440. 7 psychology tips to hack your productivity

Productivity advice often tells us to push harder, wake up earlier, and squeeze more out of every hour. But in this episode, we take a different approach. Instead of treating productivity like a test of willpower, we look at the psychology behind focus, procrastination, energy, motivation, and rest - and why working with your brain is usually more effective than trying to bully it into action. We explore 7 tips for productivity, including: • How small wins can create momentum • Why the hardest task often needs to come first • How to work with your natural energy patterns • Habit stacking for boring tasks • Why 20 focused minutes can be more useful than waiting for the perfect window • How ‘shoot your shot’ days can move you closer to the life you want • Why real rest is essential for sustainable productivity Watch on Netflix: HERE https://netflix.com/thepsychologyofyour20s Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg https://www.instagram.com/jemmasbeg/?hl=en# Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast https://www.instagram.com/thatpsychologypodcast/?hl=en# Subscribe on Substack: @thepsychologyofyour20s https://substack.com/@thepsychologyofyour20s For business: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] Our favourite sources: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0033-295X.84.2.191 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.674 https://www.ted.com/talks/saundra_dalton_smith_the_real_reason_why_we_are_tired_and_what_to_do_about_it The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is, lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 0:41Jemma Sbeg?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. Your social media feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max and so much more. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? Health versus Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy nominated host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to really matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts. No one's journey is the same. That's why Delta Sky Miles moves with you.

• 1:25Jemma Sbeg?

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• 2:10Jemma Sbeg?

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• 2:52Jemma Sbeg?

  way better. And that's why I am obsessed with my Whoop. Truly, you guys, you know I'm such a data and information-driven person. And I love opening my Whoop app and seeing how my sleep, my stress, my strain is correlating with my mood, with my running performance, with how I'm just feeling day-to-day. I'm not an elite athlete by any means, but I do really benefit. And I also just really enjoy knowing more about my body. And Whoop also gives me these actionable, personalized insights that have made me more intentional and meant that I make smarter decisions day-to-day about what I need, rather than just putting my foot on the gas and just

• 3:34Jemma Sbeg?

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• 3:50Jemma Sbeg?

  Hello, everybody. I'm Jemma Sbeg and welcome back to the Psychology of Your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s, and what they mean for our psychology.

• 4:10Jemma Sbeg?

  Hello everybody, welcome back to the show, welcome back to the podcast. It is so great to have you here back for another episode. As we of course, break down the psychology of our twenties, if you're watching on Netflix, I promise you, I'm not wearing my pajamas, I just need to say that. I've, I've just like looked at my outfit and realised that it looks very pajama like, but it's not. Um, and considering we're talking about productivity today, it's kind of ironic. But yes, that's what we're talking about, we're talking about productivity. Specifically, I wanted to share seven of the best, most underrated, least spoken about tips to just get more stuff done by doing less. I love these episodes, I love doing them sometimes and I feel like so many of us in our twenties,

• 4:52Jemma Sbeg?

  we have these huge ambitions and we, these projects and these tasks that we want to undertake. And we also feel like we don't have any time and we're working really hard and like, anything that can help us a little bit, anything that can like psychologically nudge us in the right direction, especially when those tips are backed by science, are great. And I thought, you know what, let's do an easy episode today. One that's just, let's just do a little list episode. Let's just go through the science, find what works best. I'm going to deliver it to you guys in simple packaged form. And I just sincerely hope it helps you be more productive, be more efficient, but also enjoy your life as well. Let's get into it.

• 5:36Jemma Sbeg?

  So I think one of the biggest lies about productivity that we've been sold is that discipline is like the singular most important ingredient or factor that is driving productivity. The people who you admire, who get stuff done, they just have this inherent trait that you don't. And although they may have it inherently, although they didn't really have to do anything to get it, your inability to access it yourself, that though is a personal character flaw or a fault. And until you can unlock or access your discipline,

• 6:14Jemma Sbeg?

  It's not happening for you. Good luck. Like, it's just not happening. You need to be disciplined or nothing else. I think this is a rather kind of narrow, unfair, like psychologically inaccurate way to think about productivity that really just tries to shame us for what we haven't been able to do without thinking about why we haven't been able to do it. Here is the thing, our productivity is not reliant on discipline alone. In fact, discipline is only about twenty five to thirty percent of the equation. And it's actually what we would call a spark. It is, it's, it's a cognitive spark, not a cognitive fuel source. Discipline is incredibly finite. It's incredibly influenced by so many other factors we often ignore, like our sleep, our hormones, our stress.

