Book 2 Post 2: Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal

 WRIT340 Book 2 Post 2

As I conclude my reading of Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal, I find myself reflecting on both my personal growth and shift in mindset since starting this book. When I first picked up this book, I felt that my productivity came at the expense of living a balanced life. I felt as though I was not using my time effectively, leading me to lose sleep, feel anxious, and miss out on doing things I love. In my rare bursts of “productivity,” it felt as though I was working in a pressure cooker, with high stakes and low rewards. Even though I was doing all my work on time and performing well on exams, I didn’t feel accomplished at the end of it… only glad that it was over.

In reading Abdaal’s work, I started to realize that productivity (and a balanced life) are achieved not through “hard work” alone, but rather through a proactive approach to life. A proactive approach encompasses a clear breakdown of priorities, the creation of specific and actionable goals, and a heightened sense of situational and self-awareness. These three core elements of living a proactive life are my primary takeaways from reading Feel-Good Productivity as they are actively influencing my everyday life.

Over the last month, I’ve taken time to prioritize doing things that bring me joy and indirectly boost my productivity! In my last post, I wrote about how Feel-Good Productivity explains that people who “feel good” are generally more productive than those who feel tired or are in a bad mood. Since my previous reflection, I have made a conscious effort to notice how my own mood affects my productivity. When I catch myself scrolling through social media or laying in bed too long in the morning, I take a step back to reflect on why I am distracting myself from the various goals and objectives that I have set for myself that day. Through constant reflection, I realized that it was the quality of my mood from the day prior or hours earlier that was indirectly contributing to my lack of productivity. This lack of productivity would snowball into an even worse mood because I would then feel even more time pressure and exhaustion at late night hours to complete work that I had been delaying. 

Since this realization, I have been writing down specific actionable goals and reviewing them both morning and night to keep myself motivated in my productivity. Additionally, I have been rewarding myself for successfully completing all my goals in one day. These rewards may be as simple as a coffee or a smoothie, but I have been making a conscious effort to provide myself with momentum to keep my mood high and my resulting productivity even higher. Additionally, I have been actively making an effort to sleep sooner. Even on days when I find myself procrastinating or delaying my work, I make a point to myself to sleep an hour sooner than I normally would. I find myself making gradual progress to achieving healthy sleep levels each day. As my sleep continues to improve each day, I find myself in a better mood and more productive throughout the following days. 

Aside from my personal growth and increased productivity since my last post, I am continuing to work on my personal development using skills I learned in my continued reading of Feel-Good Productivity. 

One new method I hope to include in my daily life is Ali Abdaal’s two-minute rule: any task that would take longer than 2 minutes should be written down on a list to make its completion more manageable. I find this rule particularly helpful because I often find myself balancing a wide range of goals and priorities which feel overwhelming to even think about. Writing all these goals down and checking them off one by one makes it easier to not only complete these goals and not forget about any important tasks, but it also makes the combined workload feel less overwhelming because I am not forced to juggle all of these tasks in my head. Instead of subconsciously trying to distract myself from thinking about all of these obligations, I find myself tackling each of them individually and wasting less time throughout the day. 

While I have now completed my reading of Feel-Good Productivity, I find myself continuing to reflect on my reading and taking actionable steps each day to not only be more productive but also feel good about the work that I am doing. Using the strategies and philosophies discussed in this book continues to help me live a more balanced life and be productive without sacrificing my sleep or well-being. Overall, I highly recommend this book and believe it is a great read.