Amy Young sent me this one and I am a BIG FAN. I constantly feel like everything I do has to be productive. It doesn’t. This list is so, so good for me.

10 ways to be unproductive {but happy} at Christmas

 

Last December I was part of a Spiritual Direction Advent group and the leader cautioned us about seeking too quickly for meaning. We Westerners do like information and meaning, don’t we :). It was a timely and gentle reminder the tug culture has on us all. The tug isn’t the problem, it’s the complete buying into and not differentiating between tugs.

 

My soul has hit a wall with the amount of tips out there on how to be more productive. With the new year around the corner, I fear we’re only just beginning the goal setting, productivity tips, YOU CAN DO AND BE MORE, phase our liturgical productivity calendar.

 

Who says productivity is all it’s cracked up to be? I’m a disciplined person and like lists, don’t get me wrong. But enough, ok, enough!

 

Has the paradox of Christmas taught us nothing? I have a feeling how we view productivity is not how God does.

 

Here are 10 ways to be unproductive in the traditional sense:

 

1. Sit in the dark and look at Christmas lights. Better yet, lay on the floor and look up at them.

 

2. Eat a cookie or some other holiday treat guilt free.

 

3. Look at the world through the eyes of a three-year-old. Can you imagine how much more fun we’d have if we got excited about the little things of life? Family coming?! SO EXCITING. Hot chocolate? Is there anything more delicious to drink?

 

4. Read a children’s Christmas book, complete with voices. Fun with a child, true. But children are not required for this to be unproductively productive. I wrote about nine children’s books I love. Last Thursday I was with a small group of visiting scholars from China hanging out at a Wendy’s and I read Wombat Divine by Mem Fox to them. It was a blast.

 

5. Light a candle and watch the flame flicker. Let your mind and soul rest.

 

6. Conjure up a happy childhood Christmas memory. Sit and enjoy it. Maybe share it with someone.

 

7. Ask an elderly relative about Christmas when they were a kid.

 

8. Read Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memoryor Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This year my in-person book club decided to read short stories for December and we chose four from this list and recommend them all.

• A Letter from Santa Claus– Mark Twain
• How the Captain made Christmas– Thomas Nelson Page
• A College Santa Claus– Ralph Henry Barbour
• A Burglar’s Christmas– Willa Cather

 

9. Sing Christmas carols out loud.

 

10. Recall getting one of your Christmas trees and call to reminisce with someone who was there.

 

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Which of these will you do today? Anyone else a little gagged at productivity talk?

photo credit:  Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

My name is Amy and I live in the messy middle of life. The tag line for this blog is “where grace and truth reside.” I find people tend to be drawn to grace, grace, grace OR truth, truth, truth. Neither side  requires much discipline, do they? Instead they foster autopilot living. But real life happens … in the messy middle, with both. Read more of Amy’s work here.