Fauxductivity
Posted: October 4, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: productivity 53 Comments »In the Chronicle yesterday, there was a nice piece about “procrastination productivity” that several of my friends posted to Facebook – about all the things you get done because they are a distraction from the real things you have to get done, and while they make you look like you are being productive, you know the truth.
I am very familiar with that tactic, but I have another one that’s even worse. Fake productivity, or “fauxductivity” as I like to think of it, is where you surround yourself with accoutrements of productivity and busyness so not only does it look like you are busy and important but you are hoping to trick your brain into acknowledging the need to get work done and then spend extra time doing it.
I am in a very importantly busy stage at work right now, and I have given in to my favorite fauxductivity trick (well, it’s less of a trick and more of an affectation): I start carrying around folders full of manuscripts, etc. at all times. Most of my purses are large enough to hold file folders for just this purpose. I take my work home with me, to the grocery store with me, to the doctors’ office, wherever I go. Because you never know when an unexpected burst of productivity might strike, and you have to be prepared!
Not once has this little trick actually resulted in getting any real work done… but hey, you never know.
I’m TOTALLY borrowing your expression, if you don’t mind. Tomorrow is my last day of full-time “real world” employment (check out those air quotes — suggesting sarcasm, of course), as I’m embarking on my new full-time freelance writing career.
Therefore, I need tips and techniques to make me feel fauxductive!
This is always how I am during school breaks or little trips out of town…take the books with you and then never touch them!…it’s worth a try though.
I wish that “fauxdactivity” always worked for me LOL I procrastinate heavily
I do that all the time… then I end up carrying thirty pounds of textbooks and notebooks and my computer around campus all day–and not using them.
I’m guilty of the same thing. When I need to research on something for school, I open several tabs about it but would always end up in other useless websites after a while. Well, I still get things done but not earlier that I could have. Haha. Well, can’t help it.
Hahaha! You are one step ahead of me! I like the idea of taking your work to the grocery store, that’s so great. I also love hilarious office cat photos so thank you very much for making my Tuesday work morning with this post!
Great new word to incorporate into my own life.
Oh yes, I know this one! “Fauxductivity” deserves to enter the lexicon.
Your post also arrested me as your cat could be my cat’s twin
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed.
Lol I love being Fauxductive
Congrats on the Fresh Press. And goodness me that reminds me of my weekend. Should have done homework, but instead I cleaned my room/apartment until three in the morning. XDDDD Good luck at getting the work done!
haha. I used to use fauxductivity too, I felt like I had to trick myself and anyone who asked (or as I felt – interrogated) that I was busy with important matters. For me I think this has its roots in elementary school when mommy would yell, “Doing your homework?” from the kitchen and I would have my homework and my architectural masterpiece lego home in front of me becuase they were equally important, then yell back, “Yeah, I have it right here!”
HAW! Great article!
Another version of this – when I worked as an exec. assistant I my job was to ensure my boss “looked busy” or to keep him busy to keep him from noticing the fauxductivity of my co-workers. Love this !
OK, you get the “Nailed It” award for the day. Damn, I love fauxductivity. I’m already incorporating it into my life, why, because it is life. “She’s so fauxductive!”
This is so true..i can definitely admit to doing this “fauxductivity”
http://www.embraceyoumag.com
Love the idea! I usually just play around on the internet until productivity hits me…hence why I’m here
Love the photo by the way, my cat does the same thing
Great term, and so true! For me, even email can be a sort of fauxductivity. I really don’t want to look at fill-in-the-blank yet, so I tell myself, “I really ought to see about any emails I have to answer first.” Thirty minutes later, I have some scheduled activity and, voila, time spent. I’ve accomplished little, if anything.
Now that you have the term, what about the answer? What do we do when the modern world has made fauxductivity so easy?
Great post (and great picture)! Definitely know how it feels…
Congrats on freshly pressed!
Because you never know when an unexpected burst of productivity might strike, and you have to be prepared!– AGREED!
Awesome new word. Now to find away to add it to my vocabulary
So that’s what they call it!
hahah great cat
This sounds eerily familiar. I’m glad to finally have a word for it–love the term “fauxductivity”!
Yes, I’ve been known to do that – nice to finally put a name to it.
Thanks for sharing and congrats on being f.p. 
Great point. Sometimes it’s good to set priorities and get the big things done first. I also love the picture, it illustrates why I leave my laptop screen at a 45 degree angle.
Gotta say I’m stealing your word, I love it! and I am determined to use it at some point
Ah – so that’s what it is called that I am doing. Fauxductivity, what a great concept and even better if it gets you some results. And, as shown in your picture, apparently fauxductivity can be achieved by felines as well as humans.
