You should really exercise 4 times per week. Not just easy jogging though, high-intensity training is optimal. And don’t forget to drink at least 2 gallons of water each day for peak performance.
If you’re not waking up at 5 am every morning then you’re missing the most productive hours of the day. Oh, and don’t forget to read. It shouldn’t be fiction though. Were you just watching television? You could’ve been using that time to grind out your goals.
Productivity guilt is exactly this. A constant nagging feeling that you could be doing more, no matter how much you’ve already done. And if you don’t do everything and more, you’re a lazy slacker who won’t achieve anything good.
Why Is Productivity Guilt So Bad?
A lot of people take productivity guilt as a good thing. If it will make you get so much done, then why get rid of it?
While productivity guilt can be good for short-term productivity, this guilt will get you nowhere in the long-term stretch. This is because productivity guilt brings in feelings of anxiety and stress of not feeling like you’ve done enough. Eventually, these feelings will build up and you’ll burn out more often than you think.
Having a clean mindset with productivity is going to help you stay happier and more accomplished. You’ll also be able to space out your work instead of feeling like you need to buckle down to go through a load of work in one sitting. This will lead to a natural increase in productiveness and a better flow of work.
Wanting to be a better student, employee, or overall person does not source from a mindset of never doing enough.
So how do we reduce this guilt for an increase in productivity? Below are a few of the most effective methods that allowed me, and many others, to get over this guilt.
1. Quit Stacking up Advice
With all of these productivity enthusiasts out there, it can be easy to take everything they’re saying and immediately carry all of it into your own daily life. Just like the introduction of this article, it can get a little overwhelming.
Usually, advice is supposed to be a direction, not a destination. Meaning taking what you hear and moving in the direction it points can be a good move. However, taking every piece of advice to its extreme or conclusion can harm rather than help.
This usually happens when you take an abundance of individual pieces of advice and stack too many of them, leading to drawbacks. If you were to take some of the advice in this blog and run with it, then you would be in a good position with new skills in your toolbox.
On the other hand, you could take every single piece of advice, knowledge, and wisdom you read from this site and place it directly into your own schedule. Suddenly, it becomes too intense to handle, and when you can’t handle all of it, productivity guilt begins to manifest.
Since you can’t do everything you were supposed to, that nagging feeling comes to haunt your thoughts, and the next thing you know, your anxiety and stress have skyrocketed.
You know what they say: sometimes less is more.
2. Change Your Perception of Productivity
There’s a fine line between being busy and being productive. Busy-ness is the process of taking whatever pile of work is assigned to you, and frantically trying to get it all done in a timely manner. Often people will say “I was really productive today,” when they really mean “I had just enough time to complete what my life required of me today.”
Productivity is about extending further than that. Setting specific goals for the future and consistently working toward them.
Now, this is the part where some people start to generate productivity guilt. Am I working hard enough for my goals? How much work should I actually be doing?
See, the keyword here is consistency. Continuing to pile on random work for yourself because you feel like you’re never getting enough done is not being productive. Although you are working toward your goals, you aren’t being consistent. Inconsistency will only lead to more guilt.
I would recommend planning work for your extended goals and sticking to that plan. This is consistency.
For me, that is planning to write my articles on the weekend, so that they can be ready for Wednesday. Me doing this every week is consistent. If I were to write as many articles as I could in one sitting, then it wouldn’t be productive, it would only set my limitations higher; leading me to more guilt in the future.
Productivity is the consistent practice of working towards your specific goals.
3. It’s Ok to Ask For Help
Not being able to complete all the work in front of you doesn’t mean you’re not doing enough. If there’s just way too much on your plate, it’s time you asked for help.
Consistently being overburdened by busy work can lead to quicker burnout and the manifestation of guilt that you can’t get it all done. Asking for help is quite effective because it reduces the initial weight on your shoulders which reduces unnecessary guilt.
I know what you’re thinking: isn’t getting rid of work going to make my guilt worse? The first step is to be okay with asking for help, then you need to realize that trying to do all the work yourself will only make things worse.
If you decided to take on all of the work, that you knew you probably wouldn’t finish, it not only makes the guilt worse if you don’t finish, but it also puts a bad image on you. If you don’t ask to split up heavy work with others, then you’ll end up making your guilt way worse than it would have been if you had just asked for help.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help!