“Try the best of Google AI at work. Save time and boost productivity with an AI assistant built into Gmail, Docs, and more”, reads a blue banner in my Google Drive.
Last week I spent four hours snapping twigs into smaller twigs and putting them into nets. They’d spent a year drying out in a crate in the garden and now they were ready to be used for this season’s kindling.
I wonder if the AI assistant can save me time so I have more hours to snap twigs? Or maybe that isn’t the intended point? But what exactly is the point? Does Google even know?
What time do they want to save me and why?
What is productivity and why do they want to help me boost it?
Why does the assumption seem to be that saving time is desirable?
It was one of those perfect early autumn days, the day I spent snapping twigs. Not a cloud in the sky. Warmth in the sunshine. The glorious honking of geese flying overhead. I got some good exercise. Soaked up some vitamin D. Revelled in the joy of physical labour and the satisfaction of knowing that these hours would help keep us warm through winter.
“Get more done in less time” is a phrase we hear often but rarely stop to question. Get more of what done? More of the moreness of modern life? Isn’t it a never-ending conveyor belt of more?
I think it’s a scam.
Have you ever watched a snail cross a road? Or a slug? Or a caterpillar? What if they could move at double the speed? Triple? Quadruple? What if they could 10x their productivity? How would it actually help?
I don’t want to get more done in less time. I want to get less done in more time. I want to work at a healthy speed. I want to have meaningful, healthy work to do. And at the end of the day, I want to rest.
Here’s a poem for slowing down, resting and embracing the beauty of a simple life. I hope you enjoy it!
Come sit a while in time with me,
let all your woes and worries flee.
At the fireside we’ll come to rest
a cocoon of comfort, a peaceful nest.
The world out there hurries on and on
but here instead we’ll sing a song.
A song of slow simplicity,
a dream of what the world could be.
Love and courage,
Leah
P.S. What’s your favourite ‘slow’ activity? Snapping twigs? Baking bread? Handwriting a letter? Let me know in the comments below.