of the twentieth century were linked to the right to work, those of the twenty-first century have to do so with the right to time: the right to live with dignity as something guaranteed regardless of the employment situation," says Moruno. When in our spare time that insidious inner voice assails us to do something useful, sometimes it is convenient to say, following the scribe Bartleby created by Herman Melville: "I would rather not do it."
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