Ali Abdaal.  Feel-Good Productivity: How to do More of What Matters to You (2023)

In a paragraph

The secret to productivity isn’t discipline but joy.  Feeling good increases productivity by increasing energy and creativity and undoing stress.  Procrastination should be tackled by removing the blockers of uncertainty, fear and inertia.

Key points

• Feeing good boosts productivity.If increases energy and creativity and undoes stress.

• A virtuous cycle: feeling good generates energy which boosts productivity, which causes feelings of achievement, which makes us feel good.

• Key energisers are play, power and people.

• Rather than by increasing motivation or increasing discipline, procrastination should be tackled by removing the blockers of uncertainty, fear and inertia.

• Burnout should be tackled by avoiding overexertion, depletion and misalignment.

• Aim to be a ‘productivity scientist’ by experimenting with some of the 54 actionable ideas set out in the book and see what works for you.

Comments

This is a high-quality first book from the You-Tuber Ali Abdaal, with a particularly good audible narration by the author.

Under the main theme that being happy makes you more productive, and the subsidiary themes of getting energised and avoiding procrastination and burn out, the book discusses relevant studies and sets out a series of productivity ideas.   

The book has an unusually consistent structure.  After the introduction there are three parts, each with three chapters, and each chapter has three themes and six experiments (actionable ideas).  Throughout the book there is a similar mixture of material – stories, personal anecdotes, psychological studies and proposed strategies.

The author aims to take a scientific approach by basing his advice on psychological studies. It would have been helpful to have some comments on whether the studies reported have been affected by the replication crisis.

This isn’t an earth-shattering book, but it is well done, and its main idea, that happiness improves output, is important.  The book is full of good sense and should be widely useful.

Links

Book on Amazon UK

Feelgoodproductivity.com website, including author’s video.

Ali Abdaal website.

EXTRACTS

Introduction 

‘Merry Christmas, Ali. Try not to kill anyone.’ With these words, my consultant breezily hung up the phone, leaving me to handle an entire ward of patients alone.

Discipline was the only productivity system I knew. But I could make out the beginnings of an alternative approach. An approach that didn’t hinge on exhaustingly hard work, but on understanding what made hard work feel better. 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.

When presented with the candle problem, most people only consider the candle, the matches and the thumbtacks. But more innovative minds recognise the potential of the thumbtack box. In the late 1970s, psychologist Alice Isen used it as the basis for an influential experiment1 to study how mood affects people’s creativity. Those whose moods were subtly improved by the gift were significantly more successful in solving the candle problem.

Feeling good boosts our creativity–and our productivity. Step one is feeling better. Step two is doing more of what matters to us. Feeling good boosts our energy. Positive emotions are bound up with a set of four hormones –endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin–which are often labelled as the ‘feel-good hormones’. These feel-good hormones are the starting point of a virtuous cycle. When we feel good, we generate energy, which boosts our productivity. And this productivity leads to feelings of achievement, which make us feel good all over again.

Barbara Fredrickson developed 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 enriches your life. Individuals who frequently experience positive emotions aren’t just more sociable, optimistic and creative. They also accomplish more. Success doesn’t lead to feeling good. Feeling good leads to success. My radical notion that success doesn’t have to be tied to suffering.

My method has three parts, each of which tackles a different aspect of feel-good productivity. Part 1 explains how to use the science of feel-good productivity to energise yourself. It introduces the three ‘energisers’ that underpin positive emotions–play, power and people–and explains how to integrate them into your daily life. Next, Part 2 examines how feel-good productivity can help us overcome procrastination. You’ll learn about the three ‘blockers’ that make us feel worse–uncertainty, fear and inertia–and how to overcome them. When you remove these blockers, you won’t just overcome procrastination–you’ll feel better too. Finally, in Part 3, we’ll explore how feel-good productivity can sustain us in the long term. We’ll delve into the three different types of burnout–overexertion burnout, depletion burnout and misalignment burnout.

My hope is that you leave this book an amateur ‘productivity scientist’: finding some methods that work, discarding others, and working savvily to see what helps you feel good and achieve more. That’s why every chapter contains not only three simple, science-backed ideas you can use to rethink productivity–but also six ‘experiments’ that you can implement in your own life. The book provides a toolkit for applying feel-good productivity to your own work, relationships and life.

PART 1  ENERGISE

Chapter 1: Play

Feynman attributed his success to play. Life is stressful, play makes it fun. Approach the world with a sense of adventure. Choose Your Character. Embrace Your Curiosity.

‘You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.’ ‘What would this look like if it were fun?’ Create an environment that’s low-stakes and that fosters relaxation.

