Rethinking Productivity

Productivity sounds like a compliment until you notice what it is taking from you. I am Naomi Mills, chiropractor and healthcare professional, and I want to ask a sharper question than “What have you done today?”: is your health paying the price for your productivity?

We start with a simple story about a fisherman and a businessman that exposes a modern mindset trap: working harder and harder to earn a future you can enjoy, while your nervous system struggles to cope in the present. I share how running a busy family chiropractic practice looked successful from the outside, but came with warning signs in my body, from sleep and mood to skin, digestion, and the constant feeling of pressure. When we do not pause to reflect, we can normalise stress and miss the cost until it becomes burnout.

From there, we get practical. We talk about clues that you are overriding your needs, including numbing behaviours like scrolling, shopping, comfort eating, and filling every quiet moment because “just being” feels uncomfortable. I explain why living in fight or flight blocks the thriving work your body wants to do, including repair, resilience, and long-term wellbeing. You will also hear about simple resources on my website to help you spot signs of nervous system overwhelm.

My favourite takeaway is a tool called ‘Your Many Hats’, a quick way to reveal the invisible work you are carrying and decide what to keep, what to drop, and what to outsource. Less doing is not laziness. It can be the most effective health strategy you make.

If this resonates, subscribe, share the show with someone you care about, and leave a review so more people can find their way back to their body too.

Transcript

Welcome And The Body’s Wisdom

Naomi Mills 0:01

Welcome to You Are the Answer, the podcast that helps you reconnect with the most powerful healer you know, your own body. I'm Naomi Mills, chiropractor, healthcare professional, and believer in the natural intelligence within us all. In this podcast, I explore what it means to trust your body, decode its signals, and take ownership of your well-being without quick fixes or health fads. Whether you're just beginning your journey or deep in transformation, I'm here to guide you back to the truth. You are not broken. You are the answer. Thank you so much for joining me.

Rethinking Productivity With A Story

Naomi Mills 0:51

And we are getting right into our mindset series at the moment, and today we're rethinking productivity. So there's a classic tale that I am going to abbreviate for you now. And it's the tale of a fisherman who's in a beautiful island sat at the beach catching his fish for the day. And a businessman out on holiday approaches him and he asks the guy what he's doing. And he's like, Yeah, I'm just catching a fish, and then I'll go and meet my wife, and we'll have a walk, and then I'll go and hang out with my friends and play some music. And the businessman cannot understand why this is how the man is choosing to spend his days. And he tries to educate him on good business, on how the man can catch more fish, and maybe get more men from the village involved until he has a boat, and then perhaps a fleet of boats, and then maybe a canning factory, so he can create all of this wealth in his life so that if he does really well, when he retires, he can sit by the beach, catch a fish, maybe go for a walk with his wife, and later hang out with his friends. And the fisherman just looks up at him and thinks and says, you know, that's what I'm doing.

When Success Starts Costing Health

Naomi Mills 2:18

One of the best books I read over the last couple of years is a book called Die With Zero. And it really challenges our cultural idea of productivity, that we just need to work harder and faster for more and more and more. And my own life kind of reflects that fisherman's tale because for almost 10 years I owned and ran one of the busiest family chiropractic practices in the East Midlands. We had 10 employees, we had multiple rooms, we were helping many hundreds of people every week. But what I came to realize was the cost I was paying personally for this very fun and outwardly successful life was my own health. I was short-tempered with people, I didn't sleep great, my skin wasn't good, my digestion wasn't happy, I felt under pressure, and I was really not savoring the everyday. And the problem is you're not even often consciously aware of that until you take the time and the space to reflect. And I know I certainly wasn't, which is why I did it for 10 years.

Clues You Are Overriding Needs

Naomi Mills 3:43

So the question I want to ask you, or the question I want you to ask yourself today, is is your health paying the price for your productivity? You might already have a very visceral response to that. But here are where some clues might be showing up. It might show up in how much you are doing a process that we call numbing. So you might be spending your downtime shopping, scrolling, it might be eating, just watching television, finding it difficult to just be. What have you done today? This kind of tick list. And don't get me wrong, I love a list. I love ticking things off it, but I'm also aware of when being productive is costing me my health. And that's all anything about the you are the answer work is about is the noticing, it's the awareness. There are always gonna be go times, and there also needs to be slow times. And the only way you will change how you approach productivity and therefore change everything about how your nervous system is working and how you are experiencing life is just bringing awareness to it and trying to leave the judgment behind, but the awareness of when you are being overproductive to a point that's costing you.

