🌱 Frida's Way | Shifting to Slow Productivity
Part III: Work, Wealth, and Productivity in 2024
Welcome Back! 👋🏼
The modern view of productivity is incompatible with lasting social change. Can we shift to a new way of work? We explore how organizations and people within movements can begin to shift away from pseudo-productivity to cultivate lasting change. Plus communications time saving tips. Read on for more...
In Case You Missed It: 🌱 Burnout Nation | Has Productivity Gone Off the Rails?
What You Can Expect
⏳ Expanding Timelines for Change
🚶 Pacing the Revolution
🌵 Tackling the Prickly Repetitive Tasks
🗞 News with a Social Change Lens
🎙 Into the Psyche of Trump & Democrats
The modern view of productivity is incompatible with lasting social change. The need for organizations to show immediate and tangible results in grant programs or the quick-build and bust campaign process come to mind. Each don’t lend themselves to the system shaping social change we truly deserve. While we could go deep into the history of philanthropy, the non-profit industrial complex, electioneering, and systemic resistance to mass movements, I think there’s something more obvious in front of us.
At a broader level, we need to shift our view of productivity in the face of society shaking change. In order to solve the crises of our time, we need to expand our understanding of work.
We’ve adapted to an increasingly hyper-productive world and used capitalist principles to manage organizations that are meant for people, not record profit. The history of non-profit management can be traced back to Peter Ducker (mentioned last week) who used his ideas about knowledge workers to apply to the non-profit industry. As the corporate sector boosted productivity for profits, the non-profit sector was expecting more with limited resources.
Slow Productivity to Expand Horizons
As I've shifted to viewing my work at the roots of change agency in a slower, more intentional way, I've looked for mentors. When I think about the pacing of my work, I try to channel my fellow Taurus moon/Leo rising, Frida Kahlo.
She allowed her creative desires to pace herself and her work. She was not one to stick to a schedule. Instead, she allowed her instincts and surroundings (the seasons, the Mexican landscape) to set the pace of her work and where she was focused. Unfortunately, she also learned pacing because she was disabled after a horrific cable car accident in Mexico City when she was 18. At times, her body would be in so much pain that she would strap herself and her canvass to her bed so that she could continue painting. She was able to express her emotions through her art and became a sensation because of her raw depictions of her inner world.
We can’t all be artists in the movement, but we can learn their lessons. Our modern communications landscape seems to always demand more. More posts a week. More channels to reach your audience. And all of that adds up to more work hours without really knowing if you’re meeting your goals. What Frida reminds me is that revolutions can’t happen only through constant work. She did not force her art, which spoke to powerful themes, into a strict schedule.
Transforming Productivity to Abundance
Shifting the way we work is a collective effort that many folks are already working to achieve. I recently read Cal Newport's latest on this topic and know many working in the #FutureOfWork space. But it's also not a linear change. We will collectively and individually stumble. Our current ways of work are deeply embedded in our structures and ourselves.
To close, I want to offer a few ideas on how to shift to a healthier work life for you. Everyone will be unique and it's important to see what works for you.
- Lengthen Your Time Horizons: As Joanna Macy has said in Active Hope, we can strengthen our capacity to face a collective transition by considering a broader timeline for change. We can consider the Indigenous seventh generation principle. To gather learnings and strength from the past seven generations as we intentionally make decisions to support the next seven generations. We need to both support folks now and to build future change.
- Contain the Gnats: If you were to time yourself, what is the thing you spend the most time on? Increasingly, it's the small things like checking email, scheduling social posts, etc. Instead of trying to squeeze these tasks in, try scheduling time on your calendar. Worrying about my email responsiveness was stressing me out, so I now have scheduled time to check email so I can feel responsive, while also being open about my response time.
- Create Intentional Growth: When organizations look too much at metrics and data points for success, they often lose sight of their true goals. When we get stressed, we tend to think in the short-term. Knowing that we can fall into busyness short-termism, it's helpful to continually come backto "your why." What is your mission and long-term goals? Are the things you're spending time on helping you achieve them?
- Do Less, Impact More: we are trained to work in pseudo-productivity which usually means doing a lot of small, busy work and avoiding the thinking work that takes longer. Try flipping your brain and working on the big thing first and then seeing how important the small stuff is afterwards. I understand that I work best in the mornings and so I schedule my day around this understanding of myself.
