A Brief History of Productivity: How Getting Stuff Done Became an Industry

In its earliest days, productivity was largely limited to agriculture – that is, the production and consumption of food. Advances in technology – and the resulting higher rate of production – meant more employment was becoming available in industrial sectors, reducing the agricultural workforce. On top of that, the World War II era saw the introduction of women into the workforce in large numbers – in some nations, women comprised 80% of the total addition to the workforce during the war. By then, the idea of productivity was no longer on the brink of becoming an industry – it was an industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Productivity has become a booming business.
• In modern concept, productivity is about getting more done in less time.
• Over the past hundreds of years, technology has made things more convenient for us, so improved our productivity.

“In an economic context, the meaning is similar — it’s essentially a measure of the output of goods and services available for monetary exchange.”

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/a-brief-history-of-productivity