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Israa Nasir is a psychotherapist and founder of WellGuide, a digital community for mental health awareness. Her work centers around helping people redefine their relationship with productivity and achievement to lead more mindful, purpose-driven lives. She has been featured in Vox, NBC, and Teen Vogue and invited to speak at Google, Meta, and Yale. Whats the big idea? Productivity isnt always a good thing. It can be a way to fill the void of unmet emotional needs, perpetuate a constant state of busyness, and erode well-being. For productivity to be healthy rather than toxican activity, not an identityit must come from a place of self-care, balance, and personal fulfillment. Below, Israa shares five key insights from her new book, Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More. Listen to the audio versionread by Israa herselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Know the difference between healthy and toxic productivity On the surface, healthy and toxic productivity can both look like achieving goals, but their roots couldnt be more different. Healthy productivity aligns with your values and allows you to work with intention and purpose without sacrificing your well-being. Toxic productivity pushes you to do more out of fear, shame, the need for external validation, or a drive to prove your worthnot out of genuine purpose. In toxic productivity, productivity habits become an identity rather than an activity. We learn harmful or unhelpful messages about productivity throughout our early childhood experiences. You must bring awareness to your habits and patterns before you can unlearn them. Ultimately, the long-term effects of toxic productivity are harmful. Studies show that if you link your self-worth solely to productivity, youre at a greater risk for mental health challenges like anxiety and depression because youre constantly striving to meet self-imposed, impossible demands. By recognizing when productivity stops serving you and starts consuming you, you can shift to a healthier, more intentional way of workingone that enhances your life rather than depletes it. 2. Emotions play a role in productivity Its easy to think of productivity as a purely logical process, but emotions like guilt, fear of failure, and the need for approval deeply influence productivity. Sometimes, we use productivity to cope with uncomfortable feelings. Other times, productivity habits or lack thereof can trigger uncomfortable feelings. For instance, productivity guilt is the feeling that youre never doing enough, often resulting in overwork. The American Psychological Association shows that those who struggle with productivity guilt tend to work long hours and take fewer breaks, which leads to burnout. Emotional regulation isnt just about feeling better. It enhances productivity. Learning to regulate your emotions is crucial. This means learning to identify, understand, manage, and release difficult emotions. Tools like mindfulness, journaling, movement crafts, and setting realistic goals can help you manage feelings constructively, allowing you to operate from a place of balance instead of anxiety. Emotional regulation isnt just about feeling better. It enhances productivity. By helping you focus, make clearer decisions, and stay motivated through emotional awareness, you can begin asking yourself: Am I working from a place of purpose or fear? This question is the key to creating sustainable productivity. 3. Toxic productivity often hides in daily habits Toxic productivity isnt always obvious. It often lurks in small, seemingly harmless habits, such as working through lunch, checking emails at midnight, or staying glued to your phone for fear of missing something. Toxic productivity can also mask itself as personal development habits, self-care, meeting emotional needs, and chronic busyness. These behaviors can snowball into a lifestyle that prioritizes doing over being, leading to feelings of disengagement and exhaustion. You can transform toxic habits into nurturing ones. Instead of working nonstop, schedule genuine breaks, like a quick walk or a few minutes of mindful breathing. Research shows that taking short, regular breaks can boost productivity by up to 40%. Allow your brain space to reset. Also, balance the well-being of your relationships with your productivity habits. This helps you stay connected to community and have your emotional needs met so that you dont have to turn to toxic productivity habits. This approach turns productivity from a draining cycle into a process of growth where self-care is the driving force rather than self-neglect. 4. Busting myths that keep you trapped in toxic productivity Our culture is filled with productivity myths that can keep you stuck. For example, you might believe multitasking makes you more efficient, but research shows it can reduce efficiency by up to 40%. Then theres the myth that busyness equals productivity or that doing more equates to more success. But thats also far from true. Research shows that only 20% of daily tasks drive 80% of our results. These beliefs can lead you to overcommit, so youre constantly busy but rarely fulfilled. Working smarter-not-harder means giving yourself permission to focus on what really matters rather than just filling time. By reframing these myths, you start to see productivity as a personal, flexible practice, not a rigid checklist. Working smarter-not-harder means giving yourself permission to focus on what really matters rather than just filling time. Youre not bound by external definitions of success, achievement, or productivity. Be guided by your own sense of fulfillment. 