I Didn't Do the Thing Today Quotes

“Throughout our days, we might tell ourselves that life will be better when we get that promotion, leave our job, lose weight, finish this project, win that award—when we finally arrive. But the truth is that we never arrive. Not when we get that job, complete that project, find a partner, move into that house, make more money. Because even when we do achieve such things, we are always looking to the next thing, or lamenting the inevitable plateau of a specific ambition.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“The protagonist imagines her life before her like a fig tree, the tip of every branch representing a wonderful future that beckons and winks—relationships, family, careers, travel, athletic pursuits, and many more figs that can’t quite be made out from the position she’s in. We can find ourselves wanting each and every one of these futures, and when society tells us we can have it all—through advertisements, media, or upbringing—perhaps we expect it. Yet in spite of the messaging, we sense that making a decision to pursue one life means forgoing other options. As Plath wrote, “I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest.” The Latin root of the verb decide literally means “to cut off”—and in the metaphorical sense “to kill.” No wonder we hesitate—it can bring a sense of comfort to keep our options alive. We can make a cosy nook out of our indecision where no wrong turn can be made, where all our futures can exist safely, and we can rest our head on diaphanous pillows of possibility. But as Plath’s fig tree metaphor shows, we might find out too late that indecision isn’t all that comforting— it’s stifling and we risk never reaching for any opportunity: “I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death,” wrote Plath, “just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Sometimes what can look like a block is just a work process. Things are always on the way to us, even if they haven’t yet arrived. We can be patient with the time this expedition can take, knowing we will be better placed to receive them when we are more prepared.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“Writer Derek Thompson makes a similar point in an essay for The Atlantic, “Three Theories for Why You Have No Time.” Inspecting the decades since the introduction of labor-saving technologies and appliances, Thompson notes that we don’t have more free time on our hands now. “Americans tend to use new productivity and technology to buy a better life rather than to enjoy more downtime in inferior conditions. And when material concerns are mostly met, Americans fixate on their status and class, and that of their children, and work tirelessly to preserve and grow it.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“But for the most part, being a fallible human means we need to recognize our own tendency to dawdle, to dash, to buffer the doing, whether out of necessity or habit—and maybe we don’t need to add a layer of guilt, anxiety, or shame to that. Perhaps, instead of trying to optimize, we can learn to reroute the guilt, anxiety, and shame we encounter on days like these and accept ourselves as imperfect people simply experiencing the day.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“The pandemic has shaken up our days in varying ways, but one thing it has taught many of us is that we are always more adrift than we think.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt

“We’re running just to stand still, and we’re missing the point. We’re doing all this work to improve ourselves, only to go on judging ourselves for being imperfect.”
― Madeleine Dore, I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt