This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you—if you make a purchase through them. I only recommend what I truly love and believe will bless your home or motherhood journey.

Have you ever stopped to ponder this question, “Why do I want to be more productive?”

It’s lunchtime, my much anticipated pause in my work-from-home day. During this time, I typically catch up with messages to reply to, scroll, eat, and maybe squeeze in a video. And even in my “break,” I’m thinking about how to maximise the minutes. Should I use this time to learn something useful like from a YouTube video tutorial, to be productive? Watching a few minutes of a drama episode seems too leisurely, too wasteful of a break.

I wonder if you carry the same pressure to maximise your minutes? It seems we live in a culture where productivity is so highly prized and optimised, that even rest must be bent towards utility; even taking a break must be useful.

“It seems we live in a culture where productivity is so highly prized and optimised, that even rest must be bent towards utility.”

Our world applauds efficiency.

Productivity planners, hacks, and optimization tricks – they promise that if we could just squeeze more utility out of our minutes, we’d finally feel… accomplished. Worthy. We’d cure ourselves of our anxiety, of fearing that we haven’t done enough and by implication that we ourselves aren’t enough.

It’s not lost on me that one of my brand pillars at The Hearthmakers is helping busy mums get more organised and productive, and I’ll circle back to this thought later, but for now I want to share a little something that surfaced at lunchtime today.

You see, I had queued up a YouTube video on SEO tips for bloggers when another thumbnail caught my eye: an episode of Ask Pastor John (Piper) titled, “God’s Sovereign Plan For Your Most Unproductive Days.” I thought it was aptly albeit ironically timed just as I was getting ready to maximise my break with SEO learning.

You might be interested to listen to the episode. But if not, here’s a quick summary of what he shared.

A summary of the podcast episode

“God’s priorities for efficiency in this life are not ours.”

— John Piper

In this podcast, Pastor John Piper responds to Melinda, a homeschooling mother who feels stretched thin by household duties, teaching her kids, serving in ministry, and trying to care for herself. She feels like she’s failing at time management, and openly confesses that efficiency doesn’t come naturally to her. I can imagine her despair and frustration, and as a fellow busy mum, I can relate.

What Piper said next both comforted and challenged me. He explained that humans have a concept of efficiency – get more done, quicker – but God’s concept of efficiency is vastly different. In fact, and this is a quotable, Piper goes on to say it plainly: “God’s priorities for efficiency in this life are not ours.”

To explain what he means, Piper pointed to the example of Joseph in the Bible: betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, wrongfully imprisoned, forgotten in prison. Seventeen long years of painful detours.

If Joseph had measured success by worldly productivity, he would have counted his life wasted. Yet we all can see how God was weaving salvation through those “unproductive” years – Joseph’s character moulded and refined, the testing and strengthening of his faith in God. After seventeen long years, he eventually became the vice president in Egypt, a position from which he was able to save his family and by extension the lineage of Israel, God’s people.

Piper next points to Paul: imprisoned in Rome, unable to travel or plant churches. By human standards, his ministry stalled. These were lost years. Yet Paul wrote of his Roman imprisonment in Philippians 1:12-13: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” The gospel reached the heart of the Roman Empire through the very chains that seemed to hinder him.

These examples gave me pause to ponder: Why do I want to become more productive? Is it just so I can get even more done? To feel a sense of accomplishment based on how many boxes I check off my to-do list? If that’s all, I’m missing the point.

God’s purposes for my days are not identical to mine.

He is at work in the deeper layers of my heart – to sanctify me, to draw me nearer to Him, to shape me into Christ’s likeness – all for His glory.

And this truth matters especially in motherhood. As busy modern mums, our days are often filled with multitasking work of some kind with laundry loads, meal preps, school runs, soothing, shushing, meltdown smoothing, and the never-ending picking up of toys. When efficiency comes down to daily survival, it can seem so elusive. But what if our “inefficient” days – the ones where tantrums delayed us, meltdowns derailed us, or we barely ticked off one thing on a simple to-do list — are not wasted at all, but where in the unseen, God was accomplishing much work?

So what happens when we have a dud day?

“You’re not being measured by God by how much you get done.”

— John Piper

When, despite our best efforts, by our standards we’ve accomplished “nothing”? From John Piper’s response, I am reminded that in Christ, there is freedom and peace even when my hopes for productivity “shatter on the rocks of reality.” God doesn’t measure me by how much I get done. His plans for my days – whether productive or not – are always intact. Here’s a quote from the episode I absolutely love:

“By all means, make your list of to-dos for the day [...] Prioritize the list. Get first things first. Make your plan. Do the very best you can. Go ahead and read a book about it. Then walk in the peace and freedom that, when it shatters on the rocks of reality (which it will most days), you’re not being measured by God by how much you get done. You’re being measured by whether you trust the goodness and the wisdom and the sovereignty of God to work this new mess of inefficiency for his glory and the good of everyone involved, even when you can’t see how.”

So much of motherhood and the fruit that’s being produced – both in us and those around us – is being worked out in the unseen.

As we yield our plans and ideas for efficiency to God’s priorities for deeper heart work, may we find that bit more patience when our kids interrupt us, when their tantrums delay us, and when their meltdowns derail our day’s plans.

“So much of motherhood and the fruit that’s being produced – both in us and those around us – is being worked out in the unseen. ”

— The Hearthmakers

Application

Piper reminds us that it’s good to keep making plans — in other words, to aim for productive days. The caution is not to let efficiency become an idol. At the same time, Scripture also warns us not to squander time. We’re called to model the diligence of the ant (Proverbs 6:6–8) and to carry a sense of urgency in doing God’s work while we have the opportunity (John 9:4). Held together, these truths point us toward faithful stewardship of our days under God’s sovereignty.

What does this look like in everyday busy mum life? Here are a few ways I suggest:

Let Your To-Do List Guide You, Not Measure You: Still make your list – but instead of aiming to see how much you can finish, pray over it in the morning and ask, “Lord, help me to hold this list loosely. Show me what really matters today.” Then, mark 1-2 priorities and treat everything else as “bonus.”
Shift Your Success Metrics: Instead of measuring a “good” day by how much you got done, ask: Did I trust God when things went off-track? Did I show love to my family even in interruptions? These are kingdom KPIs.
Build In Margin: expect the unexpected; expect to be interrupted. Don’t pack in your schedule so tightly that one delay has the power to derail a whole day. That way, when the unexpected happens, you have breathing room to regroup and make a new plan.
Consider Interruptions as Divine Interventions: When interruptions come, pause to ask – could this be God’s agenda for me right now? What ministry is God directing me to give to this person who’s interrupting me right now?

Take Action

Before you move on to your next task after reading this post, here are some practical actions you can implement immediately:

Journal your reflections to either this question, “Why do I want to be more productive?” or, “What is one area of my life where I constantly feel “behind” or inefficient?” Bring it honestly before God and ask Him how He might be using it for your sanctification.
Build margin into your week – have a look at your schedule and see if there is any pruning that needs to be done. Can you shift appointments so that they’re not so tightly spaced back-t0-back? Can you reduce at least one activity to allow more buffer time?

A Prayer Before You Go

Lord, You see my striving and my weakness. Forgive me when I chase productivity for my own pride or assurance, and help me to rest in Your purposes and providence, instead of my own abilities. Teach me to trust that even in my messy, unproductive, inefficient and interrupted moments, You are working for my good and Your glory. Give me peace to hold my to-do list lightly, and faith to walk with You as You guide me through each day. Amen.

DID YOU FIND THIS HELPFUL?

If you would like to share this post on your social media (thank you!), feel free to use these images below: