This Is How to Be Productive: The Lost Secret

Is there a secret for how to be productive? Let's follow the heroine of our story and see what she discovers!

It was a Saturday, and she had just gotten up. The sun was shining through the windows. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the brightness.

She was feeling overwhelmed. This was the last thing she wanted to do. But she had to. She could not fail.

With a sigh, she dragged herself to the kitchen. Postponing the inevitable a bit longer, she prepared herself a coffee.

The clock in the kitchen mercilessly ticked away the seconds she had left. She took a deep breath. It was time. She grabbed the coffee and steered towards the kitchen table.

With a grimace she opened her laptop. Her whole being screamed at her to not do it. But she had a plan, and a mission. She could not fail.

She located the document and clicked open.

A few hours later, she closed the document, feeling defeated.

Pushing through was useless. She had spent the better part of Saturday achieving—nothing.

She had stared at the document, then typed a few sentences only to delete them. She looked up information that she afterwards realized she did not need, and then repeated the whole cycle. And all the work she had intended to do was still undone.

She groaned and buried her head in her hands. How could she get the work done she needed to do?

The man kneeled, his head almost touching the ground. “Emperor.” He held up a scroll of parchment with his right hand. “I have come back, bearing the secret you requested.”

“Rise.” The dark voice commanded authority. As did the armed guards.

The man rose up. His clothes were torn and so dirty that you could not tell their original color. Still, his posture made him look as regal as the equestrian lawyer-turned-Emperor who now ordered him around. (Not that the man himself had any prejudices against rulers from lower classes.)

“Give me the scroll.” The Emperor made an impatient gesture.

With a bow, the man handed him the scroll. The Emperor tore of the scroll’s string and unrolled the parchment. He paused for a moment as he examined the parchment. “That’s it?” His voice sounded incredulous.

“Yes, indeed it is. The secret that will keep us flourishing and prospering. The secret that men have died protecting. The secret I recovered from the ancient sage residing in the far mountains. With his last breath, he had me pledge not to waste it.”

“Seize him.” The Emperor called to the guards.

“I don’t understand.” The man looked to the Emperor, while a guard forced his arms behind his back.

“You are ridiculing me. You have taken the secret for yourself. This…this is a joke!” The Emperor threw the parchment on the floor.

“No!” The man tried to lunge in the direction of the parchment but was restrained by the guard.

The parchment landed on the floor. There was only one word written on it: “REQUIES.”

That same day, the parchment was burnt and the man killed. The teaching was lost.

Shortly thereafter, the Emperor was overthrown and executed. After his death, he was declared an enemy of the state.

Eventually, Rome fell.** (see author's note)

She woke up, the laptop still in front of her. That had been a very strange dream. She shook her body to diffuse the energy of the dream but it refused to leave.

“Requies. Requies. Requies.” She muttered to herself while placing her hands on the keyboard.

It took only a minute to find the information she needed. “It’s Latin. For rest. Hmm.” She stood up and paced the room. A few rounds later, an insight struck her. Suddenly she realized how to be productive.

“Oooh.” It reminded her of something she had discussed with her coach a while ago. Something about the importance of rest and recovery.

1. Recognize the importance of rest
Our culture has buried this secret but exertion and rest are two sides of the same coin (a coin called Productivity). You cannot be productive if you don't get sufficient rest. Because our culture is so activity-driven, you will likely forget this at times.

If this happens, ask yourself: how much do you truly get accomplished on days when you are drained and exhausted?

2. Decide to allow yourself rest time
You need to consciously decide to give yourself rest time. If not, you might end up with what I call 'unrestful rest' where you sit in front of a task but get nothing done. Since you think you should be working, you don't allow yourself to relax. But because you are too drained, you're not accomplishing anything either.

Would it not be better to rest instead, and return to the task refreshed?

3. Schedule time to rest into the calendar
The truth is, little happens unless you make time for it in the calendar. If your work deserves a place in your calendar, so does you rest. (Actually, your rest is part of your work because it helps you function at optimal capacity). Take a moment to decide on your rest times and schedule them in your calendar.

Will you take a day off? An hour?

“I’ll take that advice, thank you very much,” the woman thought to herself. There was no need to repeat the mistakes of Roman Emperors, even of the ones who were fellow lawyers.

With a smile, she closed the laptop.

Author's notes:

* In case it was not obvious, this article is fictional and not purporting to be historically accurate.

The timeline (1800 years ago) would have made Macrinus and his young son Diadumenianus the Emperors at that time. Due to his equestrian background, Macrinus was the first Emperor who was not from the senatorial class. And yes, he was indeed a lawyer.

Macrinus’ story is quite interesting: he was only Emperor for a little over a year (April 217 CE to 8 June 218 CE). Having being proclaimed Emperor while he was in the empire’s Eastern provinces, he spent his entire reign outside of Rome.

Macrinus was overthrown in the Battle of Antioch (8 June 218 CE) and later executed, a fate he shared with his son. After their deaths, the Senate declared them enemies of Rome (obviously not for the reasons conjured up in this article!) and had their names struck from the records.

** The last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 CE by the Germanic leader Odoacer, which is commonly seen as the end of the Western Roman Empire. In other words, no Empires were harmed in the creation of this article.