We Are All Trapped In The Cult of Productivity — Can We Escape?
The solution is right in front of you
It’s a mid-week holiday. It’s pouring outside and there’s no work to be done. I can stay in bed, order some fast food, binge-watch whatever new show Netflix has on, and simply relax. It’s a ‘do-nothing’ kind of day. And yet, an hour into it, a little voice in my head says, ‘But Sunday is your do-nothing day. You can’t have two of those in a week.’
‘Why can’t I? Who made those rules?’ I argue, and the voice now taking the shape of some motivational speaker that I once saw in a reel retorts, ‘Ah, go right ahead, waste your day. Just know that the difference between you and a successful person is how they put their Wednesday off to use. We all have the same 24 hours after all.’
I try to drown out the voice by increasing the speaker volume, but I can no longer focus on the dancing images on my screen. Guilt seeps in as I realize I’ve already lost five precious hours since I woke up that could have been spent being productive.
But what does being productive even mean?
Maybe it’s writing another article. But I’ve written multiple this week and I’m out of fresh ideas. Should I sit in front of a blank screen till a new one strikes?
Maybe I should read. I don’t feel like it, but at least in my head I could categorize that as being productive if I convince myself that I’m doing it to expand my literary knowledge.
Should I start preparing for the exams coming up next month? Or ask my internship manager to send me more work?
Maybe there’s not enough on my plate. I should hop on LinkedIn and send my resume to ten more companies. While at it, I can also look at how much everyone else is achieving. For motivation purposes, of course.
I don’t feel like doing any of it and yet I’m flooded with guilt at the thought of not doing it. But instead of succumbing to this invisible pressure of productivity, today I urge you to ask WHY?
WHY DO WE FEEL THE NEED TO BE PRODUCTIVE ALL THE TIME?
INTERNALIZED CAPITALISM
It’s the idea that your self-worth is directly linked to your productivity. You aren’t valued for simply being a human but for how much you achieve as a human.
When we are children it could be parents and teachers who assign us the ‘lazy’ tag when we don’t engage enough in ‘productive’ activities and as adults, it could be our boss perpetuating this idea. As a result, we learn to internalize this idea and that is why even when there’s no external pressure to be productive we still put the pressure on ourselves.
UPWARD SOCIAL COMPARISON
This is the tendency to always compare ourselves to people who we believe are better than us. And in the age of social media, this has only grown more prevalent. Be it Instagram or LinkedIn everyone is constantly posting their best achievements while the struggles behind the screen are rarely seen. This skewed perception of other’s lives pushes us to believe that if we are more productive we too can achieve all that the hundred people on our screens have.
THE TOXIC PRODUCTIVITY CULTURE
On social media, productivity has become a brand. We have motivational speakers with their podcasts and TED Talks presenting the same formula for success to everyone regardless of their background.
We have the success stories that are presented on social media which are the exception, not the norm, but are colored with survivorship bias promoting overly optimistic beliefs because they overlook the failures.
We have lifestyle influencers showing their strict daily routines of waking up at 5, juggling multiple businesses, working late nights, and equating this with their success.
The bottom line they preach remains the same: You aren’t pushing yourself hard enough and if you did, you would be successful.
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM IS THE FIRST STEP, BUT HOW DO WE ESCAPE THE PRODUCTIVITY PRESSURE?
REMINDER: SOCIAL MEDIA IS JUST A HIGHLIGHT REEL
We all know this but it’s essential to remind ourselves that when we compare ourselves to others on social media we aren’t comparing ourselves to the person in their entirety but instead comparing our whole to their best fraction.
There will be people who have achieved more than you and those who have achieved much less but despite what the capitalistic society tries to preach we must remember that life is not a competition with people whose success in no way impacts ours.
HAVE HOBBIES, NOT SIDE HUSTLES
A hobby is no longer a hobby if you feel pressured to do it. In an age where we are encouraged to monetize our hobbies and turn them into side hustles, it’s important to have hobbies that produce no outcome besides your happiness. Hobbies that you pursue on your own time to help you unwind can show you how much there is to life when you aren’t stuck trying to meet the productivity metrics set by society.
DON’T FEEL LIKE IT, DON’T DO IT
Easier said than done, I know, but at the end of the day, your biggest enemy is you. Yes, society and social media are to blame, but they won’t change overnight. But if you continue to push yourself to the limits, and do things you don’t feel like doing for the sake of being productive it is you who will be stressed, you who will be burnt out, you who will be physically and emotionally drained.
IS IT WORTH IT?
I’VE DECIDED IT’S NOT. And so on my mid-week off I let the voice in my head crib while I continued laying in my bed, watching Netflix and eating ice cream.
