Productivity Improvement Through Compassion: A New Perspective

Today we're going to talk about compassionate productivity. What it is, who it's for, and why it's so, so important. I'm Cassie Winter. I'm a productivity expert for neurodivergent spoonies. And I run an extensive course called the action Navigator, designed to help you figure out how to spend your precious time and energy the way you want and need to. Basically, compassionate productivity, the PhD version. Without any further ado, let's get started.

Watch the video below, or read on for the full transcript.

Compassionate productivity is the ability to take action in a way that supports instead of harms. In our present culture, and I know I've waxed poetic about this many, many times before, but in our society, we have a toxic productivity culture, in a large part due to capitalism. Our ability to take action, our ability to be productive, is tied up in our value in a way that if you're able to be productive, you're more likely to survive.

And yes, I am saying that in a literal sense. It is not okay that our culture has come to this. It is inhumane to tie someone's ability to survive to their ability to be productive. And in today's day and age, productive non stop. We are not robots. We are humans. And the only people that have any chance of succeeding in this system for any length of time are those who are fully able bodied and fully neurotypical.

And even for them, our culture has gotten so toxic that even those demographics are experiencing burnout at unprecedented levels. It's not okay. One of the ways I describe my work is often in relationship to therapy. I use the metaphor that your life is a house. And if you're someone who needs therapy, your house needs renovations, it needs some remodeling. And depending on how much help you need, you're gonna need more remodeling.

But the issue is, because it's your life, you can't just, like, check into a hotel while these remodelings are happening. You have to live in that house while it's under construction. And that's not easy. And what I do is I help you live in that house while it's under construction. Similarly with toxic hustle culture, toxic productivity culture, and the need to engage in it in order to survive, it's like that's also the neighborhood you're in.

So you are your house. Our culture is the neighborhood your house is in, in this extended metaphor. And while some privileged few may be able to, for example, move to a different country with different productivity expectations, that is not an available choice for many people, but especially the most underprivileged of us. It's those who are disabled, neurodivergent. It costs a lot of money to move, and it is not easy.

It is very inaccessible for so many of us. For that group of people in our extended metaphor, we're probably in a house that is severely not up to code and needs remodeling. And that house is in a neighborhood that is toxic. The holistic approach to dealing with these problems is, I would say, three, three or four fold. One is seeking therapy, if you have access to that, in order to help get your house up, up to code, so that it's easier to live in going forward.

And then the other thing is to engage in community care and to seek support from other people. And if you want to go a step beyond, and you have the spoons for that, engaging in activism to help make the neighborhood less toxic for everybody. What I do, and what the point of this video is, is help people learn about compassionate productivity so you can survive in that house, in that neighborhood, while all that stuff is going on.

And while you may have remodeling going on. One of the things that really frustrated me before I understood what kind of therapy I needed, because I am neurodivergent and I have a extended history of trauma, was I would go to what was essentially just talk therapy once a week. I would basically trigger myself explaining what has been going on in my past and what was going on in my present to my therapist.

Basically like trauma dumping on them. And they would kindly listen, but I wouldn't get any suggestions. I wouldn't get any help. I wasn't really getting any treatment. It was just a place for me to talk about it. And then I would go home and I would feel worse because I had triggered myself. And I would be so frustrated because I had no idea how to go about living my life between then and the next time I saw my therapist.

And that would just repeat over and over and over again. And it was so frustrating. Compassionate productivity is one of the things that can help us survive in our house, in our neighborhood, while shit is hitting the fan, while the dumpster is on fire. Compassionate productivity is where we critically think about our culture's assumptions of what productivity is and how we go about it. There are so many underlying assumptions that we tend to take for granted.

For example, one of the ones that's really annoying right now is we have to monetize everything we do. And that is a result of not being able to survive on one job that's not okay. Another one is that all of our work needs to be hard work. Heaven forbid we do something that comes easily to us. Another thing is that we have to be spending the majority of our waking hours working, doing that hard work.

One of the things I talk about in my program, The Action Navigator, is the concept of usable hours. Depending on who you are, what your situation is, what your circumstances are, your usable hours can vary widely from person to person and from day to day for the same person. A few years ago, my usable hours per day were about four to six, and the rest of my waking hours had to be spent in recovery or doing things that didn't cost very much, cognitive, physical or emotional energy.