5. Rest is essential In a society that glorifies the hustle, rest is often seen as something you earn only after checking off your to-do list. But rest is not a reward; its essential. Neuroscience research shows that the brain needs downtime to process information, form memories, and spark creativity. A study from the University of California found that people who took regular rest breaks were 26% more likely to experience breakthroughs in problem-solving compared to those who worked nonstop. Rest isnt just about physical recovery either. Its also a mental reset for approaching tasks with fresh energy and creativity. By intentionally building rest into your day, such as setting aside quiet moments or practicing active rest through hobbies, rest becomes part of the productivity cycle. Embracing rest as a cornerstone of productivity means honoring your own rhythm, allowing you to approach each task with clarity, resilience, and purpose. Re-imagining productivity means questioning cultural frameworks about achievement and self-worth. Toxic productivity is the quiet whisper urging you to always be in the next stage, closer to the conclusion. But living this way takes you out of the preent. It keeps joy at a distance. The most optimized life is not the happiest life. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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Theres a growing trend in Silicon Valley where engineers are therapizing themselves with ChatGPT . Well, not exactly therapy, but using self-reflective prompts to unlock profound insights into their lives. Its like getting advice from a friend whos exceptionally skilled at active listeningexcept shes 300,000 years old and has lived over 100 billion lives (it doesnt quite make sense, but neither does the time were living in). I visited the Commons, one of the founding hubs of Cerebral Valley in San Francisco, where a community of Claude and ChatGPT superusers gathered to discuss AI for inner work. This mostly Gen Z group shared their unconventional tactics for using AI to catalyze personal growth and self-discovery. One participant explained how he uploaded all his journal entries from age 10 to Claude to analyze pivotal moments of growth. He hadnt realized the profound impact of his immigration to the U.S. until Claude pointed out how it still shapes his sense of home today. The host discussed how she uses it as a Jungian analyst to interpret her dreams, highlighting how effectively it uncovers unconscious patterns. Personally, I use large language models to enhance my relationships. After several failed attempts to truly hear each other during heated arguments with my partner, I recorded one of these discussions and uploaded the audio to NotebookLM. The AI revealed where we were misunderstanding each othershowing how wed talk past one another when triggeredand uncovered the unproductive patterns in our dynamic. This led to a breakthrough conversation where we genuinely listened. While the relationship ultimately didnt work out, I credit AI with helping us reach a deeper level of mutual understanding and respect. How to foster connections, not replace them While concerns about human-AI relationships altering dynamics are valid, AI is here to stay. The real question isnt whether AI will be part of our livesit already is. The pressing question is how we design systems that foster connection, not replace it. Used mindfully, AI can enhance our relationships, offering new ways to understand ourselves and each other, ultimately helping us grow. These methods may enhance how we deliver care in therapy. Therapy has long been about the delicate dance of self-understandingtherapists attuning to the unsaid, guiding clients toward truths both desired and feared. What if AI could sit in the wings, not as an observer but as a collaborator, capturing threads too subtle for the human mind to detect? This isn’t about machines delivering platitudes or algorithms attempting empathy. Its about systems integrating into the therapists workflowoffering transcription, analysis, and even creative interventions based on psychodynamic or cognitive principles. AI can identify themes in client narratives, highlight emotional shifts, and provide therapists with data-driven insights that informnot dictateclinical judgment. For example, an AI assistant transcribing and organizing session notes might suggest that a clients recurring references to freedom coincide with ambivalence toward a career decision. Or it could flag a subtle shift in tone that hints at an underlying conflict the therapist might explore. Far from diminishing the therapists role, these tools enhance their ability to stay present, ensuring no vital detail is overlooked. The skepticism surrounding AI often stems from the fear that technology will replace human connection. But we, as a collective, have the power to decide. AI can honor the sanctity of the therapeutic relationship, staying in the background like a skilled psychometrist or note-taker, allowing therapists to fully engage in connection. Challenges and opportunities Real challenges remain. How do we ensure these tools are trained on diverse and representative data? How do we guard against bias? Most importantly, how do we design systems to stay humbleaware of their limits and deferring to the therapist’s expertise? What excites me most is the potential for AI to support somatic practices in therapy. Growing evidence shows the body plays a crucial role in processing trauma and achieving emotional regulation in ways that talk therapy cannot. With AI handling the cognitive load of administrative tasks, therapists can focus more on facilitating somatic therapiesapproaches that engage the body through techniques like grounding exercises, mirroring, and physical presence. In this vision, AI enables individuals greater access to self-understanding. Clients can individually identify patterns, process insights, and build awarenesswork that can be done outside traditional therapy. With AI managing these aspects at a low cost, therapists can focus on interventions requiring empathy, presence, and connection. The future of therapy could balance AI-driven self-discovery with somatic and relational work, ensuring transformative healing. In mental health, technology must follow humanity. The best AI systems amplify therapists capabilities without overshadowing them. This emerging era of augmentative AI could empower practitioners to go deeper, help clients feel more seen, and make healing more precise, without losing its art. The question to ask perhaps isnt about whether AI can do what therapists do. Its how AI can help therapists do what they do betterwith clarity, presence, and attunement. As these tools quietly find their place in therapy rooms, the possibilities for transformative growthfor both clients and cliniciansare just beginning. Angelia Muller is cofounder and CEO of Attunement.
