To Reflect: Artificial Time Hierarchy

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been making my way through the absolutely fantastic How to Be Animal: A New History of What it Means to Be Human by Melanie Challenger. While the book is absolutely filled with great perspectives – there’s one in particular that I want to focus on this week.

You see, we humans have an inherent tendency to determine and artificially rank things, when we have no real place to be doing so. Melanie calls this our human ‘weakness for hierarchy’… And this had me thinking – what areas in my own life do I artificially rank?

The one big one that stood out was the way I choose to spend my time. Or, more specifically, the ongoing ‘productivity guilt’ I feel when resting (and I suspect I’m not the only one…) – as if rest, pause and reflection are somehow ranked lower than the busy work we fill our days with.

Because it’s not.

Despite living in one of the most prosperous and luxurious times in all of human history, so many of us are still captive to ‘hustle culture’. …And that’s to our own detriment.

So this week, I encourage you to Reflect: what is one area that you are unfairly ranking?