I had a really rough 2023, so presently my usable hours are two to four and they tend to err on the side of 2 hours. We do not all have the same 24 hours in a day. Compassionate productivity helps us look at an assumption. So, for example, I have to spend the majority of my waking hours being productive in a hard working way that helps me make money or selflessly care for others in my immediate family or household, neighborhood, community.

It helps us look at those assumptions and challenge them, think critically about them. Is that true? When we start really pulling apart assumptions and finding the elements of them that might hold truth, we can look at them in a new light and think of a different way to achieve the same goal. And we can look at things that are in those assumptions that might be really harming us and find a way to separate ourselves from those things, hold boundaries against those things.

For example, needing to work hard all day every day is one of those basic toxic productivity assumptions. If you're someone like me who has less usable hours than someone who is able bodied and neurotypical, that means coming to terms with and being compassionate with myself about what my true capacity is. And that is something that is an ongoing conversation with myself that I have. Because my capacity varies from day to day.

And learning how to not shame myself and to be compassionate with myself in order to spend my precious time and energy not on being hard on myself, because that does that expends energy. It costs energy to be hard on ourselves. Shifting away from that and actually spending my precious time and energy on things that are meaningful to me, helpful for me, help me survive, help me thrive. It's about shifting focus.

Also, it's about holding boundaries with yourself, but with others around what your capacity is so you can be true to it. That being said, many of us in disabled and neurodivergent communities are in a horrible place we should not be in, where in order to survive, we have to go above and beyond every day, and this makes me think about a book I've been meaning to read that came out sometime in the last year because I'm genuinely curious about what this author has to say on the topic.

It's Ali Abdaal's Feel Good Productivity. I'll go ahead and drop a the affiliate link to the book if you're interested in checking it out and wanting to support me. I haven't read it yet because low spoons. But something that both I like but also bothers me about the title Feel Good Productivity. It implies that there is a way to be productive that is not harmful, which I appreciate, but feel good productivity.

That is a privileged thing to experience, and many people do not have access to that because we are trying to get things done in a house that isn't up to code, in a neighborhood that's toxic. And whether or not we're gonna survive day to day or long term is a question that's up in the air. It is very privileged to invite people to try to feel good about every productivity decision that they make.

Someone with migraines ends up having to decide between staying home and surviving a migraine and recovering from it, versus going to work and being able to buy food for their kids that week. There isn't a good answer in that situation. That's why I call it compassionate productivity, because you're able to hold space for yourself in those situations where there isn't a right answer and you're perpetually in the gray area.

It allows us to find better choices for ourselves in the moment. It empowers us to be able to care for ourselves better going forward. We're able to survive in that house, in that neighborhood better than before. But it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to feel good about it all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be able to shift from surviving into thriving. That's why I don't, I don't guarantee that when I talk about my program.

Is it more likely to be able to make that shift when you learn all the ins and outs of compassionate productivity? Yes, but I understand that based on your intersectional identities, it really depends on how privileged you are, how good it can get. I wish I could fix that for everybody. So again, compassionate productivity is teasing apart all of the assumptions around toxic productivity culture and finding out what's true and what's not true and making decisions accordingly.

We're able to shift our goals to better support ourselves, and we're able to set up boundaries to better support ourselves. And this is what allows us to survive in our house that's not up to code in the neighborhood that's toxic. Who is compassionate productivity for? Technically, everyone. I would appreciate if as a globe, we could all make that shift together, that'd be great. But my lane is helping individuals survive in their houses.

Compassionate productivity is for anyone who has less usable hours than an able bodied or neurotypical person. So that is anyone who is neurodivergent, chronically ill, disabled. And I also, technically, it's a part of neurodivergence, but I just want to be clear that it also includes people with mental health issues and trauma. I said at the beginning of this video, we're also going to talk about why it's important, but I think I've already touched on a lot of that.

