The lockdown legacy of toxic productivity

Life during the pandemic has led to an increase in the pressure we all feel to be our most productive selves.

In part, this has been fuelled by our increasing reliance on social media to alleviate the boredom and isolation of being in lockdown, with time on our hands to compare how our own experiences of it compare with those of others.

The risk is that we become overwhelmed by a constant flow of people’s “productiveness” as they take to social media to share how they are learning a new language, reading 20 books, harnessing a new skill, or even writing a potentially best-seller. 

Now, as if feeling the pressure as a new graduate desperately wanting to jump onto the career ladder in these uncertain times wasn’t enough, it seems we also need to be aesthetically productive in order to feel we have accomplished something meaningful with our lives.

Sure, it would be great if we could all could harness some new skills and become the next Elon Musk, but the urge to want whatever we do to live up to what we see other people achieving can have a crippling effect on own authentic productivity process.

Subconsciously or not, we are all experiencing this. Sometimes the need to super-productive, on top of trying to figure your way through lockdown, or onto the career ladder, can become overwhelming, and these behavioural traits can be toxic if left unchecked.

Here are some signs to spot if this toxicity is creeping into your life, and the tools you can to use to stop it in its tracks. 

What is toxic productivity?

A toxic trait or behaviour is something that is essentially harmful to you, your goals, routine and daily life. Our work culture and need for approval places a lot of value on being productive, to the point where people who stay up all night to get the job done are heroes. Very rarely do we applaud those who take the time to listen to their mind and body, rest well, or set and meet not only reasonable goals, but achievable ones.

Lockdown has meant staying at home for a lot of people, but for new graduates, it may have also led to being crippled with anxiety and pressure to find a job. Amongst all the economic uncertainty and rising unemployment, it can be very harmful when you put pressure on yourself and set goals that are unrealistic, just because we have seen someone else do it.

Being confined to our homes has meant that many people are trying (with the emphasis on trying) to work in new ways, and in the middle of a crisis – yet there has never been so much content being pushed in our faces via social media about how we should be using this “extra free time” to do something amazing with our lives.

Coming up with new business ventures, doing every e-course and Skillshare workshop that’s available, or checking things off that bucket list we all secretly have. Endless to-do lists, endless unrealism affecting our ability to set ourselves achievable goals.

The pressure to be all-conquering, based on what we are seeing other people achieve, in a global pandemic is a harmful to our own self-growth and, frankly, fake. What we see of those people’s lives on social media is a carefully curated representation and not necessarily their reality. We only see what they want us to see: the rest remains hidden from sight.

If you haven’t started up your own business, or ticked off all the goals on your graduate to-do list, it doesn’t mean you are a failure, it means you are human, doing the best you can with what you have, in a situation that is way past ‘difficult’.

Toxic productivity would have us see things in totally different light than we would in our own reality, and it’s damaging us all. So here are some tips on how to keep yourself in your own lane.

You cannot define your sense of self-worth and success by how productive you are.

• Define clearer boundaries for yourself 

It can be very easy to be sucked into the world of social media and the curiosity we all have deep down inside to nosy into other people’s lives, and with this can come some negativity.

Whilst TikTok is a great source of entertainment, it can also be a pressure point when it comes to productivity and our perception of what that truly means. Productivity can be aesthetically pleasing to watch, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow suit.

There is an added pressure these days that what we do has to look aesthetic or ‘Instagramable’, and this is not the case. You should not measure your level of productivity by other people’s. Set yourself clear goals in terms of what you want to get out of your productivity process, and do not base these on what you’ve been influenced to think it should look like.

• Work to your own body clock and pace

Although some may nail those all-nighters and still be able to function like normal human beings the day after, it’s good to remember that not everybody can do that – nor is it in any way good for you. If your mind and body needs to take five coffee/tea breaks, then take them.

If you need half-an-hour to just separate yourself from what you’re doing, then allow that. Sometimes, the best forms of productivity do not come from working 10 hours straight. Intervals can be a friend, not a foe. Listen to your mind and body, and keep your phone on silent mode.

• Keep tabs on your own accountability

• Jump on the ‘Zen’ bandwagon

• Reframe the concept of rest

What you need to remember is that taking care of yourself and knowing when to put yourself first is the best starting point for understanding what productivity means for you, and only you. 

• Adjust the goalposts if need be – don’t let them control your ambition

The key phrase is be realistic! Write it on 10 different post-it notes and spread them all around your room if need be, but do not forget that in order for you to actually succeed in being productive, you must allow yourself to set achievable goals. Be kind with your ‘to-do’ list.

If you know you only have five hours to complete an essay, or apply for 10 different jobs, amongst doing other ‘life’ admin, don’t add another 100 thing to that ‘to-do’ list. Only set a goal that you know you will achieve in your set timeframe.

This is where productivity is achieved, and successfully, too. Instead of being left with a feeling of guilt or failure because you ran out of time, you are left feeling ready to conquer the next item of your list.

Feature image by Comfreak from Pixabay.