Toxic Productivity: Break the Cycle of Endless Work

“I don’t have time. I need to work.” I can’t remember how many times I’ve said this. It was my mantra.

If you’re constantly busy, too, and have a compulsion to work and be productive at all times, the odds are you’re experiencing toxic productivity. I discovered later on that I didn’t, in fact, know how to protect my energy and ultimately make the best use of my time.

Dive into this guide on how you can overcome toxic productivity, too, and obtain better physical and mental health.

What is toxic productivity?

At its core, toxic productivity is the belief that your self-worth is directly tied to how much you accomplish. This belief pushes you to behaviors like being productive at all times, and if you’re not, you feel uneasy and guilty.

So, as a result of experiencing toxic productivity, you’ll spend as much time as needed working in order to achieve success and validate yourself professionally, and not only. All that – at the expense of your self-care, mental and physical health, and relationships.

The problem is that our society makes it easy for us to fall into the toxic productivity trap, as we are expected to always be productive and relentlessly hit targets. And while productivity itself is positive, its toxic counterpart pushes you beyond healthy limits, which often leads to burnout, strained relationships, and a diminished sense of self-worth.

That’s why we see staggering reports, such as 82% of the workforce being at risk of burnout due to work overload, long work hours, and exhaustion. What’s more, we’re living in an era of overdoing where, since the 2019 pandemic and the number of meetings has skyrocketed. We see a 192% increase in weekly meetings, according to Microsoft. And that’s just the pinnacle.

What causes toxic productivity?

We’re coming from a foundation in which, at school, we were supposed to always perform at the highest standards, and taking rest equaled being lazy. Later on, these beliefs were reinforced in our collective work cultures.

Therefore, behaviors like hustling all the time, never taking breaks, or having holidays at work are praised, and perfectionism is encouraged. So, toxic productivity has become deeply embedded in our day-to-day lives, and it’s hard to shift our mindsets toward a better work-life balance, but it’s not impossible.

One channel that amplifies toxic productivity nowadays is social media. Most of the time, on social channels, everyone shows their best parts and their biggest achievements. Hence, we’re misled to believe that we’re constantly in some sort of competition and we need to showcase our badges.

In fact, research shows that social comparisons are linked to low self-esteem and depression, and unfortunately, women are the most affected (negatively). To counterbalance these negative feelings, they resort to workaholism as a form of protection, distraction, and coping with anxiety or low self-esteem.

Signs of toxic productivity

How do you know if toxic productivity has taken hold of your life? Here are some key red flags to watch for:

• You feel guilty during downtime. You may find it impossible to relax without worrying about your tasks during your free time. Sometimes, even a short break feels like wasted time. This perpetual guilt makes it nearly impossible to recharge, leaving you physically and emotionally drained.
• You don’t prioritize personal time, but you do prioritize tasks. Personal time and mental wellness seem like strange concepts to you, but work gives you the biggest fulfillment and a sense of realization, and that’s what you’re doing.
• You skip meals or forget about basic needs during work: Skipping meals or eating at your desk is a hallmark of toxic productivity, but these are part of normal for you already. When you feel too busy to prioritize proper meals, it signals that work has taken precedence over even the most basic self-care.
• You believe that your worth equals your work. A day off feels like a failure rather than a well-earned rest. You’re convinced that your value is tied to how much you produce, so your mindset says that your sense of self-worth is diminished when you’re not actively working.
• You blur the lines between work and personal life. Checking emails during dinner or brainstorming work solutions at bedtime has become second nature. Your entire life is dominated by work, and you cannot spend some time with friends or nurture meaningful connections without bringing work into the conversation.
• You’re constantly adding to your to-do list. No matter how much you achieve, it never feels like enough. Instead of celebrating accomplishments, you immediately move on to the next task and continue your cycle of overcommitment and dissatisfaction.
• You work overtime regularly. Putting in extra hours once in a while to meet a deadline is normal, but when overtime becomes a regular habit, it’s a sign of toxic productivity. Working late nights or weekends is a clear sign of chronic overtime, a dangerous illusion of being indispensable.

