The Productivity Trap
Lots of us will be looking ahead to 2025 thinking about learning points, goals and resolutions. This week’s blog brings together themes I have come across and consolidated in the past year that I will try to bring into the year ahead.
Society places high emphasis on productivity. From measuring GDP to tracking calories burned, there’s an output-driven focus in much of what we do.
This obsession often pushes us to keep striving for more—frequently at all costs. Whether it’s in work or personal life, the drive to achieve can overwhelm our basic human needs. Consider work culture: its not uncommon to see people working 16-hour workdays, combined with the expectation to do even more outside of work—run marathons, travel across the world and cook gourmet meals from scratch. The push for productivity is arguably even greater in some parts of the world, such as the US and Asia. The reality is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. As a result, productivity often encroaches on essential recharging activities. I see this…and the fallout from this…across settings— in a treating clinician role in primary care, in occupational health practice and in coaching too.
Productivity vs. Rest: The Stephen Covey Balance
Even when productivity is enjoyable and is a choice, it must be balanced with recharging. Stephen Covey in his bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (first published over 35 years ago)! coined this the Production vs. Production Capability (P/PC) Balance. His premise is simple: if you don’t recharge your batteries, they’ll eventually run down.
Playing the long game—staying productive over decades or a lifetime—requires intentionally building in and prioritising ways to recharge. Despite its logic, this idea is surprisingly difficult to accept and implement.
The Individual Challenge
Many individuals knowingly pursue unsustainable levels of productivity, often without a plan to scale back. They recognise that something will need to change eventually, but the reality is that things often reach a breaking point first:
"I’m exhausted, but I just need to crack on."
Without regular rest and recovery, exhaustion turns into burnout. At that point, the cost of over-productivity is far greater than the benefits.
The Organisational Challenge
At the organisational level, the story is no different. Organisations frequently knowingly operate in a demand-resource mismatch, pushing employees into overdrive rather than addressing systemic issues. This results in burnout, reduced efficiency, increased sickness absence, and high turnover—problems that are costly to address but avoidable with proactive measures:
"We’re very short-staffed, but there’s not much we can do about the workload currently."
Organisations need to recognise the risks of neglecting the P/PC balance. Pushing employees to their limits may avoid confronting problems in the immediate future or even yield short-term gains, but with time, quality and productivity inevitably decline.
Shared Responsibility: Who Prevents Burnout?
The responsibility to maintain the P/PC balance lies with both organisations and individuals. Here’s how each can contribute:
Organisations
Organisations must understand the P/PC balance and make this a mainstay of their working conditions. For example, encouraging the workforce to take short breaks during the working day to refuel (it is remarkable how frequently this does not happen— including in safety critical industries such as healthcare). HR should encourage employees to use their full annual leave allowance for a genuine break from work, rather than to manage illness or burnout recovery. Leaders setting examples by taking breaks from work themselves helps model sustainable working practices.
Individuals
In an ideal world, individuals will be able to assert their own boundaries when the workplace boundaries are failing. This is hard, it can involve going against the grain, induce feelings of letting self/ the organisation/ clients down, and can even involve whistleblowing. For example, pushing back on unmanageable workload or escalating concerns when issues raised have not been addressed.
A Broader View of Productivity
Productivity at the expense of production capability is always a short-term strategy. It’s tempting to bet on the hare rather than the tortoise, but in the end a sustainable approach to productivity wins the race.
Here’s what helps:
Redefine productivity: Take a broader view that includes energy input/output and the quality of outcomes
Foster connection: Build relationships that help sustain you over the long term, including with coworkers and mentors
Leverage technology: Use tools to outsource and streamline tasks
Focus on legacy: Align your efforts with long-term goals and impact
Set boundaries: Practice saying no and prioritising rest, even when it feels difficult
Lara’s take
Moving from a productivity mindset to a P/PC balance mindset represents a fundamental change in how we value, spend and protect our time and energy. It requires us to think beyond immediate output and consider both the long-term sustainability of our efforts and the present-day trade-offs we make. Changing things around to allow resource allocation for recharging can feel so counterproductive. One way to keep this under review is to trial changing things up and then monitor outcomes- which can be subjective, objective or both. However, the real challenge lies in avoiding the gravitational pull of the productivity mindset—where recharging becomes yet another facet or indicator of productivity!
