Have you ever heard of productivity guilt?
I never really knew what it was until last weekend, but after learning more about it I realised that it's something I suffer from.
In a nutshell, productivity guilt is that feeling where you feel like you should be doing more. And if you're not doing more, then you feel as though you're being too lazy.
When I'm not working or completing university work, I often suffer from productivity guilt because I always feel as though I should be working or studying. I know that it's okay to take breaks and have days relaxing but there is that nagging feeling that I shouldn't and should actually be working.
It could be argued that productivity guilt is a consequence of the society we live in. Everyone is taught to always work hard and that money makes the world go round, which can feed our productivity guilt.
Productivity guilt isn't something that can be easily fixed by one action. It takes time to retrain your mind to overcome your guilt.
One thing that has helped me in the past retrain my thoughts and combat things such as productivity guilt is knowing the triggers, behaviours and actions related to each thought.
If you feel yourself having thoughts such as: 'I should really be working,' 'I can't afford to take a day off,' or 'I could've spent less time in bed and woken up at 4am to utilise the more productive hours of the day,' think about what triggered those thoughts.
Was it looking at your planner? Was it seeing a social media post about how to best use your time? Or was it simply a random thought?
Once you've identified the trigger and the thought, think about what they lead to. What consequence comes about because of the thought, what action/behaviour do you exhibit?
Once you've identified all of these, you will be able to understand what happens when you experience productivity guilt. You can then retrain your mind to think of more positive thoughts.
Telling yourself, 'it's okay to rest today, the task isn't urgent, there's still time' can help. Or making a to-do list that's more flexible can help by notifying what you need to do, but allowing you more time to do it. If you put deadlines next to each task that can sometimes worsen your guilt because you feel under pressure to complete it.
Trying to retrain your thoughts and stop comparing yourself to others can help lessen the productivity guilt and actually make you more productive by working smarter, not harder.
Until next time...
All well said and bringing this topic to people's attention is a major step. It's so important to take breaks, and it's more important to have days completely away from work - that includes not even thinking about it as you've said. It's something I find difficult to do, justifying time away from my work for more than a couple of days. So daft... but I've realised it's so critical for your own mental health and well-being. So, we all need to take notice of this, and plan and focus our time better without feeling guilty!
This is all so true, I like your solutions of having a more flexible to-do list. If I have too much on mine for one day it tends to stress me out! And you're right by lessening the guilt and working smarter not harder, we'll actually be more productive than if we work all hours of the day.