The Productivity Project: Proven Ways to Become More Awesome

by Chris Bailey

although pretty much every study has shown that it’s disastrous for your productivity, we all still strive to do it. Why? Because multitasking feels amazing.

Work is simply more fun and stimulating when you multitask—even though when

It’s an incredible thing when you train your brain to conquer itself.

research shows that your brain releases about as much dopamine when you eat two cheeseburgers as when you have an orgasm.)

There is a chemical in your body and brain called “adenosine,” which tells your brain when it’s tired. Caffeine prevents your brain from absorbing this chemical, which prevents your brain from knowing it’s tired.

Be careful about drinking caffeine before working on a creative task, because caffeine has been shown to hurt your performance with tasks that involve creativity.

Exercise has even been shown to boost your mood and build cells in brain regions damaged by depression.

Doing extra work is easier and more stimulating than exercising, and you feel less guilty doing it.

Exposing yourself to more natural light during the day has also been shown to help you sleep—and also boost your productivity. One study found that when call center employees sat near a window, they processed calls 12 percent faster than everyone else!

Sleep is one of the best and simplest ways of exchanging your time for energy.

Investing in your productivity is a worthwhile goal, but life is too short to not be kind to yourself in the process.

One of my favorite ways to become more productive when I’m facing a challenge is to ask myself for advice.

the main thing that separates successful people from unsuccessful people is whether or not they feel their intelligence and abilities are fixed.

Of all the people you talk to regularly, there isn’t one person you talk to more than yourself.

These are harsh words, and if I talked to my friends the way I talked to myself, I doubt I’d have any friends left.

Without people around me, my motivation to get work done plummeted. The research backs this up; two studies found that deeper office friendships boost your job satisfaction by about 50 percent, and that you are seven times as likely to be highly engaged at work when your best friend works at the same place.

Over the course of my project, I found that the best attitude to have with productivity is an odd one: to never be satisfied—but to continually find ways to cultivate happiness. Luckily, productivity, when done right, isn’t only one of the keys to happiness—happiness is one of the keys to productivity. The kinder you are to yourself as you become more productive, the more productive you will become.

The difference between them and everyone else—and between the corporate vice president and the employees who work for her—isn’t how much time they have every day. It’s that they know how to effectively manage their time, attention, and energy, and constantly make an effort to spend each more deliberately.