I love it!
Oh, how I wish I could say that this sounds nothing like me. I’m the fauxductivity master. List-making is the worst. I write lists to trick myself into thinking that all my little tasks for the day will actually be completed. If it’s on a list, it must get done, right?
Fauxductivity…brilliant. And, just to clarify, I have been guilty of it all day…
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
Hah, as a teacher, I totally understand this! Carrying large sacks of papers may not result in real productivity, but at least it tones your arms. A little. And, I see that your cat likes to help out…much like mine. Love.
Haha, I do the same thing! Or I’ll put a notebook next to my novel so that people thing I’m working when I’m really just reading for fun, haha.
That is exactly what brings me here oftentimes, but there is some truth to it! Once I have done a few posts, it gives me the wherewithal go after what I really need to get done. Another thing is that people are just more distracted now anyway, as they are being attacked on all sides by the media and technological advents.
The cat is protecting you by barricading herself between you and the radiation.
Holy cow, I used to do that ALL the time when I was teaching. Sometimes, during my meeting class period (no class, when I was theoretically free to meet with non-existent parents), there were times when I simply could NOT face yet another stack of papers to grade. So, I’d grab my notebook and pen and start striding purposefully down the hall. My destination wasn’t nearly as important as the fact that I certainly *looked* like I was doing something of extreme import. Usually it was enough to get a little bit of exercise and then I’d be ready to face the grading again. But yeah…that’s exactly what it was – fauxductivity. Awesome post, thanks for sharing it.
Kate
http://ukate.wordpress.com/
I have certainly tried this. Although most of the time I’m even too lazy to pretend.
I totally relate to this, especially as a freelancer!
Congrats on being “Freshly Pressed!” By the way I want to know, why my cat is sitting on your computer? I guess sitting on my computer is not enough for him…
97 percent of my work day can be catagorized under “Fauxductivity.”
Also, my cats are very distracting as well.
I am the queen of procrastination and a master of fauxductivity. I am doing both RIGHT NOW.
I am feeling pretty fauxductive right now as I read other’s posts for inspiration for my own blog. It seems to me the cat is a great procrastination excuse: “I couldn’t work on my writing b/c my cat sat on my computer and gave me those ‘please pet me’ eyes.”
love it! whenever i leave my office for some fauxductivity (aka, a fake meeting which really means either my hair getting done or a massage or a workout), i carry my portfolio with notes and stuff. makes me feel less guilty. thanks for sharing!
http://www.icouldntmakethisshitup.wordpress.com
I love learning new words and fauxductivity just became the latest.
This, followed by a wracking guilt for not actually accomplishing anything, followed by a redoubled commitment to work, followed by a level of inaction that could only be described as wanton and grotesque.
Why is my cat on your laptop? She’s usually on my lap when I’m on my desktop.
I don’t know what you’re talking about….::returns to typing, appearing furiously fauxductive…on Facebook::
I’m so guilty of this!
I pretty much always cart around a notebook or a textbook with me, but I rarely open it. I figure that I can read them while I have idle time, but then I end up with a text book propped open unread on my lap while I text or check my email on my phone…
I love cats
I work from home myself and productivity is a constant battle, especially when working in pajamas is such a temptation. I just blogged about similar thoughts! And, I LOVE the cat–I have a gray cat of my own who is the worst for productivity.
Fauxductivity is a great word, and I’m certainly prone to it. Sometimes I surround myself with empty coffee cups so I can pretend that I’m an exhausted investigative journalist on the verge of a big break. This actually works, although 60% of the time it’s because I have actually drunk all of the coffee.
I like the cat.
And what is the relevance of the picture of a cat sitting on the laptop with fauxductivity?
This is so me…& my CAT!!
Ah, the brutal truth of fauxductivity! I am doing it as I write this, in fact (as others have also admitted). Lol, I left my laptop open last night because I was playing music as I slept and when I got up this morning, oh my goodness!! One of my cats must have been doing what your’s is in the pic because there were all sorts of things going on that I didn’t do. Huh. Maybe that’s how I somehow got an email alert from AT&T that I’d gone over their “monthly allotment” of something like 150g!! Now, when my phone alerts me when I get near a mere 2g and that’s never happened, I have no idea what it would take to accumulate that kind of data!! Wow… unless that’s all from being fauxductive too, which is entirely possible
Love the post and congrats on freshly pressed
Love & Light
Brandi
I do the same thing. I carry a bag with things I need to do just in case I get a moment to work on it. I’m beginning to think I just look like a bag lady.