• 6:58Jemma Sbeg?

  The difficulty of the task, the environment you're in, your established habits, your past experiences, your confidence in yourself that this is stuff that we don't always seem to like consciously think of. As a factor, it's so easy for us to like put it all down to this one thing alone, this neat discipline explanation and just kind of ignore the rest. And it's, you can't ignore the rest. That is an equal part. In fact, there's a really notable meta-analysis that was conducted by the psychologist Pierce Steele in which he describes procrastination not as a discipline problem, but a form of self-regulatory failure.

• 7:42Jemma Sbeg?

  Importantly, what the paper does not say is that procrastination is about laziness. He actually found that procrastination was primarily shaped by like emotional regulation and how unpleasant the task was, the mental state that you were in. Um, how impulsive you were, whether we believed we could do it, how capable we were, we were feeling. Our mental health, like our inability to do certain things is not about mental fortitude. It's about, yeah, your emotional state and your emotional gooeyness and, and how you're feeling. We also know that willpower and discipline are.

• 8:26Jemma Sbeg?

  Firstly, don't always factor in those things. They're also mentally very exhausting. And that actually lessens our performance on other tasks afterwards. There is this finding that came from a nineteen eighty eight study by Bormester and colleagues where they put people in a room, they put them in front of a plate of cookies and a bowl of radishes, both on the table. And they asked half the participants to not have a cookie. You can have a radish, you can't have a cookie. And they told the other half, you can have, you can have one cookie, you can have a cookie. And then they left the room and they just kind of were like, just don't do it. You guys be in charge of correcting or following through this action. They then made people do a geometric puzzle. People who had the cookie, they did the puzzle for nineteen minutes.

• 9:11Jemma Sbeg?

  Those who had the radish, eight minutes. And it wasn't just the sugar rush. It was the fact that they had to draw on all this willpower to resist the cookie. And it's assumed that that kind of drained their self-control for all subsequent situations. So when you are constantly only relying on willpower and discipline to get stuff done. You know, to help you study harder, to help you avoid temptation, to help you, I don't know, lose weight. The effort that you have for other areas of your life and the, and the discipline or the motivation you have for other things declines. This is why relying on discipline is an incomplete way to look at our productivity.

• 9:52Jemma Sbeg?

  What we actually need to be addressing is that emotional thing, that we're reducing the emotional resistance of the task or the goal in question, and also setting up our structures and our behaviors and our surroundings. So that the easier thing is the easier thing, like the thing we want to do has the least resistance. So that really informs, I think this, it's important to say this because this informs what we're going to talk about next, which is the seven best things that you can do based on that knowledge of discipline. And now, of course, this isn't going to turn you into like a twelve hour a day working machine. To be honest, I don't think, you guys know me by now, that's, I really don't care about that.

• 10:34Jemma Sbeg?

  Like, I really think that hustle culture and like the Girlboss five thousand work all day, sleep on your dead archetype is dead and should be left there. But I also believe in in devotion and being able to prove to yourself what you're capable of. And I think this stuff takes us to that space and gets us into that mindset in a much more healthy and sustainable way, rather than this like alternative that seems to be the only alternative, which is if you are not actively suffering for what you want, and if you are not actively in a constant state of exhaustion, you must not want it that much. This isn't, this is the middle ground. This is the middle ground where you get stuff done, but you also can enjoy your life. So productivity hack number one is the three, two, one equation.

• 11:19Jemma Sbeg?

  This is a method of structuring your to do list so that your day is both focused and varied and therefore productive. Every day, if you wanna feel accomplished, your to do list should contain three chores, two small tasks and one big task. That might look like your three chores are wash your bedding, like vacuum your room, take the bins out, pay your parking fine, like those kind of things, things that are like adminy, that are a little bit annoying, but like you know you need to get done. The two smaller tasks are things like, okay, clear out my email inbox from like the night, from the day before. Every little email that I've been avoiding, I'm gonna get that done today. I'm gonna write my project update. I'm gonna send out that important document.

• 12:02Jemma Sbeg?

