Take-aways from "Feel-Good Productivity" by Ali Abdaal

My boyfriend enjoys Ali Abdaal's YouTube videos, so for his birthday, I decided to get him Abdaal's new book Feel-Good Productivity—but I wanted to read it first.

I came away with great ideas to enjoy my work as a personal trainer and to help my clients. The book is divided into three parts: how to energize your productivity, how to unblock yourself when productivity is interrupted, and how to sustain productivity when burnout enters into the picture. In this article, I will share summaries and take-aways from each of these sections.

Part 1: Energize

Play

The first way to energize work and productivity is by integrating fun or play into your environment. To help me in my work and in encoruaging my clients to adopt new fitness habits, my biggest take-aways from this idea were to ask three questions:

• What would this look like if it were fun?

• How could this be made into a game?

• How can I be more sincere here and less serious?

I also enjoyed the quote: "No failure is ever just a failure. It's an invitation to try something new."

Power

The second way to energize is by embracing power and autonomy in productivity-related endeavors. There is so much outside of our control when trying to get things done or pursue excellence in work, health, relationships, etc., but there are always elements we can intentionally take charge of, and this is energizing! My biggest take-aways from this chapter were to realize and ask:

• I may not have control of which tasks I need to do to be successful, interruptions and limitations surrounding these tasks, or the other people involved here, but I do have power over my attitude when working on these taks and the processes I employ to complete them.

• What attitude would I like to have while doing my work and pursuing my goals? How can I be joyful and grateful here?

• What kinds of processes can I use to get this done creatively and meaningfully? How can I best apply my skills, talents, and passion here?

People

The third energizer is people. As I read this chapter, I enjoyed recognizing how awesome the people in my life are at helping me be productive, but I also appreciated learning more about how to be energizing to other people, which is important in the work I do as a trainer and in the way I'd like to be as a person. My biggest take-aways from this chapter were:

• People like to be helpful. It is good when I ask people for help.

• I have the power to cheer people up. How can I brighten someone's day? How can I acknowledge and celebrate the successes of others?

• Overcommunicating is good because it can be challenging to actually share all of the information that is needed. It is important to be candid about things that are going well and things that are not going well.

Part 2: Unblock

Seek Clarity

The first blocker to productivity is uncertainty. This chapter was comforting to me because it showed how when things aren't going well, it's okay to acknowledge that and not be perfect all of the time. It also made so much sense that sometimes productivity is lacking because it's not clear what needs to be done. Taking time to identify what is wrong, be okay with that, and not just "work harder" feels exhilarating to me. Abdaal provided great tools to seek clarity in times of uncertainty. These were some ideas I found extremely helpful:

• Commander's Intent: this is an idea from German military tradition that focuses an operation by acknowledging that not everything can be planned for in exact detail but the purpose, end state, and key tasks of a strategy can be identified to make an operation successful. The idea of Commander's Intent is helpful for me when I need to meet stressful productivity goals at work, help clients make lifestyle changes, and make lifestyle changes myself. I love to plan out every detail, but the chaos of life is too much for that. Instead it's better to ask:

-What is the purpose of this endeavor?

-What is the end state we are looking to achieve?

-What are the key tasks that need to be taken to honor the purpose and end state?

-How can we be gentle and ready to pivot when all of the other details don't go as planned? (Hint: return to the purpose, end state, and key tasks)

• The Five Whys: this is the idea of asking yourself "why" something matters five times to identify if it is truly important and to gain clarity about what makes it important to you. I have started employing this exercise with my clients to refocus them on their goals and to help them set new goals. Usually we only get to the thrid "why" before they think I'm being somewhat obnoxious, but getting more and more specific about why you are doing something can help unblock reasons that stop you from doing what is meaningful.

• The Crystal Ball Method: this is the idea of imaging a week or so has passed and you haven't done what you have set out to do. I also use this idea with my clients, especially the ones who are having trouble getting their workouts in or sticking to the nutrition goals they set. We are able to identify potential obstacles and make plans to get them back to their purpose and on track to reach their end state goals.

• Time Blocking: this is the idea that if you don't put it in the calendar, it doesn't happen. This is quite true in my life, and I am trying to get my clients to realize this as well, regarding their workouts and meal preparation.

