A Story For Productivity And Better Personal Development
Before A Story
I am a “book person”, I really like reading books, as long as the topic interests me, I’ll read it, from novel books to science. I’ve gained much new knowledge from reading, whatever it is. I’m reading about personal development, software engineering (I’m a software engineer though), financial, business, even religion, and philosophy.
Whatever the book talks about, they have the same characteristics, they have stories to tell. Not just for novels, but even for science and financial books also same, they also share stories with their audience but maybe in different forms.
For example, do you know this book?
It’s really a nice book, and I really recommend it to you if you want to learn or gain some financial advice. Before read this book, I thought that everything related to money or financial, it will always be about numbers and metrics, and I was wrong. The book shares a story about how people feel and act when they deal with money.
I have been interested in the concept of “storytelling” for a long time, but at that time I thought that “storytelling” only applied to entertainers, content creators, or a novelist.
I thought that “storytelling” would not have any impact on a profession that needs clear and strong logic like a software engineer, civil engineer, doctor, etc.
I thought that “storytelling” was used only to tell a “myth”, folklore, an urban legend, etc.
And I was wrong.
The StoryTeller Secret
When I have an interest in something, I will have high curiosity about that thing. And one of them is about the “storyteller”. When I’m learning this thing through the net, I find this book, buy it, and read it. And I don’t regret reading this book.
It just opened my eyes and gain more knowledge about a lot of things behind “storytelling”. One of the things that I’ve learned is about the relationship between the story and neuroscience.
In 2010, Princeton University researcher, Uri Hasson, delivered a paper that resulted in an important study about the power of stories.
Hasson recorded the brain activity of a person telling a real-life story. Hasson then measured the brain activity of people that listening to the story and also scanned the brains of people resting, without hearing a story.
When telling a story, the brains of both the speaker and the listener showed remarkable patterns of activity in exactly the same areas.
The two people were engaging in “neural coupling”, having a mind meld. The coupling only occurred when the speaker was telling a story to the listener in a language familiar to the listener.
And one secret that I’ve learned from this book is
Inspiring leaders tell personal stories to bring their vision to life. They’ll pour their hearts out because they know that a group of people who share a collective passion around a common purpose can accomplish anything.
Storytelling For Productivity & Personal Development
I’m a person that always asks about my current state. I’m always curious how to improve myself, or in my profession as a software engineer, I’m always curious about how to improve my codes, knowledge, my system, or something like that, including my productivity.
After learning about storytelling, I want to experiment with it for my productivity, and I can tell you that it works.
Before, I just used a to-do list concept, like others, to maintain my tasks. Just set what kind of tasks I need to finish, work on it, check the mark, and do it. But somehow, I’ve just felt something missing.
Then I decided to start with the story. I’m using a note-taking app now, which is a LogSeq, and I’ve been writing my story about it.
For me, journaling and storytelling are really a great combination that brings great results for my personal life and productivity. Every day, I write (or journal) about what I want to do today and I also always recap or evaluate my day, before I go to sleep.
At the what i want todo today? , I write what kind of story of journey that I want to pass through it.
This is an example of my “story”
Yes, I still maintain and keep my to-do list, I’m not saying that I’ll throw it away totally. What I want to say is my to-do list as a part of my story or journey.
When you want to do something in your daily life, ask yourself, what is the story behind all of your tasks. Why do you need to work on them? What are their impacts on you?
When you have a story behind your tasks, you’ll gain more motivation to work on it without the need to feel intimidated by your tasks. Sometimes people work on their tasks because they have to without knowing why they have working on it or without knowing what the impacts on them are.
When you start your day, start it by journaling, ask yourself, what kind of story you want to read in the end of your day.
A story will give you a context around your tasks, you’ll need this context to boost your productivity.
Be Authentic and Honest For Your Stories
Please do not sell a false story. A story that felt like a real-life story that was constructed to manipulate people. A true and real-life story will inspire and motivate others, but a false real-life story will manipulate others too.
People who want to motivate others will have different stories. Their stories are about their journey, a real journey that they have been through. They share their stories to give hope to others who may face the same struggle as them. A person who has a real-life journey and stories will keep act based on their beliefs.
People who want to manipulate others, don’t have a journey, just like common bosses, they just want others to do something for them. They will try to construct different stories and always try to improve them. They have many stories, but with the same purpose, they just want to manipulate others to do something for them.
How do you know the differences between them? The answer is simple, you just know.
