Leisure and Productivity

2024-10-23

(This is entry 19 of #100DaysToOffload)

At first glance, leisure and productivity appear to be opposites. We are at leisure when we do not work; we are productive when we work. Leisure is relaxing, downregulating; productive work is stress-inducing, upregulating.

Yet, on a second glance, it seems like they might be orthogonal instead.

Can we have leisurely production? Well of course; programming in one's spare time, for instance.

Can we have stressful production? Well of course; blue-collar work yields this.

Can we have leisurely non-production? Well of course; sitting idle. In a way though, even that could be productive (of a mental state, not of a product).

And last, stressful non-production? We call that an office job.