Measuring What Matters

We’ve been immersed in work for so long, both as individuals and as a civilization (post industrialization) that we’ve taken some of the practices for granted in our everyday lives too. I realized this about the way I view time. I worked at a company where they tracked if you spent 9.15 hrs a day at work. Over time it gave rise to the assumption that a day was productive based on this benchmark (more time signalled higher productivity / status).

But the idea of a day was well spent was never meant to be measured in hours, it was always about the activity that one was involved in (work, family, reading, writing). People would organize their lives (and time) around what was important and then spend as much time on it as was needed. Their sense of satisfaction came from “what” they spent time / effort on as opposed to “amount of time spent” which we’re doing today.

When I catch myself looking at the clock to decide if I’ve done justice to the day, I know I’m asking the wrong question. How are you measuring your day?