  There's a meeting I've been putting up, I'm gonna do that important meeting. I'm going to do the first two hours of planning for that trip, that event, that important work thing. And then you have the one big task. This is like the meat of the sandwich. So this is the thing that you can expect to spend three to four hours on or longer. Mine is always the same, writing scripts, but for you, it may be writing large sections of a report or an essay, a concentrated study for an exam, doing complex equations, making a major headway on a project. Again, it is the meat in the sandwich, or if you're a vegetarian, it's. I don't know, the tofu and the sandwich.

• 12:43Jemma Sbeg?

  The reason this works is that it gives your brain a balanced sense of progress. Notice how the big task is still really sizable, but it doesn't take over your entire day. A lot of us either overload our day with a lot of those tiny tasks that make us feel busy but not meaningfully fulfilled. All we do is we do this, we put one absolutely huge intimidating task on the list. And then we feel like a failure if we don't complete the entire thing. Again, we're, we are looking for balance. The three, two, one method gives you both momentum and cognitive diversity.

• 13:24Jemma Sbeg?

  And that cognitive diversity is so important for your brain so that it can be challenged by different things. So that it experiences the refreshing and, and the important power of novelty. You know, the three chores, the two small tasks, visible progress. But they also, and you know, they reduce like a lot of the menial stuff as well. They give you progress. They also clear out the clutter of maybe things that you've been putting off. And then the one big task sits in the middle. And it means that you actually feel a meaningful sense of accomplishment at the day, at the end of the day, whilst actually still having done stuff. The other reason this benefits long-term productivity, besides helping you not get bored

• 14:09Jemma Sbeg?

  with your kind of larger goals, is that it builds self-efficacy. Probably our favorite term on the podcast. The sense self-efficacy is the sense that we can meaningfully change outcomes through our actions, our own actions and behaviors. Small accomplishments are just as important as big accomplishments for self-efficacy. Because it gives us a daily reminder that. Mental, emotional, cognitive input, our, our input is creating physical output and progress, even on days when the big goal feels very, very far away. Even on days when, you know, we don't have twelve hours to do stuff.

• 14:53Jemma Sbeg?

  Just makes you feel good. It makes you feel like, okay, at the end of the day, I have done my, oh my god, now I can't remember how many it is, six things. I've done my six things. I feel accomplished. I've done a little bit of everything. I'm good. I, I can rest now. Okay, tip number two, I think we've all heard the term like eat the frog, right? This was always something my dad said to me when I was growing up, like eat the frog. Basically, always do the hard thing first. When you look at that list, the three, two, one list, the biggest thing, the most unpleasant, difficult, annoying thing, the thing you are most reluctant to do, the one that you are most likely to procrastinate on. That's the one you go for at the beginning. I think we have this tendency to think that we should

• 15:36Jemma Sbeg?

  ease ourselves into things or warm up for the day or warm up for the hard stuff. Obviously, like if your big task, like if you're exercising, like a warm up, but don't leave the workout to the end of the day. Don't leave the most important email till five P M. Don't leave the tiring conversation or the riding push till the point where you are exhausted. Even if your motivation improves throughout the day, your focus probably doesn't. There is probably a specific time, likely when you first start, where you are going to have the most cognitive resources available. Not using those resources is avoidance. You're avoiding it. When you avoid the hard task, you get the momentary feeling of relief,

• 16:21Jemma Sbeg?

  the momentary feeling of like hope, but surprise, surprise, the task is still there. It stays on your mind. It follows you throughout the day. It makes any break or or sense of achievement like from other tasks. It always feels like it's slightly contaminated because you're like, yeah, yeah, I did that, but oh, that thing is still there. Like that thing I've been avoiding, I still haven't done it. Until it's done, the rest of the day feels half, it feels like a distraction. So before you give your brain the day to negotiate, to rationalize, to delay, catastrophize, overthink. Just decide to begin and begin is the key word here.

• 16:59Jemma Sbeg?

  Doing the hard thing first doesn't mean that it needs to be done perfectly, doesn't mean you need to finish the whole hard thing at eight A M. It just means give your freshest, fullest attention to the task that would otherwise drain your emotional energy. All day. And as we said, a lot of productivity is just emotional regulation, is just seeing the hard thing that's gonna linger and pushing through it. From like hour one. To add to this, researchers from New York University in a two thousand and six paper. Highlighted the concept of implementation intentions and this plays a really important role for this tip.

• 17:40Jemma Sbeg?

