How Toxic Productivity Destroys Your Creative Drive

It was 8 p.m. Friday night, and I had just gotten home from an exhausting day of work.  

After throwing my bags onto the ground and collapsing onto the couch, I only thought of one thing.  

I need to do more.  

You see, I have this whiteboard in my bedroom with all my goals and tasks I need to do to achieve them. I was so excited when I first installed it because I knew it would help with my productivity.   

It was a great reminder of what was important to me and the work it would take to get there.   

The only problem was that it didn’t account for my day-to-day reality of how burnt out I was by the end of the day.   

While I sat on the couch, I could only think about all the things I hadn’t done yet.  

The daily writing that was still incomplete. The cold emails and pitches that weren’t sent. The imaginative stories that waited partially finished in a Word doc.  

These thoughts raced inside my head, and an incredible weight fell upon me.   

I was failing, and the effort I was putting in just wasn’t good enough.  

How often do you find yourself doing the same thing? Punishing yourself for being human rather than the machine hustle and productivity culture tells you to be?  

I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent beating myself up for not dragging myself to my computer and banging out a few nonsensical paragraphs that I would have to redo the next day.  

The pressure to succeed is immense, especially when trying to make a full-time career out of it while still juggling your corporate 9-5.  

Our dreams aren’t the problem, but our unhealthy approach to achieving them is ruining our creative drive.   

We can’t live at 100% productivity all the time and not expect to crash and burn at some point.  

We have to find balance, and we need to know when to take a break.  

I stared at the ceiling while I let those toxic productivity thoughts bubble in my head until I finally had enough.   

With a new conviction running through my veins, I decided to take the night off and enjoy a much-needed break.  

I would watch my favorite shows that I’d been putting off for weeks and break out my Nintendo Switch, which I hadn’t touched in months.  

I spent that night and the following day taking the time to myself to exist and rest.   

Then, on Sunday, something amazing happened. I was reinvigorated and ready to get back to work.  

It felt like my body and mind had been renewed, and I had found a new motivation burning inside me.   

When I looked at my whiteboard, I didn’t feel dread. I felt excited because I was refreshed.  

It’s easy to forget that in order to create exceptional outputs, we need to have enough restorative inputs going in.   

If you let your emotional and creative well run dry, creating work with substance will be difficult.   

Don’t let toxic productivity convince you that it’s all or nothing 100% of the time.   

You’re allowed to slow down.   

You’re allowed to take the night off.   

Most importantly, you’re allowed to be human because you were never meant to work your body like a machine.  

So, yes, don’t be afraid to work hard, but make sure to fit in time to play hard, too.   

As you continue your journey toward creative greatness, remember your body and mind need rest and lots of it to succeed.