I watch Netflix to be productive
“10 Tips to be Productive: Hacks to help you achieve more!”
“ How waking up at 4:30am changed my life”
Everyone says that TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) is getting too real, but I’d argue that YouTube recommendations are the OG at getting in your brain for things you didn’t think you needed. I used to fall down the YouTube rabbit hole of watching productivity ‘hacks’, listening to endless hours of content of productivity gurus, compounded on years and years of societal programming that productivity is something that can be perfectly manufactured.
In a way, yes it can. You can create good systems around you that help to fuel you to achieve more creative outcomes, to help you recharge when you need it.
But I think it is also incomplete. A lot of what people base their idea of ‘productivity’ on is charging at the same mental hurdle again and again, until it cracks. Persistence above all. As long as you persevere, you will be able to produce something.
The result? A burnt out mid-20s human that is jaded by the world, and I’m not referring to just me.
I used to blame myself for not being able to stick with something for long, or made myself suffer through the process. Then I realised, I was just choosing the wrong things to stick with, and not giving myself enough space to adapt.
There are times where you need to allow the natural ebb and flow of life take you to where you need to be. There is a time for running hard and fast at a target, but there is also a time for re-setting and re-balancing your life. There is a time for building up your internal voice, and a time for using it to shout.
It is futile to go against the tides of the ocean, all you can do is just tread water and let the waves take you to your destination.
One of the few destinations in my journey that I’m still exploring has been film. Film is one of the many ways I stimulate my mind, and oftentimes it works over-time, compared to when I’m reading an academic paper/policy brief. It allows me to analyse situations, to understand motivations and to empathise with characters. It opens new portals to dreaming, comfort a downcast spirit and make the heart swell with emotion.
This creativity allows me to make connections in my daily life, to seek out ideas in the realities of life and try to re-imagine how the world can be with a touch of optimism.
I recently watched Belle, the animated masterpiece that received a 14-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. It is a loose re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast, where a young protagonist learns to heal her past scars and uses a virtual world that brings out the best in everyone to find her voice and become who she truly is. I identified with the bildungsroman arc, but the film also helped me view the advent of the virtual world as one that isn’t all that terrifying. Some ideas are now brewing in this small head of mine. The soundtrack has also helped me write this very piece I’m doing right now. So productive, woohoo!
Next time you want to tell someone to be productive, just know that their version of being alive and “productive” can be very different to yours. Maybe it’s their time to rest.
When people tell me to be productive with my time nowadays, I say thank you, pull the covers around me, and reach for the remote.
