However, in 2023, attitudes towards productivity have changed significantly. This was due to several striking trends.
In 2023, we began to pay more attention to how stories about "successful success" and "mom's friend's son" affect our mental health. In many ways, because of them, we stay in "working mode" even after we leave the office, and continue to work at home or on vacation.
Gradually, everything turned into a kind of competition: who can do more and sleep less. Psychologists have called this phenomenon a culture of fuss, and the desire to always remain as effective as possible is toxic productivity. It leads us straight to burnout, increases anxiety and dissatisfaction with life, lowers self-esteem and, even worse, causes physical health problems.
Therefore, in 2023, concern for one's own well-being came out on top. Being productive now means being able to stop and take breaks, mark personal boundaries, and rest when we feel it's necessary.
The term "slow productivity" was coined a year ago by Cal Newport, the author of the books "Stop Dreaming, Get Busy!" and "Digital Minimalism." And the faster things happened that we couldn't influence, the more unpredictable and chaotic our lives were, the more popular the concept of slow productivity became.
Its essence is to work slower and on fewer tasks at the same time, enjoying the process more. With this approach, the quality of the work performed becomes more important than its quantity.
The ideas of slow productivity are reflected even in TikTok trends, namely in videos with the hashtag Gen Z want to work “lazy girl jobs”. Who can blame them? / The Guardian #lazygirljob, or "lazy girl's job". In videos that collect tens of millions of views, the girls explain that they are no longer ready to spend all their strength climbing the career ladder. They want to receive the maximum possible amount of money for the minimum possible number of hours of work and build a life according to their own rules. The popularity of #lazygirljob proves once again that priorities have changed — the desire to keep up with everything has been replaced by the desire to find meaning and pleasure in life without work stress.
Another interesting trend that TikTok has brought us is "minimalistic Monday". The idea of this concept is to do as little work as possible on the first day of the week and take responsibility for the minimum necessary tasks, and devote the remaining time to what makes you feel good. At first glance, this strategy seems counterproductive, but it really works.
Productivity methods with clear planning, such as Getting Things Done and Pomodoro, have dictated to us for decades how to manage time. In 2023‑ they gave way to more free, individual and comfortable practices.
Some of them are more flexible modifications of Pomodoro, for example productivity sprints and Flowtime technique. The concept is still the same: alternate periods of work and rest. Only these productivity methods suggest not following fixed rules, but setting your own and choosing how much to work and how much to rest.
Another vivid example is the "lazy genius" method, which allows you to perform all tasks, but not overexert yourself and not burn out. The secret lies in one "magic" question: "What can I do now to make my life easier later?"
Productivity gurus fully support the transition from a frenzied race for high performance to taking care of your emotional stability and advise you to live an important, not urgent life. So does , for example, the author of the book "Atomic Habits" James Clear. He recommends not chasing mediocre results in all possible directions, but identifying one specific meaningful goal and moving step by step towards achieving it.
Another productivity technique that we paid attention to in 2023 helps us choose such a goal — the autofocus system. It was proposed by Mark Forster, a British specialist in personal effectiveness and author of books on time management. He believes that it is much better to choose tasks, trusting intuition, and take on first of all those that "hook" our brain and cause a feeling that we are ready to perform them.
Try to use these approaches in the new year, 2024: focus on your well-being, listen to yourself, achieve goals one at a time and work for pleasure.
