Toxic Productivity Was Ruining My Life
Is your quest to become more productive getting in the way of your happiness?
Just a few days back while surfing around the internet, I come across the term toxic productivity. Though I had a vivid idea about the word, still I searched on the internet, “What is toxic productivity?”
According to the first blog on my search result, the definition of toxic productivity is — ‘to refer to people who are workaholics and never satisfied with the work they put in.’
As stated by the blog, some signs of toxic productivity are,
- Feeling like a failure for being not productive.
- Judge themselves based on what they haven’t done.
- Like to push them more than they are even capable of.
- Unusual fatigue.
- Feeling guilty about enjoying free time (like being free is a criminal offense).
Now come to my story. I was also like that.
Yes, I am not kidding!!
To be honest, I used to spend hours working.
Even when I did not have any work to do, I spend that time reading or learning something new, or watching informative videos.
So in simple words, I was stuck in a loop of Eat-Sleep-Work-No social life/enjoyment-Repeat.
Pretty toxic mentality right? Yes, I know.
Having this kind of mentality caused me loosing out contact with my friends and relatives. Burnout was quite a regular in those days.
Inside my mind, I was living in the future and for that, I was depressed every time.
My mentality back then was to work now and enjoy later.
Though the idea was good, it is not how I function.
I realized that the things I was doing were not for me.
Unfortunately, at that time I lost my mother because of Cancer; and realized how much our close ones mean to us. We need someone to share our success with.
I found out the idea, ‘work now and enjoy later’ may work for others but it was not the definition of success and happiness to me.
So I decided I need to find a balance.
Being productive is good; we need that to achieve something in life, but as a human, we need rest and human connection to have positive mental health.
Now, my suggestion to my readers — if you are also doing the same please stop. Instead of working every waking hour, find a particular time when you feel most productive (quality over quantity); and chill the rest of the day.
Give yourself some rest and your loved ones at least an hour of the day.
Be a workaholic but know to balance out.
Do not do the same mistake that I made.
That is all for the blog.
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