The problem with productivity culture

At this very moment, as you start reading this post, tens to hundreds of new books about productivity are being planned, written, or published. In addition to that, consider numerous podcasts, articles, videos, and all other forms that the content can take. This is a lot.

There is no doubt, the topic of productivity is popular.

Generally, most productivity content is aimed at the following goal — to do more things in less time. And at first glance, there is nothing wrong with that. People have many tasks, you might think. Is it bad that they strive to accomplish them more quickly? Absolutely not.

There is a different problem, though, that I keep coming across— productivity culture often encourages productivity for the sake of productivity and this is a waste of time. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Productivity by itself is a tool, which allows you to do things more quickly in order to achieve a certain result. Say, you want to finish your tasks at work more quickly to free yourself some time for an interesting side project, or you want to finish your schoolwork earlier to spare some extra time to spend with your family. In these situations, a productive approach comes around very helpful indeed.

However, productivity has no value by itself. Being able to do more things for the sake of doing more things won’t solve anything. It will only make you exhausted.

Such a problem with productivity stems from the notion that we should develop and self-improve all the time. If there is one thing you take from this post, let it be this — you don’t have to engage in self-development 24/7. In fact, excessive hunt for constant self-improvement leads nowhere but to burnout.

We don’t need to go very far for an example — I used to be there. At some point in life, I measured my value as the function of my productivity. Every minute of my day was organized and planned. I got loads of things done and my productivity was at the top level. After some time, it left me burnt out, depressed, having a poor social life but possessing perfect time management skills. Was it worth it? I really doubt it.

Let us be honest, most of the time when we talk about productivity we refer to self-development. It feels weird to say that you are being productive in a relationship or that you are productively taking care of your health. The concept of productivity itself is usually applied either to education or work. And, again, it is a very helpful skill that helps to achieve professional aspirations that we have.

The reason why placing intrinsic value on productivity can be toxic is because in the pursuit of accomplishing more and more things some of our core values can get out of focus. For instance, our health (both mental and physical), our relationships and even our real professional ambitions can get blurred and shadowed by the aspiration to improve all the time. I see this as the biggest problem that the productivity discussions encourage.

It doesn’t mean that we all should stop talking about being productive, though. We just should do it differently. We should treat productivity specifically as a tool.

What do you want to achieve? Why do you want to achieve it? What do you value most? Why do you need to be productive now?

There is no point in trying to be productive without clear answers to these questions. Productivity describes how we reach our goal, but it doesn’t define where we want to go. Here, the speed doesn’t matter if you haven’t chosen your destination. But it does matter, once you know where to go.

Believe me or not, but adopting this mindset in regards to productivity is a game-changer. With such a conscious approach, it will be even easier for you to do things more effectively. When you clearly understand, what you want to accomplish and why, there is no more room left for procrastination. With a clear picture of your values in mind, motivation and courage find their way to you themselves! Neither the Pomodoro technique nor a special morning routine will be able to beat the motivation that comes from within.

To conclude, self-improvement and productivity can be very powerful concepts with the right approach. But they also can cause harm. I believe, when talking about productivity, it always makes sense to think about its meaning for you first.

Thank you for reading and have a consciously productive day!