📖 Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal
Topic: Productivity | Medium: Audible | Rating: 4/5
Notes
1. Energise - Play, Power, People
- Play a personality e.g., creator, storyteller, director, kinesthetic.
- Create side quests. e.g. - review your calendar and see how it could change - work in a new spot or use new software.
- For a boring task ask yourself - “what would it look like to be fun?” E.g. music
- How can I approach this work with a little seriousness and more sincerity?
- Focus on the process not the outcome.
- Reframe failure as successes in new data points.
- Create a sense of adventure.
- Lower the stakes (we tend to catastrophize).
- Comrade mindset.
2. Unblock - Seek Clarity, Find Courage, Get Started
- Ask yourself why 5 times when stuck on a task to determine whether you should do a task. Then ask what?
- Inertia - easier to keep going than start.
- 5-minute rule - just work on it for a bit to trick your brain.
- Advice from a billion-dollar mentor - what are the next 1-3 actions?
- Need to be clear and actionable.
- Bias towards action.
- What’s the next action step?
- Track progress - shows you are going in the right direction.
Accountability partner - increased sense of duty.
- Find a buddy with the same ambition.
- Accountablity relationship - disciplined, challenging, patient, supportive, constructive.
- Accountability process - regular meeting/check-in.
- Forgive yourself when not productive.
3. Sustain - Conserve, Recharge, Align
- Active investments list - time and energy.
- Hope, dreams, and aspirations list.
- Schedule breaks when you know you will get tired.
- Most productive workers - 52 mins work to 17 min break.
- Long-term future outlook - death-bed. Euology exercise.
- Medium-term future - what do you want to celebrate in 1 year? What do I need today to do this week?
- Short-term future - what 3 actions can do today to bring me in little step closer to how I want my life to look like in a year.
Adopt the mindset of a scientist! Hypothesise, test, and find out what works for you.