How to Achieve More While Working Less

Key Takeaways

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 I was a newly qualified Junior doctor and 3 weeks previously I'd made a rookie error forgetting to fill out a form to request the holidays off now here I was managing a hospital Ward on my own on Christmas Day things had started badly and rapidly got worse within minutes I was confronted by the day's first emergency a man in his 50s who had collapsed from a severe cardiac arrest and then one of the nurses informed me that a patient urgently needed a manual evacuation if you know you know at 10:30 a.m. I looked around the ward nurse Janice was sprinting up and down Corridor a in a panic on Corridor b a stubborn elderly patient was loudly demanding his misplaced Dentures Corridor C had been taken over by a drunken Exile from the emergency department shouting olive olive I never learned who Olive was and every minute somebody was making a new you demand Dr Ali can you check on Mrs Johnson's fever Dr Ali can you help with Mr sing's elevated potassium I soon found myself starting to panic Medical School hadn't prepared me for anything like this until then I'd always been quite an effective student whenever the going got tough my strategy was simple work harder it was a method that had got me into Medical School 7 years previously it had allowed me to secure a handful of Publications and academic journals it had even allowed me to launch a business while I studied discipline was the only produc system I knew and it worked except now it wasn't working since starting as a doctor a few months previously I'd felt like I was drowning even when I worked late into the night I couldn't see the number of patients or finish the paperwork that I needed to my mood was suffering too I'd enjoyed my medical training to be a doctor but I was finding the actual job utterly depressing constantly worrying that I might make a mistake that would kill someone I stopped sleeping friendships faded my family stopped hearing from me and I just kept working harder and now this Christmas day alone on a hospital Ward failing to get through my shift everything came to a head when I dropped a tray of medical supplies as I fonly looked down at my damp scrubs I realized I had to figure things out or my dream of becoming a surgeon would slip through my fingers that night I hung up my stethoscope grabbed a mince pie and opened my laptop I'd once been so productive I thought what had I forgotten during my first year at Medical School I'd become obsessed with the secrets of productivity I'd stayed up night after night making notes on hundreds of Articles blog posts and videos promising the key to Optimal Performance all the gurus emphasized the importance of hard slog a Muhammad Ali quote came up a lot I hated every minute of training but I said don't quit suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion as Christmas turned to boxing day I stayed up pouring over my old notes and wondered whether that was where I was going wrong did I just need to regain my old work ethic but when I returned to work the next day resolving to just do more it made no difference even though I stayed on the ward until midnight and even though I was reciting Muhammad Ali's line to myself during my toilet breaks I wasn't getting through my paperwork any quicker 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 Barkley if the treatment isn't working question the diagnosis slowly and then all at once I started to doubt all the productivity advice IID absorbed did success really require suffering 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 I couldn't hustle my way to becoming a good doctor working harder wasn't going to bring me happiness and there was another path to fulfillment one that wasn't lined with constant anxiety sleepless nights and a concerning dependence on caffeine I didn't have all the answers but for the first time I could make out the beginnings of an alternative approach an approach that focused on my well-being first and used that well-being to drive my focus and and motivation second an approach I would come to refer to as Feelgood productivity the surprising secrets of Feelgood productivity back in medical school my obsession with productivity had led me to tack on an extra year to earn a psychology degree as I started putting together the pieces of Feelgood productivity I remembered a study I'd been tested on one that involved a candle a book of matches and a box of thumbtacks picture yourself with these three objects before you your task is to stick the candle to the corkboard on the wall so that when it's lit the candle wax won't drip onto the table below you find yourself puzzling over the items turning them over in your hands can you think of the solution so when presented with this problem most people only consider the candle the matches and the thumbtacks but more Innovative Minds recognize the potential of the Thumbtack box the optimal solution to the puzzle involves viewing the Thumbtack box not just as a container but as a candle holder this is the candle problem a classic test of creative thinking first developed by Carl dunker and published posthumously in 1945 it has since been used in countless studies testing everything from cognitive flexibility to the psychological Fallout of stress in the late 1970s psychologist Alice e used it as the basis for an influential experiment to study how mood affects people's creativity is began by dividing her volunteers into two groups one group was given a small gift a bag of candy before facing the candle problem the other group started the task with no such incentive the theory went that those who were given the sweets would have a more positive mood when they tried to solve the puzzle Isen found something interesting those whose moods were subtly improved by the gift were significantly more successful in solving the candle problem when I first read about eisen's