My Recovery From Toxic Productivity
As we approach the middle of 2023, a milestone for me is coming up, one year since I chose to get out of the toxic productivity mindset. During the span of 2020 till mid last year, I was constantly trying to find the next best system that would change my life. Spoiler alert, it didn’t.
It started small with watching Thomas Frank and Ali Abdaal. They looked at apps that were new and worked with networked thinking. I started with Notion in the early days. I threw everything into it. Then when they started with Obsidian — I jumped to that.
Now, I did stay with Obsidian for a while. This is where I first set up my zettelkasten and tried to make it the best thing ever. My toxic productivity turned its focus onto how I could make the best notes. I watched so many videos that showed so many different setups. I have lost count of how many times I un-synced and re-synced Readwise.
My thoughts started to change when I had the lightbulb moment that I realised I had built my expectations of my productivity, on the understanding that I was a able-bodied person. The problem with that is that I am not able-bodied. I have a disability that impacts my physical and emotional levels of energy that I have. I came to the realisation that toxic productivity highlights ableism.
