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We live in a world where "Hustle Culture" is praised, where "hard work" is seen as the ideal, and we are encouraged to be as productive as possible from a very young age. Whether you’re watching videos of YouTube gurus or taking in TED Talks on the subject, it’s unsurprising that many business owners feel like they need to be doing SOMETHING all the time. A study by Headway in 2022 found that from a wide range of people surveyed across the US, UK & Australia the number 1 “wish” for them was to be “more productive”, and the UK led the pack at 65%. This relentless drive, while initially seeming beneficial, can stealthily cross into the harmful territory of toxic productivity.
Toxic Productivity Is The Enemy Of Sustainable Success
Toxic productivity happens when chasing work and achievement overtakes everything. It’s subtle and can sneak up on business owners and founders, but it essentially pushes them into a cycle where the quantity of their work and slog is glorified. Personal life and passion projects get left to the side and more often than not, well-being, self-care and clear boundaries get sacrificed.
It’s ultimately the state where the boundary between dedication and overworking gets blurred, and rest and leisure become undervalued. It also often ends up with people doing lots more work, with minimal outcomes and becomes counterproductive. It can also be a symptom of something deeper as well. Without taking the time for pause and reflection, or appreciation of what you’ve achieved, it becomes a perpetual cycle of “doing” and can end up being a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult feelings.
How To Recognise Toxic Productivity – What Are The Signs?
Being able to recognise the signs of toxic productivity is the first step to stopping it. It can give you a chance to make sure that you are putting in the tools and resources to ensure the health of yourself and your business as well.
Some of the things to watch out for include:
Feeling Guilty for Not Working: If you are feeling a constant sense of guilt when taking time off or engaging in leisure activities this is a red flag. If the thought of resting makes you anxious or you deem it 'unproductive', then this is a warning sign.
Work Consumes Your Thoughts: If work is all you think about, even during supposed downtime, it's a sign that your work-life balance is off-kilter. Equally, becoming obsessed over tasks and future projects while you’re meant to be relaxing or spending time with friends and family can undermine your rest time and relationships.
Your Self-Worth is Solely Tied to Productivity: If you define yourself and your successes purely by your work, then it can end up being hard to unmix the two. It’s important to recognise that your self-worth isn’t just how much work you are doing, or how successful a business is.
Neglecting Health and Relationships: If you find yourself skipping meals, exercising, putting off sleep or not paying attention to friends and family then it’s likely you are struggling with toxic productivity. These sacrifices can lead to burnout and can damage relationships and your overall well-being.
Diminishing Returns on Effort: Longer hours do not mean a better amount of productivity. If you are putting in more effort but not seeing any more return – be it acclaim, financial, or new growth – then this is an indicator that it’s not sustainable.
The Larger Impact Of Toxic Productivity
When you are working non-stop, and do not allow time for creativity and innovation, you will find that your overall decision-making suffers. This can harm your business and mean that you are spending time working but without actually achieving anything. It’s also typically when we start to make mistakes as we can’t “see the wood for the trees”.
On a personal level, working too much without a break can lead to health problems, sleep issues and issues with relationships. Over time it becomes harder to learn new things or have time for hobbies as you are always working.
The main thing is to realise and recognise these early. Trying to find a better balance between your working life and rest, can automatically alleviate a lot of other problems as a result. The mantra here is to work smarter and not harder.
Strategies To Overcome Toxic Productivity
1. Prioritise and Delegate: Identify your key tasks and strengths and focus your attention on these. Delegation is crucial; not all tasks require your personal touch. Hiring a Virtual Assistant through a service like Virtalent can dramatically lighten your workload, freeing you up to focus on core business activities.
2. Set Clear Work-Life Boundaries: Set and stick to specific work hours. Creating a separation between your professional and personal life is essential for mental and physical rest.
3. Schedule Breaks and Self-Care: Incorporate short breaks throughout your day to maintain productivity and prevent burnout. It doesn’t need to be anything big but taking 5 minutes to meditate, a short walk around the block, or even just having your lunch away from your desk can increase your focus when you return.
4. Use Available Support: If you are struggling with support with both work and well-being, Virtalent provides complimentary access to AssistYou, an Individual Assistance Programme, which is free of charge for all its clients and Virtual Assistants. Offering a wide range of support services from health programmes and counselling sessions, AssistYou can enhance your quality of life and business efficiency.
5. Prioritise Health and Well-being: They often say you can’t pour from an empty cup. By taking part in regular physical activities, maintaining a balanced diet, drinking water and ensuring adequate sleep, you can look after your health which puts you in good stead to make clear decisions.
6. Seek Professional Guidance: If managing stress or finding a balance between work and life becomes overwhelming, professional advice can be invaluable.
Embracing Sustainable Positive Productivity
The key to avoiding toxic productivity is to focus on the quality, not quantity of the work you do. It's about shifting your mindset from measuring success by the volume of tasks completed to valuing the impact and significance of our efforts.
Adopting a more balanced approach that ensures a clear separation of work and personal can be quite tricky to manage and implement. It demands mindfulness, and sometimes, a fundamental change in how we structure our days, and how we delegate and prioritise our tasks. The rewards of such a shift however are profound. By choosing to work in a way that looks after your well-being and prevents negative impacts over endless to-do lists, you can not only safeguard your health and happiness but also set a foundation for sustained success and satisfaction for your business.