- Taking Time to Pause: Sometimes we need to pause in order to go forward. When we get locked in pseudo-productivity, we forget that space to breathe and pause actually helps us think and dream better.
If change occurs by "intentionally building new systems, with community, equity, and sustainability at their core," then we must also create change within our own lives and organizations. The more we transform within, the more we can tend to new soil. I believe an intentional slowing down work for change can have larger scale effects than we even realize now. What do you think? What ideas of work do you want implemented? Share in the comments below. 👇🏼
The Fall months will likely come with many ups and downs and surprises. Before we flip the calendar, we will explore how shifting our perceptions of rest can also help us expand and achieve our larger goals. See you next week for our final newsletter on productivity!
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Last Week's Flowering Deep-Dive
📚 Don’t Waste Your Ad Dollars | Tips for 2024 Fundraising
⚡️ August 28 | Automate Your Content Workflow
What's your biggest and thorniest task? The thing you dread doing? Have you tried automating it? Zapier automations can help improve your communications workflow and enhance your strategy. I use Zapier to manage my one-woman agency and media company and expand my time for the fun, strategic stuff.
- Learn in community with fellow social change communicators
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- Receive a An Automation Strategy Toolkit with video tutorials
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Learn more and register for the August 28th workshop. What thorny tasks do you wish you could automate? Let us know in the comments!
- 🍿 Watch the March on DNC Live on Thursday - As the Democratic National Committee packed the halls of United Center in Chicago on Monday, thousands rallied nearby at Union Park. The March on the DNC is a coalition of over 220+ organizations bringing progressive demands to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.
- 🤓 The Root 🌱 - While Biden has stepped down as the nominee, Israel continues its assault on Gaza and Palestinians with U.S. support. The goal of the march is to show nominee Harris and the Democratic Party that the uncommitted movement and student protests are a part of a strong movement for Palestinian revolution as well as progressive force wanting economic justice, reproductive freedom, and more. The March on the DNC is hosting a 2nd rally at 5pm CST on Thursday. Join or watch the livestream.
- 📚 Elon Musk’s PAC Does Voter Suppression - CNBC reported that the America PAC, funded by Musk spent $800,000+ on ads to mislead people in swing states to think that they registered to vote. The scheme asked people to fill in their zip code. If they were from a swing state, they were directed to fill in more personal information without actually registering the person to vote.
- 🤓 The Root 🌱 - Money in politics is beyond the looking glass. After SCOTUS opened the floodgates to money in politics with Citizens United, we have seen our elections increasingly bought by billionaires. Awareness of this fact is the best disinfectant.
- 📚 Amazon Bots Harm Unionization - 404 Media reports on how AI and robotics in Amazon warehouses are isolating to workers, which can harm workers mental health and makes it harder to organize as workers.
- 🤓 The Root 🌱 - There has been a marked rise in unionization efforts in the last few years. Companies have used very creative tactics to stop workers from being compensated for their labor including replacing them with robots. Robots don’t need a minimum wage.
- 🎬 Blue States Aren’t Safe from Abortion Bans - Jessica Craven speaks to a San Diego woman who was denied healthcare because multiple anti-abortion CVS employees denied her care. While in this instance she was not seeking an abortion, it should not matter or be up to a pharmacy employee to make life and death decisions about women’s health.
- 🤓 The Root 🌱 - Jessica points out that this is only one story that we are aware of. There are constantly women falling through the cracks of a post-Roe v. Wade healthcare landscape. The patriarchal need to control women is leading to real harm from laws that shouldn’t exist. Abortion is on the ballot everywhere.
And that's a wrap on this week’s newsletter! We hope you found this helpful in your work to cultivate lasting social change. Forward this to a friend and help democratize activism & communications!
If you have any topics you want covered or have any questions, please reach out and let me know.
In Solidarity,
Sam Chavez
Roots of Change Founder
🌱 Seedling Member Zone
This month's bonus podcast is out for Seedling Members. I continue my conversation with Charlie Varon. We dig deeper into Trump's psyche and how he won in 2016, what messaging is working to defeat the MAGA agenda, and more! Find our latest videos on our 🎬 Quick Bites page.
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