In a survey done by Headway in late 2022, out of 1 million people, 65% of Brits, 63% of Americans, and 58% of Australians ranked productivity as their top priority in life above physical health, having more money, and even their own happiness. Productivity, according to over 500,000 in the pool of 1 million, was the most important aspect of improvement in their lives. Not the result of the actual productivity, but the act of being productive itself. It scared me, for a second. Not the statistic itself, but the fact that I didn’t see much wrong with it.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be more productive. Productivity makes results. Our work and continuous effort propels a capitalist-driven nation forward. In a world where money, influence, and power control our lives, where stability is hard to find, it is hard not to want to be productive. Even at such a young age, it feels as if even high-schoolers are taught to fear the world, and that to prepare now, to get used to “the grind,” is the only way to stay afloat. Stay in one spot for too long, and you are left behind. Move slower, do less than others, and you have a marathon to catch up on. So basically, the only solution is to keep moving. Keep trudging along. Keep studying, working, doing everything you can to make sure you don’t fall behind. Productivity, whether you feel it or not, has consumed the majority of our lives.
It’s gotten to the point where a lot of us associate happiness with productivity. I’ve heard so often that “true happiness” comes from hard work and gratification, that the journey, all the back-breaking labor and rejection, is what makes everything worth it. Or, that no matter what, you have to keep moving. That in the long run, your happiness will ultimately come from being productive, not by creating results. To some extent, it’s true. Fleeting moments of joy do come with being productive. The “grind” and hustle-culture pay off. Being on 100 for days or even weeks straight is rewarding. It’s a sign of strength for many, approval that you are indeed a hard worker, more accomplished than others for the fact that you can keep your head down below the noise and distraction to better yourself for longer than others.
Hustle-culture is much more deeply embedded than many may think. It is hard to even make the argument that toxic productivity has consumed all of us because there is no true way to escape it. As unsatisfactory the answer is, there is nearly no way for an average person to succeed without being constantly productive, and therefore, no way to truly be happy unless you remove yourself from the temptation of worldly pleasures. Even more disheartening, success is often being able to finally escape productivity. To many, success is financial freedom, retirement, vacations away from home, or being able to choose what you want to do with your life without the need to constantly worry. This is almost impossible to achieve unless the average person spends the majority of their life working, giving up much of their youth and much of the actual human experience to work towards a greater goal. There is no way to escape productivity and indulge in what makes life truly enjoyable without being productive first. It is a vicious, systematic process that turns people into working machines under the guise of self-improvement.
The ideas of endless success and the fantasy of freedom, the hopes of everything finally paying off, harm us more than they help us. They take away the joy that comes with being in the moment, spending time with people you love, bettering your mental and physical health, and being human. You don’t need to grow up and let go of all that makes your life enjoyable. We shouldn’t have to live in a perpetual cycle of productivity, a cycle that demonizes every experience that brings joy and is not a product of success from “the grind.” It is unfortunate that being able to enjoy time with loved ones, eat good food, and indulge in “pointless hobbies” is seen as rare occasions or rewards for working hard, when in reality, they are inherent to the process of being human.
You don’t need to grow up and let go of all that makes your life enjoyable. We shouldn’t have to live in a perpetual cycle of productivity, a cycle that demonizes every experience that brings joy and is not a product of success from “the grind.”
I’m a junior in high school right now, which we all know is a pretty important year. It’s the last year before you apply to college, where you’re supposed to get all your extracurriculars and whatnot in shape so you don’t drown in pointless college applications. If I were to be honest, I feel incredibly burnt out right now, which confuses me. My classes aren’t too hard because as I realized before, I would become burnt to a crisp if I decided to take classes too challenging. So, I spend a large portion of time focusing on my hobbies. I gave up grinding AP Chemistry in order to spend time drawing during my library hour when I’m supposed to have AP Earth Science, a significantly easier AP course. I’m no longer taking a butt-hard math class that completely ruined every single night during sophomore year. I cut down on a few extracurriculars to spare myself from exhaustion. And still, I don’t feel too great. I feel like I’m taking the “easy way out” by trying to make time to do the things I actually love, by clearing out space in my schedule to genuinely enjoy what I do. I feel as if I’ve given up already, that I’m being left behind by my peers. All of a sudden, I am somehow backing out of toxic productivity culture and yet still wanting to chase it because for so long, I only derived satisfaction from being on 100 all the time.
As stupid as it may sound, I’ve begun to crave “the grind.” The monotonous cycle I drowned in in previous years where I relished the feeling of going to bed late because I had to stay up past midnight studying, the hours where I wasted away staring at a computer screen, trying to come up with ways for myself to do more, make more, and be more productive. Even though there is a lot less rigid structure in my life now, thanks to my lessening workload, I still can’t help but feel unhappy. So I guess I am a victim of hustle-culture, deriving happiness from doing work, only being able to sit with myself when I have something to do. However, I have also come to realize that in some ways, I’m still choosing myself by pushing away a wearisome routine. I still seek routine and feel somehow incomplete if I have a day where I wasn’t productive, where I didn’t do much to “better” myself. It feels as if just one day of “slacking off” jeopardizes my future. But, I’ve also come to realize that this is not my issue; it’s an issue, one that pulling away from even just the tiniest bit, allowed me to find a little bit more about myself.
Despite all this, I know that whatever feelings I am feeling are not unique to myself. So often we find students fearful of being perceived as lazy to the point where they allow themselves to be utterly consumed by toxic productivity. And yet, it is hard to blame them. It’s very hard to recognize that you’ve been going on and on for weeks, and that you physically and mentally need a break. It is incredibly difficult for a generation brainwashed into thinking that their happiness should be derived from productivity to genuinely let themselves make time to do what they love and actually take care of themselves. In a world that seems to only praise those who seemingly push past all odds and those who ignore their own health at the expense of productivity, it is impossible for youth to truly let themselves be happy.
