How to be 31% more Productive
Do you enjoy good TED talks about productivity like me? Here is one I found interesting for multiple reasons:
In this video Shawn Achor is speaking about his studies on how keeping your brain in a positive state makes you more productive.
Well designed talk! — me
First of all, you will notice that Shawn starts his talk with a story from his childhood. The story itself is ok, but the way he tells it to you is hilarious. This makes me want to watch the rest of the talk. Cleverly he applied story telling and humour to make his talk more interesting. Further down the video he is sprinkling even more smile-inducing pieces. I was always thinking “What a well designed Talk!”.
A positive brain is 31% more productive
But now back to the happiness and productivity part. I realised watching this that all the tricks and listicles on productivity (x things you can do to boost productivity, etc.) you find on the internet, like this one I have written myself won’t help you much, if you have constantly negative thoughts. Even worse, if you try to be happy by productively achieving something, you will have a hard time. You need to think positively in the first place to be productive. Then those hacks as mentioned above can be truly effective.
And who hasn’t experienced the effect on your work, when you are happy and super positively thinking? You are more resilient, more creative and willing to learn difficult things. You simply become better at anything you do!
But thats obvious, everybody knows instinctively that positive thinking is more productive than neutral or negative thinking!
You probably think, that this not a secret or even clever trick. But how often did you find yourself trying to get something done while being annoyed, angered or utterly unhappy about something? Have you realized that you are thinking negatively at the moment and have you done something proactively against it? If you are like me, you feel sometimes trapped in your emotions.
Luckily there are many ways you can be proactive and train your brain to be positive. Shawn lists a few methods. For example for every day in total 21 days think of 3 new things you are grateful for. Or keep a journal in which you save at least one positive experiences per day and relive it.
Make positive thinking a habit.
By doing these exercises, your brain gets into a habit of thinking in a positive way. And slowly you drop the bad habit of being negative.
So, next time you find yourself going the wrong direction, being in your own way and wasting time, pause for a moment. Remember good experiences, think what you are grateful about, do some exercise, etc. Inject some positive thinking and reboot the task.
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— by Eduard Metzger, creator of NotePlan
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If you are a into productivity apps, you will like this:
