The upper limit of productivity?

Earlier this week I had another one of those days - a day when I literally had nothing to do at work.  Which is ironic, given that I have several projects in different stages that I am working on simultaneously, but it just so happened that all of the projects converged at a single point where I could go no further with them.

No further, that is, unless someone else did something first.

See, I made a to-do list for myself and noted what the next action was for each project.  Amazingly, beside each task was someone else's name along with the specific task they had to do, without which I could not do my part.

And so - I reached the upper limit of productivity.  I was extremely productive in creating my list - I have that down to a science - but ultimately I was stopped because I was at the point where I was dependent on other people.

After all of the emails and phone calls I left with those other people, there was nothing left for me to do but wait for responses.  And so, this begs the question: is one's productivity relative to the productivity of others?  At what point does one call oneself "productive"?  How is the "productive" standard set?  Is productivity a state of mind?  What if a person considers himself productive, and then meets someone else whom he deems to be more productive than he - does that negate his previous productivity?

And with that, my friends, I leave you to discuss...