Over the last year or two I've read and researched a lot about productivity. I don't think you start to get concerned with productivity until you have to. What I mean by that is a) you're free time starts to diminish and b) possibly as a result of a you're free time starts to become more and more valuable to you and possibly others.
About six months ago I fell into exactly that position. I started working in a more demanding position at work - a functional payroll on an SAP HCTM project. Time is a key factor in the project's success - therefore time is extremely valuable and more specifically my time, as a member of the team, is valuable to the project. At the same time, my family is growing and my kids need their dad's attention. My wife has been pregnant for the last nine months and she needs her husband's support. I also, until recently, have tried to keep a regular weight lifting schedule with my brother.
I think it's a situation like this where we turn to productivity theories and tips. A lot of which is pointless garbage that doesn't have any practical application. Some of it is really good (Getting Things Done by David Allen). It's easy to get caught up in "productivity". Get things done. Do more. Create. Ship something. Go, go, go.
Tonight I felt guilty because I have a lot of things on my "next actions" list that I could do - but I just didn't feel like doing them. I felt like doing nothing - browsing the internet, hanging out, relaxing. But I've been reading so much about productivity and getting things done, etc that I felt guilty that I was doing nothing when I could've been doing something productive.
I had to take a step back and ask myself why productivity was important in the first place... free time. And if you never allow yourself to have any free time - or you spend your free time feeling guilty or thinking about things that you could be doing - then what's the point?
I think David Allen does a good job of expressing that in his book - and I will keep working on it. And maybe one day I'll be so on top of my game that I'll be at ease and know that whatever it is I'm doing is exactly what I should be doing - even if it's doing nothing.