I like to work on expanding my vocabulary. So I have tried quite a few different apps and websites that promise to take your English to the next level. At the moment, the only one I like is Vocabulary.com.

But this morning I noticed there’s a new AI-based “vocabulary builder”, as they call themselves. While I have no respect for AI, I thought I’d try this one out and see what it’s about.

I must say, I like the number of words available to learn (over 24 000), but that’s pretty much it. Shuffling through the cards that show the word, its definition, and a picture, it didn’t take long to start noticing the usual problems that AI tends to come with. The pictures did mostly portray the word though — at least if you didn’t look directly at them.

Most of the pictures look weird if you look at them for more than a split second. Some of them didn’t even make any sense or showed something that is contextually related to the word, but not the word itself.

In other words, if you don’t already know the word, you can never be quite sure whether you are getting the correct explanation.

AI just highlights how lazy some people are

Having been a content creator for a few years now, I am not surprised that the app in question gives the impression that whoever is behind it, has simply asked AI to match the 24 000 most common English words to their definitions and generate images based on them. It’s obvious that no human has gone through all the cards and made sure that they make sense and actually help the user to learn the word.

Why exactly I’m not surprised?

Because people in the content creation communities (like Facebook groups for bloggers or Instagram accounts that tell you how to make money online) are constantly telling each other to “stop wasting time” and “start believing in themselves” and create more and more content so that they can make more money.

More precisely, they are telling people to write as many blog posts as possible (often using AI) to get more traffic (which leads to more money), create courses and ebooks (for money) and, of course, you should never question yourself and think your product should be priced low.

It’s normal for ebooks to be 47 dollars, meanwhile any actual book in the store will hardly cost half that.

Simple online courses that teach you the basics of Pinterest or using Ahrefs to find keywords can cost up to 300 or 500 dollars.

Some even brag about selling ebooks and digital items that they didn’t even create, by simply using white label products they’ve found online.

In my opinion, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

People deserve to get quality products that someone has actually worked hard on. If a physical book you buy from a bookstore can easily have taken a year or two of work, why should a lazily written ebook that you put together in 5 hours cost as much?

And why should someone write content about something they don’t really even know about?

This one always baffles me.

But back to AI. This past year I’ve seen countless bloggers praise AI and excitedly report how much more content it has helped them to create. The other bloggers of course also rave about it and always remember to say that whoever doesn’t use AI for creating content, will be left behind and lose the game.

Frankly, I’m not surprised that ChatGPT with its counterparts has made people even lazier. The Internet has already been infiltrated with “get crazy rich quick without caring about anyone else” nonsense for years.

Someone always has to pay

You know who hasn’t been excited by the rise of AI?

Consumers.

I’ve never once heard anyone say “Wow, I really enjoyed that article that was basically exactly the same as the other ones ranking on the top” or “I’m so glad you started posting more of these Pinterest pins that really don’t help anyone”.

What I have heard though, is people saying that they don’t want to read anything generated by AI and they don’t want to see the same thing over and over again.

People want real, human-created content. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be genuine.

I feel saddened by the rise of AI content and the fact that it’s getting harder and harder to know what you can trust.

But at the same time, AI shows the value of real content. Real photos and real texts written by real people. Books that were written by people who actually know what they are talking about and who wanted to help you with their writing.

Now, I’m definitely not against people making money online or trying out new things. There’s nothing wrong with making 15 000 dollars a month if you’re doing it ethically.

But I do wish that we content creators had more integrity. Because that’s what people deserve.

For the past year, I’ve just sat at home, working on my blogs and living the oh-so-gorgeous life of a content creator, sitting on a couch staring at my laptop screen all day long.

It is the life I want. I’ve always hated having a normal day job, having to wake up at a certain time every day, and having very little time for everything that is important to me.

But as with anything in life, too much of a good thing can make it lose its value. The problem with sitting at home creating content all the time is that at some point, it just doesn’t feel like freedom anymore. It can be hard to stay focused on your work when technically you don’t have to work at any given moment.

So in August, I asked myself whether I should take a temporary job or not. Scrolling through the job ads in my city proved to be quite discouraging: the number of ads for non-skilled jobs is very low and anything decent for sure gets hundreds of applications. The list of options basically only included cleaning, fast food restaurants, telemarketing, and face-to-face marketing.

The last one is something I had done already back in 2017 and I absolutely hated it.

What’s the job?

