When Productivity Culture Taints the Freedom of Hobbies
We wanted freedom, not pressure. Yet the trap of constant productivity turns everything we love into an obligation.
In today’s culture of productivity and constant self-improvement, even the things we once loved for freedom somehow end up feeling like obligations.
How do we lose ourselves to productivity? When we start with writing as a hobby, we start with the intention and feeling that we write to be free from everything and everyone, to pen down our feelings. But slowly, that itself becomes something we start to consider as part of our “free time,” almost like a space that needs to be managed.
The Silent Shift From Joy to Performance
For all those who follow other hobbies, they must have felt this too. The start of a hobby is always in the expectation of being free to do something we like. But somewhere down the line, when we end up trying too much to focus on it, it goes on to become something else. It becomes structured, shaped by routine, and slowly influenced by external validation, just as with a career or study. If you have never felt it, then that’s really good, but sadly, most of us have felt the same, even if we can never tell anyone about it. I mean, most of the time we would even avoid telling ourselves about it.
I think that somewhere in our hobbies, there comes a point where, even though it is a hobby, we end up getting lost in the praise or the need for consistency. I mean, it is supposed to be a hobby, but somehow, even that has become something that is considered a way to boost productivity.
Why Praise Changes Everything?
When we say that we read books or write regularly and get some praise, even we ourselves end up focusing on that praise. And then the shift starts to begin. The focus moves away from the joy of doing it to the outcome of being noticed for it.
Why is a hobby even supposed to be about praise?
But somehow, the reward mentality that has been created in the system ends up creeping up like a parasite even into the things we like. We end up focusing on it so very differently than we should. And the sad part is, we even feel bad if on some day we feel like not picking up our hobbies and just slacking off.
This is not supposed to happen. A hobby is supposed to be rest, not a means to productivity. It is meant to give space, not take it away.
When Rest Starts Feeling Like Guilt?
But then again, why do we still feel bad?
The answer lies in the constant mindset that has been poured into us through the current education and career systems. These systems were supposed to help people, but in today’s world, it almost feels as if people are there solely to keep them running. And that mindset is exactly what creeps into our personal time as well. It slowly enters even our hobbies, warping our most personal times.
The overproductivity culture is slowly eating into all parts of our life and affecting the parts we love by turning those very things against us. What once felt like an escape starts to feel like a responsibility. And that is where we end up losing ourselves.
Choosing Rest Without Shame & Taking Back Control
It is high time that we stop with this constant need to be productive in every possible way. We need to step away if we feel like it and do so with the belief that it is our own damned right. Even slacking off from our own hobbies is our own wish. There is no need to feel any remorse about it.
Just like the hobby was our choice, so is the decision to slack away from it.
Thereby, the next time you feel any guilt or remorse for not giving time to that musical instrument, or for taking too long to finish a book, or for just staring outside the window instead of making your new painting, or even for simply sleeping instead of writing your next article, just throw all those negative feelings out of the window.
You have time. You will return to it on your own terms.
It is supposed to be your own time in your own world. And everything that you do is for yourself, not the other way around.
Thank you very much for your time, and really hope you have it better than me.
Regards, D Roy