Toxic Productivity and COVID: Setting aside self-optimisation during a pandemic

What an era we have stumbled into: the start of a new decade has welcomed us with half a year spent segregated from everything that previously breathed meaning into our lives. As our screen-time climbs into double digits, compensating for a ruptured sense of real-life community via Zoom calls and Instagram updates, we must take a moment to reconsider how we’re allocating this newly acquired time to ourselves. 

‘Hustle culture’, explored expertly in a 2019 New York Times article entitled Why are Young People Pretending To Love Work?, is stripping us from the balance and tranquility we might have encountered over lockdown in some parallel reality where the pressure to perform - personally, academically and professionally - is secondary to our wellbeing.

One thing to note is the genuine silver lining that some people have discovered amongst the days that would usually be filled with commitment after commitment, flitting between lectures and sports, extra-curricular activities, seeing friends whilst maintaining the relationships we have back home. In one sense, there was a force lifted from the way we are so accustomed to keeping busy. Carving out time to connect - albeit virtually - with loved ones who would usually slip out of our mind’s eye whilst in the throes of uni life; reevaluating our everyday routines, our hobbies and the environments in which we carry them out. There have been positives, no doubt.

However, this is where the bare canvas of our spare time may have started to feel more foreboding than freeing. Social media adds a complexity to our newly isolated existences as we watch others in seemingly more ideal situations than our own, achieving much more than we can even bring ourselves to think about. A crippling mix of FOMO and anxiety plagues our conscience as we think about returning home for Christmas. 

Simply put, it would not be an exaggeration to say that we have all endured a collective trauma. Financial turmoil, the devastation of actual social support systems, health concerns - both physical and mental - and the incessant fear around navigating the situation appropriately. Students have been hit with a swift diversion of future possibilities whilst taking much of the blame for spreading the virus. There has been no shortage of personal, academic and professional obstacles, yet why do we still insist on thriving when even survival feels like a stretch?

Let us counter the expectation that we should be making the most of the circumstances at hand and be more mindful of which aspects of our new daily lives will truly serve us as we move into the new year. Using the current conditions of our own lives as the barometer for how we should be living them may be far wiser than aiming towards any stellar achievements or unnecessary comparisons.

To all Loughborough students who are doing their best, take care. The team at Clan Living is rooting for you!