high anxiety mistaken for high productivity
Ever had high anxiety mistaken for high productivity? Ever had it backfire, getting even more piled on you, inevitably increasing your anxiety, causing you to work feverishly to get more stuff off your plate?!
First and foremost, my goal is to GET THINGS DONE so they don’t stack up and eventually collapse on me, making me smother in my own pile of anxiety. I make lists and try to be organized to stay on top of tasks and complete them. Each time I check something off my list, it feels euphoric. Sometimes I add a task to a list just to cross it off. Wee!!
But management is watching.
And this disrupts the happy little world I’ve created for myself. Why? Because a productive person is almost always targeted as someone that needs more responsibility. MORE RESPONSIBILITY?!? Ever heard the saying “busy people get things done?” It’s true. And being a busy person that gets things done usually translates to you being assigned more things to get done.
On the outside, it might look like you’re vying to become Grand Poobah of the Universe, but really, you’re just trying to keep the ever-present doomful feeling inside you from getting worse. I’ve been told I’ve got good leadership skills because I am calm and logical during times of crisis. Really, it seems there’s nothing as bad as how horrible I feel inside, so any work “crisis” becomes simply a nice distraction.
No one is going to recognize “Oh, maybe this person is smothering under the avalanche of work I’ve given them. I will ease up.” No way, no one will tell you to slow down, to stop doing so much work. Instead of waiting for someone else to notice you’re suffocating, KNOW YOUR LIMITS. LEARN TO SAY “NO”. Weigh your options and make sure your mental health is in check, first and foremost. Cause without that, you can’t do much else.
And watch out people, this isn’t limited to the working world! Any organization, any person needs productive people. The same cycle of
work hard >> more work >> work harder >> GO CRAZY!
can happen anywhere.
