Our striving to be ever more productive and efficient can be an absolute killer so today we consider toxic productivity – a better way.
We come to the end of our short series on Toxic Productivity – it has been a longer journey than I had planned and for that I am sorry. The earlier 3 parts can found in the links below:
- https://effectivefaith.org/toxic-productivity-what-is-it-and-where-does-it-come-from-anyway/
- https://effectivefaith.org/the-cost-of-toxic-productivity/
- https://effectivefaith.org/the-cost-of-toxic-productivity-part-2/
What is Toxic Productivity? – a brief recap
Since the beginning I’ve suggested a definition of Toxic Productivity is having a need to be productive at all times. Practically this means that Toxic Productivity is situation where any aspect of productivity, work or the process by which we get things done takes on a significantly greater place in our behaviour or thinking than it actually warrants and that to our detriment or the detriment of those around us.
I’ve highlighted that it manifests in a multitude of ways – far more than I can outline here. It can manifest in over working, constant app switching, constant tweaking or all together changing of our systems and processes, over planning, under planning, imposter syndrome, being unable to say no – the list goes on and on.
Primarily – this is driven by two things and both of them are internal to us. External factors do play a part but I believe that ultimately it is down to how we think. It can be driven a desire to meet a need that we think we have or the desire to protect ourselves from a threat and from harm. Both of these work together. For example, where imposter syndrome is a problem, the ‘threat’ is being found out to be an imposter. So we develop unhealthy habits and work patterns in order to eliminate this risk.
What is the cost? – a brief recap
The costs here are manifold. There are costs to our mental health, physical health, family and relationships and to our productivity and effectiveness overall.
As an unhealthy approach to getting stuff done spirals, we can see ever rising levels of stress, anxiety and if left un-dealt with – burnout. Our sleep suffers. Our diet and exercise will suffer. The over inflated sense of the importance of getting things done leads to selfishness and irritability – which is a killer for relationships and for our families. And, ironically, both in the short term and especially in the long term, our productivity and effectiveness is holed beneath the water line by this. The more time we spend tweaking and changing our apps and systems to become as efficient as possible, then the less time we will spend actually doing the work. Over time, the wrong priorities and poor decision making, caused both through lack of rest during the day and through the deterioration of our health & well-being over time, will be devastating for our ability to work and serve effectively.
Every solution needs a problem
Here’s the point – we cannot begin to propose a better way, until we have effectively diagnosed the problem. The Iceberg illustration here comes to mind. 90% of its mass is below the surface. This is unseen. So with toxic productivity. The presenting issues – the manifestations – are merely symptoms and they are not the problem. You cannot solve this by telling someone to take some time off and then ignoring them. You cannot solve this by dealing with the manifestations. We cannot solve this by addressing the costs or the impact and seeking to offset them with other things (though there is nothing wrong in putting things in place that would do this).
What is needed is a shift in our mindset and our thinking. This is where I am on shaky ground as I am not a psychologist. However, if I am right that ultimately this all stems from a need we are trying to fulfil or some form of harm we fear and are trying to protect ourselves from, then seeking to understand those two things is going to be key to unlocking the way to deal with this.
This is a problem that, in times past, I have attempted to solve by making all the same mistakes over again. This is fairly common. I was understanding enough to recognise that there was a problem, but not clear on what that problem was or how to solve it. In a sense, I tried to use the same mindset and way of thinking to come up with a way to offset and manage the costs, impacts and manifestations. I understood that my health was suffering – so I needed a system that incorporated my health needs. I understood that my family was suffering – so I needed a system that incorporated my family more. My solution was to increase the scope and coverage of my system in order to incorporate areas of life that had previously been left out. But this did not solve the fundamental problem. Having a productivity system is no bad thing. The problem is the mindset and our thinking.
As I have reflected on this issue more and more and more I have come the conclusion that the needs we seek to fulfil are fundamentally needs to be accepted, to be valued and to be valuable. The thing we fear and the harm we seek to protect ourselves from is fundamentally the known and unknown consequences of things not being under control.
