We’ve already talked about what discourses are and how they contribute to burnout. One outsized contributor is Toxic Productivity Culture, a great big discourse that says a happy and worthwhile life is one in which we are constantly producing. It comes with a lot of unhelpful offshoot ideas:
- If you feel unhappy (or guilty), it’s because you’re not productive enough.
- Busy-ness = virtue.
- Perpetual improvement in all arenas is possible (and desirable).
- Rest is only important because it means having more energy to get stuff done later.
…just to name a few.
On the whole, this discourse is lifted straight out of corporate culture and predicated on the assumption that what’s good for a business is good for an individual person. In other words, this is a highly capitalist idea. Human beings are not businesses. We do not exist to generate profit. We exist to experience, appreciate, create, think, feel, love, enjoy, and… finish this list with whatever else makes your life feel worthwhile.
To disengage from Toxic Productivity Culture is to re-engage with the full experience of being human.
A few ways to begin that disengagement are:
- Block out empty time in your calendar. Give yourself time off from the pressures of productivity. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time. Schedule at least a little bit of time during which you will be “unproductive.”
- Listen to your body. The body is actually the single best barometer for whether or not what we are doing is working for us, and listening to it means being willing to adjust based on its needs. Maybe your body is needing rest, movement, outdoor time, or water. Maybe you were about to make your standard afternoon cup of coffee but actually you are craving tea. Re-centering the body is re-centering our humanness. When you find that empty time on your calendar, check in with your body to decide how you will spend it.
- Define enough. Useful goal setting can help us focus on the things that are really important. Unfortunately a lot of us are not using goals to hone in on high priorities. We’re stacking up goal after goal after goal and then wondering why we’re not meeting any of them, and even when we do, why we’re not satisfied. Define what actually constitutes enough for now: enough money, enough advancement, enough achievement. The fact that we COULD do more does not always mean we should.
Toxic Productivity Culture is complex and far reaching, and we’ll be talking about it a lot more. But these small suggestions are meant to give you a starting point for undermining its influence in your life just a little bit, enough to create a foundation you can build on.
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Kathryn Stinson
I help passionate people identify and dismantle the cultural drivers of burnout, so they can serve their big visions without burning out. Find information and strategies for dealing with burnout here, or reach out to work with me.
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Each month I take a deep dive into one aspect of resisting burnout.
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