Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, was a highly productive man and no stranger to great quotes. In his book Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury explains why we find ourselves hating work and what leads to our desire to be productive all the time.
Photo by Will Hart
Bradbury, in his essay that shares the same title as the book, seeks an answer to why we dislike our work:
Why is it that in a society with a Puritan heritage we have such completely ambivalent feelings about Work? We feel guilty, do we not, if not busy? But we feel somewhat soiled, on the the other hand, if we sweat overmuch?
I can only suggest that we often indulge in made work, in false business, to keep from being bored. Or worse still we conceive the idea of working for money. The money becomes the object, the target, the end-all and be-all. Thus work, being important only as a means to that end, degenerates into boredom. Can we wonder then that we hate it so?
As Bradbury suggests, we create work for ourselves when it isn’t necessary, and we focus on the wrong reasons for working. Stop wasting time creating work for yourself because you want to feel productive, get away from being busy just to busy, and find something you you really enjoy working on. You need money to carry on in this world, no doubt, but don’t let it be your only driving factor. You’ll end up bored and hating every minute of your work.
Zen in the Art of Writing [Ray Bradbury via Brain Pickings]
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