Find Courage

The second productivity blocker is fear. This chapter was another invitation to not just "work harder" and steamroll past fear, but to instead face up to fear instead of trying to elminate it or ignore it. Abdaal recommends three steps for developing courage: understand your fear, reduce your fear, and overcome your fear. The following are tactics I found useful for employing these three strategies:

• Understanding fear: identify the emotions you are experiencing, what your are afraid of (be vulnerable), and any labels you are applying to yourself. Recognize the positives in the situation, apply positive lables to yourself, and think about the labels you would give someone who could accomplish what you are trying to. Then apply those labels to yourself and adopt the habits and behaviors that match.

• Reducing fear: ask will this matter in 10 minutes? Will this matter in 10 weeks? Will this matter in 10 years? These questions give perspective and help prevent mental spiraling.

• Overcoming fear: people don't care as much as you think. But even when they do, how can you reconnect with your values to face what is standing in your way?

Inertia

The third blocker is inertia, the trouble it takes to get started or keep going. My take-aways from this chapter included:

• Reducing friction: how can you make your environment more conducive to what you are trying to get done? How can you make it easier to start something you don't want to do and reduce emotional friction?

• Start with the next action step: what are the one, two, or three things you need to do to make the thing happen? Do the first thing and gain traction.

• Track your progress: I see the fruits of this all the time in my workouts and as I coach others through theirs. As Abdaal says, "Tracking your progress provides you with tangible evidence that you're moving toward your goals."

• Forgive yourself: it's easier to do well when you forgive yourself for not doing well. "You can focus on the small losses. Or you can celebrate the small wins." And the latter will move you closer to your goals.

Part 3: Sustain

The third and final part of Feel-Good Productivity is sustaining it by managing burnout. Abdaal names three types of burnout: overexertion, depletion, and misalignment. He also provides keys for addressing these burnouts: conserve, recharge, align.

Conserve

The first sustainability tool for lasting feel-good productivity is to "do less, so that you can unlock more," and conserve the energy you need to to what is important to you. My take-aways from this chapter included:

• Saying no more often. "If it isn't a 'hell yeah,' it's not worth doing."

• Add friction to avoid distractions. How can you make it harder to turn to distractions? How can you correct course when you find yourself distracted?

• Take more breaks. "Breaks aren't a special treat. They're an absolute necessity." This one is hard for me, so I also liked the idea of scheduling breaks and embracing energizing diatractions.

Recharge

This chapter emphasizes taking time to rest. I love to go go go all the time, so I appreciated the reminder to pause and recharge. In Catholicism, there is a built in rest called Sabbath; if the Lord rested, we need to rest too. Resting for me is helpful because it reminds me that my work is important, but it doesn't save the world, and to do it well, I need to sustain with rest. The take-aways for effective rest in this chapter included:

• Engaging in CALM activities or projects, which are Creative, Autonomous, Liberated, and Mellow.

• Spend time in nature (physically or through art, media, etc.). Go for walks.

• Enjoy doing nothing sometimes.

Align

Returning to purpose is important for preventing and addressing burnout. Thinking about if what we are doing is in alignment with our values is the emphasis of this chapter. The most important take-way for me in this chapter was to approach feel-good productivity as an experimenter: some things work well, and others don't, and both are great because they provide data to help with realignment of activity and rest to point into the direction of your values. Other take-aways from this chapter included:

• The Relative Autonomy Continuum, which places motivation on a spectrum of less and more autonomous, with exernal motivation (doing something for someone else) being least autonomous, introjected motivation (doing something out of a sense of guilt or obligation) as being slightly more autonomous but less autonomous than identified motivation (doing something to advance an outside goal, which is important to you), which is extrinsic motivation but still rooted in personal values, and instrinsic motivation (being motivated by the process as an end in itself) as the most autonomous.

• "When we think about death, we get a clearer view of life." This reminded me of the Latin saying "Memento Mori," or "remember your death."

• Value affirmations: reaffirming your values help you stick with the activities that support those values. I plan to remind clients of how they are good at doing what is important to them when they are struggling to follow through on their commitments. I'd like to use this for myself as well.

• The Wheel of Life: this framework divides success into relationships (family, friends, and romance), health (body, mind, and soul), and work (mission, growth, and money), and provides an invitation to reflect on how well we are doing in each of these categories, how well we would like to be doing in them, and what action steps need to be taken to align with the ones that are important to us.

• The Three Alignment Quests: every day, a quest can be pursued to advance one of the three broader categories of success: relationships, health, and work.

In Sum

This book was great, and it was much as a gift to myself as it will be to my boyfriend. I highly recommend Feel-Good Productivity and Abdaal's other content. Check him out at https://aliabdaal.com/.