Yes, it makes sense to be as productive as possible — when you're working. After all, you want to work as efficiently as possible. But sometimes you just need a break. If you are always working, always trying to squeeze the last bit of production out of every minute of every day, you can start to get worn out.
Any work that produces a lot of output and requires a lot of focus and/or creativity (think writing, programming etc.) are high mental energy tasks. For those types of tasks, a good upper limit seems to be 3-4 hours a day. And working 2-3 hours on those tasks per day means you had a very productive day.
According to the chief director of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas, Dr Sandra Chapman, the brain can become addicted to productivity just as it can to more familiar sources of addiction, such as drugs, gambling, eating or shopping.
If you're feeling guilty about not being productive, these six tips might help:
Yes, and there are two main ways. Being productive is a good thing, but there is such a thing as being too productive. You're being too productive when your input becomes disproportionate to your output and you're ignoring other aspects of your life.
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Productive people keep track of time — not in an obsessive way, but they often monitor how long they're spending on a certain task to see if they need to speed up or start wrapping up and moving on to the next project.
The more workaholics work, the more consequences they experience. The consequences create more stress, which in turn decreases productivity. And less productivity means longer hours at work. Unlike passionate people who truly enjoy their work, workaholics often feel frazzled, worried, and stressed out.
Toxic productivity is essentially an unhealthy desire to be productive at all times, at all costs. It's the need to go the “extra mile” at work or at home, even when it's not expected of you. Toxic productivity doesn't even let up once the task is complete.
This "feeling guilty for not being productive" is actually a type of anxiety. This anxiety is called "time anxiety" and everybody has a little bit of time anxiety in them. It is a manageable anxiety therefore there are steps you can take to cope with it, making life much easier and stress-free for yourself.
The bottom line is: whatever you feel is 100 percent okay. This is not a normal situation and it's of utmost importance to practice compassion and give yourself permission to not be productive. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, Beecroft recommends journaling and practicing breathing exercises.
Even when we're not in the middle of a crisis, it's still OK to have unproductive days. Sometimes these days are planned.
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