experiment during my psychology degree I found it interesting but not exactly transformative personally I'd never felt the overwhelming urge to stick a candle to a wall but coming back to it as a junior doctor I realized that eisen's Insight was quite profound it suggested that feeling good doesn't just end with feeling good it actually changes a p patterns of thought and behavior 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 one of the first people to explore how exactly this works was Barbara Frederickson a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fredericksen is one of the leading figures in positive psychology a relatively new branch of psychology that focuses on understanding and promoting happiness in the late 1990s fredericksen proposed what she called the broaden and build theory of positive emotions 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 consider the candle problem in a positive mood participants were able to see a broader range of potential Solutions build refers to the long-term effects of positive emotions when we experience positive emotions we build up a reservoir of mental and emotional resources that can help us in the future resources like resilience creativity problem solving skills social connections and physical health over time these two processes reinforce each other creating an upward spiral of positivity growth and success the the theory suggests a whole new way of understanding the role of positive emotions in our lives they're not just fleeting feelings that come and go without consequence they're integral to our cognitive functioning our social relationships and our overall well-being positive emotions are the fuel that drives the engine of human flourishing why feel-good productivity works when I first started learning about broaden and build I caught a glimpse of a different way of thinking about my life for years I thought that by simply hustling harder I could achieve the things I wanted if I wanted to be a good doctor the life ahead of me would be defined by grinding unrelenting work now I could see another way frederickson's Theory suggests that positive emotions change the way our brains operate Step One is feeling better step two is doing more of what matters to us but why I wondered the more I read the more I realized that the explanations have varied and in some cases remain unclear but scientists have started to home in on a few answers first feeling good boosts our energy most of us have felt an energy that's not strictly physical or biological one that doesn't come from sugar or carbohydrates but from a mix of motivation focus and inspiration it's the energy you feel when you're working on a particularly engrossing task or when you're surrounded by inspiring people this energy has many different names it's been labeled as emotional spiritual mental or motivational energy by psychologists zest Vitality or energetic arousal by neuroscientists but if researchers can't agree on what to name it they're agreed that it makes us focused inspired and motivated to pursue our goals so what's the source of this mysterious energy the short answer feeling good positive emotions are bound up with a set of four hormones endorphins serotonin dopamine and oxytocin which are often labeled as the feel-good hormones all of them allow us to accomplish more endorphins are often released during physical activity stress or pain and bring about feelings of happiness and diminished discomfort and elevated levels usually correlate with increased energy and motivation serotonin is connected to mood regulation sleep appetite and overall feelings of well-being it underpins our sense of contentment and gives us the energy to tackle tasks efficiently dopamine or the reward hormone is linked with motivation and pleasure and its release provides a satisfaction that allows us to focus for longer and oxytocin known as the love hormone is associated with social bonding trust and relationship building which enhances our capacity to connect with others boosts our mood and in turn impacts our productivity all this means that these Feld 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 second feeling good reduces our stress in addition to the broaden and build Theory Barbara fredericksen also developed what psychologists call the undoing hypothesis fredericksen and her colleagues were interested in decades of research showing that negative emotions cause the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol this isn't a problem in the short term it's the mechanism that motivates us to run from danger but if we experience these negative Sensations too often we become riddled with anxiety and our physical health suffers The Continuous activation of these hormones can even increase the risk of developing heart disease and high blood pressure not ideal Frederickson wondered about the flip side if negative emotions have these harmful physiological effects then perhaps positive emotions could reverse them might feeling good reset the nervous system and put the body into a more relaxed state to test this out fredericksen came up with a rather mean study researchers told a group of people that they had one minute to prepare a public speech that would be filmed and judged by their peers knowing that the fear of public speaking is practically Universal Frederickson hypothesized that this would Elevate the subject's levels of anxiety and stress and it did people reported feeling more anxious and experienced increases in heart rate and blood pressure next the researchers randomly assigned participants to watch one of four films two evoking mildly positive emotions the third neutral ones and the fourth sad ones and they then measured how long it took the participants to recover from the stress their findings were intriguing the participants who watched the positive emotion films took significantly less time to return to their Baseline state in terms of heart rate and