Face-to-face marketing can be done for companies (usually selling security systems or newspaper subscriptions), but it’s also something that a lot of NGOs use to find monthly donors. Back in 2017, I did it for two different NGOs, one for children and one for cancer research.

The job consisted of going door to door in different parts of the city, telling people about the work that the NGO does, and trying to encourage people to become donors.

I am someone who absolutely hates bothering other people and I’ve always been quite shy.

Also, the pressure to find donors was high, the daily target of five new donors was literally impossible to achieve and if you did’t do well enough, your contract would be terminated fast. Also, the support we got from our supervisor was practically non-existent.

So, why did I take the job?

Funnily enough, back in 2017, I thought I would be too old for a job that people usually do when they are 18 or 19, but now, at age 30, I couldn’t care less about the average age of my coworkers or what the job would look like on my resume. And I didn’t really even care about the 14 euros I’d be making per hour.

Instead, I wanted the challenge.

Face-to-face marketing is the most difficult job I’ve ever had (technically it was just asking people to give money and get nothing in return) and whatever good results you might get never last for long because every day is a new day. And you can’t avoid those days when you simply can’t get anyone to join, no matter how energetic you are or how perfectly you choose your words.

And this is exactly why I wanted the job. I wanted to be challenged, step out of my comfort zone, and learn new, valuable skills.

Because the one thing that 2017 gave me was social skills.

After a couple of months of knocking on people’s doors and talking to everyone from stay-at-home moms to businessmen, little kids, old people who had a hard time hearing what I was saying, and people with whom I had no language in common, I wasn’t nearly as shy anymore. Some people were easy to talk with, some people thanked me for coming, and some people were angry and yelled at me.

But they all listened to me and I survived. Nothing has ever boosted my confidence as much as that.

And that was the experience I wanted to repeat.

So I took the job

I saw a job ad for Doctors Without Borders and with little hesitation, sent an application. I knew I had a very good chance of getting the job, given that they are constantly looking for new people and I already had experience.

And what do you know, I got a call back the next day. After a simple interview on Zoom, I was offered a job and two days later I had my 5-hour training at a cafe. And the day after that, I had my first day at work. Our target was two new donors per day with a minimum donation of 10 euros per month.

Even though I had done this before, the moment before ringing that first doorbell I felt like I just couldn’t do it. Like there’s no way I could remember everything I’m supposed to and I was sure everyone would be angry at me and possibly punch me in the face.

Surprisingly, the first person I talked to was very pleasant. She was in a hurry and the conversation was short, but she smiled at me and was nothing but polite.

The first day at work wasn’t all that bad: no particularly bad encounters and I got one person to donate 40 euros a month. It wasn’t a bad start at all.

Here’s what I learned

I’ve now been working for almost two months and you know what? I’m not just carrying our team, making it the best team in the country, I’m also the only one who can consistently reach the target of one donor per every two hours of work.

I still hate the job, but it’s also one of the best things I’ve done this year. I am much more confident, have a much easier time talking to people, I know how to calm angry people down in seconds and make them smile, I know how simple selling something really is at the end of the day and I know how to convincingly explain complex things even when I can’t remember all the details.

No other job has ever taught me as much or made me feel good about myself.

So, what do we learn from this?

It’s that sometimes it’s best to take the job that will teach you the most, not the job that would be the most fun or look the best on your resume.

From most jobs, the only thing I’ve got is money. But from this job, I’ve got skills that are worth so much more than money. And I’ve actually done something that matters: find funding for an important cause that helps people when their own country can’t.

Now I might just know what you’re thinking — two weeks isn’t much. And that’s very true. But the reason I’m already writing about this is that even two short weeks off have made a huge difference.

For years I’ve been thinking I should spend less time on the internet. I have also dreamed of writing a book, learning French, and exercising more. There are so many things I wish I had time for but for some reason, it always seems like there simply are not enough hours in a day.

Of course, social media is the main culprit here. I could easily dedicate a couple of hours a day to writing or pilates if I just spent less time scrolling through Instagram posts that I don’t even care about or reading long and petty quarrels on Twitter.

And for the past couple of weeks, that’s exactly what I have done.

Funnily enough, I didn’t even make a choice to reduce my time online. I just so happened to be gifted an old (and slow) tablet. The first thing I did with it was to download Kindle. And just like that, the books I had uncomfortably tried to read on my phone or laptop were now pleasant to read.