  Basically, it's specific plans about when, where and how you will act. They suggested using these implementation intentions um for goals that you wanna avoid. Because they significantly improve your chances of achieving them. In other words. If you build out how exactly you're gonna go about doing something, you're more likely to do it. So instead of just, I'm gonna work on this in the morning. If you say, okay, after breakfast, I'm gonna sit at my desk and I'm gonna write three hundred words before checking my phone. That's gonna be more effective, like that's gonna be much better. So yes, do the hard thing first, but also to cement this into action.

• 18:24Jemma Sbeg?

  Define the hard thing clearly enough. Define it with a timestamp, define it with an end point, a progress point, a location even. Because it's harder to argue with a plan than a wish. I'll give you some other examples, just to help you out with this. Instead of saying, I'm gonna sort my finances, try, you know, before I start anything else, I will open my banking app and make a list of every subscription service I'm paying for. Instead of, I'm gonna work on my dissertation, try, okay, at eleven A M. I'm going to have done these things and I will go to the library. And I will write the first three hundred rough words of my literature review.

• 19:05Jemma Sbeg?

  Instead of saying, I'm gonna get my life together, try, right after lunch, I'm gonna spend twenty five minutes replying to emails that have been sitting in my inbox and going through all of my text messages from my parents and my family and just answer them. The hard thing becomes less threatening. The thing we procrastinate about the most becomes less threatening, when it becomes concrete. A lot of productivity advice focuses on time management. We are focused on emotion management. Can you tolerate the discomfort of starting? Can you tolerate the task being imperfect? Can you act before you feel fully ready? What is gonna make you feel more emotionally capable of starting right now?

• 19:47Jemma Sbeg?

  Think of doing the hard thing first, not as like, it's not about punishing yourself. It's about freeing yourself from the emotional burden and tax of avoidance that is gonna, that is going to follow you for the rest of the day if you don't just bite the bullet. Okay, let's take a short break here, then we will return with a bunch more advice. Stay with us.

• 20:15Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know, they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark dot com.

• 20:52Jemma Sbeg?

  These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeart Media's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real

• 21:34Jemma Sbeg?

  people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 21:52Jemma Sbeg?

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• 22:37Jemma Sbeg?

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• 23:12Jemma Sbeg?

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• 23:56Jemma Sbeg?

  And this product is perfect for that. I also find that Moisture Surge is a great lightweight base. If you like something under your makeup, it makes your skin look so plump and soft, especially first thing in the morning when it's maybe not looking that way. Basically, I think it feels exactly like how you want a moisturizer to feel. Fresh, lightweight, and deeply hydrating. Try Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour today at clinique.com. Feels like Moisture Surge. I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year. And something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop. Because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day,

• 24:42Jemma Sbeg?

  why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress, and most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns. So I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a 30-day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop. So the third tip, maybe my favorite, so much so that I wrote about it in my book. Not once, but twice. I literally wrote about it twice and I didn't even realize until after the book came out and somebody DM'd me and was like, "Okay, we get it."

• 25:28Jemma Sbeg?

  Give it a rest, like you like this, you like this tip, okay? And I was like, oops, didn't even realise I'd done it. But my third productivity hack is to stop copying somebody else's schedule and start studying your own rhythm. We are told the only way to be productive is to get up at five A M. And journal and drink lemon water and work out and do all these things before you do eight hours of work. And you should be totally switched on for those eight hours of work as well. And yeah, for some people, the like morning into the nine to five routine is where they feel most productive. But just because it's what's fed to us generally, doesn't mean it works for everybody.

• 26:13Jemma Sbeg?

  It's this myth that just because something is normal must mean it's the best. For you, it might not be. This is where I want to introduce the idea of your chronotype. Your chronotype is basically your natural genetically determined preference for your sleep wake timing. And that is, it reflects our circadian rhythm, it's just like the layer below. There was a two thousand and twenty three review in Chronobiology that discussed how cognitive performance can be really affected by the interaction between the time of day that you are working and your individual chronotype. So whether you are a morning person, a night person, a midday person.

• 26:52Jemma Sbeg?

