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

by Ali Abdaal

At the end of my hardest day yet, I felt completely underwater. And then from nowhere, I remembered some words of wisdom from my old tutor, Dr Barclay. ‘If the treatment isn’t working, question the diagnosis.’

Did I have to trade my health and happiness for, well, anything? It would take me a few months. But I was stumbling my way to a revelation: that everything I’d been told about success was wrong.

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.

Feeling good improve 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.

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.

Feeling good counters anxiety

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

Life is stressful. Play makes it fun.

Their conclusion: an adventurous life holds the key to unlocking positive emotions.