Fight Or Flight Versus Thriving

Naomi Mills 7:54

So I have some free resources on the You Are the Answer website. These are very simple graphics you can look at, literally like tick boxes, of these are all the physical or symptoms, if you like, signs of my nervous system being in overwhelm or being in fight-flight, of it not working for me. Well, it's always working for you, but it's working to keep you alive, like in a survival-y way, rather than the thriving way, which is the cellular repair, the resilience, the strong immune system, all the good stuff, this the longevity stuff. The body can't do the longevity stuff when it's in that we need to make it through this moment phase. And all too often we're living in that we just need to make it through today, and then today, and then today. And where does the long-term repair come, the long-term reset, the stuff that's going to keep you fit and active and healthy in all your future decades? And productivity is a really big issue for most of us. There's

Your Many Hats And Letting Go

Naomi Mills 9:10

also a tool on the website called the Your Many Hats, and it's one of my favorite tools because, and you can download it and use it, or you can just get yourself a blank piece of paper, or even start thinking about it now. What are all the roles that you're taking on in your life? Because you're not just a friend or a parent or a child, and you're probably many of these things, a colleague, a boss, whatever. But are you also the one that plans the food shop and does the cleaning or takes responsibility for the pets, does the insurances? There's a lot of invisible work that goes on in a in any household that's just planning and life admin. What hats are you wearing? So many hats. And the more you become aware of this, the more you will be aware. Are you the one that puts the bins out? Like, what are all the different things that you take responsibility for in your life? And you can end up with this great big messy piece of paper with all of these things on it. And it really is a reflection of your productivity in a way. And then what you do is you look at that, first of all, to have an appreciation for what you're carrying. It's really good to do this with your partner as well if you have one, because you get a better sense of what that person is also carrying, and then you get to go through and ask yourself, what hats do I want to keep? Which do I want to drop completely? Because trust me, there are things in your life you are doing and being responsible for that you certainly don't need to be, and perhaps really don't want to be. So those are the ones you can let go, and then which are the ones that you can outsource? And it might be that you asking somebody else or even paying somebody else to do something brings you back so much more space and time that's going to really make an impact on your health. So, a really simple example of that for me is having a cleaner. It's not a luxury, it's not, you know, nice to have. For me, it's essential because the three hours a week that it takes to clean my home, which is important for my mental well-being and and as well as our physical well-being to live in a nice clean home. I don't want to be the one doing that because it costs me some of the only hours I'll have in the week to connect with my family or to just be and to respond to whatever my needs are that week. And so I choose with joy to employ somebody else to do that so that I have that time. And that time is really not spent then so I can work more, I can do more. That's the time that I can be more, be more present with myself and with my family. Because that's how I have the capacity to not be short-tempered. It's how I sleep better at night, it's how my digestive system works better, it's how my body heals and repairs, and my heart rate stays low and my muscle tone is relaxed. It's about far more than perhaps what you have given it credit for.

Less Doing More Being And Close

Naomi Mills 12:36

So when everything comes back to this mind-body connection, to your central nervous system, to keeping yourself regulated and safe and cared for, these are the compelling reasons why less productivity has an equal, if not more important, payoff of a healthier, more regulated, happier you. And there is only one you, and you really, really deserve to choose what you're going to do with joy and release what you're not going to. And if this really resonates with you, go back if you haven't already and listen to the last couple of episodes on boundary settings, on pushing through, and all of these mental processes that are really affecting your health, your well-being, and how you experience life. And of course, join me next episode because we are going to keep delving into mindset. We're going to be talking about your circle of control, really interesting one, and projection carrying emotions that aren't yours. So I will look forward to speaking with you next week. Thank you for joining me on You Are the Answer. If today's episode sparked something in you, share it with someone you care about and leave a review to help others find their way back to their body too. For more tools, inspiration, and resources to support your journey, head to www.uareanswer.co.uk. And until next time, stay connected, stay curious, and remember, you are the answer, and you always have been.