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

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.

The children who were asked to imagine themselves as superheroes or other characters exhibited significantly better self-control, focus and perseverance than those in the other two groups. This finding highlights the potential of the Batman effect as a tool for overcoming our fears of failure – and in turn overcoming our procrastination. When we em

the relationships between living authentically day-to-day and overall wellbeing. Her findings showed not only a positive relationship between authenticity and wellbeing, but also between authenticity and what she called ‘engagement’. It amounted to a striking discovery. When people make decisions that align with their personal values and sense of s

Commander’s intent, as outlined in the Field Manual, consists of three crucial components – all built around the basic point of the mission: The purpose behind the operation The end state that the commander was aiming for The key tasks that the commander felt should be taken to accomplish the objective

Think of time blocking as a budget for your time. Just like you allocate your income to different categories like rent, groceries, entertainment and savings, you allocate your 24 hours to different activities. And just like monetary budgeting can give you financial freedom, time blocking can give you time freedom.

Mochary calls his principle the ‘bias to action’. He recognises that the time spent together with clients is precious (for both him and them), and merely contemplating deep thoughts without turning them into actionable steps would be a waste. We need clear, concrete steps to take, rather than distant, abstract goals. Otherwise we might do nothing a

According to recent neuroscientific research, even when we’re ‘doing nothing’, our brains are still active. In particular, there’s a region of the brain called the ‘default mode network’ (DMN) that governs the strange places our absent minds go to. The DMN helps us to recall memories,7 to daydream and to imagine the future. And it becomes more acti

feeling good doesn’t just end with feeling good. It actually changes our patterns of thought and behaviour.

These studies, and countless others, prove something that most of us instinctively know to be true: when we’re stressed, we’re less likely to be playful. And our creativity, productivity and wellbeing tend to suffer too.

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.