The 12-hour rabbit hole that made me rethink productivity
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Last week, I went down a major rabbit hole. Yah see, I was flipping through YouTube when I stumbled on a video about Webflow’s new GSAP animations UI. (if you haven’t checked it out yet, pretty slick update, I must say). Anyway, I figured I’d watch a few minutes, maybe learn a trick or two. Just see what the hype was all about. Cut to: the sun is setting and 5 good hours are GONE. Ugh. But it got worse. Because I couldn’t stop myself. By the end of that week, I’d probably spent close to 15 hours collectively messing around and noodling with this new tool. And by the time I finally came up for air, the dread hit me… Did I just waste half of the work week? At first I tried to rationalize it: “Well technically, learning these advanced animations could make our sites look better. Better sites = maybe we can charge more? And, new skills are always worth something… right?” But if I’m being real with myself: this moderate bump in animation capability — while cool — wasn’t going to win me more jobs and it’s not like it would allow me to charge more for projects. Truth is, my clients aren’t hiring me for fancy scroll effects. In fact, they probably wouldn’t even notice the difference. And — oh yea — I DON’T EVEN BUILD WEBSITES ANYMORE. So in terms of ROI? Yeah, it was a waste. But then I had a thought. Those 12 hours lit me up. I felt creative. Energized. Curious again. And I realized, maybe that’s enough. Not everything we do has to be in service of the bottom line. Sometimes you follow your curiosity because it’s fun. Because it shakes you out of your routine. Because it reminds you that you actually like this work. So if you’re like me, and you have a tendency to always be maximizing for productivity, or aren’t satisfied unless you’ve squeezed every last drop out of your day… Be mindful of where you spend your time. But don’t beat yourself up if you stray off course a bit. Curiosity is fuel. And sometimes that “pointless” rabbit hole ends up being exactly what you needed. Happy working this week! — Shaneast week, I went down a major rabbit hole. Yah see, I was flipping through YouTube when I stumbled on a video about Webflow’s new GSAP animations UI. (if you haven’t checked it out yet, pretty slick update, I must say). Anyway, I figured I’d watch a few minutes, maybe learn a trick or two. Just see what the hype was all about. Cut to: the sun is setting and 5 good hours are GONE. Ugh. But it got worse. Because I couldn’t stop myself. By the end of that week, I’d probably spent close to 15 hours collectively messing around and noodling with this new tool. And by the time I finally came up for air, the dread hit me… Did I just waste half of the work week? At first I tried to rationalize it: “Well technically, learning these advanced animations could make our sites look better. Better sites = maybe we can charge more? And, new skills are always worth something… right?” But if I’m being real with myself: this moderate bump in animation capability — while cool — wasn’t going to win me more jobs and it’s not like it would allow me to charge more for projects. Truth is, my clients aren’t hiring me for fancy scroll effects. In fact, they probably wouldn’t even notice the difference. And — oh yea — I DON’T EVEN BUILD WEBSITES ANYMORE. So in terms of ROI? Yeah, it was a waste. But then I had a thought. Those 12 hours lit me up. I felt creative. Energized. Curious again. And I realized, maybe that’s enough. Not everything we do has to be in service of the bottom line. Sometimes you follow your curiosity because it’s fun. Because it shakes you out of your routine. Because it reminds you that you actually like this work. So if you’re like me, and you have a tendency to always be maximizing for productivity, or aren’t satisfied unless you’ve squeezed every last drop out of your day… Be mindful of where you spend your time. But don’t beat yourself up if you stray off course a bit. Curiosity is fuel. And sometimes that “pointless” rabbit hole ends up being exactly what you needed. Happy working this week! — Shane |