Productivity shame can be a crippling burden, often leading to stress and burnout. Let's delve into understanding its roots and explore effective strategies to overcome this self-imposed pressure, fostering a healthier relationship with work and personal accomplishments.
End the cycle of never enough
In the modern age of work, there are few guidelines on what needs to be done in a day
- Instead of clear deliverables, most of us face open-ended days of collaboration, communication, and context-switching
- Our inability to disconnect from work is having a serious impact on our happiness, productivity, and creativity
Use your tools to set up support systems
Motivation has a funny way of disappearing when we need it most. Use moments of motivation to create systems and set up tools that will support you even when you don’t “feel like it.”
- Ride the high of starting a project to set yourself up for success in the long-term.
A digital to-do list like Todoist
Track the exact tasks you’re working on as well as larger goals, progress, and overall productivity
- Help you prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and make sure you are focusing your energy on the right things
- David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) helps you capture all the work you need to do in one place so you can organize and choose what needs your attention
- GTD involves a 5-step process
- Capture
- Organize
- Clarify
- Reflect
- Engage
Set aside time to understand what “enough” really means
OKRs (OKRs) are goal-setting frameworks that combine what you’re working towards with how you’ll measure success
- Set a “threshold of success” that is enough to challenge and motivate you without feeling like you’re constantly failing
Change the way you think about productivity
Productivity is about getting important things done consistently
- Think of productivity as being busy doing the right things
- Being busy means you’re valued and needed
- Be decisive and confident with how you’re spending your time
- Top executives are 500% more productive when in a state of deep focus-or flow
Shame isn’t the motivator we think it is
In an office setting, it’s important to define “enough.”
- You can finish unloading a truck, but there will always be another email to send, meeting to attend, call to make, or document to write.
- Decide when you’ve done enough for the day.
Take advantage of the progress principle
We feel more motivated and satisfied when we can look back on the day and see progress towards our most meaningful work
- Tracking progress on your goals can help you better estimate how long tasks typically take to do
- Product Tip: Accomplish your biggest goals by creating a Todoist project and adding tasks and subtasks
A time tracker like RescueTime
The more efficient you are at using the time you have, the more accomplished you will feel at the end of each day
- Most people have no idea where their time is going
- RescueTime makes you hyper-aware of how you’re spending your time so you can take back control of it and spend it on the right tasks
- At any time of the day, you can check your RescueTime dashboard to see how productive you are being
- You can also look at weekly, monthly, or yearly reports to uncover long-term trends
How we got so addicted to being busy
We focus on the quantity of work we can complete in a day rather than the quality
- This leads to “completion bias”, where your brain starts to favor finishing small tasks over working on larger, more complex ones
- Productivity shame stops you from ever feeling like you’ve done “enough”. It’s why you feel guilty for watching TV or even walking the dog when you could be doing something more productive
5 ways to break out of the cycle of productivity shame
Being “productive” stops being a skill that helps you spend time on the work or projects that matter most
- When you never feel like you’ve done enough in a day, it quickly turns into stress, overwhelm, and eventually, burnout
- Here are five ways to recognize the signs and avoid productivity shame
Learn to disconnect at the end of the workday
Four elements to include in your end-of-day routine: Detachment, Relaxation, Mastery, Control and Detachment
- By focusing on these actions instead of work, you give your mind and body a chance to rest instead of feeling like there’s always something more you could do.
