How to avoid toxic productivity
Productivity is drilled into us, as writers. But here's when it can become a problem – and what to do about it.
Everything I talk about in this newsletter is related, somehow, to productivity. Developing what I call an author mindset involves overcoming mental blocks to becoming a successful writer – so that you can actually produce a manuscript. But when does productivity itself become a problem?
We all admire those hyper-productive authors who somehow seem to knock out a book every year, regular as clockwork. We aspire to be like them: a full-time author, with an enviable backlist, a widely-admired body of work and a career. And there’s a whole ecosystem of blogs, books, courses and social media tips out there about productivity hacks and how to be the perfect, productive author, with a winning routine, a rock-solid habit and the laser-like focus to write a string of bestsellers.
But what if productivity itself is the problem? Or, at least, can become a problem if it gets out of hand? Is our feeling that we have to be productive even healthy?
One difficulty for writers is that there’s always something we could be doing. There’s always a project we ‘should’ be working on, a new idea to develop, a manuscript to edit or some research to do. If we’re self published, there’s even more: a cover to brief, a copy-editor to hire – and lots of marketing to do. Even when we’ve delivered our manuscript, there’s always another book to write!
What is toxic productivity?
Do you constantly feel the need to be busy? That you should always be doing something? Even when you don’t have pressing deadlines or commitments, you look around for a new project to occupy you. Maybe you just find it hard to switch off and relax. Watching TV makes you feel edgy, as it’s a waste of time when there are so many other things you should be doing. If so, it’s possible you’re experiencing toxic productivity.
There’s nothing wrong with being productive. Productivity helps us generate the work we need to do to thrive, and create the books we want to write and readers want to read. We also get a sense of satisfaction from completing a project or ticking things off our to-do list. So what could possibly be toxic about that?
Toxic productivity, in contrast to normal productivity, is an obsessive need always to be productive, regardless of the cost to your physical and mental health, your relationships – and your life. It’s a type of productivity that’s destructive rather than creative. It’s related to the more familiar term ‘workaholism’, and to what psychologists call action bias: a tendency to favour action over inaction.
While a bias towards action can help you get things done, there are downsides to hyper-productivity and being ‘always on’. These include:
Exhaustion. By taking on too much and always being busy, you might end up feeling tired, exhausted – even burnt out.
Guilt. Do you feel guilty if you’re not busy doing something? This can be a self-perpetuating loop if you deal with these feelings by doing more.
Anxiety or depression. Being ‘always on’ takes a toll on your mental health. You might feel anxious about the work you have to do (or that you’re not doing). You may also feel disconnected from loved ones and activities you used to enjoy.
Underperformance. You’re not necessarily doing your best work. If you push yourself to be productive when you’re tired and should take a break, your work – and, ironically, your productivity – will suffer.
Maybe, for you, writing is your way of taking a break from the demands of work, family life or other responsibilities. It’s your down-time, your hobby, your relaxation. That’s perfectly fine. And there are good reasons for feeling we have to be productive - such as meeting a deadline, or getting a manuscript off our desk. These are self-contained and short-term. But if you always feel like this, and push yourself to work too hard too often, or you feel guilty when you’re not using every minute of your spare time to write, you may be experiencing toxic productivity.
While super-productivity might, on the face of it, seem like a good thing, it can become a toxic behaviour that doesn’t serve you well. It can also be an unhealthy coping mechanism for difficult feelings.
Why do we feel the need to be productive?
If you tend to feel the need to be super-productive all the time, it’s worth pausing to ask yourself why. According to Schema Therapy, ‘schemas’ or ‘lifetraps’ are maladaptive patterns of thinking and behaviour that develop in childhood. If toxic productivity has become an ingrained habit for you, some of these may be relevant: particularly the ‘unrelenting standards’, ‘defectiveness’ or ‘approval-seeking’ schemas.
Psychological reasons for toxic productivity may include:
Avoidance. Sometimes toxic productivity can be a way of avoiding difficult things: difficult emotions, difficult situations – even difficult people!
Control. Taking action makes us feel in control of a situation or outcome, especially when things seem chaotic. Doing something makes us feel we have the capacity to change and improve things. It makes us feel better about ourselves, which can become a reinforcement for this behaviour.
Perfectionism. Do you have excessively high and unrealistic standards? Perfectionists often measure their self-worth in terms of productivity and achievements. It can be related to the unrelenting standards schema. Maybe you were given too little praise or too much criticism growing up, and never felt ‘good enough’. You may struggle to switch off, relax and enjoy life - because it feels like such a waste of time when you should be doing.
