Toxic Productivity

Toxic Productivity? it’s an excess of desire for constant productivity at the expense of other priorities in your life, simply put it’s when you’re willing to outwork yourself beyond the normal capacity and not care about other priorities, it’s like wanting to always be busy and always on the go.

How about an example... You are working extra, more than required, you have put your work at a higher priority than your own wellbeing, you feel guilty and/or sad when you have simple free time, your mind is constantly rushing through things and you don’t understand how to calm down.

This is a clear sign of overworking or toxic productivity, it’s the unnecessary need to want to work more and more and not care about other things and not sense the feeling of taking a breath and calming down, funny enough I found out I was doing this, I wanted to sort out of my life in a day and we all know that can’t really happen.

I found myself stuck, not wanting to do anything, not liking silence and always wanting to be “working” or doing something productive because I felt guilty just sitting or playing something, and inevitably I got burnt out - A state where I no longer felt like working, I didn’t want to do anything that was work-related, I stopped doing whatever I was doing to “sort” my life out, and it felt dull, I did nothing other than being on Instagram and on Netflix and I didn’t even like it, I just wanted something to make time go faster.

Now obviously I have been able to combat this but here are some adjustments you can do to not end up burning out like how I did.

1. Briefly Plan out your day

This can be just knowing the outline of your day - your tasks that need to be done, any events or outings for the next day - Sometimes for maybe exercising or working on something, the most important thing, however, is to have breaks for a good enough time, it can’t be 5 mins every 2 hours, don’t push yourself, trust yourself about what you’re feeling and listen to it.

This will help to understand at the time what you’re going to do and help you to remember you have other priorities other than working itself, this will also make you take breaks

(Do make sure you’re doing something you find fun in your break, talking with someone, listening to music, or just being in silence for a while)

2. Set realistic goals

Goals without plans are just wishes

Don’t go trying to do the 4 am workouts and working before everyone else type of mentality just yet, remember that just because someone else is having success with it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have success with it as well, do what makes you comfortable, it’s not about when you wake up and sleep, you’re not doing any good waking up at 5 am and working while you’re still sleepy when you know you like working at night.

Aim to see the significance behind your goal, have plans on how to achieve it and make it a reminder for yourself, don’t overdo it, it’s better to have 1% improvement every day rather than try too hard and then burn out for a good amount of time and go back to 0.

3. Define your work boundaries.

This means don’t take your work everywhere you go, don’t be working when you’re trying to eat or don’t be working when you’re doing something leisurely, define your desk or one place in the house that’s solely for work purposes, bringing work with you on your bed may be comfortable, but do it long enough and your brain will associate work with the bed so whenever you go on the bed you’ll subconsciously be into the work mode, this is will make it tougher to get quality sleep.

Have boundaries with your work and life - Keep it at a balance, don’t work too much or too less, after some time it’s best to just stop working for the day and take some rest and not push yourself.

That’s all, do these steps and you’ll be able to get a sense of how much you might have been overworking yourself, take time for the other priorities in life.

Thanks

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