Chris Bailey’s latest book, How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times is a mixture of many positives and, unfortunately, some negatives.
Bailey has produced some excellent work in the area of productivity. My go-to book to recommend to someone interested in an introduction to productivity is Bailey’s The Productivity Project. I’ve also benefitted from his Hyperfocus: How to Manage Your Attention in a World of Distraction.
Burnout is Caused by the Stress and Anxiety Caused by an Overactive Accomplishment Mindset
This book is based on Bailey’s personal experience with professional burnout. He warns about the dangers and causes of burnout, and how to prevent it.
“Contrary to common belief, burnout is not just exhaustion. Burnout does leave us feeling exhausted … But we also need to feel two other things: cynical and unproductive. To be fully burnt out, we need all three.”
Chris Bailey, How to Calm Your Mind
Bailey identifies the source of his burnout as an overactive accomplishment mindset. “Our constant striving for accomplishment can ironically make us less productive, as it leads us over time to experience chronic stress, burnout, and anxiety.”
“The accomplishment mindset needs boundaries—without them, it tends to take over your life.”
Chris Bailey, How to Calm Your Mind
He correctly points out that in the productivity community, there is a lot of talk about how to accomplish more things in less time, but almost no discussion of the dangers of adopting a hyperactive productivity mindset.
Identifying and Dealing with Stress
In order to avoid burnout, Bailey urges readers to first identify the sources of preventable and non-preventable stress in their lives. There are two kinds of stress:
– Acute Stress, which is temporary. It’s the kind of stress that’s more circumstantial, like when you’re late for an appointment due to traffic.
– Chronic Stress, which is ongoing. It’s a job with a workload that consistently exceeds the time to do it, or an addiction to social media or news. This is the kind of stress that leads to burnout.
Next, he encourages readers to actively work to reduce the levels of anxiety and stress they experience and to engage in more activities that engender calm.
The Stress Caused by Digital Social Media & News
Bailey is at his best when he uses scientific studies to document how stress is caused by following (and becoming addicted to) social media and online news.
He demonstrates how news and social media sites on the Internet are designed and engineered to cater to our desire for more and more dopamine hits that lead to chronic stress and addiction. His detailed citations of scientific research make his conclusions more than just personal opinions.
Bailey points out that often, the sources of our chronic stress are things that we are attracted to or addicted to, like constantly keeping up with the news. A desire for stimulation fueled by dopamine encourages this behavior. “Our brain provides us with a satisfying spritz of the chemical each time we pay attention to something novel—social media, email, and the news included.”
One of his most valuable contributions to the discussion is his emphasis on the need to “strike a balance between striving and savoring.” He encourages readers to intentionally live in each moment and savor their enjoyable moments of life. I found this had immediate application to me — I’m practicing more savoring due to his writing. It’s enhanced the quality of my life.
Assuming Digital Is the Primary Cause of Stress
Bailey gets on shaky ground when he tries to construct overarching simplistic rules about how to reduce stress.
He seems to assume that digital activity is the primary cause of stress and lack of calm.
Bailey states “Nearly all habits that lead us to calm exist in one place: the analog world. The more time we spend in the analog world, as opposed to the digital one, the calmer we become.”
Furthermore, Bailey suggests that readers choose analog over digital whenever there’s a choice between the two, supposedly because the analog activity will always be less stressful than the digital activity.
These statements are overly simplistic and in many cases are just not accurate. While Bailey does admit to limited exceptions to his general rules, he dismisses them by quoting the old maxim that exceptions do not prove the rule. In this case, however, there are so many exceptions that the exceptions may indeed disprove his rule.
However, the increase in stress and burnout may be due to a number of cultural factors, such as the overactive productivity mindset, and the cultural value of consumerism with its “more and more” mindset. Proposing the simplistic solution of “analog instead of digital” does nothing to counter these factors.
It’s striking that in chapter 7, in contrast to the first part of his book, there is almost no science cited. His strong statements and recommendations in this chapter seem to be based solely on his subjective personal experiences and opinions.
In his enthusiasm to bring more analog/digital balance to his own life, I think he goes overboard and overstates his case, jumping to some questionable conclusions.
Analog is Not Always More Calming than Digital
Bailey’s advice does not ring true to my own experiences, or the experiences of many others. He not only jumps to the conclusion that digital use results in stress, but he also downplays and dismisses the harmful levels of stress generated in purely analog activities.
I can think of a number of examples in my present life where his rule is not accurate:
1. Reading analog vs. digital books. Bailey indicates that in his experience, he always feels more calm and centered and less stressed by reading an analog book, as opposed to reading a digital book.
