I am a recovering obsessive productivity practitioner. I've planned my days in advance, blocked off chunks of time in my various calendars, set SMART goals, batched similar tasks together, used the pomodoro method, and tried various YouTube and Instagram influencer methods like Lavandaire's Artist of Life yearly workbook. I've woken up early to take advantage of the "quiet" hours, worked well into the night, and tried to focus on my own circadian rhythm. I used the Eisenhower Matrix to figure out what's important and urgent ... only to realize that the only person I could delegate tasks to is me. I spent hours mapping out months of time, planning each and every minute. I naively believed that this would help me master my time regardless of what life threw at me!
Like many people, I stuck with a productivity hack for a short amount of time. Most of these "hacks" are impossible for a person to maintain without a team working for them. This makes me wonder if these so-called influencers actually practice what they preach or if their team picks up the slack so it looks like they, alone, achieve great things because of their productivity hacks. We all know it's the latter.
The need for productivity is engrained in our psyche, at least here in the United States. Maybe it's our Puritanical roots or our fast-paced culture? Most people I know work too damned hard and most of them have some sort of personal "hack" to help them achieve more and more. I know too many folks who have let work take over their lives as they say "yes" to more tasks for fear of some unknown consequence. I also know too many academics who fill every minute with research, writing, and teaching tasks because it's expected by our institutions. "Publish or perish" is our guiding principal, and yes, I'm guilty of this, too. Wanna be "girl bosses" and entrepreneurs invade every inch of our online life.
The backlash is as fierce. "Be strong" messaging has been met with "be soft." Scandinavian concepts of hygge, lagom, and mys have become Instagrammable trends that exist side-by-side with Cottage Core and other micro-trends stressing comfort, self-care, and rest. In the post-pandemic academy, professors are bombarded with pedagogy that focuses on rest, compassion, flexibility, and student mental and emotional health. Our own burnout has become the subject of faculty learning circles as we read Tricia Hersey's Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber's The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy, and Rebecca Pope-Ruark's Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal.
This dichotomy of productivity and self-care, do more and do less, "Publish or perish" and be slow, has been the bane of my adult life. When I'm overly productive and say "yes" to everything, I'm exhausted and burnt out --- and hate everything and everyone. When I'm practicing radical rest, I barely get anything done and feel horribly guilty. Why? Because of the messaging from toxic productivity! Likewise, when I'm working hard and really grooving, I am bombarded with messages from well-meaning people reminding me to rest and take care of myself. There's got to be a compromise. Is it possible to work hard without embracing toxic productivity? Likewise, is it possible to rest and enjoy one's leisure without embracing toxic self-care?
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| Image from Amazon |
One of the most influential books that I read in 2024 was Greg McKeown's Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. McKeown guides the reader in prioritizing the essential things in one's life, saying no to commitments that don't benefit these essential things, and making room for deep, sustained work. He reminds us that every commitment we take on and every "yes" we say, take time away from those essential things in our life. This book made me realize that I was trying to fit too much into my already busy life and was using all of these productivity "hacks" to do so. It also made me realized the "rest" and "self-care" doesn't need to take the form of naps and deep tissue massages. Rest can be something active that rejuvenates you, like hiking and gardening. I'm not one to sit still for too long and the idea of taking a nap makes my skin crawl. I'd rather hike five miles through the woods than sleep in the afternoon.
As I said in my last post, I am not making any resolutions or goals for 2025. Instead, I am going to actively work on determining what's essential to me and get rid of the rest. I am going to say no to those things that don't benefit my goals. I'm going to be VERY aware that every "yes" means time away from those essential things. Most importantly, I'm going to break free of the productivity and self-care messaging that dominates our New Years social media and physical spaces. Yes, it's a New Year, but I honestly don't need to be a "new me." The old one is perfectly fine, thank you very much. Sure, I'll still make my weekly and monthly "to do" lists, but I'm not going to micromanage every minute of my life. And yes, I will rest by doing those things that rejuvenate my mind, body, and spirit.
Happy New Year, everyone!
It’s a wild world out there! And don’t dare be sad or melancholy during the holidays or our friends (at least one of mine) might mention *upping our meds.* I hear ya on the challenging balance in higher edu of being expected to do so much more with less while being told to practice self-care. I’m looking forward to my own escape into the woods, or a trek in some rural cemetery. That’s my kind of self-care.
ReplyDeleteGoals in 2025– read and write more blog posts and less social media.
OMG! Yes! I had a fellow blogger tell me to "count my blessings," as if I had no right to be sad. Toxic positivity is horrible. And if you blog about it, oh my God! Folks will remind you of all the things in your life that are great, so you don't have a reason to be sad. Big hugs friend.
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