9 Provocative Productivity Tips That Work

We've all heard the standard productivity tips: get enough sleep, eat right, create a pleasant work environment, and so on. And it all really works. But today we will go in a different direction. He was prompted by a quote from an American speaker and author books "How to Work 4 Hours a Week" by Timothy Ferris: "To do the impossible, you have to ignore the popular."

1. surrender

We are constantly on a quest called Stay Productive or Stay Motivated. Japanese psychiatrist Shoma Morita considered this the wrong way to think about personal effectiveness.

Most of our achievements did not take place at all because we were somehow especially motivated. Contemporary Morita Therapy Practitioner James Hill reasonedO. Burkeman. The key to getting motivated: Give up / 99U like: “Is it true that we should overcome fear before jumping off a diving board and become more confident before asking someone out on a date? If that were true, we wouldn't have done anything like this."

Instead of looking for motivation, embrace all the negativity, fear, and dread that the task brings to you. Say to yourself, “Yeah, right now I’m not excited about working on it.” And then start acting without trying to change your own feelings and emotions.

2. procrastinate

Productivity experts usually advise you to focus on your most important task right in the morning. In real life, when we see this item at the top of our to-do list, we want to do anything but this.

The key is to give in to your reluctance to do the most important task. Instead, deal first with simple projects that do not cause discomfort. Thanks to this trick, the brain will begin to perceive easy tasks as more important, which means that it will be much easier for you to force yourself to take on the main thing. You will no longer be afraid of him.

3. work less

co-author books "Life at full power!" Tony Schwartz believes that working more is not an option, and offers another solution. Its essence is simple: distribute energy, not time.

If you start working less, you will have to think more about exactly what tasks you are directing your energies to.

4. Stop saying yes

This is the best way to take back control of your time. Of course, it is much more difficult to refuse than to agree. Therefore, you need an effective strategy that will help you defend your interests.

One of the most curious researchv. M. Patrick, H. Hagtvedt. “I Don’t” versus “I Can’t”: When empowered refusal motivates goal-directed behavior / Journal of Consumer Research on this topic showed that small details are important here. Instead of directly refusing, the authors asked participants to say "I can't do something" or "I don't do something" when faced with some kind of temptation under the conditions of the experiment.

As a result, those who said “I can’t eat chocolate” still chose a chocolate bar when they left the audience 61% of the time. And those who said “I don’t eat chocolate” took it only 36% of the time. Simply changing the wording helped participants make healthier choices.

There are two simple ways to say "no" easily:

• Decide ahead of time what you will and will not do. For example, "I don't drink" or "I stay up after midnight." This will make it easier to avoid any potential temptations.
• Take responsibility for the implementation of the decisions made. Write them down, tell family and friends about them, or hang them as a poster above your bed.

5. Get rejected

That's why it's time to stop being angry and disappointed. It is better to accept with open arms the cases when you are rejected and work on your reaction.

ExperimentRevenge of the nerds: Social rejection can “lead to imaginative thinking and strong independence” / Daily Mail, which was held at Johns Hopkins University, confirms this. The participants were divided into two groups. They were asked personality type questions and then told they might be considered for inclusion in a new research group. The participants returned two weeks later and were asked to complete several of the same tasks. Only the first group was announced before that that they had passed the selection, and the second - that they had not passed.

You may have already guessed what the result of the study was. Participants who were "rejected" performed better on the tasks than participants who "got" into the new group. At the same time, the most impressive successes were shown by those whom scientists described as “independents”.

According to study author Sharon Kim, rejection from society can inspire us to think imaginatively. This is especially evident among people with strong independence.

6. Use at least five social networks

Block social media in the workplace is not the best strategy for productivity. MonitoringSocial Media: Not the productivity killer you thought? / Inc. hundreds of Fortune 500 companies showed a correlation between social media usage and performance. Employees who were registered with more than five social networks had a 1.6% higher sales conversion rate than others.

Of course, correlation and causation are not the same thing. However, scientists are sure that people with a good knowledge of technology are not only much more productive, but also able to stay in one place of work longer.

The secret of such people is not at all in the number of social media accounts, but in the fact that they are more technologically savvy and think more about what motivates them to be productive.

7. Check email every morning

Productivity experts unanimously oppose wasting time checking Email. However, the most successful people in the world, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, start23 successful people who wake up really early / Business Insider morning from this.

Of course, it all depends on your position. You may not need to check your inbox early in the morning. But if it makes your life much easier, it is better not to give up such a habit.

8. Stop visualizing goals or sharing them with other people

We are often given this advice: “Write down your goals and hang them on the wall to look at and remember them every day!” Sounds good in theory. We see our desires, take responsibility for them, which means that we are much more likely not to stop halfway and get what we have planned.

According to researchers Heather Kappes and Gabriel Oettingen, this is not entirely true. They believe that positive fantasies about achieving success pump outH. b. Kappesa, G. Oettingen. Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology energy from ambition. The pleasant feeling that arises when we formulate a goal, tell others about it, or write it down, rather, reduces our chances of achieving it. This is because we involuntarily make our brain think that we have already achieved everything and that we can not make much effort.

Better to keep your plans to yourself. American writer and programmer Derek Sievers talked about this in detail during his speechesDerek Sievers: Keep your plans to yourself / TED / YouTube at the TED conference. And Lifehacker has article about the same.

9. Take on impossible tasks

According to American psychologist Robert Epstein, they put our brains in a state of shock. It's like going to the gym and trying to lift an incredibly heavy barbell over and over again.

When we overload our brain, it, almost like a muscle, “pumps up” and activates. "Normal" tasks start to seem incredibly easy, and we achieve much greater success. Impossible tasks are a great way to expand the capacity of the brain.