And I must say having a slow tablet that can only connect to the wifi if you’re standing no more than three meters away from the router is a blessing. Checking Twitter or Instagram rarely crosses your mind when it would take great pains to even scroll through a few comments.

Why social media has been a big problem for me for years

Now, a few words about why social media has been such a huge problem for me.

I know pretty much everyone wishes they’d spend more time on things that actually matter and less time looking at pictures of people they don’t even know or fighting with strangers over things they don’t really even care about.

And I totally get that. For years I have been living in cities where I didn’t really know anyone and I knew I wouldn’t be staying for long. So, I always knew it would make little sense to try to make new friends, especially as someone who wants to make real friends for life, and not just go sit in cafes a few times with different people.

Given that I had barely anyone to talk to, I craved even the smallest human connection. And the thing is, if you watch some Youtube videos or Instagram stories, you feel a little bit of that “connection”.

Of course, it isn’t real. But it soothes your discomfort for that short while. And so it is all too easy to just keep doing it.

Additionally, writing isn’t very easy and I’ve found it quite hard to know what I should write and how to go about it. Now that I’m a bit older, it’s frankly getting a bit easier. But for years, I was in a situation where doing what I wanted to do seemed close to impossible, while doing what I barely cared about was all too easy. And that explains hundreds or thousands of hours wasted online.

But now, let’s get to the part where I tell you about how taking time off social media has helped me.

1. I feel much better

This is the biggest change. I simply feel better.

In a way, I think everyone knows that social media is often harmful to your mental health, even if you don’t feel particularly anxious or worked up because of it.

For the past two weeks, I have been feeling much calmer, more confident, and much more content. There have been many moments during which I’ve simply felt perfectly happy. The fact that it’s the beginning of summer has definitely helped with this though.

Also, I feel much more imaginative. It’s like my head is clearer and it’s finally completely mine. It’s not as filled with the junk written by other people online. Even if you mainly follow people who only post thoughtful and valuable content, it’s all too easy to see the trash and the hate too.

And now with that gone, I feel good. In a way, I feel like it was the early 2000s and I was still that 10-year-old, comfortably disconnected from the world.

2. I am reading much more

I used to read a lot as a child. When I was in high school and especially when I went to university, I no longer seemed to have enough time or even interest to read anything.

Even though I kind of wanted to read, I still couldn’t get myself to actually do it and it was awfully hard to find good books when you hadn’t really read for years and at this point had no favorite authors or even genres.

With my little, slow tablet, things have finally changed. I find myself picking it up several times a day, and while I’m not a very fast reader (my mind wanders way too much for that to be possible), I dare to say I have read a lot during this time.

And it’s not just that I have spent time reading, but that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t wait to get to some old classics that I used to think must be awfully boring. Turns out, they are not.

3. I am working on my writing projects

It’s been 11 or 12 years since I first thought about writing a book. Back then I was in film school and felt pressure to produce at least something. But at the same time, I truly wanted to write simply for the sake of writing. And the little time I spent writing or planning my book was quite nice, albeit difficult.

For the past year, I have gotten a bit more serious with my writing endeavors. I have spent some time planning plots and characters, talked a lot to myself about what these stories could be like and I have written quite a few little samples and character tests.

But during the past two weeks, it has gotten even better. I am much more motivated to write and it doesn’t feel as difficult as before. It’s not that I have magically become a better writer. It’s just that I’m not as pressured to write something grand and “perfect”. It’s easier to remember that the short story I’m writing is just for practice and that I can always edit my writing later.

And once you start writing, it’s much easier to keep going.

4. I am spending more time outside

I absolutely love summer and the end of May has once again proved to be magical. Now that I haven’t spent my time staring at a screen quite as much, I have spent much more time outside.

A few times I have simply gone to read on this big rock right across the street where the sun shines from morning till night. It’s a little thing, but it’s these kinds of little things that really are what life is all about.

I have also enjoyed quite a few strolls around the neighborhood and in different parts of the city. It is always as lovely to admire the beautiful nature around you and to put your worries behind you for a while.

Conclusion

It hasn’t taken long to realize what a huge difference it makes to cut things that don’t serve you out of your life. While social media can help you and even make you feel good, it’s a slippery slope and it’s awfully easy to see things you don’t want to see.

And I dare to ask, how much does social media really even help you?

I intend to continue keeping my social media use to the minimum and possibly delete some old accounts that I don’t really even need. Sometimes I wish I could delete all my accounts, but as a blogger, it doesn’t make much sense.

