Beware of Fake-Work and Make-Work

I remind myself that just because I’m busy doesn’t mean that I’m being productive.

Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.

I imagine that every kind of work has its fake-work and make-work. For example, as a writer, I remind myself:

• create, don’t fiddle around with italics and formatting
• typing isn’t the same as writing
• cruising around the internet isn’t the same as “research”
• answering emails, checking LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and similar tasks, while important, must not be allowed to get in the way of writing and thinking
• if I’m finding it very hard to write, I should stop trying to write and instead, start thinking harder
• if I’m finding it very easy to write, I’m probably falling into cliché and should start thinking harder

Of course, one of my Secrets of Adulthood is that the opposite of a profound truth is also true, and I have several resolutions aimed at helping me not to worry constantly about being efficient, but instead, to Force myself to wander and Schedule time for play.

Virginia Woolf noted in her Diary: "My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way." Sometimes, I work best by doing things that don’t look like “work.” But I enjoy them as play; I don't pretend that I'm "working."

In your job, do you have to fight the urge to do fake-work and make-work? What form does yours take?

Do you schedule time to goof off?

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Gretchen Rubin is the author of The Four Tendencies, her most recent New York Times bestseller about the groundbreaking analysis that reveals the one simple question that will transform what you do at home, at work, and in life. She has also written three other bestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. She writes about happiness and habit-formation at gretchenrubin.com. Follow her here on LinkedIn by clicking the yellow FOLLOW button, on Twitter, @gretchenrubin, on Facebook, facebook.com/ GretchenRubin, and listen to her popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin