During the Industrial Revolution, a new sort of profession sprung up: The Productivity Expert. The job of this expert was to help factories produce more, faster. Presumably this goal was best accomplished by finding the one best way to do everything.
With this goal in mind, productivity and efficiency experts ever since have created numerous methods of study and systems of operation, some quite ingenious, to maximize production and speed. Perhaps inevitably, pursuit of greater productivity has also been used to justify slave labor and worker exploitation.
Over time, corporate ideas have been increasingly applied to personal lives. We now seek productivity experts who can tell us how we should be more personally productive. We have no shortage of gurus with systems and products competing to convince us that they have found the one best way, the holy grail of life hacks that will finally whip us into shape, maximize our personal potential, and have us loving life.
This is predicated on a false foundation.
- People are not corporations. Productivity for a factory is relatively simple. It can be measured in tangible output of literal product. For most individuals, “productive” is a lot more fuzzy. What we usually mean when we say “productive” is that we are engaging in an activity that we have deemed to have value.
- How do we determine what activities have value? Generally, the answer is: Not very well. We tend to judge our own activities based on how we think others would judge them. We create an imaginary audience, and we feel guilty when we believe we have not satisfied them, which is basically all the time.
- What do we need to be “productive” for? Goals for corporations are usually explicitly defined. At minimum, a corporation has a goal to turn a profit. When productivity culture is applied to personal lives, though, the idea of “goals” is often lost in translation. At this moment in cultural history, we are encouraged to have goals for everything. What are my financial goals? My career goals? My relationship goals? My reading goals? My spiritual goals? My recreational goals? Where corporations are encouraged to focus on one or two goals at a time, I routinely speak to clients who impose a neverending list of goals on themselves and then add to it on the fly. But it’s extremely rare that I hear any discussion at all of why any of these goals should be considered important.
Toxic productivity culture would have us believe that more “production” leads to a more satisfying life. But in reality, we find ourselves perpetually moving the finish line, and that satisfaction never materializes.
In our next post, we’ll talk about how and why to unplug from Toxic Productivity Culture.
Share this article
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.
Subscribe
Each month I take a deep dive into one aspect of resisting burnout.
Monthly Deep Dive Letters name cultural dynamics that generate burnout and open doors to imagining how we might do things differently. For examples of what I write about, take a look at the blog.
No productivity tips, and no motivational pep-talks. Just in depth, thoughtful content to support you in resisting burnout culture. You’ll also be notified of new events and programs.