I recommend that you take a break from social media though. Even a week could teach you a lot, but the longer you keep your distance from it, the more benefits you will see. At the very least I hope you’ll set strict time limits for yourself.

Let me know what you think about this and whether you have taken time off social media before!

As if ChatGPT hasn’t been talked about enough, I’ll add one more article to the mix. This is because I feel like the conversation is once again very one-sided and most people only want to talk about the benefits of the tool and few care to think about the downsides.

Of course, I understand why people are so excited. ChatGPT (and undoubtedly some other similar tools) is impressive, there’s no denying.

I myself am not going to use ChatGPT for any kind of content creation like I explained in my last post.

But I still want to say a few words about it, especially in regards to the ethical problems that are yet to be solved. Without further ado, let’s get to the reason why I think using ChatGPT can be unethical.

It harms content creators

First of all, no one gave consent to have their content scraped by AI. Google of course sometimes shows bits of people’s content and this can result in fewer visitors to the website whose recipe or list of tips Google is showing. And while I don’t condone this, at least the main job of Google is to direct people to the websites.

ChatGPT instead scrapes people’s content without consent, doesn’t give them credit, and makes it pointless for people to visit any sites. That lost traffic can hurt website owners tremendously.

Of course, you can argue that the content that ChatGPT uses is from a couple of years back, so there is still a need for new content anyway. But what happens when ChatGPT will be updated regularly?

It claims people have said things they haven’t

Another problem is that ChatGPT claims people have said or written things they absolutely haven’t. I heard that it does this especially with recipes, so I tried it myself. I asked ChatGPT to provide certain recipes from a well-established food blog.

The results were nothing short of problematic though. Every single “recipe” it generated was incorrect. Sometimes it provided me with recipes that aren’t even on the blog. And even if it gave me a recipe that technically was on the blog, the ingredients were always completely wrong. If the recipe called for 2 eggs and 300g of sugar, ChatGPT might say 3 eggs and 150g of sugar. In other words, it gave me a completely random recipe that no one has even tried.

And no one wants anyone to put words in their mouth or claim that they are promoting faulty recipes.

It can cause unemployment…

Now, I’m not claiming that ChatGPT will make everyone redundant and cause mass unemployment tomorrow. But it can still make people lose their jobs because now it’s possible to generate basic content that is good enough to publish in minutes.

Writing is one of the few things you can easily do from home, meaning that it can get harder for people who need work-from-home jobs to find a suitable job. This could be a single mom or someone who is very shy or someone who can’t work in a normal workplace environment.

… Or make jobs worse

It has been suggested that those who today work as writers could become editors. ChatGPT could be used to generate text that people would then need to merely edit to make sure it’s good enough to publish.

Does that sound good? Well no, it doesn’t. People enjoy being creative and writing is one of those things that plenty of people are passionate about. While it can be an uphill battle sometimes, it’s still something that millions of people actually want to spend their lives doing. Editing AI-generated content is not what people want to do.

It can make the hard work people have done redundant

Being a content creator is hard. The competition is fierce and there are more and more people joining the game every day.

It’s the name of the game and I’m not saying that gaining followers or having your pages rank should be easy. Of course, it shouldn’t, that would just mean that you don’t need to create quality content.

But people have worked years and years creating their websites and for someone to just come and scrape their content without permission doesn’t sound right to me. When you think about it, generating a blog post with ChatGPT is kind of like googling what you want to write about, choosing the top results, mashing all their main points together, and claiming that the result was written by you.

Also, because ChatGPT doesn’t create truly unique content, there is a chance that soon a big part of the new content out there will be incredibly dull. Who want’s that?

Using ChatGPT isn’t really writing

There is a certain beauty to creating something new. It’s something only human beings can do and thus, it’s at the very core of what it means to be human.

I love reading books and admiring the author’s ability to choose word combinations that are witty and unique. It’s amazing to know that someone had the ability to create the story you’re reading.

But with AI, how can you ever really know that something was created by a person? If it’s an online article, it’s easy to use an AI detector (and they are right surprisingly often), but what about books? How can you ever be sure?

To me, using AI means that we are losing a bit of humanity, and that’s depressing. Of course, it’s possible that people will only use these tools to produce a number of online articles and nothing much else. But AI has the potential to change the whole meaning of what “writing” means. It wouldn’t hurt to be a bit more careful here.

These are a few ethical problems that come with AI, but of course, there are others too. It’s good to keep in mind that over time AI will get better and better, meaning that the situation can get worse and worse.

