For most of my schooling, I saw being a hard worker akin to godliness.
And I should probably say this at the start, I’m not against hard work. But even a “good thing” can be toxic when we go too far.
The 2010s saw the rise of hustle culture, which is all about being as productive as possible. A “busier the better” kind of motto. Hustle culture was not new to American culture; it just happened to be the buzzword of the decade.
But now that we have fully entered the 2020s, we might need to unpack some of the bad habits hustle culture instilled in us. And one of the big ones is how we have gone so far into praising productivity that resting is seen as laziness.
There is value in breaks, just as there is value in working. Humans aren’t machines; we can’t go nonstop, no breaks. And it’s unreasonable to expect that of ourselves.
But that is a lot easier said than done. I mean have you ever been working on a project and you get annoyed that you have to go to the bathroom? That’s toxic productivity right there.
And it’s all so ingrained in American culture.
A book I read from time to time is “The Tao of Pooh” by Benjamin Hoff. In the chapter “Bisy Backson,” Hoff talks about how other cultures have third spaces designed for breaks and these spaces allow people to forget about time as a commodity.
For example, in France there are sidewalk cafes, which are all about eating, relaxing and people watching. In China, there are the teahouses, but we have no American equivalent to these cultural spaces.
Well, Hoff points out we have fast food joints (or hamburger stands to be more accurate), which communicate the exact opposite of rest and take your time. And yet, even in our coffee shops people are doing work on their laptops, and it’s like a second office for many of us.
More recently, Dr. Devon Price wrote a fantastic book called “Laziness Does Not Exist” which really dissects the relationship between productivity, morality and our fears of laziness.
In it, he points out, “We live in a world where hard work is rewarded and having needs and limitations is seen as a source of shame. It’s no wonder so many of us are constantly overexerting ourselves, saying yes out of fear of how we’ll be perceived for saying no.”
We rely on each other. But overworking creates apathy. Our self-worth isn’t tied to productivity.
It’s tied to how we show up, for ourselves and others.
Sometimes that means setting boundaries. Sometimes that means taking a break. Culturally, we need to start valuing that just as much as we value hard work, or it’s going to be harder and harder to come together locally or nationally if we continue to overwork ourselves and let apathy fester.
I’m not a trendsetter by any means so I don’t know if I have a catchy little term to replace hustle culture. But overall, part of the solution is resting and accepting things as they happen.
So, the next time you don’t cross everything off your to-do list, remember that doesn’t define you as a person and it doesn’t make you immoral by any means. There is so much more to ourselves and the human experience than how productive we were for x, y and z.
It’s spending time with others. It’s staring out the window and just letting your mind wander. It’s drinking that cup of coffee and taking the time to smell it before taking the first sip.
Time is always turning, and yet, we hem and haw over what is a waste of time. What if everything is worthy of time. Even “being lazy.”
Abigail Murphy is the Dadeville beat reporter for Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.
