Toxic Efficiency and Toxic Productivity: When the Drive to Get More Done Is Making Us Sick

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” – Allen Saunders

We live in a culture that celebrates productivity. We wear “being busy” like a badge of honour, measure our worth by how much we accomplish, and secretly (or not so secretly) feel guilty for resting. But what if this relentless drive to be efficient is actually hurting us?

What if our obsession with squeezing more into less time is disconnecting us from our own lives?

What is Toxic Productivity and Efficiency?

Toxic Efficiency: Efficiency, in economic terms, means getting more output from the same input — and that logic has leaked into how we live our lives. We're told we should be more organised, hack our routines, batch our tasks, and optimise every spare moment. But here's the problem: humans aren’t machines. We aren’t designed to run on an endless loop of doing.

Toxic Productivity: Productivity, at its core, is about achieving results — getting things done, ticking tasks off the list, reaching goals. It’s often framed as a virtue: the more productive you are, the more valuable or successful you must be. And so, we push ourselves to produce, to stay busy, to always be moving forward. But here’s the catch: productivity is about volume — how much you can do — not how you feel while doing it. It rewards output over presence. The focus is on accomplishment, not alignment. The more we chase productivity, the more we can lose touch with whether what we’re producing actually matters to us — or whether we’re just busy for the sake of it.

Efficiency and productivity are friends with each other. We try to be more efficient so we can get more done and feel productive. We judge ourselves based on whether we had a productive day. While efficiency and productivity are friends with each other, they are not friends with us.

Burnout is now officially recognised by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon, not just a personal failure to cope. Stress-related illnesses, autoimmune conditions, and mental fatigue are becoming common in people of all ages — even children.

This isn’t just a personal failing. It’s systemic. You could say we live in a toxic productivity culture. The pressure to produce more output with less resources is ingrained in our economic model of unlimited growth, and it is relentless.

I have lived that life myself and burnt-out multiple times. I see it with my friends and with clients. It feeds on itself as we use being busy to avoid feeling the increasing disconnection and inner turmoil that builds when we are out of balance in our lives. Many people tell me that they are too scared to stop, not just because of the endless ‘to do’ list, but because when they sit still, uncomfortable feelings come up that they do not know how to be with. So just keep going… keep running… at least we know how to do that.

Why This Hurts So Much

The dangerous trap of toxic productivity and efficiency show us when we feel  like we have so much to do that we can’t stop. We can feel trapped and the ‘to do list’ runs our lives.  Our bodies were designed to move through cycles — of action and rest, stress and recovery, doing and simply being. When we’re constantly on the go, rushing from one thing to the next, our nervous system doesn’t get the chance to downshift. Instead of completing the stress cycle, we stay stuck in sympathetic overdrive. That can look like:

• Hassling the kids to get out the door on time

• Speeding through traffic with your jaw clenched

• Half-listening to a friend while your brain runs through your to-do list

• Lying in bed mentally planning tomorrow’s tasks

• Trying to multitask in the hopes of getting more things done in a shorter period of time.

  
  

It’s not just exhausting — it’s disembodying. We’re no longer with ourselves. We’re skimming the surface of our lives, always thinking about the next thing.

Missing the Moment = Missing Your Life

When we’re not present, we’re not really living. We might be going through the motions — parenting, working, exercising, socialising — but without presence, those moments slide by unacknowledged. A kind of numbness sets in. A low-grade dissatisfaction. We start to feel like we’re living someone else’s life. Or worse — that we’re failing at the life we should be living. Or we can feel like we are juggling too many things so we feel scattered,  anxious and unable to focus on one thing at a time.

And then, of course, we try to solve it by getting more efficient. We make a better list. We time-block our calendars. We squeeze in “scheduled self-care” like it’s another job. But our minds are still on the clock. The rest doesn’t sink in.

It’s a trap. And it’s making us sick.

A Different Way: The Liberation of Inefficiency

When I went to India, I expected to hate the chaos. The traffic, the unpredictability, the street dogs, cows, pigs wandering wherever they pleased… But after a month of feeling like a startled deer, something shifted. I stopped fighting the flow. I noticed that what looked like chaos on the outside had its own rhythm. And I softened.

There was something strangely healthy in the inefficiency of it all.

The unpredictability required surrender. Things took longer — and that created space. There was no illusion that you could control it all, so you had to learn to trust that things would work out. And they always did, in the end. Sometimes even better than planned. In India it is people before plans. Presence before productivity. Life has room to breathe.

In India I am not run by the clock. I get up when the sun comes up and it feels right to get up (no alarm clock). My morning routine takes as long as it takes. There is space. I wander to the market and pop in to see friends along the way. If they are around and have time to chat great, if not that is fine too. I trust my work will get done, and it does, but I don’t set myself ‘working hours’. I am more present, inspired in my work, peaceful and trusting life than ever before. I spend time taking care of myself (emotionally and physically) and there is a little flutter of joy in my body all of the time, because I feel aligned. I get to marvel at the moon, the stars, the mountains, life. All because I have thrown out the clock and trust things will get done in their own time in their own way. It is easier now because I don’t have pressure on myself. Pressure kills creativity, joy and presence.

When I lived in Kenya, the chaos it was more extreme. Surrender was the only way to survive. I never knew what was coming, and the rhythm was more edgy.

Both countries taught me that we cannot remain unaffected by the culture around us. We can’t see ourselves clearly until we step out and look from a distance. Looking from where I am now at the efficiency obsession in Western culture, I am clear it is toxic. It is like the current of a river pushing us along. It is not easy to step out of the current. But there are some ways we can reclaim ourselves.

Practical Pathways to Step Out of Toxic Productivity and Toxic Efficiency

I get it — the world pulls you to stay busy. Deadlines, family needs, emails pinging constantly, the pressure to produce. And there’s no magic switch to unplug from that completely. But there is a way to reclaim your rhythm.

Here are some small, practical steps to begin:

1. Underschedule Your Day - If you can fit in five things, plan for two or three. Give yourself margins. Let life breathe.

   
   

2. Create Unscheduled Space - Don’t fill every gap. Leave time for doing nothing. For staring out the window. For spontaneous chats or walks.

   
   

3. Listen to your body – It knows. Tune in: Are you tired? Agitated? Numb? Instead of overriding it, respond with care.

   
   

4. Challenge the ‘shoulds’ – Who says you have to respond to that email right now? Who benefits from you being endlessly available?

   
   

5. Reclaim rest as your birthright – Not as a reward for productivity. Not as something you have to earn. Rest is essential to being human.

   
   

6. Let yourself do one thing at a time – multitasking is not how our brains are wired. Multitasking may be a popular term, but it is a myth. Let yourself sink into just one thing and allow extra time to ponder it. Let yourself feel what you are doing.

   
   

A Final Word: Are You Tired?

If you're reading this and nodding, maybe even with tears in your eyes, please know: I see you. This isn’t your fault. You are not broken. You’re not lazy. You’re tired of living in a culture that keeps asking you to do more, be more, produce more — without ever asking how your heart is doing.

The path back to yourself isn’t about abandoning your responsibilities or dropping everything. It’s about letting go of the lie that you must constantly hustle to prove your worth.

You are enough — even when you’re still. Especially when you’re still.

Let yourself rest. Let your days breathe. Let your body lead.

References

• World Health Organization. (2022). Mental health and COVID-19: early evidence of the pandemic’s impact. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240042782

  
  

• Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311

  
  

• McEwen, B. S. (2006). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 367–381. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2006.8.4/bmcewen

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