Member-only story
The productivity lie!
Why working non-stop kills creativity
I used to think productivity meant working non-stop. Hustling. Grinding. Powering through like some kind of creativity machine that never needed to recharge. Sleep? Overrated. Breaks? For the weak. Coffee? The lifeblood that kept me going.
I was convinced that if I just worked harder, longer and with more intensity, I’d produce better results. Turns out, I was completely wrong. And my brain let me know in the rudest way possible — by completely shutting down.
The burnout awakening
At first, everything seemed fine. I was on top of my game, writing for hours without stopping. Churning out ideas. Pushing my limits. Until one day, I woke up, sat down to write and… nothing. No words. No ideas. Not even a half-decent sentence. My mind was as empty as my motivation.
I tried everything — forcing myself to type, staring at the screen like it owed me something, even bribing myself with snacks. But nothing worked. My brain had officially left the chat.
And that’s when it hit me. Maybe — just maybe — running on empty wasn’t the best strategy. Maybe my brain wasn’t a machine. Maybe I needed a break.
