Energize with Feel-Good Productivity, with Ali Abdaal

Headspace Studios. Hey everyone, my name is Ali Abdaal and I am your guest host this week. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Tuesday. Now, if you listened yesterday, you'll know that this week is all about how changing the way we feel about our work can increase our productivity, but also lead to improving our life overall. And this feedback loop is what feelgood productivity is all about. And one essential aspect of feelgood productivity is play. Play is one of the most underrated productivity principles and techniques that's out there. So today we're gonna talk about how we can boost our energy and feel motivated to accomplish our goals by introducing more play into our work and into our lives. I think if anyone is trying to be more productive or do more of the things that matter to them, it's worth thinking about what we used to do when we were kids. When we were kids, we used to play. We get on this conveyor belt where it's all about achievement and grades and getting into a good college so you can get a good job so that eventually you can be happy or something to that effect. And so one of the most underrated productivity techniques out there is to find a way to incorporate more play into your work. And actually, you know, if you think about it, when were the times where you felt most productive at work? If I were to put money on it, I would say it's probably a time when you were in what psychologists call the flow state, and it almost felt like the thing that you were doing wasn't actually work. It almost felt like what you were doing was play. So one of the times when play most affected my life was when I was working full-time as a doctor during the COVID pandemic in 2020. And it was an interesting time. You know, morale was super low. People were dying. It was pretty terrible working in healthcare at the time. And I remember it was like the middle of winter and it was cold and miserable and freezing. And, you know, the doctor's office wasn't particularly nice as an environment because, you know, low budgets and everything. And I felt pretty down about my work. And around that time I happened to rewatch "Mary Poppins". And there's that song that you might be familiar with, "A Spoonful of Sugar". A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down in the most delightful way, and all that thing. But just before she starts singing that song, the kids that she's looking after are complaining about doing their chores. And what Mary Poppins says is that in everything that is to be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun and snap, the job's a game. And she goes on to sing the song. And I really liked that idea, find the fun. And I remember...