I have been an Ali Abdaal fan since I started this blog. Actually he may be one of the reasons I started this blog. One 20 minute Ali video could inspire upto 10 hours of creativity and productivity in me so I thought how great would it be if I got his book - Feel Good Productivity and use it to do some goal/life resetting for the new year 2024. Here are my favorite takeaways from the book (along with some personal tangents, if you’re so inclined to learn about my life lately. . .):

• Feeling Good boosts our productivity and makes work “fun”. Via incorporating one(or more) of the 8 play personalities we can make work play, which in turn makes us more productive…

  Up until I was 16 (and then again from ages 22-28), I was able to naturally incorporate this (or any) of the ‘theories’ listed in this book in my life as they are intuitive and helped me greatly succeed academically (and in other ways) but to some level I lost these and have to time and again rewire my brain to think like this again. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that when we have good hormones(endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin) they boost our energy, hence our productivity.

  The 8 play personalities are : The Collector(loves to gather and organise), The Competitor(takes pleasure in trying their best and winning)🙋🏻‍♀️, The Explorer(likes to wander and discover new things), The Creator(finds joy in making things, eg: music, painting, et al) 🙋🏻‍♀️, The Storyteller(uses imagination to entertain others using activities like writing, dance, theatre, (in my case standup comedy, or this blog))🙋🏻‍♀️, The Joker(endeavors to make people laugh)🙋🏻‍♀️, The Director(likes to plan, organize, and lead others), The Kinesthete(finds play in physical activities).

  So basically Ali says that you can approach your work and life as a playful adventure and incorporate one(or more) of these play personalities in your everyday life. For instance I identify the most with The Competitor, The Creator, The Storyteller, and The Joker. So I try to set goals for myself and “win” each day by achieveing those and crossing them off my todo list and make the goals progressively harder each day. I incorporate my storytelling and joker persona by, for instance, making a dry analytics presentation, more fun and interactive by including fun real life analogies and some genZ lingo. Or since I also resonate with The Creator, I schedule breaks in such a way that I make a painting a week or learn a guitar cover of my favorite song…something like that.

• Finding joy in the process instead of the outcome leads to better results. This is something he emphasized in his recent YT video as well, calling it the arrival fallacy, wherein he explains that we delay pleasure or wait to enjoy life until we “arrive” at an arbitrary destination instead of enjoying the journey.

• Reframe failures as data points we need to figure out how to succeed. We are often hugely disproportionately impacted by negative consequences - even arbitrary ones.

• Confidence is a learned habit. You have to kind of cosplay your way into it. “When going gets tough, those who believed they could do it- regardless of their ability were the ones who actually could”

• Intrinsic motivation > Extrinsic motivation

  • Intrinsic (self fulfillment, curiosity & learning, personal growth)

  • Extrinsic (rewards & punishments, social approval, performance goals)

• Power and autonomy leads to better productivity. Saying I “have to” do this task (which is coercive language that makes you feel powerless), instead say I “choose to” do this task(which is autonomy affirming language that makes you feel more powerful)

• Procrastination is caused by negative feelings like confusion, fear, inertia.

• We need to find courage to beat fear by looking at it, acknowledging it, and moving past it

• Identity Label: this is the most impactful chapter for me:
  • Labels that society places on us profoundly affect the way we behave.
  • Labels become a SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY(oh, how I experienced this time and again in my life, especially last year, but I’ll leave that story for another day)
  • His way: In moments of self doubt, the label he looks for is lifelong learner
  • My way: In moments of self doubt, I am now looking for a more positive way to label myself , like Resilient Stuti, and think back to all the numerous times I faced a challenge head-on, that at the time felt unsurmountable (listed here if you’re so inclined to follow my journey😌)

• Beat catastrophizing by reframing the same situation so that we feel better emotionally.

• 10/10/10 rule: Viewing setbacks as temporary small hiccup, will it matter in 10 minutes, 10 weeks, 10 years.

• Self confidence equation = perception of our ability - perception of standards

• Batman effect - same as identity label- give yourself an alter ego name who would have no trouble doing a daunting task like(like beyonce’s sasha fierce). I’m still workshoping mine (and open to suggestions 😉).

• Forgive yourself for guilt and shame for making mistakes or procrastinating.

• Distraction is a temporary veering off track- not an indication that it’s time to abandon your plans altogether. So like in my case, currently, If I eat a decadent dessert(or something else, I am in Amritsar as I publish this blog😋), I don’t completely abandon my fitness goals, and still go to the gym in the evening.

• Schedule “do nothing” breaks in your calendar as breaks aren’t a special treat, they are an absolute necessity.

• The wheel of life, 12 months celebration exercise:

  Basically talks about how there are nine segments, that we can use to define our goals with. We’ve got three for Health(body, mind, and soul), three for Work(mission, money, and growth), and three for Relationships(family, romance, friends). Write a 12 month celebration goal setting, as if 12 months from now you’re having dinner with your best friend and celebrating how much progress you have made in each of these areas of life over the las year. Here’s mine.

This has been my favorite read (and purchase) of the year thus far. One thing I really liked in the book was how Ali admitted to having moments of self doubt, low confidence, and failure and detailed stories to back these hard moments. This is extremely helpful for me as I am someone who has a tendency to project perfection onto people I look up to and him being a doctor turned productivity guru, ofcourse, I used to pedestalize him, but him sharing vulnerable anecdotes about low/hard moments of his life was extremely helpful for me and humanized him more.

All in all , a great read 👌🏼