5 Things I Learned From Feel-Good Productivity
Ali Abdaal's latest book, Feel-Good Productivity, is packed with productivity exercises, but the big idea underneath all of them is simple. The most productive way to be productive is to feel good. Hard to argue with that.
The book breaks everything down into three categories: Energise, Unblock and Align. Each one splits into sub-categories, and each of those gives you six exercises to try. I went through the lot, so here are my top five takeaways.
The Magic Post-it Note 🎈
Ali got the idea from, of all things, "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. Every job has an element of fun in it somewhere, you just have to find it.
He was struggling to get through medical exam revision, so he wrote himself a Post-it note with one question on it:
What would this look like if it were fun?
That one question changed how he studied. He started putting music on while he revised, and later applied the same trick at work, turning mundane tasks into something more enjoyable just by changing how he approached them.
How to use it: stick music on while you do the task, try working from somewhere different, give yourself a small treat at the end, or gamify it somehow by turning it into a challenge against yourself.
Random Acts of Kindness 🤝
This one's backed by more than just good vibes. Kind acts genuinely boost your own endorphin levels, and they lift the mood of everyone around you too.
It doesn't need to be a big gesture. Making someone a cup of tea, offering help before anyone asks for it, letting someone go ahead of you in a queue, or writing a quick thank you note all count. Small stuff, real effect.
The interesting bit is that it works both ways. You're not just doing something nice for someone else, you're boosting your own productivity and mood at the same time.
The 10/10/10 Rule ⏳
When something's stressing you out, ask yourself three questions:
Will this matter in 10 minutes? Will this matter in 10 weeks? Will this matter in 10 years?
This is a technique called cognitive reappraisal, basically changing how you interpret a situation so it hurts less. We're wired to catastrophise small setbacks, and this rule is a quick way to snap yourself out of it.
Say you don't get a job you applied for. In 10 minutes, yes, it'll still sting. In 10 weeks, probably not, you'll have applied elsewhere by then. In 10 years, almost certainly not. Most failures that feel massive right now won't define you later.
Stop Spotlighting 👀
Ali tells a story about feeling mortified after a joke fell flat at a dinner party, only to realise afterwards that nobody else even remembered it. That's the spotlight effect in action, our tendency to massively overestimate how much other people notice and judge what we do.
Psychologist Thomas Gilovich has research backing this up. People spend far less time thinking about our slip-ups than we assume they do. We're all too busy worrying about our own.
Reminding yourself that "no one cares" isn't harsh, it's actually freeing. Fear of judgement is one of the biggest drivers of procrastination, and this mindset makes it a lot easier to just start.
The Identity Label 🏷️
The labels we give ourselves shape how we behave. "I'm not a runner." "I'm bad at maths." "I'm not a creative person." Sound familiar?
This comes from Howard Becker's labelling theory. One bad relationship and suddenly you decide you're just not good at relationships. Fail one test and you label yourself an academic failure. Miss one deadline and you're "a procrastinator" for life.
Here's the good news though, labelling works both ways. A negative label reinforces the exact behaviour you don't want, but a positive one can shift it. Ali uses "lifelong learner" instead of thinking of himself as someone who procrastinates, and it reframes the whole thing as continuous improvement rather than failure.
Try it: pick one negative label you've given yourself and swap it for something more useful. You might be surprised how much it changes what you actually do.
Those are my top five from the book. If you've read it yourself, I'd love to know which exercises landed for you, there are dozens more in there worth trying.
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