So instead, I'm going to go on a slight tangent, because it's what I've been focusing on while working on version two of my program, the action navigator, and that is executive dysfunction. So many of us in those categories I just mentioned struggle with executive dysfunction to one extent or another. Whether it's because you have ADHD and cognitively, your brain is just not wired for executive function. Or if you struggle with brain fog and you just can't think straight, or you're super depressed and/or triggered traumatically, the only thing in your mind is survival.

And thinking about like, taking out the trash, not part of that survival plan. End result is a struggle with executive dysfunction. And because of that, the primary way I tend to present information and give instructions for tools and skills in my program is through a supportive executive function lens, where I'm doing as much of the executive function for you. So all you have to do is follow a step by step cheat sheet that either I have made for you or I have guided you to personalize for yourself, to help you in those moments, make those compassionate productivity choices for yourself.

And not just productivity, but compassionate choices to help support and care for yourself while you're living in that house. So that's what compassionate productivity is to me. Okay, real talk. I'm gonna whip out another stuffy. Say, hi, stitch, and I'll love stitch. It's funny, because my business. I've been struggling in this business for particularly the last few months, and my lovely assistant and several of my wonderful clients, who I call students or muses, have been helping me try to understand at the core level what it is that I do and what my program, The Action Navigator, provides in order to speak to it better here on YouTube, and in order to choose topics here for my videos that resonate with the audience who would benefit the most from working with me.

The reason I am making this video today about compassionate productivity is first and foremost for all of you. But it's also me verbally processing what it is that I do and compassionate productivity for neurodivergence spoonies. That's it. That's what I do. And so while I may speak about related topics like how to deal with chronic fatigue, how to manage your energy levels, I may talk about my specific diagnoses.

Like I have talked about my POTS and my hEDS. I've talked about myths about chronic illness. I need to remember to always come back to the core, and that's about compassionate productivity and compassion in general so we can survive in our house, in that neighborhood, and maybe, just maybe, if our outside circumstances will allow it, shift into thriving as well. I am here to help you survive in that house, because I know how painful and terrifying and lonely it is to be in a crumbling house and not knowing how to survive if I can help just one other person survive in their house,

I've done what I have come here to do. And I've had so many students come through my program now, and they all have lifetime access. I don't put an expiration date on my program because I know how valuable it can be to have it there when things change. So I've had many students who I don't hear from for months, if not years, and then they come back.

And I've had so many students who have had life changing experiences in my program that means so much to me. Like, if you go back and watch my conversation with my student Maria, you'll see how she quite lovingly and maniacally makes me cry by giving me so many compliments. But it just means the world to me that I've been able to help so many people, and I need to stop being ashamed of putting myself out there and seeking more people that I can help.

Yes, I, too, am over here in a house that's (not) up to code, in a toxic neighborhood that's just trying to survive. I know that what I offer is valuable. I know that it can change lives. I have a right and an obligation to get my work in front of the people who can benefit from it. So that's what's been going through my head. All of that to say, if you too are in a crumbling house in an awful neighborhood, I see you you are not alone.

Even if I'm not the right person to help you, there is somebody out there who is the right person or persons to help you. Please don't give up. And if anything that I've said today resonates with you, I would highly recommend going to this link to learn more about my program, The Action Navigator. As I said, it's a lifetime access program and that means if you join now, you would automatically and at no additional charge, get access to version two when it eventually comes out.

I am slowly but steadily making progress on that. I'm very excited and also I offer a sliding scale. So many online courses out there are at a completely inaccessible price point. While I understand that people have the right to charge what they charge, and I have been told time and time again that I technically do not charge enough for what I do, I don't want money to be the only thing standing between you and getting the help you need and deserve.

I offer a sliding scale which includes a Pay What You Can tier. I've literally had someone join for $2 before. But there are those who come through my program who have the financial means to support me at a really high price point. So sliding scale. Don't be afraid. Yeah. If you're interested in learning how to spend your precious time and energy the way you want need to to survive in your house and to truly, truly learn self compassion, you've come to the right place.

If you're still here, thank you so much for spending some of your precious time and energy on me. I know, I know what that means. So thank you. And if you want to hang out with me some more, here's some more videos that you can check out. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get to meet you inside my program someday. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or evening wherever you are, and I look forward to meeting you.