Toxic Productivity Exists – Don’t Get Sucked In! – Tina B's World
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Toxic Productivity Exists – Don’t Get Sucked In!

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Do you get sucked in by toxic productivity?

Umm.. no. Wait. Maybe. How would I even know? 

woman feeling stress while working on her computer

Think about it: someone asks you about your thriving business.

How do you react?

Do you beam with pride on the outside, yet feel regretful or remorseful on the inside?

It’s actually kinda common with people who sacrifice a work-life balance for success. 

But You Have It ALL, Don't You?

Yep, that’s right. 

By all appearances, you have everything that everyone wants, like a growing income and self-sufficient lifestyle.

What more could you want? 

You lack free time though. You need more time to nurture yourself, practice self-care, take breaks.. whatever you want to call it. 

What Personal Life?

Are you constantly thinking about how you could have spent your time?

You missed out on:

  • taking a vacation
  • family dinners
  • going out with friends 

Your desire for success above anything else forced you to make the conscious or unconscious decision to hitch your wagon to a life of toxic productivity. 

Toxic productivity isn’t always work-related and can extend to your personal life as well. It manifests as:

  • making sure every square inch of your home is spotless 24/7 
  • keeping your kids occupied with activities so their schedule is booked solid 

What's Your Breaking Point?

It’s so easy to get sucked in to this type of lifestyle. It makes you feel good. You’re not just doing something, you’re doing it well.. maybe even better than most. 

You have to know deep down that you have a breaking point.

The scales tip and you realize your overachieving productivity is actually toxic and hard to manage. Simply put: it’s unsustainable unless you’re willing to sacrifice other areas of your life.

Little by little, your obsession starts to jack time from other things you live. One day, you wake up and feel suffocated or trapped. 

You used to take pride in this, but now you dread it. The rest of your life is put on hold or you feel unproductive and hate yourself if this task isn’t done.

You don’t want to give up or at the very least, ease up on your current lifestyle because the things you do are productive or useful: 

  • The kids LOVE sports and they’re young, so it’s fine they each play two or three sports at a time. I don’t mind being constantly in the car. 
  • We can’t quit playgroup. I’m the one planning all of our activities. What are they going to do with all their free time? 
  • I love having a clean house. If I see dirt, I just know people will see it too and think I’m a dirty person. 

Everything wouldn’t be so hunky-dory if people actually saw these patterns as destructive. They would have zero issues with changing things up and eliminating things from their schedule. 

The Remedy?

Baby Steps. You’re into productivity for the long game. 

You want to make drastic changes in the long run, but want to avoid the shock to your system, right? 

Start with small, actionable steps.. incremental changes where you go about reclaiming your time bit by bit. 

Take your energy and devote it to another area or task that also needs your attention. One big change all at once could result in the whole house of cards tumbling down. 

NO ONE wants that! 

So what do you do?

  1. Pause and evaluate your needs.
  2. Prioritize needs over wants.
  3. Do some course-correcting where it is needed.

You don’t want to look back on your life and regret all the time you wasted doing nothing tasks in the name or productivity. It will feel like a wasted life. 

Taking steps to fix things is the sign of a healthy individual, not someone who is just pretending to have it all together.

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