Reframe Your Failure. No failure is ever just a failure, it’s an invitation to try something new.

Don’t Be Serious, be Sincere. G. K. Chesterton: ‘In frivolity there is a lightness which can rise. But in seriousness is a gravity that falls, like a stone.’

Chapter 2: Power

Personal empowerment. It’s not something you seize from others – it’s something you create for yourself.

Self-efficacy refers to belief that we’re able to achieve our objectives. Ask yourself, ‘What would it look like if I were really confident at this?’ Visualise yourself confidently approaching the task at hand. The switch has been flipped.

Learning through doing, or by watching role models.

One Zen concept is the Japanese word shoshin, ‘beginner’s mind’ where we approach ever situation with the curiosity, openness and humility of a beginner.

‘He who teaches learns’. Older siblings may do better as they take on the role of teacher. You don’t need to be a guru, you can just be a guide.

According to self-determination theory, intrinsic motivation is substantially more powerful than extrinsic motivation. Lasting motivation comes from within. When people feel they have power over their own actions, they’re much more likely to be intrinsically motivated.

There’s almost always a way for us to own the process of a task, even when the outcome has been determined by someone else. Own Your Mindset. Wandering around with a frown and thinking, ‘Why do I have to do this?’ was a decision. And I could decide to think about it another way. ‘I choose to do this,’ I could tell myself. ‘I get to do this.’ Or even, ‘I’m blessed to do this.’ Viktor Frankl: ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’

Chapter 3: People

 You want to be around people who uplift your spirits and fill you with energy rather than energy vampires.  ‘Relational energy’

‘Simply feeling as if you’re part of a team of people working on a task makes people more motivated as they take on challenges.’ When the going gets tough, it’s better to have friends to lean on than enemies to lord it over. When we work in synchrony with other people, we tend to be more productive.

When we help others, our brains release a flood of chemicals that create a natural high.

By stopping what you’re doing and offering help to people at random, you can boost your endorphin levels and help yourself work harder. The ‘Benjamin Franklin effect’ – when we ask someone for help, it’s likely to make them think better of us.

Overcommunicating means deliberately going beyond the minimum you think is necessary, and consequently ending up sharing exactly the right amount.

‘A shared joy is a double joy; a shared sorrow is a half sorrow.’ Share positive news, and react to positive news in an energising way.

PART 2 UNBLOCK

Chapter 4: Seek Clarity

One of the strangest videos I’ve ever seen is called ‘How bad do you want it?’ The trouble with the motivation method is very simple. There are plenty of us who genuinely do want to do the things we struggle with. We feel like we’ve got enough motivation, but there are barriers that get in our way. Discipline is when we do stuff that we don’t feel like doing. It’s the opposite of motivation; it’s taking action despite how unmotivated you are. ‘To tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.’

While the motivation method advised us to make ourselves feel like doing the thing, and the discipline method advised us to ignore how we feel and do it anyway, the unblock method encourages us to understand why we’re feeling bad about work in the first place. When negative feelings like confusion, fear and inertia stand in our way, we put things off. This leads to even more bad feelings, and in turn even more procrastination. It’s a negative loop of low mood and stagnation.

The fog of uncertainty, uncertainty paralysis.

Whenever somebody in my team suggests we embark on a new project, I ask ‘why’ five times. The first time, the answer usually relates to completing a short-term objective. But if it is really worth doing, all that why-ing should lead you back to your ultimate purpose, as laid out in your commander’s intent.

SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, Time-related.  But can be corrosive.  My preferred method doesn’t involve fixating on an external outcome or destination, but instead emphasises the feel-good journey. It’s based on what I call NICE goals – Near-term, Input-based, Controllable, Energising. Goals that boost your energy and your feel-good productivity, but which don’t ruin your life if you fail to hit them.

Identify the big obstacles to your goal before they have derailed your plans. Implementation intentions.

 Time blocking is a fancy way of saying: ‘If you want to get something done, stick it in your calendar.’ But I’m not just talking about meetings; I’m talking about time for intensive work, time for admin, time to go for a run. You’re designing your life according to your priorities.  Think of time blocking as a budget for your time. And just like monetary budgeting can give you financial freedom, time blocking can give you time freedom. Level 1 is to time-block specific tasks you’ve been avoiding. Level 2 is time-blocking most of your day. Level 3 is time-blocking your ‘ideal week’.

Chapter 5: Find Courage

 When fear places a lock on our abilities, courage holds the key.

‘Affective labelling’. Put simply, it’s the act of putting your feelings into words, which forces you to identify and get to know the sensations you’re experiencing.

Sometimes, our fears are broader: less about specific problems, more about our wider identities. Labels become self-fulfilling prophecies. When I’m experiencing self-doubt, a favourite label for myself is ‘lifelong learner’ – which highlights my willingness to learn and grow.

