The Productivity Trap

I wake up to the sound of my alarm and fumble around for my phone on my bedside table. My two-year-old golden doodle watches, one eye on me and one on his squeaky dino, wondering if more noise would help. I sit up abruptly, realizing I purposefully placed my alarm across the room, out of reach—another trick I picked up from a self-help book to break my snooze habit. I'm supposed to start my "miracle morning" at 5 a.m. today, complete with meditation, journaling, and exercise. Instead, I get up, turn off the alarm, crawl back into bed, and sleep for another hour. So much for my new life plan.

I'm a self-help book collector. I buy into every promise of a quick fix: meditate, write a book, train for a marathon—all before breakfast. But instead of transformation, I'm left feeling guilty for not being able to keep up.

The self-help industry has exploded in recent years, fueled by our culture's obsession with productivity. Books like Atomic Habits and The Miracle Morning promote relentless self-improvement, reinforcing hustle culture's message: if you're not constantly achieving, you're falling behind. But this constant drive to be better faster is wearing us down. What if the real solution isn't another morning routine but learning how to slow down?

But hustle culture is so pervasive in our daily lives that breaking the cycle will be challenging.

In Adam Waytz's book, The Power of Human, he tells the story of a man who learned English in the U.S. and came to believe that the word "busy" meant "good" because that was the response he most often received when asking someone, "how are you?" 

Phrases like "things have been crazy lately," "I'm swamped," or "I'm drowning" are part of our daily vocabulary. "Busy" has become a commodity—something to have more of than anyone else. It makes sense: our culture revolves around ambition and climbing the ladder. Just look at the American Dream.

This relentless pursuit of busyness ties directly into what Brené Brown often speaks about—a culture of scarcity or "never enough." In Daring Greatly, she says, "Before we even sit up in bed, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something." By bedtime, our minds are racing with what we didn't accomplish that day.

Self-help books feed into this mindset. Their purpose is to sell—and the idea of constant productivity resonates. We all want to achieve our goals, gain financial freedom, and attain self-actualization. We're willing to spend money on anything that promises these results. But sometimes, self-help books do more harm than good.

Self-help books lure us in with their ideas of productivity hacks—messages that fuel the obsession with doing more in less time. They promise that if we follow their formula, the constant pressure to perform will become easier, allowing us to do even more. 

One of the most popular productivity books is Atomic Habits by James Clear. While it does include actionable tips that are known to truly improve productivity, the message that we must continuously improve can exacerbate an already negative mindset. 

The book introduces the 1% Improvement Rule: Clear advocates constant, incremental improvement, suggesting that small daily habits can lead to transformative results over time. Clear's methods work, but the idea that we must improve every day, even by 1%, still feeds the hustle culture and can become overwhelming. If we aren't constantly optimizing our lives, we are conditioned to feel guilt or shame rather than learning to meet ourselves where we are and get comfortable with staying still. 

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod suggests starting your day at 5 a.m. with a structured routine that includes meditation, exercise, reading, journaling, and affirmations. This is certainly a more intense approach than Clear's 1% rule. 

Elrond's idea that getting up earlier is the key to success is echoed across social media. Nothing makes you feel worse about still being in your pyjamas at 11 a.m. than a video of an influencer doing a full skincare routine, enjoying a Pelaton ride, and making an organic plant-based breakfast for her family. 

While establishing a morning routine is undeniably beneficial, we also live in a shame culture exasperated by the idea that we must make changes and that if we don't, we're wasting our time. The early start time is also not for everyone, especially those with packed schedules. The expectation of fitting several self-improvement tasks into the start of each day is unrealistic for many. It leads to a feeling that they're always falling short.

Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins takes the idea of pushing oneself to the extreme. It asks readers to "Callous your mind" by pushing themselves through extreme physical and mental challenges, no matter how tough or painful. Goggins' extreme approach risks glorifying a mindset where rest, self-care, or admitting limitations are seen as weaknesses. The result is physical and mental exhaustion, made worse by ignoring our body's essential queues that tell us we're approaching burnout and need a break. 

For many of us, the need to constantly improve comes from shame and insecurity. We often think that following the roadmap in the newest self-improvement book will make us the person we aspire to emulate. But actual improvement can only come once we find self-compassion. It's okay not to always be 100%. Once we learn to be kind to ourselves, we can think about the 1% rule or the miracle morning.

While many self-improvement books provide helpful and actionable tips, the problem lies in their exploitation of our pervasive need to achieve, which leads to shame when we don't manage to execute properly. It's important to recognize the potential benefits of these books but also to be mindful of their potential negative impact on our mental well-being. 

According to Olga Molina, D.S.W., LCSW, "Hustle culture encourages an all-or-nothing mentality that can lead to stress and anxiety at work when professional goals are not met, or deadlines are missed. In addition, the pressure to perform at maximum capacity every day is often too much for many people, leading them into a cycle of worry and fear about their prospects."

The constant drive for productivity has serious psychological repercussions. According to a Deloitte study, 77% of employees have experienced burnout in their current job. We've developed an all-or-nothing mentality—one that suggests if we're not fully committed to our goals, we'll never achieve success. And when we take time for rest, guilt creeps in. The pressure to stay productive even during downtime ruins any chance of true relaxation.

So, how do we make this shift?

Philosophies like "slow living" have emerged as an alternative to hustle culture. They encourage us to slow down and appreciate the joys of life by living in the moment. 

Sunsama, an organization focused on creating a better work-life balance, offers some suggestions: "Digital detox days: Set aside a few hours or some days of the month to detach yourself from technology use. Phone-free zones: Designate specific areas in your home, like the bedroom or the dining table, as 'phone-free zones.' This will help you be fully present during meals and have better communication with your family."

There is a place for the "hustle" in our lives, but productivity shouldn't become a constant stressor. There's a way to balance moving forward and standing still. Our goals are important, but if we don't focus on the present moment, it will pass us by.

Our worth isn't tied to our productivity. We won't become better just because we accomplish X, Y, and Z. We are better off looking inward and learning to accept ourselves as we are before moving forward, embracing the concept of "good enough" instead of being paralyzed by the pressure of perfection.

It's time to challenge hustle culture. The solution lies in shifting toward intentional living—balancing ambition with well-being. It's not about abandoning productivity altogether but finding a middle ground where we can pursue our goals without sacrificing our quality of life. By embracing mindful productivity and slower living, we can build a more meaningful and rewarding life.