How We Strive For “Unrealistic” Productivity

Exhausted. Unfulfilled. Burnt-out.

These emotions appear every single time we try to be productive. Results don’t show up as expected and self-harm starts arising. We beat ourselves for the things that could have been done better.

These “productivity gurus” on internet have been telling us their methods on how to optimise our life so that we get more done with the amount of time we have. To me, they are great and there are lots of benefits that I can take away from it.

However, the more we dive deeper into this realm of productivity, the more we feel disappointed with ourselves, knowing that we are not able to fulfil those “unrealistic” metrics that people seemingly are able to meet.

We feel overwhelmed and defeated knowing we can’t do a certain thing and we compare ourselves with other people’s success.

Trust me, you are not alone. I’ve been there and it totally sucked. Here’s what I think of it.

Productivity is Dangerous

Just like taking pills, we could be overdosed of being too productive. I learnt it in the hard way. I started working on myself this year. I went on Amazon and I bought a lot of self-help books.

At that point, I owned around 10 books with zero history of reading habit. It was hard for me to get started but once I was on it, there is nothing holding me back. Seems like there was a drought in me that forces me to keep improving myself.

On top of reading, I started being occupied more on my other pursuits of becoming a more efficient person. I did whatever I possibly could to better myself. I began hanging out less with my family and friends. I just rather stayed in my room, writing blogs and watching self-help videos on Youtube.

I enjoyed it very much. It became one of my addictions. At the first glance, it seemingly looks like a good addiction. My knowledge expanded and being productive helps me to get closer to where I want to be.

However, things have not always been that way. Life is full of weird stuff happening in between. Things could look great in the beginning and end up being on a bad note.

At some point, I experienced a ton of “burnt-out” moments. I could go hard for a week and take 2 weeks off. During that period, I just wanted to be alone to recover and I just did whatever necessary to meet my obligations, like work and school stuff. No further action. No side hustle or anything. It was definitely not a sustainable way of living by any means.

It becomes one of the main stressors in my life. There was a feeling inside of me, wanting myself to keep pushing my boundaries so that I could learn more, know more and earn more. A sense of perfectionism came along with it and being the best became the main goal of my pursuit.

Trying to be productive all the time creates an unhealthy relationship with myself. I hated it so much. It’s like I was on a race with every single individual living on this land, trying to get to the finish line. To me, the finish line could be a state of being successful, whatever that may be for the rest of us.

“Filtered” Productivity

The main reason how I got into this productivity world was because I spent quite a bit of time watching these Youtubers and productivity gurus on internet living their life. Whatever they do, it appears to be very interesting in my eyes until I made a decision to try it myself.

People are being productive differently in many unique ways. I started my journey by imitating what these people do.

To start on anything, whether it’d be a project, a new lifestyle or even a conversation, has always been tough with me. I couldn’t seem to understand how these people are able to sustain this “optimised” way of life for a long period of time.

I respect those people for their perseverance and I strive to have that level of discipline.

After figuring out ways to be more efficient at the work I do, I still had no idea how these internet people seemed to have unlimited amount of willpower to do whatever uncomfortable things necessary to be done.

Lately, I have been posting a lot of Instagram stories than I ever did in the past. At some point, I realised I posted way too many of them and I went through it again just to see what I put out on the platform.

The interesting thing that I noticed was that I tried to show all the good things I had on that day.

I posted the beautiful breakfast I had in the morning and I didn’t take a photo of what I ate for lunch since it was only a pack of instant noodle. I posted the best photo of me and my friends took and deleted the rest of the bad quality photos on my phone.

Then, I realised that these productivity videos and posts do the same thing. Seeing these people on internet makes us think that it is possible to achieve that level of productivity.

On internet, everything is either slightly or massively adjusted. Trusting that people are exactly who they are on social media creates this “productivity” syndrome that a lot of us have.

I personally felt like there was something wrong with me because I seemed lazy compared to these people that are able to work like 6 hours a day, on top of their 9–5 job. I started putting label on myself as an unproductive person since I couldn’t fulfil the standard set by this world of internet.

The Solution

Most of the times, I am too focused on what’s supposed to happen in my life, to the point I neglect the reality that’s actually happening in the moment. I want life to be easy. I want the result to be as instant as possible.

“If someone on internet can do it, I should be able to do it too!” I told myself.

The truth is that it is impossible to be productive all the time since we are humans and we live by feelings and emotions. We are not robots that could be programmed to work tirelessly and consistently every day for the entire year.

Knowing this was such a relief. The weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I feel in ease.

“Why do we have to be productive in the first place?”

Do I want to be like Elon Musk? Is it absolutely necessary for me to do all of these self-improvement things?

We should establish our own boundaries of productivity that is specifically tailored according to our own goals in life. There is no “one size fits all” kind of productive way of living since everyone has their own end goal.

Also, never compare yourself with others even in a slightest way. We have our own individual marathon to finish and everyone has a very different background of where they come from. We are taught differently throughout our lifetime and we see things in different perspective. It is unfair for us to see other people’s achievement blindly without examining in detail how they got there.

Lastly, remind yourself that everything is twisted on internet. Everyone is great at covering their flaws and showing their goodnesses. It is very normal to happen in this era and we shouldn’t put the blame on them.

Instead, I want you to know that we don’t have to be productive all the time since there is way more in life beside being the most productive person we could be.