I have said before that toxic productivity can manifest in and to a degree finds its source in a God complex. The desire to be always on top of things is the desire to be all knowing and have perfect foresight. The desire to be the best and perfect, to never make a mistake and succeed in all of our goals, is the desire to have the capability to achieve all our of plans and purposes – to be all powerful. And we desire to make the best possible decisions about how to use our time and what to focus on and we fear making mistakes here. The desire to have perfect wisdom that never lets you down.
Every problem needs a solution
The answer to this problem is ultimately grace. It is grace applied to our needs. It is grace applied to our fears and grace applied to our limitations and our weaknesses. This is where it really gets involved. It is my belief that the Christian answer to this is the best answer. Grace answers all of our needs and it answers all of our fears. With this work complete, we can then apply that grace to our own natural human flaws, weaknesses and limitations.
I have spoken before about some of the needs that motivate toxic productivity. The need to be valuable and needed. We desire to be liked and to be valued and this can become a need leading us to ever strive to prove our worth. This can evolve in a desire or a need to be the best. Only the a-team best of the best are truly valuable and so we develop a need to be the best and be seen to be the best. This is one step away from perfectionism. A state of thinking where any mistake is totally intolerable. Our workflow and productivity system must be utterly seamless – nothing can ever be missed.
Grace answers these needs because grace provides the only solution. The grace of God in Christ demonstrates the value of the believer. The need is eliminated. The grace of God in Christ proves without a shadow of doubt that it is not only the ‘best’ that are valued, rather even the very worst can and have been accepted by Him, without condition. To consider ourselves perfect is idiocy in its highest form. Our mistakes and weaknesses are obvious for us all to see. But, by grace we have been made perfect.
Every need we may strive to meet is eliminated by grace. And if our needs are eliminated, our fears are done away with.
A desire to always be on top of everything can be driven by a fear of the unknown and the unknowable. Regarding negative input (our mistakes, failures, weaknesses or the things that are not ‘right’ in our lives and circumstances) as being far more significant than positive is a flip side of perfectionism. These are the things we dwell on and think about as these are the things that need to change. We fear failure and we fear man – or more specifically rejection by man. This is where we move to. Our fear of the unknown, our fear of missing something, our focus on the wrong things in order to eliminate them, is all summarised by a fear of failure. This fear of failure is all tied up with a fear of being rejected and cast aside. Not competent, not valuable, not needed.
And by grace we are totally accepted. Not on the grounds of our own productivity or effectiveness. Not on the grounds of our competence or our value. We are accepted on the grounds of another. We are accepted as a free gift that we did not, nor could not earn.
Grace teaches us that we do not need to be God. And it teaches that we can trust the one who is God.
Toxic Productivity – A Better Way
With this in mind we consider our work, our processes and way of getting stuff done. Firstly, we can now accept that we are human. This means that we are limited and finite. We have basic natural limitations to how long we can focus for. We need to eat and drink, sleep and rest. Some of us are more physically able than others. We have different strengths and weaknesses to everyone else around us. The point is, we can to accept our limits. Some limits can be worked on and changed over time through deliberate practice and training. This is a good thing to do, but others cannot. We can accept this.
It may be we can push ourselves beyond these limits when needed, but we cannot do this forever. So, the first part is understanding and accepting our natural limits. Dare I say it, even being thankful for them.
There are many things that we cannot control. This is ok – we do not need to control them. I have been in situations before where people have tried to maintain control over things that by definition were not under their control and it is not pretty. So, we must accept that we cannot control everything and stop trying.
Here is the point, where the rubber really hits the road. Toxic Productivity is all about serving me. It is about serving my needs and protecting myself from you. The solution is to shift my mindset from serving and protecting myself to a mindset of serving you. We can do this because through grace our greatest needs have been met or eliminated and through grace our greatest enemies have been destroyed and rendered powerless. We may struggle to fully believe this, but grace has objectively and eternally freed us from the power of these things. So, that frees us and it enables to give our time, energy and all of our agency, to serve and benefit others.
