I'm awake about 17 hours a day. Of those I'm being productive maybe 10 hours a day.
My working definition of productive is in the direction of: "things that I expect I will be glad I did once I've done them"[1].
Things that I personally find productive include
- Chores
- Work
- Eating
- Cooking
- Reading a good book
- Watching TV with my Wife/Kids
- Playing with the kids
- Socialising with friends
But not
- Doomscrolling
- Watching TV alone
- Playing most computer games
- Sitting on the couch doing nothing
- Reading a book I'm not particularly interested in
etc.
If we could find a magic pill which allowed me to do productive things 17 hours a day instead of 10 without any side effects, that would be approximately equally as valuable as a commensurate increase in life expectancy. Yet the first seems much easier to solve than the second - we already have [...]
First published:
March 23rd, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8Jinfw49mWm52y3de/solving-willpower-seems-easier-than-solving-aging)
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