On that note, chronic overtime masks underlying issues such as poor time management, not delegating enough, or unrealistic expectations and workloads. Knowledge workers and remote workers, unless they set work boundaries and build breaks into their schedules, are more prone to chronic overworking. Over time, this habit can lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and serious health issues, including sleep deprivation, stress, and a weakened immune system.

If these signs resonate with you, it’s time to take action. Suffering from toxic productivity comes with serious repercussions. You need to work on your mindset shift and some practical strategies.

Ways to fix toxic productivity behaviors

1. Practice professional detachment

It is hard, but it can be done slowly. Hear me out. “professional detachment” is a term introduced by Laurie Ruettimann, and it simply means that your identity is not your job. In other words, you are not your job, and not everything you do at work represents who you are.

Seriously, you are more than a job and some incredibly well-done tasks. That’s your career, which, indeed, is part of your identity, but you’re more than that. You’re a daughter or a son to your parents, an individual who has passions and is dying to finish work to read a book, go for a walk, or plan that next trip. You are a partner who enjoys building memories together and a great and emphatic friend. You have so many identities!

Anyhow, even if your underlying feelings might be unsettling right now, as you’ve acquired a nerving term in your vocabulary, professional detachment helps you avoid burnout and be a more complex person than an incredible employee. And you can be productive and engaged in your work without your entire value as a human being to be around work.

How to do that? Keep on repeating to yourself that you’re not your job, and it’s not defining your entire identity as a person. And next time you’re not turning out a perfect task, temper your self-imposed expectations and don’t be so hard on yourself.

2. Ask for a smaller workload

It will feel counterintuitive to say “no” or ask for less when you’ve been conditioned to believe that productivity is the ultimate badge of honor. But the major problem for which you’re suffering from toxic productivity is that you have to deal with too much work.

But here’s the truth: taking on too much work does more harm than good. By asking for a smaller workload, you’re not shirking responsibility, but you’re prioritizing quality over quantity and protecting your mental health.

How to do that? Do a simple workload analysis, and if you reach the conclusion that it’s the cause of your issues with productivity, discuss it with your manager or team honestly. Explain your current bandwidth and let them know your desire to focus on delivering your best work rather than spreading yourself too thin. You need to self-advocate for yourself.

That’s how you regain control, avoid burnout, and ultimately break free from the cycle of toxic productivity.

3. Set clear boundaries between work and personal time

One way of protecting your time and energy is by turning your currently blurred line between work and personal and family life, which is to, of course, make it clear. That can happen by setting clear boundaries and realistic expectations of your availability for work.

Here’s how to do that:

• Define your work hours and stick to them: Commit to starting and ending your workday at the same time every day. Let your manager and team know that this is the case. And answering emails during dinner or work late into the night becomes off the table.
• Choose a specific workspace: If possible, create a dedicated area for work and leave it when your workday is done. This physical separation reinforces the mental boundary between work and personal time.
• Communicate your availability: Let your team know when you’ll be working and when you’ll be unavailable. Clearly, expressing these timeframes reduces your pressure to be constantly accessible.
• Turn off work notifications after hours: Disable email or messaging app alerts once your workday ends to avoid the pull of work tasks during your personal life.

Dive into this article on how to protect your energy to find more tips on how to fill your cup.

4. Monitor how you actually spend your time

One insidious belief is that the more time you spend working, the more productive you’ll be, which is obviously false, as human beings are not computers to run endlessly.

What you can do, instead, as a powerful way of understanding your work behaviors, is monitor how you’re spending your time. Just as you’re monitoring how a project goes so that next time you’re not repeating the same mistakes that caused delays, that’s how you can monitor your time.

