Too much discipline can block creativity, says Abdaal

The most refreshing thing about reading Feel Good Productivity: How To Do More Of What Matters To You by Ali Abdaal is that you can really hear him in your head as you go through the pages. And there was another path to fulfilment: one that wasn’t lined with constant anxiety, sleepless nights and a concerning dependence on caffeine,” he writes—many stressed-out millennials would have nodded along to that line. Here are four lessons to take away from Abdaal’s Feel Good Productivity: Lean into vicarious mastery The title of one of the sub-chapters “Power” may, at first, sound corny, but Abdaal talks about finding a sense of ownership as prime self-empowerment. The “unblock” approach that Abdaal offers includes introspecting and questioning: instead of making yourself have to want something, or having to push through to achieve it, he urges people to drill down on any emotional barriers, to figure out “what” we are doing and “why”, and then craft a “how” and “when” to go about it. Abdaal talks in threes to offer his interpretation: “‘Overexertion burnouts’ point to a problem of volume, ‘depletion burnouts’ relate to a misguided approach to rest, and ‘misalignment burnouts’ happen when you’ve put all your efforts into something that doesn’t bring you joy or meaning, and it has worn you down.”