Productivity. The behaviour, a practice every student aspires too. Don’t procrastinate, be productive! Yes, make an insanely detailed to-do list, and follow it to the T! Wake up early, exercise, sign up for more work and always go the extra mile. That was the mantra. Do this! Do that! It will make you feel good about yourself. It will make you feel healthy. Except, sometimes, productivity can evolve into toxic productivity. Not sure about what that is? Well, "toxic productivity" is the unhealthy desire to keep working at all times. It might sound more familiar now, does it?
Don’t get me wrong–productivity is good, to some extent. Although, it does have the potential to become toxic. To give you an idea of what this may look like–imagine the day is over, and you catch berating yourself for ‘not doing enough. Sometimes, even when you finish the work you had to finish, you feel guilty for not doing more. Taking a break is akin to committing a crime. Or at least it seems like it is. It has to be work, hustle, 24/7. Girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep, but it’s just the girlboss.
For me, toxic productivity looked like staying up late to finish school work. Only to wake up early to do extra work, and come back from school and do even more schoolwork. A cycle which (unsurprisingly) led to me getting 5 hours of sleep every night, having no quality in the work I completed, and then feeling bad it–just to pledge to spend even more time doing this work, and consequently sleeping even less. For obvious reasons, this vicious cycle didn’t lead to anything besides me getting progressively more unfocused in the tasks I was doing, and getting a very small amount of work done–despite the fact that I spent a lot of time doing them. All in all, not fun.
Just to put it out there, research proves that humans need to spend at least 42% of their time resting. Yes, we need to spend almost half of our time not working, not trying to sign up for the thing that’ll improve our resumés, not making to-do lists and being mad at ourselves for not following them. Resting. Crazy. You need to realise, getting an appropriate amount of rest is just as important, if not more, as getting the work done. While this may feel needlessly wasteful, remember, we have so much time! If you don’t schedule in that 42%, those 10 hours per day, you could be harming your body! You can fall sick, be unable to do work, be so exhausted that concentration is simply impossible. Burning out is always a possibility, and it can be a struggle to ignite that flame once again.
For this reason, instead of indulging in this generally terrible experience (if it wasn't clear already), I say try balance instead. Find ways to opt for productivity and rest! Add self-care to your to-do list. Spend a little time each day doing something for yourself, do the things you enjoy. Read, watch 10 minutes of a TV show, maybe even cook. Make sure you get enough sleep. It may not seem like the optimal thing to do as a student–but don't knock it till you try it! Because like I said before, you don't need "work" breathing down your neck for you to be productive. Rest is just as important. Today, take some time off from your schedule to do something you enjoy. Girlbossing 24/7, but do it right!
Written by Ayaana Parekh
Image from Unsplash
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