Every morning, as my cup of coffee brews, I open up Google Calendar. It is color coordinated and meticulously organized to maximize productivity. I made the switch last quarter when my daily tasks and reminders became too long for my #girlboss notebook. Every event in my life goes on the GCal: class, due dates, social events and (optimistically) gym time. I felt sophisticated. I was confident I could easily become Miranda Priestly’s assistant and do a much better job than Emily and Andy. But, I may have girlbossed a little too close to the sun. I am obsessed with my calendar, and I think it’s ruining my sense of a normal workload.
Is being too productive bad for you? I started to ask myself this question over winter break when I no longer had a need to open Google Calendar every morning before 8 a.m. (It felt wrong to schedule in “sleep in” and “binge-watch 7 seasons of Shameless.”) Have the organized colors and rewarding nature of the checkoff boxes convinced me that 12 hours of work a day is normal?
Our society glorifies overworking and exhaustion. If I am not working long hours each day, I feel unaccomplished. With the UC quarter system’s manic schedule, a never-ending workload makes it easy to not feel productive after working and studying for over 10 hours a day. Otegha Uwagba, a writer for The Guardian, admitted she feels similar shame and guilt in her article “This Year, I Stopped Being Productive. Why Is That So Hard To Come To Terms With?” There is an expectation of being 100 percent productive, 100 percent of the time. Uwagba proclaims “I have more to offer the world than my labor.” And yet, she acknowledges how difficult this mantra can be in reality. She is self-employed. As her own boss, she decides when to work and when to stop. But, when she is not working she is not making money. This constant anxiety of being able to provide for yourself fuels an obsession with productivity.
How do we find a balance between taking care of ourselves and still achieving financial stability? As full-time students, how do we balance our mental health while still working towards a career and future fulfillment?
Uwagba knows it is not logical to operate at full force all the time. Eventually, you will burn out. But, it’s harder to convince your own brain of this when it comes to your own productivity. Her biggest tip is to stop “overmanueuvering” or trying to hack into your brain’s natural potential. Stop trying to beat out your mind’s biological capabilities. Counterbalance work with stretches of rest, whether big or small. Uwagba stresses the need to allow yourself a little bit of grace.
Youtube is filled with hyper-productive influencers who make vlogs about how to be just like them. This warped perception of productivity has gotten so out of control, Cody Ko and Noel Miller racked up over 30 million views making fun of a productivity supervillain’s EPIC morning routine. So, whether you take 15 minutes a day to yourself or you take a month/quarter/year off to focus on protecting your well-being, remember to give yourself a little bit of grace.