Productivity Guilt: What does this mean and how to avoid it?

When everyone around you seems to be doing more, working more, living more, making the most of their lives while you just sit and sulk since you feel incompetent, after comparing yourself with those around you- is a massive down point of productivity guilt. Hence, to define productivity guilt, we can call it a sense of lacking the same caliber as few others due to reduced ‘production’, expected of a person in a day. On a more subjective note, the term can also be described as something that can effectively harm a person’s mental health.

There are no two qualms about the benefits that the amount of productivity can have on a person. However, feeling aloof from it is a different matter altogether which can happen due to simple things, like not being able to wake up at 4 in the morning every day and also in the professional arena. Therefore, in order to remain healthy, mentally and physically one should take certain measures when faced with such dilemmas.

So what are the ways to avoid it? Well, read below:

Perfection is a myth

You are not perfect and no one in the world is either. You have been molded to make mistakes and fail at times so that you can learn from them. Imperfection is any human’s trait and without it, the first humans wouldn’t have learned all about lighting fires with stones. Again, just as the modern world has replaced fire as the source of light with electricity, some ideas that you may pitch in life or work can be replaced by new ones. This doesn’t mean you are wrong but only that the new idea gives a fresh perspective on the matter.

Ideas evolve like humans and we need to evolve with them. Try to respect the perspectives of others and you’ll be astonished as to how much knowledge you can gain by just doing that.

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Ideal self?

Every day you will be given advice on how to go about your life, doing this and that and what not. However, you shouldn’t make this advice your destination and instead, use them as your guide. The advice you receive in life can direct you but should never force you in reaching heights which are not humanly possible.

Taking into account the example of social media, many people advice against it and many highly recommend it. Now, if you are on social media sites all day, every day then it is likely that you’ll get addicted to it, however not using it at all means you have no connection with the outer world. Hence, it is up to you to decide and derive the best from extreme advice, be your own you.

You are not destined to prove anything to the world or the people in it. For you, your ideal self should be something that makes you happy and not something that is a construct to make others happy.

Start where you stand

The major cause for such type of guilt isn’t the ideas or standards forced upon one but it is the gap between what the person desires to be and what he/she thinks themselves to be. It is important to understand that in order to reach certain goals you shouldn’t start changing yourself but rather start at the very point you stand.

You learn from your mistakes and hence instead of trying to solve problems in the most ideal manner, try to look into them from a different angle so that you can minimize those mistakes and get better results.

As much beneficial productivity can be, the guilt resulting from it can be far more taxing. Negativity won’t take you anywhere in life, so cutting out extreme advice from others and comparing yourself with others are only baby steps for attaining a guilt-free life.