‘Shoulds’ and ‘oughts’. If you often feel that you should be writing, you may be experiencing what Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) calls ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’. This is a type of ‘thinking trap’ or ‘cognitive distortion’. When you feel you fall short of your productivity shoulds, you may feel disappointed, frustrated, anxious, guilty, even angry with yourself. And doing more work can become a way of coping with these feelings.
Impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome can result from the defectiveness schema. This can lead you to become an over-achiever. You put yourself under huge amounts of pressure to be productive, but still never quite manage to escape feeling like a fraud – despite your accomplishments.
Approval-seeking. Do you crave external validation, and feel that hyper-productivity will achieve this? It’s normal to want people to like us, and recognise our work – whether that’s our peers, our agent or publisher, or our readers. But approval-seeking can be exhausting. You work incredibly hard, yet never seem to get enough approval. The approval-seeking schema may be relevant here. It can develop in childhood if love was very conditional.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t helped with any of this. At the height of lockdowns, most of us had to work from home: always on, always contactable, perhaps pushed into performative productivity. And if we weren’t working, there was the pressure to learn a new skill or make soda bread! Being busy may have helped us feel in control during a chaotic period. But, in many cases, it was also a social expectation.
For writers, the pressure to use the ‘opportunity’ of lockdown to write a book was immense. Remember all those tweets saying: “If you didn’t manage to finally write that book during lockdown, you didn’t lack the time, you lacked the discipline”? Insulting and wrong on so many levels.
8 ways to overcome toxic productivity
Since there will always be something to do – and something to write - how are we supposed to switch off, and develop a healthy relationship with productivity? Here are some suggestions.
Examine your motivation. Do you really need to write every weekend? Or into the small hours? Or are you being busy for the sake of it, to feel better, or to avoid something? Do you feel anxious, guilty, or a failure if you’re not busy? Have you bought into ‘hustle culture’, or the myth that you should be working at all times? Simply becoming aware of your feelings and motivation, and the issue of toxic productivity, is the first step.
Challenge your ‘shoulds’. Pay attention to when you feel you should be doing something productive. If you catch yourself thinking: “I should be writing my book”, be aware that this sounds like a criticism. Challenge this thought and reframe it as a preference: “I want to write my book.” This expresses it as a desire you can act on, rather than an obligation. You can also choose not to act on your wish to write, or not right now. And it removes the guilt associated with ‘should’.
Avoid comparisons. Sometimes we feel the need to be hyper-productive to keep up with other writers. Comparing yourself to other writers is rarely a good idea. Everyone is on their own path – and your comparisons may be unrealistic. Yes, some authors write a book a year. But if you’re writing around a full-time job and they’re a full-time writer, that’s hardly a fair comparison. They may have a very healthy work-life balance – while you’re pushing yourself to the limit. Avoid, too, those social media influencers who post their idealized (and exhausting) productivity routines. They’re neither realistic nor healthy.
Take a break. Build breaks into your schedule. And give yourself permission to take time out from doing as an act of self-care. Go for a walk, meditate, meet a friend for coffee, play sport, watch that TV series, read a book or absorb yourself in a hobby. Think about how you’d like to spend an ideal, relaxing day off – and then do it. Use some of your time to rest, recharge and restore – rather than feel you have to use all of it to produce.
Recognise the value of being unproductive. If taking a break provokes feelings of guilt, try to see a day off or time away from work as productive in itself. You’ll come back to your writing rested and refreshed – and probably with some new ideas that would never have occurred to you had you not stepped away for a bit. If you find it hard to let go of your to-do list, schedule time to do nothing.
Decrease your effort. If you struggle with approval-seeking, try to decrease the effort you make. Put in fewer hours. Reduce your list of projects or works in progress. Trim your to-do list. Learn to say ‘no’. Decide what’s reasonable to do - and set some boundaries and realistic goals. Avoid perfectionism, and try to worry less about approval from others.
Give yourself credit. You’ve probably achieved way more than you think. Give yourself credit for what you have done – rather than beat yourself up for what you haven’t, or what you feel you ‘should’ do. Remember that your worth doesn’t depend on the work you produce. You’re worthy because you’re human.
Go gradually. All of this may involve facing some anxiety and discomfort, because you’re giving up a coping strategy that helps you feel safe. But it’s a coping strategy that comes at a cost. So go slowly, if it feels too threatening to go ‘cold turkey’. Gradually reduce your hours or daily word-count, or take an hour or two out of your normal writing routine at first, rather than a whole weekend.
Productivity is generally seen as A Good Thing by writers. But too much of a good thing can become toxic. If you struggle with toxic productivity, it might seem a hard habit to break. But it’s a behaviour you can unlearn and change. Just becoming aware of it is the first step to developing a healthier relationship with productivity – and a more balanced writing life.