Productivity Guilt – I Should Be More Productive, But I’m Not, And I Feel Guilty.
The pressure to always be “productive” can be relentlessly stressful. It makes people “forget” to take lunch because they just have to answer one more email, to not take paid vacation time even when they’re entitled to, because they think it will reflect badly on them, and so on. The opposite is true. Your brain needs to rest, and when you take breaks, take time away from being “productive” and give your brain the chance to recharge, study after study has shown that you will be MORE productive than if you keep on working without those breaks.