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E-Commerce
As of this writing, the future of TikTok hangs in the balance, and swaths of TikTok refugees are popping over to RedNote. RedNote is Chinas version of Instagram with around 300 million users. This is a bad idea. Ive been astounded at how cavalier people have been about it. I get a whiff of two distinct sentiments underlying this behavior: A defeatism around being farmed for data, resulting in a Who cares, what does it matter? attitude. A presumption that Americawith its corporate oligarchs, big tech monopolies, and titanic military industrial complexis just as bad as China, if not worse. These points are simply not rooted in the real world. It does matter for us as individual and as Americans who has access to our data at scale. Those adopting RedNote as an F-you the U.S. governments TikTok ban are cutting our countrys nose off to spite its face. I know, I know Big Tech is predatory Ill be the first one to call out the predatory nature of Big Tech. Twitter/X selling user data to surveillance firms and law enforcement with zero oversight. Facebook manipulating users through their news feeds on top of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. YouTube becoming a pipeline for radicalizing young men. Instagram damaging the mental health of children, particularly girls. The buying, selling, and manipulation of our data and our minds has become so commonplace that its nihilistically accepted as a fact of life. Big Tech is almost always backed by Big Finance. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is backed by Sequoia Capital China, General Atlantic, SoftBank, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, among others. RedNote itself enjoys backing from American-founded VCs like GSR Ventures, who, along with GGV Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Walden International, among others, have invested more than $3 billion in Chinese technology companies linked to the countrys military, surveillance, and human rights abuses. Are we cooked, as the kids say? Maybe, but thats no reason to turn up the temperature on ourselves. The frying pan is better than the fire. Care about yourself Unlike TikTok, which stores American user data on U.S. servers owned by Oracle, RedNote would collect your data and send it straight to China. Why should you care your data is being harvested, and where its going? Firstly, this data can be used against you in phishing attempts and identity theft, ordeals that can impact you for decades. While criminals are doing the phishing and identity-thieving in the U.S., Id bet its being performed by more sophisticated, capable attackers in China. Your online content could be used to create deepfakes that fool other victims. Secondly, youve probably heard some version of TikTok is a psyop. I dont believe this is overblown. The Chinese version of TikTok restricts content under a certain age to educational, scientific, artistic, and otherwise more enriching content. It also limits how long minors under age 14 can use it40 minutes each day, only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. We are getting a more toxic version of TikTok. You may have at least a vague notion of how social media is diminishing your attention span, distracting you from meaningful relationships, or warping your worldview. This is intentional as part of TikToks cognitive warfare efforts. Thirdly, there is value in being able to perceive the world for what it actually is. China is notorious for censorship, and Im quite curious to see how Chinese RedNote users respond to content involving, say, Tiananmen Square or Chinas arbitrary detaining of Uyghur Muslims. If China will censor and manipulate its own people to this degree, imagine what theyll do to you. Care about the nation Theres a lot of f America going around these days, and I guess I get it. We live in a country united only by the vigilante slaying of a healthcare CEO. Trump, Palestine, school shootings, childcare costs, recession, Big Oil, military contractors, microplastics we didnt start the fi-yer! We have to remember that our country is not any of these things. This country is We The People. The everyday folks grinding it out day after day. Were getting up in the morning and going to work. Raising our kids. Paying bills. Finding small ways to enjoy life and not let it drive us insane. Sometimes voting feels like pissing in the wind, but even though the lobbyists and corporations have huge sway over our government, our government is accountable to us. We can openly shout them down and vote them out. The administrators of our government are still subject to the law, unlike members of the CCP. At the end of the day, were all in this big American boat. Whether youre proud to be here (like I am) or not, this is your boat. Jumping ship to RedNote would only exacerbate the schisms and grievances were all so tired of already. Because thats what the Chinese government wants. They dont have to have a precise aim, only to make us more confused and fractured. Dont fool yourself about China RedNotes Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, more directly translates to little red book. This name refers to Chinese dictator Mao Zedongs Little Red Book, which contains over 260 political aphorisms like political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Styled after philosophical texts like those from Sun Tzu and Confucius, Little Red Book was key to builing a cult of personality around Mao and enacting his Cultural Revolution. His ministry of culture mandated every Chinese citizen own a copy and carry it with them. Mao would have loved RedNote, and TikTok, to be fair. Its safe to say that RedNotes name is more than a wink and a nod to the dictator, the personage of state power manifest. While many fresh American users are loving getting to know regular Chinese people, it isnt these people who are the threat. Its the fact that the Chinese government can use whatever data it wants for whatever purposes it wants. Thats just how their regime is set up. Most of what we complain about here in America, China is doing to a much greater degree, from the forced labor and even sterilization of Uyghurs to arresting monks in Tibet for their religious beliefs to silencing whistleblowers and journalists to harassing Taiwan with its military. That regime has been busy in regards to the U.S. over the past several years. Theyve infiltrated networks within Americas telecommunications, energy, water, and other infrastructure sectors. Theyve stolen our military technology. Theyve hacked U.S. government departments and targeted U.S. citizens who have been critical of China China is a clear and present danger. They arent playing nice, and we shouldnt play into their hands. No matter how much it might entertain us.
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