The Taskification of Everything

We turned life into a series of checkboxes. Meditate โ€” check. Drink water โ€” check. Exercise โ€” check. Read โ€” check. Call mom โ€” check. Even rest got taskified: 'self-care Sunday' is now an item on the to-do list.

Productivity apps promised to organize our lives. Instead, they created infinite obligation. Every hobby became a habit to track. Every interest became a skill to develop. Every moment of free time became an opportunity for optimization.

The Anxiety of the Unfinished

The problem with to-do lists is they are never done. For every item you check, you add three more. The list becomes a constant reminder of everything you have not accomplished. Instead of feeling satisfied by completion, you feel burdened by the infinite remaining tasks.

This creates a weird psychological state where you are always behind. Always failing. Always needing to catch up. Even when you are resting, you are aware of all the things you should be doing instead.

When Productivity Becomes the Goal

We lost sight of why we were doing things. Exercise is not supposed to be about closing your rings โ€” it is supposed to be about feeling good. Reading is not about hitting a book count โ€” it is about learning and enjoyment. When the metric becomes the goal, the original purpose gets lost.

A Different Approach

Try this: stop tracking things that should be enjoyable. Let your hobbies be hobbies, not habits. Exercise when you want to, not because your app is yelling at you. Read because you are interested, not to hit a yearly goal.

And build in 'unstructured time' that is not for anything. No goals. No tracking. No optimization. Just existing. That used to be called 'living' before we turned it all into tasks.