Where is the productivity growth that we are not able to find? This is a question that economists have been asking themselves with increasing anxiety for thirty years now.

Yet the answer might be dirty simple: just lost in the continuous distractions of our not-well-understood-yet digital lifestyle. Yes, our near sacred reverence to digital gadgetry, the modern holy grail of productivity, might have something to do. And no, I do not mean PokemonGo!

What’s curious is that, although scientific studies have been warning against the negative effects of multitasking for years, business leaders and employers seem to be eager to hire multitasking rock-stars.

Even more curious (to me) is that behind this reflection and the companion infographics, there is an evangelical Christian college in Dayton, Tennessee, United States. Named after William Jennings Bryan, who prosecuted a teacher who broke the law by teaching evolution in a public school in 1925, the Bryan College motto is “Christ Above All”, and its faculty members and staff must subscribe to a Statement of Belief which includes that “the origin of man was by fiat of God in the act of creation as related in the Book of Genesis.”

I am not sure if they are targeting millennials as students or infidels, but only a Christian institution could have come up with such a beautiful recommendation:

Create work schedules that establish periods of focused work with small breaks to bathe in the sea of digital temptation.

Productivity works in mysterious ways. Don’t you think so?