Why Keeping Tabs On Your Productivity Does Not Help

Productivity guilt can drum up the anxiety to maximize each minute of each day, pushing workers into burnout and into giving up

- Vangmayi Parakala

Two years ago, when New Delhi-based Paridhi Poddar, 29, now head product designer at lifestyle accessories brand DailyObjects, was in the midst of launching a collection, she found herself stuck in a cycle of guilt and frustration. She would hunker down at her desk every day to begin following the long list of the to-dos she had to check off.

At the end of each day, tired but consumed by guilt that she’d not gotten enough done, she would end up taking work home, and staying up with it till late, not getting enough rest. She’d be back at work the next morning, doing the same thing all over again. Soon, as she’d started catching glimpses of colleagues taking breaks, she wondered if hers was a sustainable way to work.

Anubhav Nath, 42, director of Delhi gallery Ojas Art, feels the same way between December and February, when the season of art fairs and fashion shows starts—despite having worked all year. Guilt gnaws at him; he starts wondering about everything that he could not get done the rest of the year.

Whether you blame it on hustle culture, or tying one’s self-worth to one’s work performance, or the evil of comparing one’s progress with someone else’s, the pursuit of being productive and the burden of guilt when it feels inadequate seems to have become a fixture of today’s workplace.

This can happen to anyone, irrespective of their designation or position: “Productivity guilt is when an individual feels guilty for not being able to fulfil expectations of being productive or being able to complete ‘meaningful’ tasks that would help them improve certain aspects of their life,” says Divija Bhasin, founder and head psychologist at The Friendly Couch, a mental health organisation in Delhi. “The root cause depends on the individual’s history, and people have different reasons for having this guilt.”