Intentionality Over Efficiency

On Finding My Question

From time to time when I sit down to write in this space, I often wonder what point I’m trying to make. Like, if my writing or insights point in a clear direction or if I’m just floundering around aimlessly. I suspect it’s probably a bit of both, but I find it helpful to think about how my perspective has changed over the last few years and where I’d really like to spend my time.

Because let’s be honest: I really can be all over the place.

I write about mental health when I feel like I need to write about mental health.

I write about parenting and self-directed education when I have an insight that had never really solidified for me before that I feel is worth sharing.

I write about bigger picture things like food systems and economic systems because I am trying to understand why and how they became so broken.

I write about politics and capitalism and colonialism because I think it’s important to understand all these individual bits within the context of the whole.

But lately I feel like I’ve been in search of a thesis: what am I trying to get across? What’s the thread that ties all this together? If I had to ask just one question, what might that question be?

I’ve been really digging the thread of thought on slow work and inefficiency, especially when exploring how we might operate outside of a colonial capitalist paradigm. I think the big light bulb moment was when I was exploring how local food systems might improve operations, but couldn’t reconcile the inefficient models of small local ecological farms. This inefficiency tends to drive the price of goods up to an unreasonable level, which means to me that it’s hardly a solution at all. It was only when I could step back and see that my perspective around it’s inefficiency was rooted in a capitalist mentality that I started to peel back the layers and explore how inefficiency might actually be a rebellion against the capitalist system.

Extending this outwards to other topics like housing, community, education, economy, etc. I am now wondering what might happen if we remove the capitalist benchmark of efficiency and ground solutions in inefficient but otherwise effective approaches: ones that focus on community connection, environmental protection, longevity over time saving, mental well-being, etc.

This mental shift is hard! Efficiency is a key goal of the capitalist economic system and it permeates our day-to-day in so many ways. Profitability, specialization, time management, the notion of what is valuable work. Efficiency seeps into each of these areas. Trying to remove that component can require some serious mental gymnastics.

Digging deeper, I would say that efficiency is inherently at odds with intentionality (and I’m big on intentionality!!). It’s hard to be intentional about how we spend our time and energy when we’re culturally brainwashed to have the goal of efficiency always in mind. When I explore how I want to live with intention - how I want to be an active participant in the decision making process rather than going with the flow of whatever is culturally expected of me, efficiency can be a killer. It constantly disrupts my logic and tells me often that I’m “wasting time” with useless activities when the same result could be achieved in a much more efficient way.

The real kicker came when I recognized the inherent value in these time-wasting activities: it allows me to focus on other goals like community connection, environmental protection, longevity over time saving, mental well-being… goals that I think we desperately need to focus on right now in our current socio-economic climate.

So if my goal now is to focus on intentionality over efficiency, how can I extend this practice back into all those other topics like mental health, parenting, food systems, building community, and more? I think this is my question; my thesis.

How can we build new systems that de-prioritize productivity and are grounded in purposefulness?

I don’t expect to develop a set of universal blue prints in attempting to answer this question. I think the expectation of single solutions is exceptionally colonial and really what built up so much of this mess in the first place. I am excited to see how other folks answer this question, and what unique solutions might be applicable for my life. Maybe they might be applicable for your life too, or maybe not.

I know there are answers to this question out there. I’ve read about some and I’ve dreamed about others. I think we can look back to pre-colonial cultures to explore how things we done prior to the push for efficiency, and we can look to the future to see how we might implement regional solutions customized for different communities.

If you have examples of this approach in your life, can you do me a favour and send me a note? My email is kel@kelsmith.ca or @subsomatic on Instagram and Discord. TIA :)