What Is Toxic Productivity? And 5 Tips To Overcome It
As remote work has become more common, the boundaries between work and life have blurred, and many homeworkers feel they must prove they are working. This can make it even more challenging to put aside the job and focus on yourself.
Toxic productivity is a mindset that manifests as the need to constantly “do.” You may feel that you can’t rest or take any downtime. And when you’re forced to, you can’t turn your mind off and enjoy it—you’re too busy worrying about what else you “should” do.
Burnout commonly results from this toxic mindset. Rest is essential for actual productivity, and without it, the quality of your output suffers. Can you produce something valuable when you’re running on fumes? Doubtful. At a certain point, you have nothing left to give.
Focus On What’s Important (Not Just What’s Urgent)
It’s way too easy to go through the day being pulled from fire to fire and urgent task to urgent task. In a rush to get everything done, we focus only on other people’s priorities and forget about our own. Even worse, it can feel like you can do nothing about it.
Practice Professional Detachment
This might be a new term in your vocabulary. However, it’s also one of the most powerful things you can do to break free of toxic productivity and avoid burnout.
Laurie Ruettimann defines “professional detachment” as an understanding that your role at work is not the core of your identity. You can be productive and committed without your whole life and sense of self-worth revolving around your job.
Schedule Time To Do Nothing
Take some time each day (or, if possible, each week) to shut off completely.
The unplugging part is also crucial. Turn off your phone. Close your laptop. Take off your smartwatch. The lack of interruptions helps you be more mindful and focused. It can be a little jarring if you’re used to always being “on.” However, you’ll never want to return once you get used to it.
Set Clear Boundaries Between Work Time And Personal Time
Restore your work-life balance by picking a point of separation from work time to private time and sticking to it. Maybe it’s a time on the clock. Perhaps it’s when your kids get home. Or maybe it’s the start of an evening class at the gym.
Build Breaks Into Your Schedule
Your calendar is probably crammed with meetings and appointments—an average of 62 per month. Most folks try to squeeze their work into the few hours that remain. Then we leave employment and jump right into an equally-packed personal life.
The full article is published on Trello Blog by Dave Schafer.