One of the key questions about productivity is how to measure it. As a retiree in the most industrialized country on earth, I ponder about it.
You see, in the working world, there are process flows, operating procedures, and productivity can be measured to the minutia. Business and government alike focus on those metrics keenly to improve their bottom-line.
For me, I pride myself being a member of the leisure class. Without adding to the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product), I focus mainly on my personal pursuits. No boss, no co-worker. Nevertheless, I am still curious about my productivity and how to measure it.
Given that productivity is amount of output per input, the best way to measure my productivity I figured is: how well I spent my time. In other words, how effective am I spending my time in getting my priorities taken care of.
For instance, I run marathons. The output would be the time it takes for me to complete a marathon. The input will be the amount of time I consume from the twenty weeks marathon training to getting in shape. Two possibilities for productivity improvement would be faster finish or shorter training.
How do you know if you’re being productive?
Running with Buddha 