I don’t want to be pessimistic and I don’t think AI will destroy everything from online articles to feature films.

But I think we (especially content creators) should be careful and really think about what kind of content we create and how it affects others.

Why people don’t talk about these problems is beyond me.

I’m sure no one has been able to avoid all the ChatGPT and AI talk. It’s everywhere. Most people seem to be excited by all the new opportunities that these AI tools offer.

And I get it. I can’t deny being impressed by what they can do, especially since all of this seems to be happening so fast. Only a couple of years ago these kinds of tools left a lot to be desired.

While there is already plenty of talk about this, I decided to add my two cents to the mix. Unlike many others, I’m not all that excited by AI. As said, it is impressive. But it comes with a long list of problems and no one seems to be able to offer any definite solutions. Many people don’t even want to talk about the problems.

As a content creator, I feel a lot of pressure to create increasing amounts of content, all of which should be better than all the content already out there. I have two websites, a bunch of social media accounts and I’m starting a Youtube channel. In other words, I have a lot of content to create.

In the blogging world, things are constantly changing and the competition is slowly but steadily getting harder. Nothing is guaranteed and just because something works today doesn’t mean that it will work two years later. In other words, there is constant pressure to become better and better.

And at the same time, there’s the pressure to create much more content. AI tools seem to come to our rescue, but do they really?

I have tried ChatGPT and other similar tools to see what they are about. And there’s no denying: I definitely could create a lot more content a lot faster by using them.

However, I’m not going to do that. Let’s get to the reasons.

1. It feels like cheating

For me, claiming to have created any content when a big part of that was created by AI, is cheating. There’s just no way around it.

If a blog clearly belongs to one person, it’s assumed that that person has written everything on that blog. That’s also why I wouldn’t hire someone to write any posts for me.

And since prompting ChatGPT really isn’t the same as writing something, how could I ever claim to be the writer of a piece of text I didn’t write from start to finish?

Writing isn’t supposed to be easy all the time, it’s supposed to be a challenge. It can be really hard to come up with ideas and produce any text when you’re not feeling like it. And it isn’t always easy to transform your thoughts into words. But the beauty is in writing it anyway, even if it’s not perfect. At least it was written by you.

2. It’s really not that good

True, AI writing tools are impressive (some more than others). But the text they generate isn’t exactly mindblowing if you don’t think about the fact that it was produced by AI.

Of course, a lot of the text a content creator needs to write doesn’t even have to be that great. Social media posts, newsletters, and sales pages aren’t exactly art and they don’t need to be.

But blog posts are much harder to write, given that they need to be better than anyone else’s post on the same topic to rank on Google and, more importantly, they need to be interesting and engaging in the eyes of your readers.

The whole point of AI is to generate the most likely word combinations. It’s not unique or personal and ChatGPT definitely is not an SEO expert. And it’s not a master writer either, even if some of the content it produces is practically usable without editing.

3. People don’t want to read AI content

One of the most important questions to ask is who wants to read content that wasn’t written by a human?

I bet there will always be some people who don’t care either way. But so far almost every single time I’ve seen someone talk about this, they’ve said that they have no interest in reading something written by AI (with the exception of perhaps one book to see what it’s like).

Of course, the real problem is when people are not able to tell whether something was written by AI or not. But even if I could use AI to “write” a blog post in two minutes and no one would be able to tell that it wasn’t written by me, why would I do that to people?

4. Google said it doesn’t penalize AI content, but it doesn’t encourage using it either

Some people like to say that Google changed their minds about AI and now it’s perfectly fine to use it to create content.

But all Google said was that they’re not going to penalize you for using AI to help you produce content. Not that publishing content mostly created by AI is advisable or encouraged. It can look spammy and Google is constantly getting better at understanding what pages bring actual value to readers and what pages don’t.

Google wants you to write content that doesn’t exist yet. If you ask ChatGPT to write a blog post about the best productivity tips, it’s going to write a list of the most common productivity tips out there. That’s exactly what Google doesn’t want.

And of course, your readers don’t want to read the same old tips again either.

5. Ethical and legal problems

I am truly surprised that so few people talk about the ethical problems of AI, although it seems to me that a growing number of people are starting to get second thoughts. Sadly, there are also quite a few people who simply do not care what AI does to others, as long as they get what they want.