  And these findings have even been reflected more recently in two thousand and twenty five, they did another review. What this means is that people, you may perform differently depending on whether you are working in sync with your natural rhythm or not. It's not just dependent on discipline, you know? Someone working at six P M can be more productive than someone working at eh at nine A M. But if your work only allows you to do work at nine A M, it must make you start at nine A M. Of course, you're gonna feel lazy. You're not working in accordance with your chronotype. Same with like, you know, maybe your most productive hour is is hours of like one A M to five A M. But if that is your natural rhythm, but if your system and your environment doesn't allow you to operate them,

• 27:36Jemma Sbeg?

  you're not gonna be as productive. Knowing this, you need to work to figure out what this may be for you. Cause you might be constantly sabotaging yourself by scheduling hard work for a time of day when your brain has already checked out. I know I said swallow the frog. But if the best time to swallow the frog is at seven P M and instead of nine A M, you should be working at seven P M. Some ways of identifying your chronotype. What sleep pattern, sleep weight pattern, I should say, do you typically follow on holidays or when you don't have to work? When does your body naturally feel sleepy? When does it naturally feel alert? When do you feel your sharpest? When do you get most easily distracted?

• 28:19Jemma Sbeg?

  When do you feel most creative or in a state of flow? When do you feel most excited by admin tasks? As you go along, you can kind of match your rhythm to your natural energy levels. And I know this isn't possible for everybody. I know it's so difficult when you are, you do work a nine to five or you do work shift work, but try and schedule, try as much as you can to even match your kind of daily life to this as well. I know my chronotype is like, uh, I actually don't know what the name for it is, but it's like three to seven and then nine till midnight. When I am like, no, I'm gonna be most alert, which is at like six P M or later.

• 29:01Jemma Sbeg?

  That's when I do all my planning, all my editing, all my high energy things. My low energy window, which is normally like in the morning, kind of is like when I focus on more shallow tasks like formatting, tidying, basic admin, still things that need to be done, but not things that require like deep, deep thinking. This is the thing about productivity. The most productive people are actually probably some of the most self-aware mentally.

• 29:31Jemma Sbeg?

  Because they know that abiding by what everybody else is telling them to do and how their day should operate isn't gonna work for them. They stagger their workload and work when work's best for them. Obviously, it's also a lifestyle thing, so we're not gonna say like, oh, these people who don't work a nine to five must be the most emotionally aware because they can work whenever they want. No, it's just that I think people who understand that and understand the role that their chronotype plays, which is not a hundred percent, but it is a large, a large factor, are able to be more productive both within and outside of a typical work structure. Because even if you have a nine to five,

• 30:14Jemma Sbeg?

  your chronotype is still gonna be active, like your chronotype window is still gonna be active for some part of that. I'm just saying it might not be nine A M. when everybody expects you to do all the hard work. It might be like five or six P M. And so how can you think about your day that maximizes that like peak productivity window best for you? Okay, tip number four is habit stacking, and it is one I added to this list specifically for the boring things. Habit stacking had its moment online a few years ago after James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, made it

• 30:55Jemma Sbeg?

  very, very popular, made it go, I guess, viral. I don't know if it was viral, but everybody seems to know it. It is when you attach a new behaviour to an existing cue you already have. So after I brush my teeth, I take my vitamins. They're in the same place, same time. After I finish, I don't know, brushing my teeth, I automatically wash my face. Whilst I make my coffee, I am gonna write my to-do list. The same habits are paired up every day. Whilst I drive to work, I call somebody in my life who I need to catch up with. Like, every single day, those two things, something that I know I'm always gonna do, is paired with something

• 31:39Jemma Sbeg?

  that I really wanna do, that I know is important, that I know I'm finding hard, I'm finding it hard to do. There was a two thousand and ten study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology that looked into the science behind habit stacking. They had ninety six participants to choose an activity behaviour to carry out daily, so it's basically a chore to carry out daily in the same context for twelve weeks. They found that when participants paired that behaviour with something that was already happening, the time it took for that behaviour to reach a level of automaticity, so basically, this is the highest level of habit formation where you don't actually even have to think consciously about doing something.

• 32:23Jemma Sbeg?

  You just do it. The more people who paired, like if you were somebody who paired the new behaviour with an old behaviour, you got to that level of automatic processing and automatic habit, stacking automatic habit processing much faster. A further two thousand and nineteen paper from researchers at the University of Bath actually suggested that habits, rather than intentions or goals, are the vehicles for self-control, because they reduce the need to constantly deliberate and decide. A goal is kind of something you have to decide on every day. A habit is not. This is exactly why, uh, meal prepping, gym plans, automatically saving sums of money, those kind of goals

• 33:04Jemma Sbeg?

  are so effective, because a habit is something that reduces choice. And when we have to make less choices, that is when we are our most productive, because the cognitive friction of having to decide every single day, am I gonna do this or this or this or this in pursuit of my goal, is removed. The goals should not inform your habits every single day. Your habits should be the thing that is the basis for your goal. Next, I think it's number five. Are we up to number five? I always get off track when I do these list episodes, but. Get rid of all or nothing thinking. I've been very guilty of thinking. Well, you know, I don't have an hour to go to the gym today, so I'm just not gonna bother.

