The 4 myths that perpetuate toxic productivity, according to a psychotherapist

Throughout childhood, our parents and teachers encourage us to mine our potential for all we can achieve. In college, our scope expands—we want to maximize our contribution to the world, leave our mark, and make a difference for the better. But as some of us reach adulthood, these lofty goals tend to boil down to a single, urgent imperative: in order to have value, we have to produce more value. Without our noticing, our sense of self shifts away from our internal potential toward what that potential can produce: education, salary, material possessions, relationships, reputation. Our personal value is measured not by what we’ve produced already, but by how today’s production can help us produce tomorrow. Add this together with our competitive results-driven world filled with messages to “rise and grind” or “go the extra mile” and it’s no surprise that we are never satisfied.

This brings us to pursuing productivity relentlessly, to the point that we prioritize it over our physical, emotional, and mental health—in other words, we sometimes choose positive production over our basic human needs. Doing this builds habits like perfectionism, overcommitting, insecurity, self-neglect, and isolation. Even our proudest achievements cease to have any meaning for us; they’re simply a row of checkmarks on a never-ending list, a line of stepping stones toward a destination we will never reach. This is what I call toxic productivity.

Every expression of toxic productivity is different because we all experience it for different emotional reasons, but I’ve found there are a few common foundational beliefs. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call them myths— demonstrably false stories that we nevertheless believe without question because they are reinforced by familial, academic, professional, and cultural influences throughout our lives. These myths may be taught to us explicitly, but more often they are taught by example or packaged within aspirational concepts like “a strong work ethic” or “a drive for success.”

As you read the following common toxic productivity myths, consider which ones resonate most with you:

Myth 1: Everything matters equally

Dedicating the same amount of energy, attention, and time to every task means giving energy to things that might not require it. You might feel more productive filling up your calendar and to-do lists, but if those tasks and commitments don’t move you closer to your goal or nourish you in the process, are you more productive? Or are you just staying busy?

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist and social scientist in the early twentieth century, found that often 80% of outcomes result from just 20% of the actions we take. Today, we refer to this as the Pareto Principle, though it’s sometimes also known as “The Law of the Vital Few and the Trivial Many.” (I personally love this phrase because so much of what we think we must do can fall under “the trivial many.”) If only 20% of our tasks actually impact about 80% of our lives, it stands to reason that we can’t allocate the same importance to all the things we have to do.

The reality: Some things are more important than others. Different tasks and behaviors have different priorities.

Myth 2: Multitasking helps us get more things done

What we call multitasking is known among social scientists as task-switching. When we think we are handling multiple tasks simultaneously, we’re in fact shifting between different types of work, which means the brain is going back and forth among the tasks, using different parts to process multiple forms of information. This takes a heavy mental load. It tires us out, both physically and mentally. The tiredness we feel persuades us that we are accomplishing more.

However, what it really means is that we’ve done a lot without functioning as effectively. That’s why multitasking so often looks like starting multiple things but not finishing them. In fact, monotasking—starting and finishing one thing at a time—makes you more productive because you are able to complete the things you planned to with the ability of functioning at your highest level.

The reality: Multitasking is not actually possible for the human mind.

Myth 3: Working longer hours means getting more done

Research shows that the brain works in cycles of alertness every 90 minutes, much like our patterns of sleep. This alertness cycle is known as the body’s ultradian rhythm. Essentially, every 90 minutes or so, your body will start to signal fatigue through fidgetiness, hunger, and decreased focus. In order to achieve what you have set out to do, it’s better to work with the body’s natural rhythms instead of against them. This means taking intentional and regular breaks at that time your energy starts to dip so you can maintain your productivity over a sustained period of time.

The reality: We are more productive when we work in short, concentrated bursts of effort instead of consistently working over long periods of time.

Myth 4: The only way to be more productive is to wake up early—ideally, earlier than everyone else

The adage that “the early bird gets the worm” is not true for everyone. Research has shown that every person has a different circadian rhythm within their body, which means (among other things) that everyone has their own specific time when creative thinking and high-efficiency performance are at peak levels. For some, this peak does happen in the early morning, but for others, it comes in the late morning, afternoon, or evening. Instead of forcing yourself to be an early riser, you’re better off developing a keen awareness of your body’s rhythm and planning your day and activities to align with that rhythm as much as possible.

The reality: Pushing yourself to perform when you aren’t at your productive best will only end up making (and keeping) you tired.

By recognizing and challenging these myths, we can begin to redefine our relationship with productivity. Ask yourself if certain methods achieve efficiency, or rather leave you exhausted, producing poorer performance and tanking your quality of work. True efficiency comes not from pushing ourselves endlessly, but from letting go of the constant need to “do more.” Only then can we find a balance that allows us to be both productive and fulfilled.

Excerpted and adapted with permission from Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More by Israa Nasir (Bridge City Books, 2024).