Charlotte Kemp warns against "productivity lust," the habit of treating personal life like a workplace to optimize. Constantly measuring and perfecting routines like morning schedules creates distress. She argues leaders need to step back from constant doing and make space for reflection on what actually matters.
I'm Charlotte Kemp, and this is an extract from my recent book, Put the Future on the Agenda. We are captured by productivity lust. If you've ever found yourself trying to optimize your morning routine or felt distressed by the lack of evidence of a productive day on a Sunday, then you are allowing workplace productivity thinking to spill over into your personal life. Of course, there are places where we need to get work done efficiently. A fast food drive-through is not an exercise in contemplation, but we need to see which parts of our lives, work and at home, can be optimized or made more productive, and which parts should be allowed to unfold at a more natural pace. As leaders, it is your responsibility to sometimes stop working altogether and invest real time in thinking and considering how your work and your organization really brings value. That is why we need to put the future on the agenda so that we can give ourselves permission to do some philosophy about what this all means.
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