The main goal of cognitive reappraisal is to shift our perspective on an event, thought or feeling, allowing us to experience a more positive emotional response. When we’re scared, we become paralysed. Ask whether this will matter in 10 minutes, 10 weeks or 10 years. Self-Confidence = Perception of Ability – Perception of Standards. Make a start, you won’t need to get perfect for a long time yet.

The ‘spotlight effect’. We’re highly attuned to what others think of us. This makes sense–as social creatures, our amygdala is always on the hunt for threats to our status. The spotlight effect can be reduced with a simple reminder that, well, no one cares.

The Batman effect as a tool for overcoming our fears of failure – and in turn overcoming our procrastination. When we embody the traits of a fearless, confident alter ego, we can tap into a reservoir of courage and determination.

Chapter 6: Get Started

As Newton recognised, it takes way more energy to get started than it does to keep going.  I like to think of the principle of inertia as a literal hump on a road.

The trick is to tweak your environment to make the thing you want to make a start on the most obvious, default decision. And, in turn, to make the things you don’t want to do the more difficult decision. CBA, or ‘can’t be arsed’. The five-minute rule is a simple but powerful technique that encourages you to commit to working on a task for just five minutes. ‘What’s the next action step?’

Track Your Progress. Your objective is to find ways to encourage yourself as you work towards your goals. Find an Accountability Buddy.

Procrastination isn’t something we can always control. Forgiving ourselves is something we can. You can focus on the small losses. Or you can celebrate the small wins. By accepting and forgiving our inevitable tendency to procrastinate–and celebrating the little victories instead–we can begin to conquer its hold over us.

PART 3  SUSTAIN

Chapter 7: Conserve

When you’re burned out, you feel overwhelmed and undermotivated. Overexertion, depletion and misalignment burnouts.

We say yes to things in the present, but in the long term, they’re going to grind us down. The Energy Investment Portfolio. List A is a list of all your dreams, hopes and ambitions. List B is a list of your active investments. When you find yourself weighing up whether to take on a new project or commitment, you’ve got two options–either ‘hell yeah’ or ‘no’.  Opportunity costs reflect the fact that every ‘yes’ we say is a ‘no’ to whatever else we could’ve been doing.

 The highest performers were those who occasionally switched between tasks, but didn’t go overboard. ‘Switching costs’. Failing with abandon is a common reason we waste vast amounts of energy – the key thing is getting back on course. Breaks aren’t a special treat – they’re an absolute necessity. Energising distractions.

Chapter 8: Recharge

 The ways we sabotage our feel-good emotions during our downtime. This difference between what we do automatically when we’re feeling drained and what would actually rejuvenate us shows that the ways we rest are rarely restful.

 CALM activities – creative, autonomy, liberty, mellow. The defining characteristic of a hobby is that it’s low stakes. Nature replenishes our cognitive abilities and boosts our energy. Take a walk. Let your mind wander – shower thoughts.  Do nothing.

Chapter 9: Align

The Pacific Crest Trail is not for the faint of heart. Spanning 2,650 miles of mountainous terrain in the western United States, it encompasses the entire length of America, from the deserts at the Mexican border to the mountains of north Washington. Practically all the hikers saw drops in intrinsic motivation during the marathon hike. This isn’t surprising–it’s hard to genuinely enjoy every step. The ‘relative autonomy continuum’ (or RAC): External Motivation, Introjected Motivation. Identified Motivation, Intrinsic Motivation.The hikers who motivated themselves by aligning their actions with what they truly valued who not only completed the trail–but also felt happiest at the end of it.

The long-term horizon.  The Eulogy Method. The Odyssey Plan: compare your current path, the alternative path, the radical path.

The medium-term horizon.  Values affrmations.  The Wheel of Life: three areas for Health (Body, Mind and Soul); three for Work (Mission, Money, Growth) and three for Relationships (Family, Romance, Friends). The 12-Month Celebration: write down what you’d want to tell your best friend about your progress in each of them.

The short-term horizon.  Each morning, simply choose three actions for the day ahead that will move you a tiny step closer to where you want to be in a year’s time.

Last Word: Think Like a Productivity Scientist

It’s only by adopting an experimental outlook that you can hope to learn the secrets of feel-good productivity. In this book, I’ve shared a few dozen experiments that worked for me. Some of them will work for you. Others won’t. And that’s ok. This book isn’t a to-do list. It’s a philosophy–a way of creating your own personalised productivity toolkit. If you can tap in to what makes you feel most energised and alive, you can get anywhere. And you can enjoy the journey too.