In any case, there are quite a few problems that in my eyes make using AI unethical. It can give an unfair advantage to people and companies who use it and it has the potential to cause people to lose their jobs. Claiming to have written something that you generated with the help of AI is another problem.

There are already a number of lawsuits against ChatGPT and other similar tools and it’s too early to say what can be considered a perfectly legal use of AI. And it’s even less clear what the situation will be a few years later.

What is for sure though, is that no one gave ChatGPT permission to use their content. I didn’t give consent. I absolutely do not want any of my content to be used for AI-generated content. So why would I disrespect someone else’s hard work by using AI?

6. I want to write for real

Another thing is that even if I could generate quality content by clicking a couple of buttons, what would be the point? I want to write, not just publish.

Even if I’d never succeed at anything and all my attempts to get any money from my writing were futile, I’d still rather write for real than gain something from AI-generated content.

It’s like winning the lottery. What’s the point of being rich if I didn’t achieve it?

7. I’m sure my readers don’t want to read automatically generated content

Last but not least, while my readership is quite small at this point, I’m sure they want to read blog posts and emails that are written by me and not just copy-pasted.

If AI was enough, why would anyone bother subscribing to anything or visiting anyone’s blog? I can’t imagine anyone wanting to receive newsletters that were just lazily copy-pasted.

And again, I myself don’t want to read any content by AI, so why would I offer it to anyone else?

Conclusion

All in all, I don’t see much positive in AI writing tools. Perhaps they can be of help in some minor tasks that don’t have much value anyway. Pretty much no one reads Pinterest pin descriptions anyway, so maybe there isn’t much harm in using AI to write those.

But when it comes to articles, blog posts, books, and other content that takes a lot of work and is the main source of income for millions of people, I don’t see how it could be any good to endanger all of that.

It’s sad to see the world going further and further towards a reality where everything is mass-produced, impersonal, and less and less human.

I know this is a heated topic, so I’d like to hear your thoughts and where you think AI is going or what kind of effects it will have.

I read a couple of articles about performative productivity, such as this one by The Washington Post. And once again I’m frustrated by people’s will to criticize everything that isn’t their cup of tea.

Sometimes it seems like half of the content on social media is just complaining and judging other people for whatever is today’s trend. Anyway, in this post, I will focus on performative productivity on social media specifically.

What is performative productivity?

Before I get to my main point, what really is performative productivity?

Performative productivity simply refers to wanting to appear productive and busy to others (and to yourself). If you have ever seen pictures of long to-do lists or beautifully decorated bullet journals on social media, you know what I’m talking about.

It’s all about wanting to look productive, but I would say a big part of it is motivating yourself to work harder. If you tell others what you are working on, you’re making yourself feel accountable. And that makes it a little easier to actually do the work.

But is performative productivity really bad?

If you read any articles on this topic, most people seem to think that posting pictures of your to-do list is just something that young and in their eyes meaningless influencers do.

I would like to argue that belittling someone’s work without even understanding what it entails is just sad.

But the question really is, what does performative productivity do? Does it inspire people or make them feel like lazy underachievers? Are social media creators responsible for everyone’s feelings because they have a bigger following than the average person and maybe make money from their content?

Curiously enough, it is acceptable to post pictures of your holidays and your children, even if they bring a tear to someone’s eye. But how dare people post a picture of a piece of paper that says that today they are going to answer emails and film a new Youtube video?

In my opinion, performative productivity on social media can be bad if it makes you waste time being busy instead of being actually productive.

But you are not responsible for someone feeling bad about the fact that you are going to the gym today and they are not.

This is because everyone is responsible for themselves. You choose what kind of content you see on social media. You don’t have to follow productive high achievers and you don’t need to engage with pictures of bullet journals and Filofaxes.

If you don’t need to-do lists and the most important thing in life for you is having fun and feeling comfortable, you need to embrace that and follow that kind of content. It’s painfully easy. But it is your responsibility.

Can performative productivity be good?

Most definitely. There are plenty of people (like me) who want to work hard, get their lives in order, reach their goals, and get more from life.

To us, this kind of content is motivating and it helps us push ourselves forward. I don’t look at pictures of to-do lists and feel bad. It’s simply fun to see what others are up to and sometimes these pictures encourage me to add a couple of extra tasks to my list.

Another benefit of performative productivity can be that simply painting a picture of yourself as a productive person can help you change your idea of yourself and start seeing yourself as a productive person who doesn’t procrastinate every chance you get. “What you think, you become,” as Buddha said.

