Written by Brian Li
What is Toxic Productivity?
The word “productivity” gets tossed around very often by our generation. Teachers tell us to be “productive” in our studies to achieve the highest grades possible. We have all been there where we put everything in our lives aside and we put our full attention into completing our assignments and achieving our goals; however, that’s not a healthy approach to accomplish your goals.
In this day and age, we are obsessed with hustle-culture and going above and beyond expectations. Social media is littered with accounts that promote the idea that a hard work will lead to a successful life. They are essentially saying that if you put in 100% of your effort, you will get the results you want to see, and going beyond your limits will guarantee positive results. This leads to students in high school and university constantly going through sleepless nights and countless hours of overworking themselves. They devote all their attention and energy into their work and ignore everything else, often including basic needs. This is toxic productivity, and it can be dangerous.
Negative Effects of Toxic Productivity
Symptoms of toxic productivity often go down a negative path. Here are some signs to look out for:
Your mental health is deteriorating
You feel tired, depressed, and/or anxious. Often when we prioritize our work over everything, we don’t pay attention to ourselves. In this case, when we are working 24/7, we often see a decline in our wellbeing.
Your relationships are affected
When devoting all your time to your work, you will often see your social life fade. You will recognize that you aren’t spending as much time with your friends and family, if at all. You may feel alone and think that your support group has abandoned you, even if this is not the case.
You feel burnt out
You may not have the same urge to do anything you once enjoyed anymore. You have no energy or motivation to complete your tasks. This is common, and recovering requires self-care — something that is so easily overlooked.
You forget the little things in life
Some of the bad habits you pick up when wrapped up in toxic productivity include a severe lack of regular sleep, an unhealthy diet, and lack of daily physical activity. Sometimes the happy days may not seem as happy, and negative thoughts or apathy are more likely to take over.
How to Avoid Toxic Productivity
At the start of the pandemic, everyone had a lot of time on their hands due to their new stay-at-home schedules. This may have encouraged some people to start working on new projects and to try something new. This may have caused some people to enter the cycle of toxic productivity. As time went on, we have adapted better to the pandemic.
To avoid getting into this mindset, consider taking these precautionary steps:
Prioritize what tasks are most important to you first. Finish what you need to accomplish and then go onto your other tasks. Take things one step at a time!
Set realistic expectations for yourself. Set small goals for yourself everyday and try to achieve them. If you can’t accomplish them, that’s ok! Start the next day fresh and set new goals for yourself that you feel you can achieve that day!
Remember to take breaks! Don’t overwork and exhaust yourself for no reason. If you feel like you need it, take a 30 minute or 1 hour break! You will work better and the quality of your work will also be better!
Set your own limits. Going above and beyond isn’t always the answer. Constantly pushing yourself to exert more energy than you have does not guarantee positive results, and might actually make things worse, both for you and your project.
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