Over the past couple of weeks, when I’ve picked up my phone for a brief (that’s what I tell myself) scroll through Instagram, I’ve noticed that the algorithm keeps serving up the same genre of posts, over and over again – and they’re all about how to better manage my time, how to ‘hack’ my day, how to cram more (whether that’s work, exercise or some other form of self-optimisation) into 24 hours.

They’re all undoubtedly well-meaning and were probably made with the genuine aim of helping other people. One influencer, for example, suggests that we do all our boring admin tasks while in the bath to distract ourselves from the tedium – I’d be the first to try it out if I wasn’t convinced I’d send my laptop to a watery grave in the process. But mostly, they all leave me feeling a bit… lacking. They provide more fodder for the part of my brain that’s convinced that I’m not doing enough, that I could always be working harder or being a little bit more productive.

Productivity has, it seems, become a status symbol online, and that can have a potentially damaging side effect: making us feel like our worth is tied up with our output, as if we’re only valuable if we are constantly doing, achieving or getting things done. “Productivity shame is the pressure many of us feel to ‘do it all’, ticking everything off our to-do list each day and feeling like a failure if we don’t get it all done,” says Viv Paxinos, CEO of AllBright, the global careers network for women.

It’s a feeling that can stop you from ever feeling like you’ve done ‘enough’, adds Janine Blacksley, director at staffing specialists Walters People UK, who describes this phenomenon as “the single biggest contributor to a lack of work-life balance”. It can even, paradoxically, prove counterproductive. “We start to connect our value as a person with our ability to cross things off a list - so your brain starts to favour finishing small tasks over working on larger, more complex (and typically more meaningful) ones,” Blacksley explains. 

We’re facing a perfect storm for productivity shame right now for a number of reasons, and social media, with its constant churn of aspirational hacks, has certainly played a part. Where once the details about packed daily routines of over-achievers were confined to the back pages of magazines, now we’re bombarded with it in aesthetically pleasing videos. “There is a never-ending stream of productivity-related content: the newest productivity hacks, tips from top CEOs and Instagram reels on why waking up at 5am will transform your day,” Blacksley adds. “Yes, some of this content might be helpful,” she adds, “but others are counterproductive and untrue [and can] quickly turn you from feeling inspired to feeling guilt or inadequacy”.

But this isn’t just a social media thing. Recent seismic shifts in the way we work have played a part too. “A great irony of this era of flexible working is that many hybrid and remote workers place unrealistic demands upon themselves to adhere to presenteeism and achieve higher levels of productivity, with little time for rest and recuperation,” says Sarah Hernon, principal consultant at Right Management. Hybrid working – while it offers many advantages – can also play a role, adds Paxinos: “It can make the work-life balance harder to manage, as lines blur and the responsibilities we carry in both places compete for our attention.”

And deeply ingrained “barriers to female progress” in the workplace, she says, play an important part too. AllBright’s recent Future Of Work For Women survey found that 83% of women take on unpaid and unrecognised responsibilities at work, highlighting “just how common it is for women to be going above and beyond to keep up with their male counterparts”. It’s no surprise we constantly think we’re not doing enough when the odds can often feel stacked against women. “With men 21% more likely than women to be internally promoted into leadership roles, it’s no wonder that women feel like they’ve got to be firing on all cylinders to access those opportunities”.  

So how can we start to break free from the trap of productivity shame, and is there a way we can stop associating our self-worth with our output? Blacksley says that the best place to start is to challenge the way we think about productivity. “When you treat your work day like a factory pumping our products, it’s easy to think you’re being productive when you’re really just answering a million redundant emails,” she explains. “This is where a switch to quality over quantity can be transformative for your work day and career.” So, instead of worrying about how many things you’ve managed to tick off your to-do list, start thinking more about the quality of the work that you have managed to do.

Another important shift, she says, is to assess progress over completion. “The human brain is hardwired to want to finish tasks… if you’re always chasing massive goals, you’re going to constantly feel like you’re missing the mark.” There’s no way that you’ll be able to tick all these goals off quickly enough, and this can leave us feeling discouraged. “Start to look back on your day and acknowledge all that you have done, rather than focusing just on the end goal,” Blacksley suggests. 

On a similar note, if you do find it hard to break out of that ‘completion’ mindset, career coach Tara Rule, formerly a senior director of global business operations at Adobe, suggests breaking things down into bite-size pieces. “Instead of feeling you need to deliver the whole project, reframe it to milestones,” she says. And if you have a big task to complete? “A great tip is to set aside 20 minutes to start it. Set a timer and when the timer is up celebrate… by taking a walk, getting a cup of tea, whatever works for you. But celebrate the fact that you’ve completed the 20 minute task.”

Perhaps most important of all is getting to grips with what is actually a sensible, achievable work rate for you (as opposed to worrying about what works for that photogenic CEO on TikTok). “Reflect on what’s realistic for you to achieve in the time you have available,” advises Sarah Rourke, careers and professional development coach at Henley Business School. “Taking time to understand yourself and how your energy cycles work can help you see where you might experience natural lulls or where you’re feeling more energised to get certain types of tasks done.” That way, she says, you can learn to play to your own strengths. “And perhaps not beat yourself up so much when you’re not quite in the right space to get things done.”  

Images: Getty