Productivity is based around a goal. What needs to get done? What needs to be started or finished? Meditation is based on the process. One never finishes the meditative journey. One only continues deeper on it, always discovering more as time passes.

Meditation can lend itself to better productivity, but it’s not productive in the moment. As I’ve said before, when you try to “get” something out of meditation, that “something” becomes unreachable. But if you let go of any goals, the good feelings and calm come to you. One can achieve greater productivity. But one can’t achieve their way to a meditative state.

There are productive aspects to meditation: better sleep, better mental health, better focus. But seeing meditation as just another task destroys what meditation aims to build. Meditation is not about your to-do list. It’s not about feeling less anxious because you kept up your meditation streak for one more day. As soon as you feel constriction in your chest because you forgot to meditate, you’ve lost what meditation should be about. Sometimes, the real meditation comes from sitting with the feelings of missing a day of meditation.

I know what you’re thinking: “If meditation is the opposite of productivity, why do some of my regular tasks feel effortless?” That’s flow, which is a different experience. You can have a soup of neurotransmitters in meditation, but it’s not necessary. But you can’t have flow without a very specific concoction of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and other big hitters. Meditation doesn’t always feel effortless. Sometimes it feels average, boring even.

Meditation is about touching something beyond the everyday. When you do this in meditation, the “goal” becomes clear. But as soon as you try to target that “goal,” it disappears.

If you want to find your way back, you have to turn off your mind. How many productivity experts will tell you that?