• 33:47Jemma Sbeg?

  Or, you know, I know I'm gonna be drinking at my friend's birthday, so why not drink on Thursday and Friday as well? But this kind of thinking eliminates the minor progress that builds into major progress. I think one of the biggest traps we fall into with productivity is waiting for the perfect time, waiting for the perfect environment, waiting for the perfect moment and equation and for everything to go right in order to act. Because we wanna give ourselves the greatest chance of success. You know, we tell ourselves, well, if I'm gonna work out, I may as well, I need to have the full hour so I do it perfectly. If I'm gonna clean the house, I have to have the whole afternoon because I don't wanna do it half fast.

• 34:32Jemma Sbeg?

  I'm gonna sort out my emails the next time I can sit down and really give them my full attention. I'll start writing that book when I really have the perfect quiet morning. I'm in the right mood, the desk is clear, the sunshine was great. You know, but then life is always gonna be too busy for that. Life is never gonna give you perfect conditions. And so we do nothing and we blame the conditions not being perfect and not ourselves for operating regardless. The other thing is, if we know we have that extra time unfilled, that twenty minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, the other work we need to do or procrastination is always gonna end up filling that time.

• 35:14Jemma Sbeg?

  Anyways, this links really nicely to something called Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law, it's not about the disease. It comes from the British historian Cyril Northgate Parkinson. And he introduced this idea in an essay he wrote in like the nineteen fifties in The Economist where he basically said, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

• 35:39Jemma Sbeg?

  He was kind of writing satirically, actually, when he wrote this essay. He was talking about how, like, he was actually talking about the political system and like the public service system and how the these administrative systems can grow and create more work for themselves, even when the actual workload does not increase. But it applies to my life, it applies to your life as well. If you give yourself all day to clean your house, the task is gonna take all day. But if you give yourself thirty minutes, you're probably gonna get a lot more done. If you give yourself three hours at the gym, chances are you're probably gonna do about as much exercising as you would only do if you had forty five minutes. Do you see what I mean?

• 36:24Jemma Sbeg?

  Like, the task expands to kind of fill the time we give it. Like, there is a sprawl. Parkinson's law gives language to that sprawl. You need to stop giving yourself such big containers to act in or such so much space to act with. Now, I have to say, this is a psychology podcast. Parkinson's law did not begin as a psychological theory about personal productivity. But I think we can take a lot from this idea because it captures something many of us recognise in our everyday life, which is that we often overestimate how much time things are gonna take.

• 37:07Jemma Sbeg?

  And we underestimate how well we will rise to the occasion. But also, we forget that, I think on side on top of that, we forget that when we have less time, we will push and we will be more productive in that case as well. The problem isn't that we have no time, it's that we dismiss the time we do have because it doesn't feel ideal. And we kind of also self sabotage and think we're less capable. If you only have twenty minutes, twenty minutes compared to zero is already better, even if it's not an hour.

• 37:42Jemma Sbeg?

  What happens if you do two twenty minute workouts, let's say, every two weeks? That's a hundred and forty minutes, you know, seven days a week, if you just did twenty minutes compared to still zero. Your all or nothing thinking is keeping you from the power of cumulative or compound growth. Right? Respect the time you have, even if you believe it's not enough, respect your capacity to actually work your butt off and to be motivated and to be inspired by urgency. Okay, I realize I told a fit because I said tip number four was my favorite. That's a lie. This one here is my favorite tip, most certainly.

• 38:24Jemma Sbeg?

  And it's probably my most personally relevant tip I'm gonna give you guys on this list. If you watched our last episode, I think, on Netflix with Grace Beverly, you'll know I spoke about how I've been doing something that doesn't sound particularly productive, but is. And that has been that I've been sending off the most outlandish emails to the most insanely out of reach people, asking them to be guests on the psychology of your twenties. The example I gave was Simone Biles, and I talked about how she had, she was like one of the only people to say no instead of just saying nothing.

• 39:02Jemma Sbeg?

