BOILING POINT

The desire for productivity in society leads to an endless cycle of always wanting more. While this can be beneficial for a strong work ethic, it can ultimately reach the point of being too much pressure on one person, resulting in burnout and the disappearance of productivity.

balance. This unrealistic expectation can cause a lot of stress in people, resulting in a feeling of letting down their employers.

BY MAYA CLEMENT Managing Editor

Relying on this productivity to feel successful becomes dangerous when the productivity inevitably disappears. Mental health should not suffer because unrealistic expectations cannot be met.

“Well, anytime we’re putting pressure on ourselves to perform, I think there’s room for a negative situation to arise,” family and marriage counselor Giordana Diaz said. “If your whole goal is productivity, I feel like you’re missing the actual beauty in the work and the actual process of doing or making something.”

Especially with college applications quickly approaching for juniors and on the horizon for underclassmen, there is a pressure to appear like the “perfect” candidate for a school.

This frequently puts pressure on students to join as many extracurriculars and sports as possible, take difficult classes, get good grades and get a job. Doing all of these things is impossible, especially if a student wants any resemblance of relaxation.

This tendency doesn’t stop once a student graduates from high school.

Through hustle culture, the United States idolizes workplaces with intense focus on productivity, work ethic and success with little care for a work-life

“I think (linking self-worth to productivity is) deeply damaging. The way we conceive what success looks like in this country is just superficially stupid, but more deeply and more importantly, it serves a kind of manufactured ideology that just isn’t necessary,” Clarke Central High School English department teacher Ian Altman said. “And I think that that, too, is political. Political in that, if people are kept busy and made to think that they always have to be busy, then they have less time to think and less time to be bothersome to other people.”

Students must learn to find a balance between productivity and relaxation or their selfworth is going to suffer and they will be stuck in an endless cycle of overworking, getting burned out and then underworking due to the way society is set up.

With summer fast approaching, students should consider establishing ways of making themselves feel like they have a purpose, while also taking the necessary time to relax and focus on self-care.

Some ways to do this would be setting a schedule and realistic to-do lists. When tasks are completed, instead of focusing on the next thing to do, students could focus on celebrating their accomplishments and taking the time to rejuvenate themselves.

Acknowledging what makes one passionate and partaking in those activities can boost joy and self-worth as the pressure isn’t to be the best, but rather to enjoy the experience. Productivity does not equal self-worth. Relaxation does not equal failure.