Three Principles of Anti-Productivity

The following article was written by Matt Cardin, the man and the mind behind the publication The Living Dark.

The Living Dark is Matt’s blog/newsletter on creativity for writers, situated at the intersection of religion, horror, nonduality, apocalypse, dystopia, consciousness, and the numinous unknown. Matt is the author of five books and the editor of four more. His books have been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, long-listed the Bram Stoker Award, and praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and others.

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This article originally appeared here, I’m sharing it with The BoldBrush Letter because I feel it is a topic of interest to all creatives.

Editor’s Note: In two days, this post will be locked and is available only to paid members because we don’t want this duplicate content on the open web in a way that might draw traffic away from Matt’s original post. If you are not a BoldBrush paid subscriber, you can still read the entire post here.

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Three Principles of Anti-Productivity

If you, like me, have felt the allure of endless productivity advice wear thin and grow cold over time, why not try something else? Why not experiment with anti-productivity? Here are two preliminary and interlinked suggestions, accompanied by a third item that expands on the accompanying outlook:

1. ON GOALS

Productivity says: "Always visualize your goals. Articulate them clearly. Start with the end in mind. Know where you're headed."

Anti-productivity says: "Embrace ignorance at the outset. Have no idea where the hell you're headed. Let it reveal itself one step at a time. Welcome the darkness of unknowing."

2. ON METHODS

Productivity says: "Have a clear, organized plan. Break your work down into manageable units. Arrange them in logical order. Proceed in sequence. Establish priorities. Use techniques to manage your energy (Pomodoro, time-blocking, whatever). Stick to a schedule."

Anti-productivity says: "Abandon any pretense of a chosen plan. Dive in wherever the energy beckons you. Use any technique or no technique, whatever moves you. Let your schedule and sequence be to just show up and see what happens. Follow the Stephen King approach: Just flail away at the goddamn thing."

3. ON ENDS AND MEANS

The most problematic thing about productivity is that it tends to become an end in its own right, and a suckingly hollow one at that. Its Apollonian allure strokes the ego by promising it the position of CEO in our creative projects. This leads us to exclude the possibility of transcendence in principle, to replace the holy fire of inspiration with an illusion of being in control and choosing our own meanings and destinations. There is nothing actually, intrinsically wrong with articulating goals, having a plan, or using time-and-energy-management techniques. Where these things go wrong is when they promise what they can't deliver (meaningfulness, fire, inspiration) and substitute themselves as ends instead of means. One of the most direct ways to confront this is to dive deliberately into the sense of being at sea without a bearing, walking a lonely dark road at night with just a dim flashlight for illumination, following the road and the current wherever they take you, and using whatever techniques you have at your disposal simply to keep moving and avoid disaster.

I have sometimes called this anti-productivity approach "living into the dark." It is, if you want to think of it this way, a strategy for meeting your muse and divining your daimon, for calling on invisible creative help by broadcasting the acknowledgment that the real ends and meanings you serve are beyond you—or at least beyond what you conventionally think of a "you."

About the author:This piece was written by Matt Cardin. The Living Dark is Matt’s blog/newsletter on creativity for writers, situated at the intersection of religion, horror, nonduality, apocalypse, dystopia, consciousness, and the numinous unknown.

Matt is the author of five books and the editor of four more. He has a Ph.D. in leadership studies and an M.A. in religious studies. He spent 16 years teaching English composition and literature, first as a higher school teacher and then as a college professor. He also taught college courses in world religions. Presently Matt is a college vice president.

Matt’s books have been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, long-listed the Bram Stoker Award, and praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and others.

We urge you to subscribe to his insight packed newsletter for creatives by clicking the button below:

Subscribe to The Living Dark