Have you ever heard of performative productivity? What IS performative productivity, as a business owner in the workplace?
Performative productivity is an example of toxic productivity and hustle culture!
Let’s get into it — because performative productivity reared its head at me earlier this year…
Topics we address in this article:
- How I unexpectedly stumbled into performative productivity mindset.
- Definition of "performative productivity."
- How do you KNOW you're being performative?
- What to do after you realize that what you're doing is performative.
- Are you doing this work for the RIGHT reasons?
- An example of the difference between a "good" vs "not good" reason for doing a thing, in terms of being performative with it.
- How do you know if YOU are getting sidetracked by performative productivity?
- 3 ways to find out!
Who am I to speak on this subject?
Hi! I'm Sagan, an anti-hustle Productivity Strategist and life coach for solopreneurs. I started my business over 10 years ago — I'm no stranger to toxic productivity, and it became obvious early on in my business that the regular "productivity hacks" that most productivity gurus recommend were NOT the right fit for my brain.
That's why I created my signature anti-hustle productivity methods!
Learn more about my solopreneurship journey.
A condensed version of this article originally appeared as the August 24, 2024 edition of the Solopreneur Diary Entries weekly newsletter.
How I unexpectedly stumbled into performative productivity
My solopreneur business model is designed so that I do solopreneur coaching and personal fulfillment coaching call sessions during two offset weeks of the month (on Tuesdays - Thursdays), every month — the other weeks of the month are for more behind-the-scenes tasks or book writing or taking time off work etc.
Lately, rather than focusing primarily on writing my novels during those non-coaching weeks, I’ve found myself focusing a lot more on preparing for upcoming burlesque performances (one of my favourite niche interests!).
It takes a lot of time and creativity to design choreography, rhinestone costumes, etc.
And here’s where performative productivity comes into it: Earlier this year, I absolutely had a moment where I thought THIS to myself:
I should be writing my books faster.
As an anti-hustle Productivity Strategist and solopreneur business owner, efficiency is my whole THING, after all!
Ooooooof.
Wow.
THAT right there: THAT is performative productivity.
Defining Performative Productivity
You might be thinking:
Hold up a sec! I don't see anything wrong with that...
What's the big deal?
How is THAT "performative productivity"?
Great question! What IS performative productivity?
"Performative productivity" can be defined as:
- Doing work for the sake of external validation.
- "Going through the motions" of accomplishing a task.
- Only working on a task or being motivated for the purpose of how it will be perceived by others.
- Focusing more on the appearance of working, rather than the actual act and experience and personal enjoyment of genuinely making progress.
Performative productivity is exactly that: a performance.
How do you know if it's performative productivity?
Here's a quick way to gauge whether you're caught in this trap:
If no one else were around to see you working on this task...
...or if no one else's opinion on this task mattered to you...
Would you still do it?
If your answer is "No," then it's probably a form of performative productivity.
(This is especially problematic when we are exploring this topic through the lens of solopreneurship or hobbies — both cases in which you have total control over the tasks that you choose to do!)
What do you do after you RECOGNIZE that performative productivity is at play?
Okay, now that we've taken a moment to define "performative productivity," let's get back to my story!
After I realized that I was experiencing performative productivity mindset, I did the following:
- Took a step back from the situation.
- Analyzed my own performative productivity thought and the associated feelings.
- Did some quick self coaching on it.
- Shifted out of that mentality.
- Carried on!
Here's the thing: I am NOT efficient for performative reasons.
That’s not why I do it!
I don’t do ANYTHING in my solopreneur business — or in my personal life — to “prove” how productive and efficient I am.
Instead? I simply embody the Productivity Powerhouse anti-hustle framework, so that I can prioritize my fun hobbies, enjoy my work in every aspect, and be personally fulfilled while producing high-quality work...
As such, being able to share that with you and show you how it comes together is a natural extension of it.
...but the *showing it to you* is NOT *the thing itself.* I'm not productive just for the sake of it.
Are you doing XYZ for the RIGHT reasons?
Writing my books faster because I’m in the creative zone, excited about the story and the writing, working on a hard deadline, etc, are all GOOD reasons to do it.
On the other hand: Writing my books faster because “I’m supposed to be efficient and productive” is NOT a good reason to do it — it’s simply performative productivity at work.
I’m sharing this with you today because I don’t think we’ve really discussed this side of it before, but…
Performative productivity is yet another way that toxic productivity hustle culture can sneak into your business and/or life.
It’s insidious — especially if you spend a lot of time on social media as a solopreneur business owner, or if you are particularly dependent on external validation in your personal life, for example.
How do you KNOW if you’re getting sidetracked by performative productivity?
Here are 3 questions to do a little check-in…
- If no one knew that you were doing XYZ, would you still want to do it? (E.g. “I need to prove something about myself to that person over there.”)
- If you feel guilt/shame/judgment about NOT doing a thing, what are the thoughts that come up for you? (E.g. “I should be doing this because *what does it say about me and my identity* if I don’t?”)
- If you were to do this thing WITHOUT an “audience” (of your peers, social media followers, clients and customers, mentors and teachers, friends and family, etc), how would that CHANGE the way in which you do this thing? (E.g. “I need to do this in that way because people are expecting it from me or I’m worried what they’ll think of me.”)
Recognizing performative productivity is one thing; overcoming it is another!
But it always begins with that identification piece, first. You can’t deal with it unless you know it’s happening ♥
By the way… This can be a really interesting thought exercise to explore in a variety of areas of your life or solopreneur business:
For instance, do you feel pressured to perform productivity for certain things but not other things, or around certain people but not others?
That can then indicate what requires deeper exploration.
Overcoming toxic productivity hustle culture AND the adjacent performative productivity aspect of it — so you can instead truly embrace and embody anti-hustle methods — is what you learn how to do in Productivity Powerhouse:
Did you enjoy this article?
It originally appeared as the August 24, 2024 edition of the Solopreneur Diary Entries weekly newsletter.
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