Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You

by Ali Abdaal

An approach that focused on my wellbeing first, and used that wellbeing to drive my focus and motivation second. An approach I would come to refer to as feel-good productivity.

feeling good doesn’t just end with feeling good. It actually changes our patterns of thought and behaviour. I now learned that the study had become the cornerstone of a wave of research exploring the way positive emotions affect many of our cognitive processes. It showed that when we’re in a positive mood, we tend to consider a broader range of actions, be more open to new experiences, and better integrate the information we receive. In other words, feeling good boosts our creativity – and our productivity.

According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions ‘broaden’ our awareness and ‘build’ our cognitive and social resources. Broaden refers to the immediate effect of positive emotions: when we’re feeling good, our minds open up, we take in more information, and we see more possibilities around us.

Positive emotions are the fuel that drives the engine of human flourishing.

Step one is feeling better. Step two is doing more of what matters to us.

This is the ‘undoing hypothesis’: that positive emotions can ‘undo’ the effects of stress and other negative emotions. If stress is the problem, then feeling good might just be the solution.

Success doesn’t lead to feeling good. Feeling good leads to success. Put simply: success doesn’t lead to feeling good. Feeling good leads to success.

The Collector loves to gather and organise, enjoying activities like searching for rare plants, or rummaging around in archives or garage sales. The Competitor enjoys games and sports, and takes pleasure in trying their best and winning. The Explorer likes to wander, discovering new places and things they’ve never seen, through hiking, road tripping and other adventures. The Creator finds joy in making things, and can spend hours every day drawing, painting, making music, gardening and more. The Storyteller has an active imagination and uses their imagination to entertain others. They’re drawn to activities like writing, dance, theatre and role-playing games. The Joker endeavours to make people laugh, and may play by performing stand-up, doing improv, or just pulling a lot of pranks to make you smile. The Director likes to plan, organise and lead others, and can fit into many different roles and activities, from directing stage performances to running a company, to working in political or social advocacy. The Kinesthete finds play in physical activities like acrobatics, gymnastics and free running.

Curiosity doesn’t simply make our lives more enjoyable. It also allows us to focus longer.

No failure is ever just a failure. It’s an invitation to try something new.

Seriousness is overrated. If you want to achieve more without ruining your life, the first step is to approach your work with a sense of play.

There are three ways you can incorporate the spirit of play into your life. First, approach things with a sense of adventure. When you step into the right ‘play personality’, every day abounds with opportunities to see life as a game, filled with surprises and side quests.

Feeling confident about our ability to complete a task makes us feel good when we’re doing it, and helps us do it better.

Believing you can is the first step to making sure you actually can.

There are three ways you can increase your sense of power, starting now. Begin with confidence. We think our confidence is fixed, but actually it’s extremely malleable. So why not try ‘flipping the confidence switch’ – and playing the role of someone who’s already filled with self-belief?

We get procrastination wrong. All too often, we approach procrastination by treating the symptoms rather than the underlying causes. And all too often, those causes relate to our mood: when we feel bad, we achieve less. So the unblock method is about establishing what’s really blocking your good mood – and finding a way to eliminate it. The first emotional barrier is the simplest: uncertainty. The solution? To gain clarity about what you’re actually doing. That involves asking ‘why?’ and then using this to figure out your ‘how’.

Getting to know our fears is the first step towards overcoming them.

Make a start. You won’t need to get perfect for a long time yet.

No one cares if my first few YouTube videos are terrible and cringey. No one cares if I write blog posts that are a bit rambly because I haven’t had much experience of writing. No one cares if I show up to this salsa dancing class as a total beginner without a partner. No one cares if my belt doesn’t match my shoes when I attend this party. The mindset of ‘no one cares’ can be totally transformative. It’s one of the simplest methods I’ve identified to reduce my anxiety-related procrastination.

You can focus on the small losses. Or you can celebrate the small wins.

The greatest cause of burnout isn’t exhaustion. It’s low mood. If you can make yourself feel better, you won’t just achieve more – you’ll last longer, too. Our first kind of burnout arises from overexertion. The solution: do less. There are three ways to do less in practice. The first is to stop yourself from overcommitting. Limit the list of projects you’re working on and get comfortable with saying ‘no’. Ask yourself: if I had to pick only one project to put all my energy into, what would that be? The second way is to resist distraction. Ask yourself: can I uninstall social media apps on my phone so that I can access them only through my web browser? How can I correct course and restart if (or, more realistically, when) I get distracted?

By doing less today, you can do more of what matters to you tomorrow.

Miyake’s intervention was a classic values affirmation exercise. Every student was shown a list of twelve possible values: Being good at art Creativity Relationships with family and friends Government or politics Independence Learning and gaining knowledge Athletic ability Belonging to a social group (such as your community, racial group or school club) Music Career Spiritual or religious values Sense of humour

Values affirmations make our most abstract ideals real. And they boost our confidence along the way.