Many of us can recognize unproductivity when it comes to us looking like blatant idleness, but it is much harder to identify when it bustles and scurries about.  Let me explain.  To understand unproductivity we must understand the concept of true work and then can recognize unproductivity in the light of avoidance of true work.

To me true work has three facets: Effort, Priority, and Diligence. Let's see what happens to productivity when we systematically remove each one of these three ingredients to see what's left.

First, let's take out effort.

Who would have imagined that James Bond's preferred way to have his favorite alcoholic beverage prepared would actually be prophetic. Certainly not my wife and me. One of our early dates was at a Bond flick, and he ordered his customary drink (as he happens to do in many of his movies) "shaken, not stirred."

We, on the other hand, would rather be stirred and not shaken. We can be stirred to action by seeing an opportunity in a business venture. And Paul admonished Timothy to "stir up that gift that's in you." We can even be emotionally stirred by something we see. Perhaps it's someone's pain that we want to alleviate. It could be that our deep emotions are stirred by the heroic action of an ordinary person.

Being "stirred" implies some positive consequence might come about as a result. Being "shaken," on the other hand is a far different story--as in, our economy is being shaken.