Here’s how to do that:

• Choose an automated time monitoring app like Timeular – it’s important for it to be automated and seamless, as you’re not trying to get more to do on your list.
• Track your activities for a week: Let the app run in the background while you go about your day. At the end of the week, review the data to identify patterns, such as where you’re spending too much time or which tasks are eating into your focus hours.
• Analyze the gaps: Pay attention to distractions, inefficiencies, or time-wasters. Are you spending too much time on email? Are meetings taking up more hours than they should?
• Set realistic goals for improvement: Use what you’ve learned to make adjustments. For example, block specific times for deep work, limit meeting durations, or schedule breaks to recharge.

Tracking your time is incredibly powerful if you’re caught up with stress and endless to-do lists and you’re always hurried to go to the next task. A productivity tracker helps with gaining clarity and refining one of the core problems:effective time management.

5. Say no more often

Saying “no” is the hardest thing for people pleasers to do. Yes, saying “no” is uncomfortable, especially when you’re trying to prove yourself at work. But constantly saying “yes” to every request leaves you stretched too thin and jeopardizes your performance and well-being.

You need to learn to say “no” if you want to break the cycle of toxic productivity.

Here’s how to do that:

• Evaluate the request. Assess whether the request aligns with your priorities or not. If you find that tasks are thrown at you because it seems like you never say no, but you’re not skilled or have the capacity to do that, then don’t take them on just to please your manager.
• Explain your capacity clearly. Use data from Timeular to explain your current tasks and how long it takes to finish them.
• Offer alternatives. Coming up with counterproposals is a great strategy! Suggest a different deadline or ask for someone else on the team to take the task.

Need more? I wrote a comprehensive six-step guide on how to say no at work. Dive in. Here’s just a preview of the framework:

6. Set realistic goals

One of the biggest mistakes that lead to toxic productivity is setting unattainable and high expectations for yourself. That inevitably makes you stressed, frustrated, and burned out. Instead, it’s best to create realistic goals that align with your capacity and priorities.

Here’s how to do that:

• Break larger tasks into small steps: Divide overwhelming projects into smaller, actionable goals that feel manageable and keep you on track.
• Set achievable deadlines: Make sure that your timelines are realistic and leave some room for unexpected delays; as project management taught us, we always need some buffer time.
• Prioritize quality over quantity: It’s better to complete fewer tasks perfectly rather than rushing through a long list with mediocre results.
• Celebrate progress: Acknowledge your achievements, no matter how small, as this will fuel you with motivation and energy in the long run.

7. Reframe your definition of success

Unfortunately, we often have a narrow view of success. That vision implies that our success equals constant achievement, which obviously leads to overwork. But instead of measuring it solely by output, you could measure your success by things like well-being, meaningful personal relationships, and personal growth.

Here are some notes:

• Define what truly matters to you: Reflect on your core values and long-term goals, and define your success by these rather than all the external pressures or comparisons.
• Celebrate non-work achievements: Acknowledge your achievements outside your professional life – there must be some. You just have to notice them! These can be learning a new skill, being in good health, or finally traveling to a destination you’ve dreamed of.
• Detach from external validation: Stop relying your self-worth on others’ opinions or societal expectations. Define success on your own terms.

8. Do what fills your cup

You’ve probably forgotten many times to take care of yourself. But you need to schedule time for activities that replenish your energy and bring you joy.

Engage in non-work activities that recharge you, such as hobbies, connecting with loved ones, or simply resting. Resist the guilt of “not being productive.” Add self-care and leisure activities as non-negotiable meetings in your calendar. You could also try something creative or fun outside of work, which can help you rediscover passions and break free from routine.

What’s more – treat rest as part of productivity. Downtime improves focus, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, as your brain is not engaged in the same issue at all times, and it can see new perspectives and solutions.

Toxic-free productivity mode: On!

With all these tips, you’re ready to combat toxic productivity, this insidious belief that you’re as good as your accomplishments. It’s high time you break free from toxic productivity and start living for yourself and your many other identities. If you find this journey hard, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a mental health professional.

Remember, the goal isn’t to abandon ambition but to pursue it in a sustainable and fulfilling way.