I think the focus on productivity is that the average standard of living of a society is a function of "natural wealth" in terms of natural resources, the productivity of its labor force, and the amount of wealth it has accumulated.

The same translates to people more or less. You want to enjoy a higher standard of living. Produce more goods and services, so you can save more or consume more.

Save enough, and your money works for you, so you don't have to. Of course, if you are like the minor league pitcher in Massachusetts who bought a piece of land that turned out to have millions of dollars are valuable stones in the ground used by landscapers, then your standard of living is propelled by the "natural resources" you own.

Now that we have that out of the way. There is an emerging source of source wealth and that is intellectual property. This is stuff is kind of cool, since unlike "natural resources" which once you sell it, you sold it, intellectual property can be sold over and over again, and it never runs out. Simple example... making a movie costs a lot of money, but you can rent it over and over again for as long as people are willing to pay to see it.

And so, if you own "natural resources", intellectual property, or have a lot of money, then you don't need to "sell" your time to have a good living. But if you don't own those things, then the more productive you are, the more your time is worth.

Which reminds me of a decision I made loading a truck when I was 17 for just over $3/hour. If I could increase the value of my time, I could make a lot more money selling the same amount of time. 30 years later, I was selling my time for around $400 per hour.

Productivity at its simplest level is making more of something in less time. But at a more complex level, it is making more valuable things in the same amount of time. The latter is far easier to achieve then simply working faster. Working faster, one reaches one's limit pretty quickly, but working smarter has almost endless potential. Working smarter and combining that with technology creates amazing productivity leverage and that translates into wealth.