Productivity as a Homemaker

I was listening to a podcast and the speaker was talking sort of on a “seize the day/make every moment count” theme. I was getting more and more stressed out listening to her. That particular stressful feeling of “I’m wasting my life and all my time and I’m not being productive” used to bother me all the time, but hasn’t recently, and I paused the podcast to think about why. I realized that

-in the past, I read so many efficiency and productivity books and was trying to be productive, but they were all business oriented so my housework didn’t seem productive to me. Those books all talked about goals and promotions and “getting to the next level”. Home making doesn’t really have promotions and levels. You can’t often make a S.M.A.R.T. goal for housework–because there is no end date. House work repeats over and over. There is no promotion to a new level where I suddenly don’t need to wash dishes any more. Because of this, I didn’t view housework as “productive”. Housework was the stuff I had get over with so that I could go do something productive. Since it never ended, my frustration was almost constant.

-A few years ago I decided to stop trying to be “productive” because it was getting in the way of me being able to love and care for my family. I was making everyone miserable trying to rush through housework. If a child spilled something or made a mess, I would totally lose my temper because I saw it as a setback to my goal of “getting done.”

I chose to accept what must be done and strive simply to do it well. No longer would I speak of housework as drudgery or complain of the Sisyphean mountains of laundry and dishes. Instead I reminded myself each day that my job as mother is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, make a clean and tidy place for my children to grow in, minister to the sick, and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. These are things that Jesus did while he was on the earth. They cannot be drudgery, no matter how often they repeat.

-This choice brought me a large measure of peace. Spills and messes are inevitable in a family of 11. I don’t lose my temper anymore because spills aren’t setbacks. They are just spills. I’m happy doing what I can do each day.

As I thought about what the podcast speaker was saying, I realized that no one has ever said house work wasn’t productive. That was just a logic hole in my own head. When I “gave up on productivity,” what I actually did was to let go of my narrow definition of productivity and accept the work set before me. I’m so much more productive now that my focus is on what is essential and not on an unrealistic view of what I ought to be doing.