In recent trends, while the young generation grinds up to build productive habits in the hope of a better future in terms of career, they often choose a route that instead leaves them burned out.

For starters, a major cause of such burnout is individuals forcing themselves to build a certain habit simply because others are doing so. But as the normalization of competition has been carried on extensively across institutions, even for children just studying in high school, the cultural shift seems to put direct pressure on cultivating productive habits. Therefore, many students, including teenagers, are implicitly or explicitly coerced by peer pressure to participate in activities even when they are not interested in them.

It is as if not having socially considered productive habits means the individual is doing something odd – and so the trend carries on. Amidst all these factors, though, what is most important is for an average individual to know how to build up these habits in a way they will enjoy.

Although it might sound cliche, it is just to know why they are doing something. More often than not, individuals choose to do something because others are doing it. So, for example, an undergraduate business student may feel coerced into joining campus ambassador programs because their peers are doing so – not realizing that perhaps the program is not of their interest.

Many times, it is when they have signed up for a program and worked vigorously for it, after a certain period, they ask themselves why they have even signed up in the first place because maybe they are not enjoying the work. And because they do not know why they signed up for it, they are left with no driving force to enjoy the work left in their contract. And thus, for remaining everyday work within that contract, they feel suffocated, or at least not happy, and eventually inclined towards burnout.

Moreover, the expectation to be socially validated through social media celebration has become the metric for happiness. As a result, many choose to pursue activities that have more social media view counts and celebrations, even when they are not exactly interested in continuing down that path. Eventually, this results in a trickle-down effect that harms them because of unrealistic expectations they set for themselves from seeing others’ celebrations on the platform.

Especially regarding the culture of clubbing, individuals have often swayed away from its initial initiative as individuals prioritize their selfish interests. A high school club, for instance, that should aim for skill enhancement of critical thinking, public speaking, etcetera, may therefore end up in a power struggle of senior members – who gets the title of what executive post. Besides hindering the usual activity of the club, it also makes the entire experience worse for many.

What is most unsettling is that most of these activities are not being carried forward in the spirit of their intended meaning. In the vast majority of instances, an extracurricular activity’s purpose should be to develop skills or enjoy. Especially because these activities can be time-consuming and come at a massive trade-off, such practices have no scope to be taken lightly.

Given the purpose of these activities, in most cases, is to help themselves grow and create a profile for their future job application, it is also important to study the direct causation here. Although employers prefer candidates with extracurricular practices, it may be safe to presume that, in most cases, the preference tends to favour those who have garnered meaningful experience and have developed useful skills for themselves.

Moreover, individuals who engage in other part-time activities beyond their institutions are often caught in the trap of unpaid work that does not help them, but they end up being exploited. In cases where they can land meaningful work scope, it still, unfortunately, becomes challenging to balance academics and work-life, given the rigorous expectation and a general lack of willingness to accommodate the needs of individuals on all fronts.

However, there should be no denying that these activities are still an absolute must. Textbook knowledge alone is never adequate, and individuals must engage in activities beyond that for a better social and career life. It is just that individuals need to thoroughly think before signing up for something – where they need to confirm if they enjoy working and whether there is a balance of that enjoyment to other growths necessary for their future life.

Written by Ahmad Tousif Jami