On Productivity and Life in the Gaps

It's possible-partly by plan and partly the nature of the world of 2014-to create a life without gaps. The productive person wishes to maximise his/her time and so schedules carefully to avoid wasted time, to avoid those annoying 'gaps' where nothing is being done.  The digital interrupt in all its forms worms its way into all aspects of our life taking up 'gap' time be it in a queue for the movie, a pleasant lunch-time catch-up with a friend or watching your child's sports day.

But much of true productivity and hence much of life is about the resolution of trade-offs: to stay late working or head home and spend time with the family; to be up early working on your novel or to be up early in the cross-fit class; to take the promotion with the additional 45 minute commute or make more of your current role to create growth in what you do.  Trade-offs are hard, very hard because they are rarely perfectly resolved. To be comfortable with them we need to have time to have thought about them and time to communicate such thinking to those who are important in our lives. That's what gaps are for: to consider the myriad of trade-offs life throws at us every day. To ponder, reflect and give our head and heart time to resolve them.

As well as where we can breathe, hold hands, browse a bookshelf, live longer, live wider, live deeper, pen that note, take some photos and finally make that personal call.