blood pressure and those who watched the sadness evoking film took the longest time to return to Baseline 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 but but the final and perhaps most transformative implication of feel-good productivity goes well beyond any one task or project because third feeling good enriches your life in 2005 a team of psychologists read all the studies they could find on the complex relationship between happiness and success they delved into 225 published papers which involved data from over 275,000 individuals their question does success as we're often told make us happier or could it be the other way around the study offered hard evidence that we tend to get happiness wrong individuals who frequently experience positive emotions aren't just more sociable optimistic and creative they also accomplish more these people bring an infectious energy to their environment proving more likely to enjoy fulfilling relationships get higher salaries and truly shine in their professional lives those who cultivate positive emotions at work morph into better problem solvers planners creative thinkers and resilient go-getters their less trust attract higher evaluations from their Superior and show a higher degree of loyalty to their organizations put simply success doesn't lead to Feeling Good Feeling Good leads to success how to use this audiobook back in that first harrowing year as a doctor most of these discoveries were still years ahead of me I was working endless shifts and trying to shoehorn my productivity Research into the fleeting breaks between visiting patients but even the basic insights I uncovered were enough to cause a dramatic change in my relationship with work when I started to let go of my obsessions were discipline and focus instead on making work feel good my horrific shifts started to get easier soon my mood started to improve too I remember one appointment with an elderly patient a few months after I discovered Feelgood productivity you know doctor she said you're the first one in here who has smiled all week these New Perspectives wouldn't just alter my approach to being a doctor they would alter the direction of my life altogether for the first time in years I began to see the opportunities beyond the confines of my work my friendships my family and the other passions that had sidelined and I soon found myself wanting to share my Discovery for a few years I'd been running a YouTube channel on which I posted study tips and Technology reviews now I started sharing practical insights that I'd learned from Psychology and Neuroscience using myself as the guinea pig experimenting with everything I learned and the strategies I thought might work as my radical notion that success doesn't have to be tied to suffering started to gain traction I started to get more and more emails from my viewers high school students aced their exams business business owners doubled their income parents managed to balance work and family life better all by applying the strategies I was sharing even seasoned professionals worn out from the grind of corporate life were discovering fresh energy motivation and New Direction and so was I the more I read the more My Philosophy developed eventually by following the same principles and strategies I was learning about I realized that I wanted to take a break from medicine to pursue something new that's when I knew I had to write this book what's contained in this audio book isn't just another productivity system system to help you get more done at any cost it's about doing more of what matters to you it'll help you learn more about yourself what you love and what really motivates you my method has three parts Each of which tackles a different aspect of Feelgood productivity part one explains how to use the science of Feelgood productivity to energize yourself it introduces the three energizers that underpin positive emotions play power and people and explains how to integrate them into your daily life next part two examines how Feelgood productivity can help us over 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 three we'll explore how Feelgood productivity can sustain us in the long term we'll delve into the three different types of burnout overexertion burnout depletion burnout and a misalignment burnout and I'll explain how we can harness three simple sustainers conserve recharge and align to make us feel better not just for days and weeks but for months and years every chapter contains its fair share of practical tips but my goal in this book isn't to offer you some sprawling to-do list it's to offer you a philosophy a new way of thinking about productivity that you can apply to your own life in your own way my hope is that you leave this book an amateur productivity scientist as it were finding some methods that work discarding others and working Sly to see what helps you feel good and achieve more that's why every ch contains not only three simple science-backed ideas that you can use to rethink productivity but also six experiments that you can Implement in your own life if an experiment works for you great if it doesn't then that too is a helpful insight by the end of the book though you should have a toolkit for applying fuelgood productivity to your own work relationships and life I only hope it works as well for you as it has for me because if there's one thing I've learned by immersing myself in the science of Feelgood productivity it's that it applies in every sphere it turns daunting tasks into engaging challenges it leads to deeper connections with peers it drives meaningful interactions in what you do every day by understanding and applying what makes you feel good you won't just transform your work you'll transform your life feeli good productivity is a simple method but it changes everything it shows that if you've ever felt underwater you don't have to settle for staying afloat you can learn how to swim let's Dive In