When Productivity Stops Helping
For some years, I’ve been a productivity nerd.
At one point, I read every new productivity book and tried every new app. I spent more time messing with my apps than producing work.
If this is you too, keep reading.
You likely got into productivity because it promised to help you become more efficient and get your work done faster.
But instead of giving you more free time, you just did more work, and that more never seemed like enough.
You feel guilty when you take a break because you should be productive instead of “wasting time.”
Sound familiar?
Toxic productivity is real, but there’s hope.
You can escape toxic productivity and practice healthy productivity instead.
Healthy productivity helps you do meaningful work without sacrificing your well-being or joy.
Like to know how?
When Productivity Makes Life Worse
Productivity is often presented as primarily a matter of time management.
If we can use our time effectively and efficiently, we’ll be more productive.
This has led us to perceive our primary role in life as filling up our time with worthy actions, to the point where we feel guilty if we’re not ‘being productive’ all the time.
Oliver Burkeman, author of the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, confesses to being a productivity geek.
After practicing productivity techniques for some time, he realized that,
“A focus on time as measurable units lends itself to a sort of toxic relationship with time; feeling like if you’re not getting something productive out of every moment of time, you’re a failure”
That’s a great definition of toxic productivity.
Productivity can lead to an overemphasis on filling every moment of our time. Popular productivity author Chris Bailey wrote in How to Calm Your Mind,
“Our constant striving for accomplishment can ironically make us less productive, as it leads us over time to experience chronic stress, burnout, and anxiety.”
So how does this happen? Burkeman Explains in Four Thousand Weeks:
“Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster.”
The faster you can work with productivity hacks, the more work you can take on. Instead of giving you more margin, you feel compelled to do even more and fill up the extra time.
Productivity Isn’t the Villain—Our Mindset Is
While toxic productivity is a real danger, here’s what productivity—at its best—has taught me:
• The importance of and how to focus.
• The value of intention, not just reacting or bobbing on the waves, but taking intentional action in my life.
• The value of planning to do the things important to me.
• The value of being aware of my work process.
• The importance of margin, not trying to cram in too much into blocks of time.
And I learned ultimately, productivity is not an end in itself, but a tool to use while intentionally doing what’s important in the moment.
A Better Way: Healthy Productivity
Recently, there has been a movement in response to extreme productivity, a move away from toxic productivity toward what I call a healthier productivity.
This movement is based on the understanding that the obsession with productivity is an impossible attempt to deny the limits of being human, that we will never be able to do everything we want to do, or that others want us to do.
No level of expertise in productivity will ever allow us to have complete control over our lives.
In his book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, Cal Newport suggests a response to toxic productivity. He says that instead of fast productivity, we ought to adopt a,
“SLOW PRODUCTIVITY… 1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality.”
How to Escape the Productivity Trap
In my life, I’ve been striving for healthier productivity rather than toxic productivity.
If any of these questions apply to you, you need to read this section:
• Do I feel guilty when I rest?
• Do I add work faster than I finish it?
• Do I believe productivity equals work?
1. Cut Back to Move Forward
Choose your opportunities carefully and say no to many.
Cut back to move forward.
Before saying “yes” to an additional opportunity, ask yourself whether you’re already busy and whether adding this work will take too much of your margin time. Consider what future opportunities you may have to say “no” to if you say “yes” to this one.
A good practice when you’re asked to take on a new project is to ask for time to think about it, or, as David Sparks recommends in his 2026 version of the Productivity Field Guide, say you “want to sleep on it” and that you’ll get back to them. This gives you time and space to think about whether the new task fits with what you consider your important work.
When you work, build in as much flexibility as you can. Choose which tasks to do and when to do them to fit your mood, energy, and motivation. That’s what “natural pace” is about.
2. Choose, Don’t Obey
Treat your task manager like a menu, not a Master.
It’s easy to let a task manager become your boss and load you up with an unrealistic number of tasks to accomplish in a day. Typically, our task managers contain more tasks than we could ever do.
Recognizing that I can’t do everything on my list, I limit and prioritize my tasks day to day.
I use the NotePlan app to create my daily plan. I drag the tasks I want to complete that day from the Apple Reminders panel (my task manager) onto my daily plan. I then give myself the flexibility to choose which task to do at what time during the day.
Of course, some tasks must be done on a particular day. But most of them don’t.
3. Do What Matters Now
Life balance is a myth. We can’t do everything equally well all the time.
The best we can do is strive for intentional imbalance. Do what is most important to do at that time.
If my wife were in a car accident, I’d drop everything else and head to the hospital. Life balance is about choosing what truly matters in the moment.
4. Tech Should Serve You
When trapped in a toxic productivity mentality, we sometimes find ourselves spending more time fiddling with our apps and maintaining them than we do working.
We start serving productivity apps rather than the other way around.
“I want to help you achieve what is most important to you and enjoy your life at the same time using technology instead of becoming another one of its victims.”
”Shiny New App Syndrome” is a disease that keeps productivity nerds constantly on the hunt for the latest apps. We convince ourselves that the new app will solve all our productivity issues, spend hours migrating to the new system, then drop it when the next new app appears.
Instead, we should carefully and intentionally choose the app that best fits our unique needs and style. Switch only after much thought, and if there are features we need to do our best work that are not in the app we’re using.
5. Take Breaks Without Guilt
One symptom of toxic productivity is feeling guilty whenever we take a break from work, because we think we should be filling the time with “productive” activities instead.
Instead of stressing out about not being ultra-productive, we need to learn that life is not just about hyper-productivity. It’s okay and healthy not to be productive all the time.
Unproductive hobbies are a great break from productivity. The value of a hobby lies in its ability to bring joy, foster curiosity, and offer fulfillment, independent of external validation or reward.
It’s not about productivity. Engaging with a hobby affirms that not everything worthwhile has to be justified by productivity or profit.
Begin with Just One Thing
If productivity has been running your life, it’s time for a reset.
This week, try one of these:
• Remove a task from your list — on purpose.
• Schedule a real break.
• Do just one thing, well.
Healthy productivity begins with a single intentional choice.
What will yours be?
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images, and text improvements.
Links to product pages on Amazon include a referral code, which pays me a small percentage of the sale when products are purchased. This helps to defray some of the costs of running this site. I strive to only include links to products I believe are worth buying.