Productivity
by Ali Abdaal
What if feeling good came first?
Ali Abdaal was working as a junior doctor and building a YouTube channel on the side. He noticed that on the days work felt good, he got far more done. His book argues that the usual order, grind now and feel good later, is back to front.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Abdaal names three things that lift our mood and make work easier to face. Play means bringing curiosity and fun to a task. Power means feeling capable and in control. People means doing things with others, and for them. Most jobs can be reshaped to include at least one.
Power, in Abdaal's sense, is the belief that you can pull something off, which psychologists call self-efficacy. One way he suggests building it is the protégé effect. Teach what you're learning to someone else, and you understand it better and feel more able.
Abdaal finds that big outcome goals can make a project feel like a chore. He prefers what he calls NICE goals, meaning near-term, input-based, controllable and energising. Writing for thirty minutes a day is a NICE goal. Finishing a novel by June is not.
Abdaal separates three kinds. Overexertion burnout comes from working too hard for too long. Depletion burnout comes from draining your emotional energy without topping it up. Misalignment burnout comes from work that clashes with what you care about. Each one needs a different fix.
Feel good first
Feeling good comes first. When you enjoy the work, getting it done tends to follow.
Play
Treat hard work more like a game, with room for fun and curiosity.
Power
You enjoy work more when you feel capable and in control of it.
People
Doing things alongside people you like gives you energy that lasts.
Fear
A lot of putting things off is really fear. Lower the stakes and starting gets easier.
A story from the book
Feeling burnt out as a young physicist, Richard Feynman decided to do physics only for fun. In the Cornell canteen he watched someone toss a plate, noticed how it wobbled and worked out the maths for pleasure. He later said that play led to his Nobel Prize work.
Hot take · true or myth?
Helping someone else can give you more energy for your own work.
True. The lift you get from helping is known as the helper's high. People are one of Abdaal's three energisers, and doing something for them is a quick way to feel it.
One thing to try
Pick a task you've been dreading. Ask Abdaal's question, what would this look like if it were fun? Then change one thing about it. Do it with a friend, race a timer, or move somewhere new to do it. Notice whether starting feels easier.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. Feel-Good Productivity comes with a Hot Take round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhat if feeling good came first? Ali Abdaal was working as a junior doctor and building a YouTube channel on the side. He noticed that on the days work felt good, he got far more done. His book argues that the usual order, grind now and feel good later, is back to front.
Three energisers; Feeling capable; NICE goals; Three kinds of burnout.
Pick a task you've been dreading. Ask Abdaal's question, what would this look like if it were fun? Then change one thing about it. Do it with a friend, race a timer, or move somewhere new to do it. Notice whether starting feels easier.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from Feel-Good Productivity in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
