Toxic Productivity - Learn From My Mistakes

Ask my why I have not been writing for the last couple of weeks and I shall quote “Toxic Productivity”

We experience toxic productivity when we constantly push ourselves to be more productive, often at the expense of our well-being. This is a common trait in our fast-paced and achievement-oriented society, where people are pressured to always be working and achieving more. But this pressure to constantly produce can lead to burnout, stress, and other negative consequences.

Around October 2022, I started micromanaging myself and failed to give myself enough room to be more creative and experiment. I so badly wanted to connect all the dots in and around my life and regularly monitor them. And as you might have guessed already, I burned out real soon and lost the will to do anything merely productive.

Burnout is the state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress. People who are constantly pushing themselves to be productive may find that they are no longer able to continue working at the same pace, and may experience a loss of motivation, energy, and focus. Alongside this, people who constantly push themselves also end up feeling stressed and anxious most of the time.

What causes toxic productivity?

Toxic productivity can be caused by a variety of factors. In my personal opinion, the societal pressure to constantly achieve and produce more is the leading factor. There are also other factors such as:

• Perfectionism: Overworking yourself in trying to be perfect in whatever you do
• Constant work validation
• Lack of boundaries around work: To be able to constantly work, even when not inside office hours

What I did not do in the course of trying to become extremely productive - is to give myself enough room for care. Most of us often fail to realize that taking care of oneself is necessary to be productive in the long run. I stopped going for evening walks, reduced my sleeping hours and compromised on many other activities in the pursuit of productivity.

Most of us often fail to realize that taking care of oneself is necessary to be productive in the long run

How to avoid toxic productivity?

What we all need to understand - whether productive or not is the importance of rest and relaxation. It is very important to take regular breaks throughout the day and take time to relax and unwind when you are not working. If you can allocate time to work, then you also can allocate time to relax. If you haven’t done that yet - now is your time before everything falls apart.

We also need to be honest with ourselves and realize that we are all humans and there are lot of things we just cannot do. I am not saying this to demotivate you, but we should be realistic enough to identify what we can and cannot do thereby not overburden ourselves with too many responsibilities.

We are all humans and there are lot of things we just cannot do

At last we also need to be mindful of how much time we spend on different tasks. This can help us identify areas where we might be overworking. Having a proper work-life balance is the way to go ahead!

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