Look up the word “productivity” in the thesaurus and synonyms including “abundance,” “power,” wealth, and “harvest.” Sounds good and something to strive for, right? It’s no wonder that many of us are always looking for ways to improve our productivity.
“One of the strong reasons that people focus on productivity is because it makes us feel good about ourselves,” says Israa Nasir, author of books. Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Needs More. “It is a tangible cause and effect. We can make our mind feel that if I do this, I will feel happy.”
Toxic Productivity Awareness
Like all good things, productivity can have a dark side, especially when it becomes a virtual hamster wheel. “Productivity can create imbalance in your life if it’s the only thing that matters,” says Nasir. “It’s the fastest way to burn.”
Productivity is also unhealthy if it’s the only way you feel validated and your sense of self is too tied to it, says Nasir. “It’s when you can’t see yourself whole, you’re a different person,” he explained. “You only see yourself in terms of the results you can achieve. External achievements are very conditional on life circumstances, and it can be emotionally dangerous to put all your eggs of your worth in the production basket.”
A third way productivity becomes toxic if it doesn’t align with your core values. Rather, your productivity goals are a checklist inherited from society or family expectations. “You do all the things, you put time and effort into it, but you don’t feel satisfied or satisfied because it doesn’t really match what you want to do,” said Nasir.
Three common practices contribute to toxic production:
Habit One: Overcommitment
The first thing people do is overcommit. It may be considered a good feature to fill your calendar—schedule back-to-back meetings, fill evenings, and press calls, moving from one thing to another. However, this mindset can quickly become unhealthy, says Nasir.
“We think it’s because we’re busy and moving, but it’s being a hamster on the wheel,” he said.
Habit Two: Succumbing to Emotions
Another toxic habit is the inability to control emotions. An example of this habit is feeling guilty about enjoying free time. You might think, “I shouldn’t be sleeping,” or “I shouldn’t be watching TV,” Nasir explains. Instead of managing the feelings of guilt and sitting with them or taking a break, you look for “productive” work to fill the time.
Nasir says this often comes from growing up in a home where you had a lot of extracurriculars like sports or clubs that focused on success. He says: “Guilt is an action-oriented emotion. “When we feel like we have to do something on time, the way to reduce the guilt is to do it.”
Resting can also activate your unwanted lazy self. This can create embarrassment, which Nasir says is also a strong motivator.
He says: “You don’t want to be a passive person. “Often, we jump to avoid processing the scandal. What better way to avoid emotion than to preoccupy yourself? It motivates us to go beyond rest, rest and just being.”
Habit Three: Multitasking
The third habit of producing toxins is doing more than one thing at a time. However, multitasking can quickly lead to frustration.
“Multitasking has a very high impact on understanding how much energy your brain is using to process information,” Nasir said. “There is no true way to multitask. We think we are doing many things at once; but at the molecular level, our brain switches rapidly between tasks, and it becomes more taxing.”
The dangers of toxic production
Many of us are willing to accept the toxic side effects of manufacturing, thinking that it is normal. However, the decline of these habits can affect your physical health, emotional health and relationships. You’ll end up feeling drained, empty and tired if you don’t balance it with internal motivation and affirmation, says Nasir.
Toxic manufacturing practices are often developed over a long period of time and become entrenched. Because of that, Nasir recommends changing them by starting with small habits. “Go in with something simple, with a very low barrier to entry,” he said.
Developing New Lifestyle Habits
One thing you should try is to review what you do every week, and practice doing one thing at a time. “What you do opens up the space for you to have an emotional exploration of what makes your product successful,” said Nasir.
Another new habit you can develop is to develop a self-reflection habit, checking in with yourself every morning or every week to think about why you do the things you do. “A lot of people in the production wheel, or what I call the production puzzle, work by default,” Nasir said. “Autopilot is a big problem, and it happens because we don’t know ourselves. We don’t check ourselves often.”
Nasir also recommends monotasking at least once a day. Start small. “Many people watch TV and scroll at the same time,” he says. “Your brain goes between processing TV and social media, and it’s very scary. You feel more fried afterwards instead of rested.”
Other ways to monotask include putting your phone down when you’re chatting with someone or spending time on email and closing your inbox when you’re done.
Nasir admits that he once struggled with toxic manufacturing practices. “I didn’t know the joy of having more time and not being there [scheduled] we are going back,” he said. “I thought being ambitious meant being stressed all the time.”
But toxic production can lead to burnout, which triggers our stress hormones. In the extreme, you can develop chronic heart disease and autoimmune conditions, Nasir says. You may also begin to break down, detaching yourself from your life.
“You’re not really depressed, but you’re not that busy in your life,” he says. “One of the greatest by-products of manufacturing for the sake of manufacturing is that we are not in the service of passion, purpose, or value. We all deserve married lives; lives that we feel we enjoy and that we have a hand in designing.”
By changing small habits, you can begin to experience happiness and relief to be instead of just doing. And you can expand your productivity in a sustainable way.
Source link
