Why You Can’t Stop Your Productivity Addiction - Oliver Burkeman

Is it possible to be the best in the world and relaxed at the same time?

[laughing] Um, the best in the world? I don't know. I, um, I- what I do think is that it is very possible to be really, really good at what you do and relaxed. And actually, my experience is that the more relaxed I can be, the better I am at things. I'm not gonna claim to be the best in the world at anything. But, um, I, I think that notion that you've either got to choose a relaxing life or a, an accomplished one, this is, uh, uh, this is the thing I'm on a mission, very personally motivated [chuckles] mission to prove is not, uh, not how it works.

I think there's a tension between having high standards, which is hypervigilance, and obsession, and focus, and really paying attention to stuff, and that just tends to bleed into the personality and the ambient anxiety. And, uh, I can see, uh, for instance, if you were to say, um: "Is it possible to be the best in the world and never relax at the same time?" That question would seem pretty obvious to answer.

Hmm.

Yes, of course, because the exact same level of resolution that you're obsessing over your pursuit with is the thing that kind of destroys the rest of your life. The interesting question is to work out whether you can kind of be on and off, or if you can hold things a little bit more loosely whilst still getting the right level of output you want.

Yeah, it's really interesting. I think that, um, there's, there's something... I mean, this runs through a lot of what I try to write about, but there's something about wanting to feel in control of the process of getting better at things or being good at things, which is kind of completely different from the actual process of getting better at them or, or being good at them. So I think there's, you know, this is, on some level, just the banal observation that people who really excel in what they do are very often, or perhaps more often, in a flow state while they're doing it. They're kind of- they sort of let go into the action. They're not sort of sitting back inside their minds, controlling it all in a very, um, sort of, mmm, uh, conscious, uh, controlly, controlly way. So yeah, for me, and of course, I'm talking about things like writing or speaking. I mean, I'm not talking about, um, uh, it may work differently in, to different degrees for kinda sports performance and things, but you find that the more I'm trying to make sure that things go well, that- that's just like a... And, and therefore, I'm sort of unrelaxed and clenched, and m- muscles tensed and everything. The, the more, um, you sort of pop into this awful self-conscious space where nothing, nothing works, and it's much better to lose yourself in the activity than to be trying to control it.