You are not your output: Overcoming productivity debt

For many academics, the workday begins with a sinking feeling of being behind before they’ve even started. This sense of “productivity debt” – the notion that we start each day in a deficit, struggling to meet some imagined standard of bare-minimum acceptability – can be damaging to our well-being and sense of self-worth.

Productivity debt is the idea that you start your day ‘behind’ in the list of things you need to do in order to be a minimally acceptable version of yourself.

Burkeman, O. (n.d.) What if you’re already on top of things?

The constant pressure to prove ourselves and make up for perceived shortcomings turns our work into a source of anxiety rather than fulfilment. We end up on a hamster wheel of overwork and guilt, never feeling like we’re doing quite enough. But what if there was another way?

Changing your frame of reference

The first step to breaking free is to question the very premise of productivity debt. What if, instead of seeing ourselves as being perpetually behind, we started with the notion that we are enough, exactly as we are? This isn’t about lowering your standards or giving up on your goals. It’s about untethering your self-worth from your output.

Start your day with the belief that you have inherent value, independent of your achievements. From this perspective, everything you do is not a frantic attempt to reach a minimum threshold, but a positive addition over and above your intrinsic worth. Each task you complete, each paragraph you write, each paper you read, is not a payment towards an ever-growing debt, but rather deposits into an ever-fuller life.

When we stop viewing ourselves as walking liabilities, we can approach our work from a place of agency and choice. We can set boundaries, prioritise the work that matters most to us, and build in time for rest and rejuvenation. Most importantly, we can extend to ourselves the same compassion and understanding we would grant to any other human being.

In a world that always demands more, the most courageous thing we can do is declare: I am already enough.


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