I find the exact opposite is true. I often find it more stressful to read an analog book because I have no control over the font size, and I have to find a light source that’s bright enough for me to read.
I have none of these stressful issues reading a kindle book on my iPad. I find I can focus and think deeply about the material I am reading in a digital format as opposed to an analog format.
2. Social interactions. Bailey also oversimplifies the calming effect of social interactions. According to Bailey, “The most bountiful wellspring of calm in the analog world is easily human connection.”
While this is true for some social interactions, it certainly is not true for all. Some of the most stressful and un-calm situations I have ever experienced have been negative social interactions at work or at home. Just because people are meeting together face-to-face does not guarantee it’s going to be a calm, stress-reducing activity.
3. Listening to digital music. According to Bailey’s rule, listening to analog live music should be much less stressful than listening to digital music. I find the opposite to be true.
One of the most calming and anxiety-reducing activities I do is sit in my living room and read and think deeply about a digital book I’m reading on my digital iPad while listening to relaxing digital music on my HomePod.
4. Working digitally from home. Following Bailey’s advice, one would assume that it would be much less stressful working in an analog office, where many activities might be analog and there would be social interaction.
However, there are thousands of people who would disagree. They feel much less stress working from home, using digital tools all day to accomplish their tasks.
I could continue on with multiple other examples, but these few are sufficient to illustrate my point — analog is not necessarily more calming than digital, and sometimes is more stressful.
In fairness, at the end of the book, Bailey does back off the intensity of some of his rules and suggestions and admits that his advice may not work for everyone — “We’re all wired differently, lead different lives, and have different habits, jobs, constraints, and values. Because of this, I encourage you to take the advice that works for you and leave the rest.”
However, after his bold statements of fact about the calming effects of analog vs. digital, this sounds more like an afterthought or defensive disclaimer.
Summary: A Book Worth Reading, But Read Critically
On the whole, I think Bailey raises a lot of legitimate concerns. He is spot on about the need for us to avoid or minimize the stress induced by following social media and Internet news sources.
He is at his best when he’s relating the results of his scientific research about burnout, stress, anxiety, dopamine, and calm. I learned a lot about all of these topics in his book, and I’m thankful for his skill in bringing research to bear on practical issues.
But I think he goes overboard with gross simplifications and rules regarding digital and analog stress levels. His recommendations for preventing stress need to be considered from a critical viewpoint and weighed against the reader’s perception of reality.
Bailey’s main contribution here is updating the wisdom about avoiding burnout in the digital age, in which many people are hooked on digital dopamine and stress. He does a great job documenting and warning against the addictive use of social media and online news.
The Real Issue is Not “Digital vs. Analog”
However, I think he misses the point when he turns to the question of how to relieve stress, and how to calm your mind. I think he’s picked the wrong battle, by framing it as “digital vs. analog.”
The real question is not analog vs. digital, but how do you avoid and minimize stress and bring more calm into your life?
There are distractions and stress producers in both the digital and the analog worlds. We have to learn to avoid and minimize distractions in both the analog and digital worlds as well. It’s not just an “analog vs. digital” issue.
Stress, Burnout, and Lack of Calm Existed Before the Digital Age
It’s a fact that stress. lack of calm, and burnout existed when everything was analog, long before the digital age even began. According to Wolfgang Kaskcha, “Burnout as a phenomenon has probably existed at all times and in all cultures.” It likely existed thousands of years before the digital age. It certainly existed in my life before the digital age.
I can think of many times in my life that I experienced extreme stress, and a consequent lack of calm due to negative personal relationships and stressful working conditions. I felt completely stressed and burned out for periods of time, and this was all before the digital age.
The Key is Responsibly and Intentionally Using Both Digital and Analog
It seems to me that the real lesson to be learned here is not analog vs. digital, but using digital (and analog) resources responsibly and intentionally. We need to avoid social media and online news, and stop addictively checking our email and messages, since these are proven stress inducers.
For those who find digital devices distracting, there are abundant solutions to reduce those distractions. Apple has Focus Modes installed on every device that block unwanted notifications. There are inexpensive 3rd party apps that will close down all notifications and block using other apps while you’re working with your apps of choice. You can delete apps that cause you stress.
On the other hand, we can engage in many digital activities responsibly and in a way that promotes calm and reduces stress. There’s no need to “throw out the baby with the bath water.”
We’re not helpless victims of distraction in the digital world or the analog world. To me, the key is to identify the distraction in either digital or analog and take the steps necessary to shut it down so we can intentionally focus on what is important to us.