Over those few months, I learned a painful lesson: toxic productivity is all fast-paced, but burnout is a slow burn.

It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can come out of left field. It has early warning signs, but they usually go unnoticed. It’s not an ‘all of a sudden’ event. It builds up over time.

For me, the slow burn started with the skipped lunches, the daily productivity calculations, the obsession with proving myself, and the clincher: connecting my sense of self-worth with my work. The combination made for a pretty toxic relationship with productivity.

So, how can we unravel toxic productivity? Here’s what helps.

Remember your work is not your worth. Work has a crucial place in our lives. But if it’s the main driver of yourself self-worth, you’re putting yourself in a precarious position. Because when you have a career crisis, and we all do, your sense of value takes the hit, and it’s far more difficult to bounce back.

Build healthy boundaries. Your boundaries reflect what you value most. It’s easy to focus on short-term wins and say yes to everything. But your career is a long game. Learning how to set good boundaries is key to a sustainable and healthy career.

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Start working out what you value most and use them to guide your career decision-making. Before taking on another new commitment, consider: if you say yes to that thing, what are you saying no to, and what is the cost to you personally?

Performing well and being well go hand in hand. Workplace wellbeing specialist Phil Wolffe says “it’s crucial to learn how you personally recover best from challenging work, and build that into your daily routine”.

For some people, recovery might look like a daily walk, for others it might look like heading to the beach. Rest might be reading a book or bingeing a TV series. But the most important part: learning to recover, rest and relax without the guilt.

Optimise, but don’t obsess. While we need to optimise our routine and productivity, look out for any signs of obsessing. Rumination and harsh self-criticism tend to one of the early signs you’re obsessing instead of optimising your productivity. When we’re optimising, we’ll prioritise recovery and rest and relaxation, knowing that they are crucial for long-term performance and wellbeing.

Shelley Johnson is the founder of HR agency Boldside and hosts the podcast my millennial career.

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