Book 2, Post 1 - Feel-Good Productivity

Ever since I was little, I have always believed that if I put my mind to something and worked hard, grinding out those hours, I could achieve anything. Studying was just studying to me. For instance, if I were studying for an accounting exam, I would review all the slides and do the practice problems. Maybe even twice. This applied to all of my classes, and it was rather a robotic process. The only goal I had in my mind was to try to retain all the information so I could do my best on the exam and get good grades. The method worked most of the time, so I never thought to change it. However, I knew this method probably didn’t make the best use of my time, and I could approach studying differently. 

I wanted to read Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal because I was intrigued by the idea of “feel-good productivity” and how I could apply it to my life. How could I make studying more enjoyable for myself? Would it make it less tedious? How could I be more productive and do more of what I liked? 

So far, I’ve really enjoyed reading the book. He starts off with a story about him as a newly qualified junior doctor managing the entire ward alone on Christmas Day. He described how stressed he felt and how discipline was the only productivity system he knew but now it wasn’t working. Months into his new job, he felt burnt out and depressed. That was when he thought to himself, “I was once productive as a medical student. What worked then?”. He realized that working harder wouldn’t bring him happiness. The key was to feel good about work and make it fun. Just like when you feel too engrossed in a task, you feel good, generating energy, which boosts your productivity. I also appreciated how he not only incorporated his personal stories but others as well. I particularly liked the story about the physicist Richard Feynman – it was a fun, engaging story that reinforced Abdaal’s idea about productivity. His use of examples, stories, and casual style of writing makes the book easy to understand and read.