Compulsive productivity and bad choices.

People who are vulnerable or emotionally hurt tend to make poor decisions. Addiction, depression, social status, criticism and some other things can influence individuals and whole societies to choose a path of self-destruction. We live in a society that drives us to be productive beyond our capabilities, so this article is relevant for most of us. You can find further information here, here, here, here, here and here.

Productivity to the point of counterproductive

Most of the people around me are addicted to productivity. Productivity is usually a good thing. We want to be valuable members of the society, have a meaningful job and leave a legacy. We are willing to work hard and invest a lot into our career, our home, our families and even our hobbies. We are driven to succeed. As we get paid for our hard work, we use the hard-won money to buy rewards for ourselves. These rewards make us feel better about ourselves, but they also require money, so we are driven to work even harder. While working very hard is normal in some societies, in other societies it is considered to be marginally insane. Each year Mexicans and Korean spend 2000 hours working, while Europeans work about 1500 hours. On average, Germans work 33% less than Koreans, yet when working Germans tend to be very effective. Since most of the work is automated, highly paid individuals tend to do work that requires creativity, analytical skills, and communication. Longer working hours typically do not get translated into a creative output, but instead, are spent on various discussions and paperwork. As we work more than we can handle, the more we work, the less productive we become. Completing a large number of small measurable tasks with visible output certainly feels productive, but the tasks that change the world and build careers tend to be large and complex. As smaller productive tasks sap away our time and energy, we do not have the resources to daydream, procrastinate and try risky alternatives.

Compulsive productivity

Do we even have a choice? If we do not answer emails, submit presentations and attend meetings, we will lose our jobs. If we do not follow our professional guidelines compulsively, our coworkers will label us as unprofessional. The management of every company I know spends its time in endless meetings, which makes it hard to make choices. The people who have the ability to actually work are asked to check several options as a way of reducing risks and are asked to do that in less time than they actually need because the companies set aggressive goals. It is OK to come to work late or to leave early from time to time, but if there is a crisis night or weekend shifts are not uncommon, and crisis situations are quite ordinary in many companies. Since we work in compulsively productive culture, the most viable way to escape this productivity cycle is becoming an independent subcontractor, which is not something most people can handle.

In the brain of each of us, there are two systems of decision making: automatic and deliberate. As the deliberate decision making is compulsively involved in being productive, the impulsive system wins. We all behave like addicts incapable to suppress urges. Shopping is just one of the most common urge we cannot control. Consumption of alcohol, sugar, and junk food is also very common. I quote:

Addiction arises when the automatic system wins the competition against the deliberative system for behavioral control. Both systems are important to forming decisions, and good choices appear most likely to emerge when the two systems work in concert. Compulsive behavior is strongly cue-dependent in the sense that it is regularly triggered by certain situations, places, or people associated with the type of behavior in question. Relapses are frequently triggered by environmental cues.

Hidden depression

We are critical when we review our impulsive choices. And this criticism is not easy for us. Quite possibly many of us have depression and do not even know about it. Some depression-generating mechanisms, which are very common:

1. Adjustment-Based. Dealing with constant changes: introduction of new technologies, high risk of job loss an social mobility.
2. Mood swings. We tend to be very energetic while handling crisis, but get very exhausted while handling the mess and fallout that are generated by working in crisis mode.
3. Metabolism-based. The light and noise polution make sleep harder. The food we eat and substances we consume modify our metabolism.
4. Existential meaninglessnes. We face the same challenges day after day. At some point we may question the purpose of performing our duties, especially in large companies.
5. Failure-based. Startups are risky and often fail. Most of us tend to pursue very ambitios goals.
6. Helpless. In 20th century when facing huge beaurocratic machines. In 21st century when facing artificial intelligence, which uses its own logic and beats us each time.
7. Lonely. If everybody is productive, when can other people listen to us?
8. Shame-based. If we need to be our best self at all times, and world-class specialists most of the time, is there a person that can comply?

Women are more open about being depressed, men try to hide or fail to admit their depression. There are many more depressed people than we actually know.

In the younger generation, social media is one the causes of a depression. However the studies are still inconclusive, so I will discuss the subject some other time.

Common mental health mistakes

I quote some of the common mistakes made by people with poor mental health from here.

1. Mistaking thoughts for facts.
2. Equating strong emotion with deep truth.
3. Viewing discomfort as a sign of trouble.
4. Using avoidance as a go-to solution.
5. Confusing scary and dangerous.
6. Over-reliance on past experience.
7. Taking the short- over the long-term view.
8. Prizing content over process.
9. Neglecting attentional focus.
10. Seeking perfection over competence and mastery.
11. Mistaking self-care for selfishness, and assertiveness for aggression.
12. Underestimating the importance of action.

All these mistakes do not hurt the productivity, but derail the productive work into the wrong direction. It is often better not to move at all, than to move very fast in the wrong direction.

Following tyrants

Since we feel uncertain or even depressed, we tend to be attracted to strong figures, tyrants. Master manipulators and narcissists show us a vibrant display of status signs and a facade of confidence and optimism. We want to think these people are genuinely good – otherwise, whom should we follow? And we admire their ability to break the chains of the rituals, social rules and compulsive behaviors that bind us. Tyrants appear much more productive than the infamous assemblies that characterize democracies and endless political struggles of oligarchies.

When we following the tyrants we may feel productive and inspired, and we may like having a father figure, a mentor with a vision. Unfortunately, tyrants tend to make bad and impulsive choices quite often, and if that happens we feel the unstable nature of such leadership. Then we continue to do our job out of passive acceptance instead of motivation and inspiration.

It is important to use empowering language of self-talk and not assume the position of a victim.

Facing self-limiting beliefs

One of the ways to overcome the vicious cycle of productivity is becoming a better self. To do that we often need to face self-limiting beliefs. Quite often we tend to be productive as a way to escape our incompetence handling bigger and more complex issues. But are we really that helpless when facing the complexity? By getting the right training and testing the new skills in a controlled environment, we can often easily acquire the skills that allow us to become more creative, accurate and influential. All we need to do is dare to become the person we want to be…

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fallacies and depression https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201712/23-kinds-depressive-states
fallacies: mental health mistakes https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/insight-therapy/201701/check-yourself-common-mental-health-mistakes
productivity fallacy: replace hard with quick https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-gen-y-guide/201702/why-productivity-is-counterproductive
critical thinking: following tyrants https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-shrink/201702/why-do-people-follow-tyrants
resilience: fighting bad thinking patterns https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201701/5-ways-kick-the-habits-sap-your-mental-strength
addicts poor decisions
facebook depression