The Myth of Productivity (and What to Do About It)

I know I'm not the only one who finds it hard to rest. It's a shortcoming of our global culture that rewards productivity at all costs.

Even when we do make time for rest, snatching a week of holiday here, or a long weekend there, we remain constantly anxious and alert. We check online without knowing why, even though it makes us feel distracted and resentful.

Hustle and grind are second nature, built into the fabric of work culture. But all this productivity is a myth, and I'm going to show you why.

Be careful though — once we see this, we can't unsee it. And our old ways of pushing ourselves to be productive every waking hour won't have the luster and the shine that they used to.

We might just have to find another way. (I include some steps for how to counteract your obsession with productivity below.)

When I was at the UN, it was no different. Working late hours and coming to the office on the weekends was not only normal — it was rewarded. If the bosses were there, we needed to be there too.

Things got worse when I was a start-up co-founder with my own tech company, working in international development. With no office and no boss, there was no excuse to stop working. There were no after-work drinks to go to, no one to distract me from the hypnotic glow of my laptop and my endless, always urgent, to-do list.

When I was working in Silicon Valley, the culture only cemented the narrative that productivity is paramount. But it’s a myth that overworking and refusing to rest is going to make us more successful and productive. Productivity doesn’t make us happier in the long-term. The cultural story of productivity involves too many tradeoffs to be real.

When we buy into the myth of productivity, all it does is give us a false sense of safety. We feel a sense of control and the illusion of safety. But at the same time, we miss the present moment with all its beauty and joy.

Productivity is Rewarded by Society

Most of us grew up with clear cultural messages about productivity. If you are white or grew up in European and North American cultures, you probably had some version of “always be working” conditioned into you from childhood.

There are so many old sayings to this effect. My favorite is, "Idle hands are the devil's work." I mean…if that’s not going to make someone pause before relaxing, I don’t know what will.

The reality is that for many of our ancestors, productivity was necessary to survive the harsh conditions of their lives. If they didn’t "make a living,” they could starve.

In most places in the world, society rewards our ability to never switch off.  

Productivity gives us a sense that, if we are only productive enough, we will be spared the random tragedies and cruelties of life. But by always being productive, we end up missing out on much of life's beauty.

Why Productivity is a Massive Myth

Productivity does not create the safety we think it does. All it does is provide a false sense of control.

Working harder doesn't mean we're more strategic. Working longer doesn't mean we're more effective. Constantly being glued to email and social media "for work" doesn't get us closer to our goals and dreams.

Productivity makes us think we're getting ahead, when really we're on the fast-track to burnout. When we overwork, we run our immune systems into the ground. When we don't give our bodies the necessary time to rest and relax, our short-term physical, mental, emotional, and sexual health suffers.

If we're always working hard to be productive, we often neglect our bodies’ need for quality sleep, time in Nature, healthy food, and regular exercise.

When we are always "on" for work, our minds don't get a rest. We feel overwhelmed more and more often. Feeling anxious and even depressed are the natural outcomes.

Being productive all the time means we neglect social connection in favor of work, and we don't develop outside sources of support or have the focus or energy to nurture healthy relationships.

And when the body is in the activated state of being productive, we hold tension and stress that makes it difficult to relax enough to feel connected and enjoy intimacy with our partners.

I'm not saying that we don't need to be productive some of the time, just that our unbounded desire for productivity in all areas comes at a cost. It gives us a false sense that we are safe and in control when we’re not. And because we have our heads down, we miss the vibrant colors and connective experiences that bring joy to life.

Trauma and Productivity

Productivity in our world today is largely a function of the mind. We neglect the body’s need for rest, the heart’s need for connection, and the spirit’s need for wider horizons, in favor of the drudgery of the tasks at hand.

For those of us with unresolved trauma, productivity can be a welcome escape out of the torments of flashbacks and the anxiety of overwhelm. When we are being productive, we often dismiss and minimize the burdens we are carrying that long for healing.

It’s so much easier to focus on cognitive tasks and relish the feelings of accomplishment that come with productivity, than to focus on feeling where we need healing.

It’s so much more socially acceptable to disappear in overwork than to show up, messy and vulnerable, to relationships and ask for care.

But it doesn’t help our healing. It doesn’t shift the unresolved trauma. And the false rewards of productivity will keep us distracted for as long as we’re willing to maintain the mirage.

Here are some ways you can interrupt yourself when you are being productive in a way that isn't serving you...

5 Ways to Counter your Endless Drive for Productivity

1. Linger

Stay a little longer in bed in the morning and let yourself wake up slowly. Linger at the table after meals. Stay to chat with your colleagues after a meeting. Consciously design spaces of time in between your daily tasks and engagements. Let yourself be in the liminal space of transition and slow down.

2. Notice

When you get cranky or anxious because you didn't achieve your to-do list for today or feel that someone or something is "wasting your time," just notice that. Notice when you want to push harder and try to fit more work into the time you have. When you do notice, try not to push yourself so hard. Let up a little and experiment with what happens next.

3. Negotiate with Yourself

The minute you stop being productive, a part of your personality I call the Inner Critic is probably going to make themselves known. Their voice will arise and catastrophize as soon as you stop working. It might chide you with, "How can you stop when other people are working?" or "You have to work this hard to get ahead." Although the Inner Critic can be convincing, none of the things they say are necessarily true. You can often negotiate with them to buy yourself a bit of grace and downtime.

4. Practice Aimless Action

Do something every day that is purposeless, just for the pleasure of it. Look at the stars. Visit a garden. Take a bath. Read a novel. Sketch. Play your instrument. Write poetry. By practicing aimless action, we start to build a different story about what happens when we are not productive. We see that no disaster befalls us just because we stopped overworking. The only way to know this for sure is to try it. 

5. Get Support

Find friends and colleagues who support your desire to work less and take more time for yourself. We're conditioned to think that working hard means working well, but this simply isn't true. Focus on working smarter, not harder. Change will require social support from people you like and trust. Gather a group with similar ambitions and make time to celebrate yourselves.

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No matter how much of a rut of productivity we might find ourselves in, there are always options for us to choose a different way. When we dismantle the cultural and ancestral legacies of productivity that have burdened us for so long, we get to find a more pleasurable and effective way of bringing our work to the world.

It's worth the journey.

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Thank you for reading. I offer trauma resolution work one-on-one in my private practice. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more.

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