Let’s be honest, the internet is bombarded with tips that would help us in mastering the skill of ‘productivity’ and podcast videos that lay down a definite path for productivity success, which in most cases, is a disembodied path that renders invisible the ‘privilege’ of the speaker. From batching your emails for optimal efficiency to adhering to the routines of successful people, it feels like every moment of our lives is supposed to be streamlined, optimized, and monetized. The rhetoric of productivity has increasingly encroached into every aspect of our daily lives, from waking up early at 5 a.m., rationalised through the ‘staying fit argument’, to the Pomodoro principle seen as indispensable for efficiency in studies, maintaining a to-do list, and scheduling activities of the day in the calendar. Any departure from these processes aimed at accelerating productivity renders a feeling of helplessness and worthlessness to the extent that even binge-watching our favourite shows leaves us with a parting thought of having wasted our entire day.
One reason that we navigate these feelings, as Julie de Azevedo Hanks stresses, is because we connect “our behaviour, our performance, our productivity, with our self-worth”. However, as productivity becomes irreversibly connected to our self-worth, what also becomes paramount is to focus on how the rhetoric of productivity is increasingly steeped in a neoliberal capitalist order. Capitalism profits from the surplus labor of the workers, and as long as we have internalised the logic of ‘productivity success’ that is packaged and sold to us, often at the detriment of self-perception, albeit consciously or unconsciously, the system sustains. Sometimes, the internalization of this logic dominating our self-perception accentuates the likelihood of being exposed to productivity anxiety. Essentially, it involves the feeling that we are never doing enough. No matter the efforts put in, the feeling of falling short lingers.
YouTube video of Productivity anxiety: https://youtu.be/BhEaYaydw4A
So, let’s ditch this guilt and anxiety. Let’s focus on championing the art of intentional pause. Let us start with rupturing the vilification of unproductivity and partaking in activities that bolster joy.
Perhaps such activities can be the source of knowledge that Audre Lorde emphasizes when talking about erotic, of what brings us self-fulfilment, and letting this knowledge guide our actions rather than succumbing to constant productivity. This knowledge entails a subversive nature that can be detrimental to capitalism, as we end up realizing that constant productivity is not indispensable for success and experiencing feelings of self-fulfilment.
References and Links
Julie de Azevedo Hanks: https://psychcentral.com/lib/psychotherapy
Feeling of never doing enough: https://shedefined.com.au/wellbeing/what-is-productivity-anxiety-and-what-can-you-do-about-it/
Productivity anxiety video: https://youtu.be/BhEaYaydw4A
Kathrynf 
Alexander Hanjin De Filippo 
Eabha Quinn