So, the solution to Toxic Productivity is to strive for hard work and to do this in sacrificial service of others. It’s not about being the best so I can be recognised, wanted and valued. It’s about striving to serve you and making sacrifices to do that. It’s about working hard for that goal and being content with that.
You see, working for the good of others is an end in and of itself. This is right in the world we live in. We do not do it to gain anything – secure in the grace of God, what more could we want for?
Caring for ourselves and our family is a key part of this. Caring for ourselves is not really separate from our work of serving others and is not selfish. We consider it so, because most advertising that encourages caring for ourselves is actually advocating indulging ourselves in some way. Caring for ourselves involves the basics of sleep, diet, exercise, mental and emotional down-time and maintaining strong relationships. This is a key part of being able to serve others better and for longer. It’s not all about resting to make us serve. The grace of God demonstrates the goodness of God to us. It is good and right to enjoy God’s good gifts to us with thanksgiving and we shouldn’t feel like everything we do needs to be productive or serve some greater good in some way.
How does this need to cash out?
A mindset shift is the fundamental response to toxic productivity. Once that has happened, a few things become obvious to us. I am going to highlight 4 things.
Firstly, implementing boundaries and saying ‘no’. You cannot do everything. It is ok to not be able to do everything. It is therefore ok to say that we cannot do everything. It is therefore ok to set some boundaries and to say no to some things. This is all about working within our natural limitations but also guarding reasonable time for the things that are actually important. In some working relationships this is difficult. I have heard it said that if you have a boss who is adamant that you need to do whatever he asks you to do immediately (and there are a lot of big requests coming in) then you should seek his advice on what you should drop to meet this demand. That’s fine, but if you have a boss who then says it’s not his job to manage your time then it can become hard to know how to approach this. Firstly, I would recommend seeking to meet with him to discuss the problem openly and honestly. If that fails then it may be a ‘red flag’ that you need to consider a bit more carefully. How red the flag is though will depend on a few other factors.
Planning, starting up and closing down is key. This really doesn’t need to be complex. The reason we do this is to be realistic and objective about what we can achieve in the time we have and therefore to be content in the things we are not going to do.
I have discussed caring for yourself above, but some of the ways this cashes out is in remembering to take breaks through the working day. Not long ones, and they may be ‘breaks’ doing other tasks that are very different in their demands, but this is key to maintaining our effectiveness through the day and the week.
Lastly, caring for others. It is a great sadness of mine looking back that as this toxic mindset took hold, increasingly the requests for help that came from others became sources of panic and stress rather than thanksgiving and an opportunity to serve. We may not always be able to say yes, but if we have to say no, we may still be able to help with a quick word of advice that moves them forward in finding the help they need.
Effective Faith
Productivity doesn’t need to be toxic. It becomes toxic, when we fail to consider ourselves with sober self judgement. We are not God. We were never meant to be God. We would make a terrible ‘god’. But thankfully, there is a God who sits in control of all of this. All our needs are met in Him by grace. All our fears are destroyed by that same grace. This is why the blog is called Effective Faith. Not everything I write will be overtly Christian, but fundamentally I believe that the solution to Toxic Productivity – to frantic, self focussed, busyness to get as much done as possible is to be effective in faith. By effective, I mean focussed on what is truly important. By effective I mean using the time and resources we have with wisdom and godliness. By effective I mean considering ourselves with sober self judgement. By effective I mean in service of others and not just my own goals and ambitions. But we do this in faith. Trusting that there is one seated on the throne, in control of all things. Trusting the grace that has met all our needs. Trusting the grace that has destroyed all our fears and all our enemies. Trusting Him with everything I do each day. Trusting Him with everything I don’t do each day.
What is the solution to Toxic Productivity? To be effective and to do so in faith.
SDG.
