Productivity Bonus

Productivity Bonus

He is lazy. I love him, but he is lazy. Not couch potato kind of lazy, but, if I had to define him in one word, it would be “procrastination”. More than once he has struggled to meet his deadlines —he works as a graphic designer—. And I have tried a dozen ways to help him, none of which seemed to work. I needed to design a special productivity bonus for him.

Now, he’s working in a company and, even though we know he will never be the employee of the month, we would like him not to spoil his work just because he’s always walking the thin line between almost hitting the deadline and being irresponsible. We have a baby, and the last thing we need is a job lost because of procrastination.

When I said I had tried everything to help him, I really meant it. Schedules, visualizations, even small bribes… nothing worked! When I asked him why he was always late with his work, his answer was the most honest he could give: “I don’t like feeling stressed”. And I understand him. He has a soft character, and he just can’t endure stress. So, he steps away, even if he knows that, at the last moment, he will have to turn around and get the job done.

I thought he would be happy doing nothing, you know. If he could reach a state of complete relaxation, he would recharge his batteries. Then, he would put all this new energy in his new job. 

And that’s when I came up with the idea of our own private productivity bonus.

It’s been six months since I told him about it. He has just arrived home with an employee diploma under his arm. He throws it on the table, not paying too much attention to it. Most probably, he will get a promotion soon, and while that’s good, very good, actually, that’s not in his mind right now. Because, right now, I’m gonna give him his homemade productivity bonus: I’m going to tie him very slowly —the way I learned in the Shibari workshop I took—and let him close his eyes and wonder in his mind until there’s not a single drop of stress in his system.

This is my Shibari story.

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