Cleaning your room is productive, but not when you have an essay to write. That’s just procrastination disguised as productivity.
And taking a break from cleaning your room, or writing that essay, or working on that project? that’s considered unproductive according to your boss, parents, or your super-ego.
Why? Why is it considered laziness when we take care of the person that’s eventually going to get the job done? (Is it a lazy wrench that sits in the toolbox?) And why are we assuming that eventually means never?
Yet there are people who claim bragging rights to however many hours they clock in after they’ve passed 40 of them. And that’s ridiculous. Overwork increases the probability of burnout. 50-Hour workweeks are unproductive.
Instead, brag about the length of the breaks. Brag about the quality of well-being that comes with treating yourself well.