Recently, a good friend of mine articulated that guilt is not a sign of a lack of productivity.
If you feel unproductive, you should take a minute to determine if it’s just misplaced guilt.
Guilt comes from many things:
- Insecurity
- Wrong expectations
- No expectations
- No reflection upon success
- Forgetting the good, focusing on the bad
Any of the above means there’s no necessary correlation between the guilt you feel and your actual productivity.
Next time you feel guilt, consider the above factors to determine if it is reasonable guilt or not.
Write down your productivity as of late (reflection) and see if the guilt is founded, or not. If it isn’t, it won’t survive reflection.
Your feeling of productivity should be rooted in what you do. Not what you whimsically feel like you’ve done, that’s guilt.
Conversely, just because you feel accomplished doesn’t mean you have been. I find this is much less likely and I don’t think it’s worth looking for unless you suspect you’re reckless.
Thanks Joe! Your perspective on this is invaluable.