One thing to keep in mind though…

When it comes to actually being productive, it should go without saying that simply being busy and filling your beautifully decorated bullet journal with pointless tasks isn’t it.

To be productive, you need to work on things that actually matter and be efficient instead of simply forcing yourself to sit at your desk around the clock.

But a little motivation here and there doesn’t hurt.

Conclusion

Criticizing people for the content they post on social media just because it doesn’t appeal to you is tiring and something I hope we can finally leave behind.

We are all responsible for our own lives and our own feelings. I don’t like seeing body positivity and “you are good just the way you are” content, so I don’t follow creators who focus on that. So simple.

And it has never occurred to me that I should go around telling people that it’s stupid to want to feel good in your body. Because of course it isn’t. I’m sure that kind of content helps a lot of people.

What do you think about performative productivity? How does it make you feel?

I recently stumbled upon a discussion on Facebook about how much people get done in a week and what do they have time for after work. It’s not often that something I read on Facebook stays with me for days, but this did.

Now, this was a Facebook group about work life and it’s specifically for women. The thread got a lot of responses and it was astonishing how similar everyone’s stories were.

Literally everyone who had reached the “middle-class dream” of a good 9 to 5 job, marriage, children, own house, and possibly a dog or two was complaining how they had almost no time at all for themselves.

The few who were content with their work-life balance were mostly childless and often didn’t work full-time or have many (or any) other responsibilities.

Now you’re probably thinking that it’s no wonder that someone with a full-time job and three under 10-year-olds is very busy.

That’s true. But what was striking about that discussion was that none of those people implied that they were happy.

I myself have always hated normal 9 to 5 jobs. I think they rob too much of your time and offer very little in return. But at the same time, they are sold as the ticket to a normal, good life. Everyone wants a house, a family, and that golden retriever, right?

There’s just one major problem. We only have 24 hours in a day.

If you wake up at 6 am, get to work at 8 am, and are back home by 5 pm, you’ve already spent 11 hours of your day just working or getting ready to work. Then you have to make dinner, maybe take the dog out, possibly do some cleaning or laundry, and anything else you must get done.

Before you know it, it’s already 8 or 9 pm. You’re tired, you still have a long list of things that you should get done sooner or later and you don’t have much time left before you have to get to bed. You might steal a little bit of extra time for yourself by staying up too late, but you will pay for it tomorrow morning.

Doing this day after day and year after year makes little sense if it doesn’t bring happiness. Time is the most valuable thing we have and yet we are pressured to spend it carelessly and often with very little in return.

Not one of all the jobs I’ve ever had really required 8 hours to get the expected amount of work done. Often 6 and sometimes even less would have been enough. Not to mention that the salary difference between 6 and 8 hours often isn’t even worth it. When you have more free time, you have more time and energy to truly live your life.

And really, there is nothing more valuable than that. It’s senseless that we are supposed to spend most of our time at work and then only get a couple of precious hours with our families, friends, and hobbies.

And why do we really even work that much? Typically to pay for a house that is much bigger than we really need, to have a backyard we don’t even use most of the year, to buy things we will soon forget about, and to drive a car that is fancier than necessary.

Buying a bigger house than you really need might easily mean having to spend an extra 5000 or 10 000 hours working. Or even more. Just imagine what you could do with all that time.

When I was a child and visited some of my friends that live in detached houses, I sometimes wondered when they ever spent any time in some of the nooks of their house. When I moved out from home I thought about the extra time they have to spend cleaning. And now I look at people I know buying two-story houses with backyards and I can’t help but think when will they ever have time to enjoy those houses.

At the end of the day, everyone makes their own decisions. But we also have to take responsibility for our time. 24 hours isn’t much and we all need time for ourselves and things that we enjoy. It makes little sense to sacrifice decades of our lives for jobs that make us stressed and unhappy when all we get in return is some extra square meters or things that make no real difference to our happiness.

So think carefully about how you spend your life. Do you really enjoy your time at work? Would you like to work less? Are you even a backyard kind of person? Do you really have time and energy to get pets?

And most importantly: what do you want to do more of? What kind of life do you want to have? What have you always wanted to do, but haven’t yet?

Take some time to think about this because it’s one of the most important things in your life.

And don’t be afraid to choose your own path. If you enjoy having a full-time job, that’s great. If you want to be childless, that’s also great. Just do you and don’t be pressured to build a life that isn’t even yours.

