Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Noticing your emotions and regulating your nervous system will help you develop what Susan David calls emotional agility, the ability to fluidly adapt and respond to your emotional experiences. When emotionally agile, you can navigate your emotional landscape effectively and prevent certain psychophysiological responses such as free-floating anxiety from holding you captive. You will be able to do your best work without sacrificing your well-being. • • • Your energy, executive function, and emotions are the three pillars of a fulfilling life—a life in which contributing to the wider world doesn’t come at the expense of your inner world. In summary, mindful productivity aims to answer three questions: Managing your energy: When is my magic window? Managing your executive function: What belongs in this window? Managing your emotions: How can I keep the window open? To manage your physical resources, use energy syncing to align your most demanding tasks with your daily energy peaks and block a weekly magic window for strategic work. For your cognitive resources, apply sequential focus to tackle one major task at a time, considering how your environment impacts your attention and off-loading worries to your notes so you can free up some working memory. For your emotional resources, practice conscious movement whenever you notice any signals of distress.