What is productivity, really?

Here’s the second post over at GraceWorkGrace. If you haven’t, read the first one here. Sharing the GWG thought pieces to you guys here on the blog. 🤗

Before we even dive in to the hows, let’s agree on what kind of productivity we’re aiming for together here at GraceWorkGrace.

A quick Google search and you’ll get definitions of productivity—“the measure of how effectively we turn input (time, effort, or resources) into output (results, value, or impact).”

Cambridge dictionary, in one of its definitions, says productivity is “the ability to do as much work as possible in a particular period.”¹ Workplaces talk a lot about productivity and they’re in the same lines—getting things done, maximizing time, being able to do a lot with the time given.

Is that it? We do as many as we can in the time given to us and we can call that productive? Let’s call that simply, efficient.

This definition comes closer to what we want: “Productivity measures the amount of value created for each hour that is worked in a society.” (McKinsey & Company)² In other words, productivity is the efficiency with which people, teams, or systems convert resources into valuable outcomes. Now we’re talking.

Doing many things is busyness.
Doing many things in the time given is efficiency.
But producing outcomes that matter—that’s productivity.

Conjoined with Purpose

Productivity loses its meaning when it’s detached from purpose. Vast research from Gallup has long shown that people are most productive when their work connects with their sense of purpose, strengths, and well-being.³

Without that alignment, productivity turns into performance pressure. The end goal of productivity is achieving that which we purposed to do for when we set out to do it. Or better yet, it’s fulfilling that which God has purposed for us to do when He set us out to do it.

Rooted in Stewardship

Jesus tells of a master who entrusts his servants with talents—resources to be stewarded, not stored. Each servant was given according to his ability, and each was accountable not for how much he gained, but for how faithful he was with what he had been given, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”⁴

Productivity isn’t about keeping up, but keeping faithful. Where the world measures output, the Word measures faithfulness.

A GraceWorkGrace Definition

Productivity is not the pursuit of more, but the practice of faithful stewardship—doing the right work, in the right season, through the grace that enables us.

Here at GraceWorkGrace, we won’t ask, “How can I do more?” but “How can I be more faithful with what’s been entrusted to me?”

💭 Reflection

What has God entrusted to me this season—at work, home, or within myself—that I am to be a faithful steward of? List all these down and keep returning to this list as you join us in this publication.

If this helps you rethink productivity, share it with someone who needs grace at work today to help keep this space growing. Do subscribe if you haven’t to get next posts in your inbox.

1. Cambridge Dictionary ↩︎
2. What is Productivity? by McKinsey & Company ↩︎
3. Gallup ↩︎
4. Matthew 25:14–30 ↩︎