When Doing More Means Achieving Less
How our fear of not achieving makes us miss out on living.
I have a confession to make, I am a recovering productivity junkie.
Productivity on the surface seems like such a positive thing. We set goals, we achieve them and we feel great. The truth is, many of us use productivity as a means of escape from the real problems at hand and when we do not hit the self-imposed productivity target, we feel restless and annoyed with the world and ourselves.
Essentially, it feels a little like an addiction.
When I was in school, I would rush to finish my homework before I even leave school for the day. This meant that I was often doing homework for one class in another class. It was a compulsion and a race with myself to see how fast I can complete my homework. As you can imagine, it meant that I could not pay attention in class at times and it was also frustrating for the teachers who could not punish me for doing homework.
Obviously, I had ample time to do my homework at home and it would have been logical to pay attention in the other classes instead. However, I wanted to free up my logical homework time to do other stuff, to be even more productive. On hindsight, I now recognize that my behavior came from an irrational need to be productive, over-productive even.
Our relationship with productivity
In economic measures, productivity is the amount of output as measured in relation to the input. Input can refer to resources such as time, manpower and effort. If we think about this in terms of a factory for example, obviously the more the factory can produce in as little time, with as little labor and money, the better the productivity yield. Same for us in our daily lives, if we produce more results with less time and effort, we can also think of ourselves as being more productive.
In today’s culture of being constantly on the run, a high productivity is so championed that time management frameworks like Getting Things Done by David Allen achieved cult status with productivity aficionados.
Of course, who can overlook the catchy title of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy which does not recommend you eat an innocent amphibian but instead, tackle the hard but most significant tasks before the easy tasks.
These snazzy frameworks and book titles plus the constant stream of people humble-bragging their productivity levels have created an intoxicating positive vibe around productivity. As a result, productivity became a badge of honor if you succeeded in your productivity quest or badge of horror if you failed to be productive.
Why are we addicted to productivity?
We want to fit in with a group:
According to social identity theory, we tend to behave in ways that are compatible with the social norms of whatever group we identify with. Our behavior ensures that we are and feel accepted within a group.
For example, research shows when we are in an environment where rewards are based on group effort, or when there is a clear division of group belonging such as by wearing uniforms, we increase our productivity levels so as to contribute our fair share to the group and validate our belonging.
When it comes to productivity in our personal lives, we might identify with the characteristics of productive individuals we see online or read about, i.e., busy, disciplined, a go-getter. Thus, we can also feel a sense of belonging to other busy, productive individuals whom we may share an online group with for example.
We fear void and boredom:
Ever notice how when there is a pause between conversations in a group, it always seems awkward and somebody will often rush to fill the void?
We hate voids and silences.
When we are doing something, there is no time to think about other stuff. In fact, we hate the stillness so much that we would rather give ourselves electric shocks than be alone with just our thoughts for company.
In his study, the social psychologist, Timothy Wilson, found that when participants were left alone with their thoughts and a button to shock themselves, a shocking 67% of men and 25% of women chose to self-inflict electric shocks rather than be left to just think.
We compare ourselves to others:
As you are very aware, the fear of missing out drives many to scroll endlessly on social media and keeps many people addicted to their social feed. Just as we get affected by how people dress and what makeup they are using on social media, we get affected by others bragging about how busy their lives are and how productive they’ve been.
We sit back and we start to think about how dull our lives are and how lazy we’ve been bingeing on Friends rerun all day and inevitably, we feel lousy about ourselves.
With many stuck at home, and a little fearful of their racing thoughts of uncertainty, the pandemic has exacerbated this productivity overdrive with many working out their troubles through baking and working out. On top of that, the perfect posts that come with the productivity forces others to compare and try to keep up.
Good versus bad productivity
That said, not all productivity leads to addiction. All things should come in moderation. An adequate amount of productivity is actually beneficial for our well-being and how satisfied we are with life.
This is especially so with tangible achievements. For example, it is known that people who use self-tracking apps to help them lose weight tend to be more motivated as they can see their progress, not just in the results but in the activities they do such as increasing their daily steps. As a result, they are more likely to achieve their goals and also score higher on their life-satisfaction scale as well.
When we try to do too much, we end up hurting ourselves and achieving much less. For example, research shows that productivity levels do not increase when men put in 80-hour weeks at the office, instead, productivity levels actually fall.
Overworking is also harmful for our health because we feel more stressed out from achieving less and we then try to soothe ourselves by drinking more alcohol or eating more junk food.
Finally, trying to do more and yet achieving less can result in us burning out physically, mentally and emotionally. We all know how that feels don’t we?
Recognize the type of productivity addict you are
First of all, stop and take a breath.
Now, try and find out what kind of productivity addict you are.
According to Cyril Peupion, a productivity expert, there are three types of productivity junkies. The efficiency obsessive is super organized and detail-obsessed, they are so caught up with the nitty-gritty that the big picture is lost. The selfish productive is obsessed only with their own goals and disregards everything else. Lastly, the quantity-obsessed junkie is obsessed with volume of output, they are the ones who work nights and weekends too.
Now, Cyril was referring to these addiction types in a professional context. However, I think that we can apply this to personal life too. For example, the efficiency obsessive person is so focused on not wasting any holiday time that she fills up the schedule with activities from dawn to dusk, not leaving any time to actually enjoy the holiday with the people she loves.
The selfish productive and quantity-obsessed addict could also manifest in an ambitious entrepreneur who are so obsessed with hitting business targets at the expense of family time and health.
Now you try and see how your own productivity addiction fits in.
Now, set your boundaries
When you recognize which type of productivity addict you are, you can then start to tailor how to cut back on certain things by realigning with what is meaningful to you rather than try to do everything.
There is no beating around the bush here, is it is difficult to quell the productivity demon within us.
We are programmed to feel a deep sense of satisfaction when we achieve something. Especially in times like this when we are working from home and sometimes even socializing from home, it becomes unbearable thinking about how to pass our days without the bits outside of our home that makes up our routines.
That said, productivity should work for you, not the other way round. You need to set and keep your own boundaries, determine your own meaning in life, don’t let the productivity monkey on your back take over.
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