Productivity Guilt and My 4 Tips to Prevent It

It's the end of a busy working day. You have been staring at a screen for what seems days now, the non stop video calls, intranet chat pinging at you all day and that constant river of emails keeps flowing towards you. Yet the to do list just seems to be growing!!! Arrghh

Then to top it off, that voice in your head is chanting at you "come on don't be lazy get it done", "you don't have time to chill out, what will they say about you at the office", "why can't you get things done when everybody else seems to be doing fine", "always knew you couldn't handle this job, perhaps you should think about doing something else" etc etc you know how it goes.

This is a prime example of PRODUCTIVITY GUILT, the constant nagging feeling that you should be doing more. Usually experienced after a busy day of constant interruptions, distraction and stress, meaning you end the day feeling you haven't achieved anything.

Productivity guilt is likely to have been around forever, but the recent pandemic has seen a huge rise in its prevalence. With more of us working from home, or remotely from our usual office spaces, we convince ourselves we have more time to get things done, and should therefore be doing more.

Coupled with the fear that we are being perceived as unproductive by our remote managers, the pressure we put on ourselves to maintain high productivity levels is forever increasing. And this is not all good, as you know.

Stress levels are at an all time high, people like you are working more hours than ever before and life just feels like you're spinning 20 plates at once, just waiting for one to fall and bring the whole lot crashing down. I hear this story over and over again from my high potential, overthinking clients.

Often at the point of a burnout, ready to throw the towel in and go and live in a tent on the side of a mountain somewhere sunny! OK, maybe not quite as dramatic as that,but definitely thinking what can I do about this, its not sustainable and not how I want to live my life.

So here is what I advise my clients, before they embark on a painless redesign of their mindset, working 121 with me, so they get to the point where they are empowered to create a fabulous future for themselves and their loved ones.

1. STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS

Yes you've heard this before, and if only it was that easy! I hear you. But here is the point. By comparing yourself to others you are on a loser for the word go. And here is why:

You don't know what they are sacrificing to be where they are. You may not be willing to make the same sacrifices.

You do not know what they have achieved to get where they are, you may not be able or even want to achieve the same thing.

Just because you think the person you are comparing yourself to is happier than you, that may not be the case. And even if they are, you may not feel the same level of happiness living that life.

So stop the comparison to those you believe are way ahead of you, focus instead on achieving the next step for youto

2. BUSY Vs PRODUCTIVE

Being busy all the time does not translate into being productive. Because if you are working on something that is not important or of value to the business you work for, that's not productive. Anyone can be a busy bee, fluttering about filling the day with nonsense.

Productivity results from focused attention producing something of value, that is important to the growth, delivery or creation of wealth for the business.

Make sure your to do list is full of activity that beings value and is important to the business.

3. ACCEPT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IMPERFECT

The great news is that you, me and every other person on this planet is imperfect. We will never get 10/10 on everything we work on, truth! Lets decide right here and now to STOP the over-engineering, over polishing, excessive researching and quality checking that we know isn't adding any value.

This just adds stress and time to our working day.

Knowing when you have to pay particular attention to a certain thing and when a rough draft will do, allows you to use your time better. Have the conversation with the requestor about what level of finish/quality/research is needed. You wouldn't polish your wellies to go gardening now would you???..........please say no lol

4. ADVICE IS A DIRECTION NOT A DREAM DESTINATION

Articles, just like this one, sorry! are everywhere, advising us on how we can be better versions of ourselves. Fitter, healthier, smarter, more productive, more confident, calmer and the list goes on. I strongly believe the amount of information available to us today is a huge asset, I really do. But it is also overwhelming. And when we are overwhelmed, we usually do nothing.

The key to procrastination, frozen to the spot doing nothing, is to just get started.

If you adopted all the advice you ever read on improving yourself, you would never have time for anything else. So lets make a deal right here and now. The idea of self development is to be growing and developing consistently. Bit by bit, toward where you want to be.

It changes. The path will move, change direction and have forks where we have to make decisions about which way to go. And this is OK. Where you are now is OK. You are not flawed and have to solve a problem. You are fine as you are and want to learn other things in addition to what you have now.

So enjoy the journey and be happy with you as you are now. Let's not leave being happy until we reach a certain destination. Because what if you never get there?

Be happy now.

If you enjoyed this and would like learn more about how high potential overthinkers become calm, confident overachievers, why not come and join us in the Creating Fabulous Futures group HERE

I look forward to welcoming you to the family and sharing thoughts and ideas with you.

#behappynow #productivityguilt