Navigating Toxic Productivity and Embracing Intuitive Eating
Now this week I wanted to talk a little about “toxic productivity” - a term that I know only came around in the last couple of years but something that’s been around for a long time. It can be defined as - defined as overworking at the expense of other facets of your life. Basically it’s measuring your self-worth by how much you accomplish. It started off with something work related, but can relate to other areas too.
How does it manifest in our lives?
Feeling like you’re wasting time when reading a book or relaxing in front of the TV
Feeling guilty for taking time off
Working extra hours often, both on work and non work projects
Not being able to do activities without a goal / objective
Necessary activities are no longer deemed important - such as cooking, sleeping, socialising etc.
You may experience increased anxiety (worry you’re never doing enough) or depression
You experience burn out often
You feel like you can’t ‘turn off’
What does it cause? / Can it cause?
Toxic productivity can lead to a range of effects on our mental health, especially stress levels - which is why burnout then often occurs.
Physically - loss of sleep, headaches, not eating enough, increased bouts of illness etc.
Mentally - increased anxiety, stress, bouts of depression
Emotionally - feeling disconnected, low self worth, a lack of purpose
Socially - prioritising work > relationships can make you feel alone and isolated
Productivity is a great thing but you have to ask yourself whether it’s affecting your health, sleep, social relationships etc.
What causes it?
Just like how with dieting you hear me talk about diet culture. When it comes to productivity we have hustle culture - glamorising working all day every day. Often the iceberg analogy is used - underlying issues cause the symptom that is toxic productivity. So taking time off might not be the remedy.
Why do we do it if it’s not good for us?
Apparently it’s a distraction - we get a little dopamine hit. And most importantly we feel in control - when we feel like things are out of control. Sound familiar? The same happens with a lot of diets, we feel in control and eventually it becomes too much. We over control and it becomes disordered.
It can also act as a little ‘bandage’ over the wound of what is actually stressing you out. Because as long as your planner is neat, with time blocked out for the next week and time to journal for #selfcare it doesn’t matter how other things are going.
Why there’s no link between self-worth and productivity
Your self worth is not affected by anything external. Worthiness is an idea that we have grown up with, that certain things make you more / less worthy of success or greatness etc. And chances are your ideas of what makes someone worthy is different to the person next to you.
But being human makes you worthy of love, of success, of great things - and that sounds wishy washy but it’s a fact. We have just added a moral value to work to change this. Do you think your friends are less worthy of your friendship if they were less productive at work? Or if they lost their job?
List all of your strengths that aren’t work related - if you got a friend / family member to describe your best qualities would they say ‘oh she / he works really hard and gets all their reports done on time’ or ‘they spend their evenings doing extra work’...
And how does that relate to Intuitive Eating?
Often when we are focused on control in our lives that causes such productivity it is not a large leap to diets. Dieting can be seen as a tool to help you be “more productive” or even food may be your area of productivity. Making meal plans, cute meals, reels, tik toks, smashing a certain diet or lifestyle challenge. Or movement, productivity isn’t just work maybe it’s running everyday or working out religiously a certain number of times a week regardless of how exhausted you are.
How to utilise Intuitive Eating as a tool for combating toxic productivity
Intuitive Eating can get you to start tuning into your body, practice self-care and above all it can be a messy road. It’s a journey with no “success’ just learning opportunities.
Mindfulness - Intuitive Eating helps us build our mindfulness when eating, being present. With nothing else on our brain, switched off to other things.
Rejecting Diet Culture - The first principle of Intuitive Eating focuses on moving away from food rules and societal pressure - sound familiar? This can help you move away from black and white thinking when it comes to success and moral value.
Tuning into hunger cues - this can allow you to start to tune in with what your body needs. If you’ve been ignoring your hunger for a long time, tuning back in with it can reawaken some of these signals. Maybe you notice when you’re hungry at work and need a break, or when you’re tired etc. Again focuses on the Internal > External.
Intuitive Eating focuses on flexibility when it comes to your approach to food and movement, learning from experiences.
Intuitive Eating includes a focus on rest and self-care. Including saying no and boundary setting as a form of looking after yourself.
Intuitive Eating focuses on what you are capable of - not how you look. As you move away from your worth being based on your body, you start to realise you’re enough as you are. As with productivity.
Emotional Eating is introduced and allowed, explained even. Emotions are to be met as they are, and mechanisms are found to deal with emotional stressors. This may mean that emotions due to productivity / influencing productivity can be dealt with.
Intuitive Eating moves you out of the guilt shame cycle, rejecting guilt based on what you eat may help you reject the guilt from how productive you are / aren’t.
Intuitive Eating builds a base of self-compassion and giving yourself grace. Knowing you will mess up and that’s okay.
Let’s build that toolkit - Strategies for recognizing and combating toxic productivity in everyday situations.
Schedule in rest - and reframe it as needed for you to function. Often people argue ‘you need rest for true productivity’ etc but that treats the symptom not the problem. If that’s the case you’re thinking of rest as a productivity tool, not a respite.
Use methods such as the Eisenhower method to prioritise work
Do nothing - practice not having a purpose. Maybe walk with no destination, cloud watch, meditate,
Tap into your support network - find people you can turn to when you’re overwhelmed
Practice saying no - maybe start with something small, but standing firm reinforces that no is a complete sentence.
Practice setting boundaries - set a time you will stop working e.g. 9-5 and that’s it. Maybe it’s saying no to more than 4 work projects at a time. Maybe you make a point to not check emails after 5pm.
Find a hobby you’re bad at - I’ve recently started swimming and let me tell you I’m terrible! But it means “success’ as we’d conventionally call it isn’t available to me. And it’s humbling too…. I do it for enjoyment, to be present and for no other goals. When you start this hobby try and enjoy - as hard as it is - to not want to be perfect at it and ace it first time.
Detach yourself - Laurie Ruettimann calls it “professional detachment” and it’s defined as understanding that your work is not the core of your identity. It is not tied into your self-worth. Your work is one part of your life, not the whole.
Try and switch off every now and again - electronics can mean you always feel “on” so taking some physical time away from devices can help you feel switched off.
Work on a growth mindset - think of productivity as a possibility for growth not a black and white success / failure.
If you feel like you experience any of the following it may be something to work through with a professional - fear of failure, imposter syndrome, constant guilt that you’re unproductive, constant comparison…
Want to try out Intuitive Eating? I’m here to help just book a discovery call