Do you have big goals? If you do, it’s important that you take your own health and your general lifestyle seriously. A person who has bad habits, such as staying up late watching Youtube videos every night or skipping breakfast every other day, is much less likely to succeed than a person who takes their health into account.

I know we all are constantly bombarded by articles and headlines about how we should exercise 2 hours every day, sleep 8 hours, prepare meals from scratch and also manage our daytime jobs, side hustles, and social lives all at the same time. Of course, no one can do all of this in 24 hours. And that’s ok. You just have to make sure that you do the important things and feel good while doing them.

Now then, what does a healthy lifestyle consist of when you have things to do and goals to reach?

#1 Sleep

The number one thing you need is enough sleep. A lot of people, especially college students, think that staying up late at night working is somehow productive. But in reality, it’s the opposite of productive.

You’re at your best when you have slept enough. Even 15 minutes too little affects your mood and your performance. There’s no way around getting a good night’s sleep and no amount of coffee will replace it.

If you want to hear an example of how much of a difference sleep makes, here it is: a few years ago I was taking French classes, and naturally I had to learn quite a lot of vocabulary. However, I was a bit lazy and often watch Netflix or Youtube videos while studying (which obviously isn’t recommended). I often used apps such as Memrise, Lingvist or Anki to study the words.

And how did sleeping enough affect my learning? If I had slept 30 to 60 minutes too little, I would have to go over and over the same words and it would be hard to recall even the words I had literally just seen 15 seconds earlier. I wouldn’t remember much the next day.

If I had gotten almost enough sleep, but not quite, I would be able to recall quite a few words, but I was still struggling to learn the more difficult words, even if I had seen them many times over.

But if I had had enough sleep, I hardly had to study. I would watch Netflix and mindlessly go through the words at the same time, barely looking at the phone in my hand. And even then, I would easily remember almost all of the words later on.

Studying and being productive when you are well rested is like magic compared to those days when you’ve had to get up a little too early. So do go to bed in time. You will definitely thank yourself the next day.

#2 Food

We joke about college life being all about eating instant ramen and drinking every weekend, as if there was something funny about eating badly. A lot of college students of course simply can’t afford a balanced diet.

But whenever we do have the option to eat well and we want to be as efficient as possible, eating badly simply isn’t an option. We all know that an unhealthy diet is, well, unhealthy. But it’s not just the longterm effects that matter.

If you eat badly today, you will feel badly today. Foods that contain a lot of fat can make you lethargic and negatively impact your brain function. Sugary foods aren’t any better: they can make you feel tired and make it hard for you to get everything done.

Instead of eating a lousy sandwich for lunch or chips for a snack, make sure to eat a lot of healthy foods. Vegetables and fruit are a great choice if you want to have enough energy all day long and you shouldn’t forget about eating several times a day.

If you eat well, you will have steady energy from morning till night, you won’t suffer from brain fog or an afternoon sugar crash and it will be much easier for you to do your work.

#3 Exercise

We all know that we should exercise regularly and that it will pay off in the long run. But for most of us, it’s not easy to convince ourselves to go running or hit the gym. Especially when there are so many things to do every day!

If you want to create the best possible life for yourself though, you’ll want to take care of your physical health. Working out makes it easier to focus and be productive, not to mention that pushing yourself to the limit is empowering and rewarding.

If you start by going for short walks every day or doing 30 jumping jacks when you wake up, it will become easier for you to keep building healthy habits. Maybe after a couple of weeks you can start running 200 meters every time you go for a walk, then slowly increase the distance until finally you’ll be going on runs instead of walks.

#4 Free time

Everyone needs some free time, but not necessarily as much as you’d think. The key is to spend your time wisely. Many people come home tired every day and simply scroll through Instagram or lay on the couch for the rest of the night, thinking that’s what they need to recharge.

In reality, what you need is to fill your days with different kinds of activities. To stay happy and energetic with your full time job and all of your responsibilities, you have to do things that excite and energize you. It’s also important to focus on doing things that you find rewarding, especially if your job doesn’t provide that.

Try to spend a lot of time with your friends, or force yourself to go out and exercise when you don’t feel like doing anything. What seems daunting at first when you’re tired and bored, can be exactly what you need to feel better about your life.

***

If you really want to be successful and happy, you have to take care of yourself and make sure your daily routine gives you energy instead of depleting it. Try implementing small changes in your life and little by little you’ll notice that you’ll have more energy and you’ll feel much better about life.