Image: Mpumelelo Macu | Unsplash

There’s been a lot written about productivity lately.

And I’m grateful for it.

Whenever I can, I want to minimize distractions, get right to the task at hand and arrive at the end of the day feeling like I did what I set out to do – maybe even more. If an efficiency expert can help me bring that about, I’ll use their advice with thanks.

But, as much as I strive to be more productive every day, I’ve realized that the #1 productivity killer in my life is something that I’ll never entirely overcome.

Because the #1 productivity killer is the same for all of us.

It’s life.

No matter what we do, how well we plan, how much we try to anticipate possible dilemmas, life will always interrupt, throw us for a loop and kill the expected productivity of any given day.

Let Life Win

When it comes to life, there are no easy answers.

None of us will ever overcome this productivity killer entirely. And we need to be okay with that.

Sometimes productivity wins, sometimes you need to let your life win, even if productivity loses.

Kids get sick, or they just need a parent to spend time with them.

Spouses need to waste time together, not to be productive, not to work on the relationship, just to be together.

Our relationship with Jesus deserves consistent, productive calendar time for church, prayer and Bible reading – but it also needs us to stop or slow down occasionally, let productivity take a back seat and let the spirit lead. Slowly, ponderously, wastefully and unproductively.

Interruption Is Life

Yes, it can be argued that everything I’ve just described is actually very productive time. And I agree that it is.

It’s just that, when we’re trying to squeeze more out of every minute of every day, none of that feels productive at the time. It feels like an interruption, a problem, and a waste.

We need to be okay with the interruptions, problems and wastefulness of life causing constant intrusions on our well-planned schedules.

After all, Jesus did not come that we “might have a productive schedule, and that we might have it more abundantly”, he came that we “might have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

In our hurry to be more productive, we worry that the urgency of life will ruin our productivity. For a lot of us, the opposite is true.

We need to be careful not to let the urgency of productivity ruin our life.

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