  This may not sound relevant, but the reason I've been doing this is part of something that I've been calling shoot your shot Wednesdays. Shoot your shot Wednesdays is where every Wednesday I dedicate two hours of my day to just testing my luck. Every week I will like send out some of the most insane hail Mary emails. I reach out to like the most amazing people who are probably never gonna see it. I like blindly ask for things. I reach out to brands, I pitch articles because why not? Why not? Like you don't ask? And the answer is no. I'm really just trying to increase my surface area for luck. And although that may sound spontaneous, it is still productive.

• 39:48Jemma Sbeg?

  This is why I believe this tip deserves its place on this list, even if it is a bit atypical. As well as clearing tasks, getting work done.

• 39:58Jemma Sbeg?

  Productivity also deserves a reframe in that it creates possibility. I don't think we should just be using it for things that are boring or things that are a slog. I think it should be utilized for expanding as well. You might have a perfectly organized inbox. You might complete every small task that is required of you every day, but still be no closer to the life that you really crave because your productivity doesn't also include audacity. The psychology here is really around agency. And if we revisit that self-efficacy theory, again, self-efficacy is our belief that we can change an outcome.

• 40:41Jemma Sbeg?

  And our belief is built partly through our confidence and our mastery of experiences. So moments like this where we say, hey, I really want something. I'm responsible for that. I'm not gonna wait for somebody else to give it to me. I'm gonna go out and get it. Like, I'm going to open myself up to the opportunity because who's to say the answer's gonna be no? I'm just, I'm open to the next great opportunity that comes along. I'm producing those opportunities for myself, right? I'm being productive in a way that may not seem structured and organized, but is definitely worthy of output. I would highly, highly recommend carving out space in your week for this.

• 41:26Jemma Sbeg?

  Doesn't have to be a full day. For me, sometimes it's just an hour or two where it is something that I have on my agenda constantly. I'm gonna push my luck. I'm gonna see how far opportunities can take me. I'm gonna see how far just asking for something can take me. And to me, that is a productive endeavor. Okay, we're gonna take one more short break, I know, but we will be right back very, very soon.

• 41:56Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over 14 years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is, lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favourite gym clothing at gymshark.com. These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health.

• 42:38Jemma Sbeg?

  And we've all gone down an internet rabbit hole exploring the latest health trends. Your social media feed is packed with wellness advice telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeart Media's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel and YouTube, talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, doctors, to separate fact from fiction.

• 43:20Jemma Sbeg?

  Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs Hype on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 43:33Jemma Sbeg?

  Something that really frustrates me is when wellness brands greenwash their products to make them seem more clean or better for the environment when they are actually not. When you look into it, they are kind of just like the rest of them. Nature Sunshine, however, doesn't just talk about the planet. They do something about it. They sustainably source ingredients, they craft their supplements with 100% solar powered manufacturing, and their products are incredible. I don't drink coffee and so Nature Sunshine Brain Edge gives me That kick I sometimes need with potent ingredients combining yerba mate with nootropics, adaptogens, botanicals to support mental clarity and focus. And you already know how

• 44:15Jemma Sbeg?

  much I love their marine glow and have for years. It is the only collagen that combines skin supporting marine collagen with the sun and blue light protection of luton to make your skin feel and look glowy and protected. Plus, I just really like that they have nature at the core of everything that they do. Try nature's sunshine and experience the difference with supplements that are better for you and the planet. Go to nature's sunshine dot com today and use the code PSYCH for twenty percent off your first order plus free shipping. That's code PSYCH for twenty percent off your first order at nature sunshine dot com. You know that feeling when your skin just needs a tall drink of water? That's what Clinique

• 44:58Jemma Sbeg?

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• 45:39Jemma Sbeg?

  for that. I also find that Moisture Surge is a great lightweight base. If you like something under your makeup, it makes your skin look so plump and soft, especially first thing in the morning when it's maybe not looking that way. Basically, I think it feels exactly like how you want a moisturizer to feel. Fresh, lightweight, and deeply hydrating. Try Clinique Moisture Surge one hundred hour today at clinique dot com. Feels like moisture surge.

• 46:08Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year. And something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop. Because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day. Why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress. And most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns. So I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a 30 day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join dot whoop dot com slash psychology for your free month of Whoop.

• 46:53Jemma Sbeg?

  As we near the end of this episode, I have one final surprising piece of psychological advice for you. If you are looking to build that productivity muscle, that emotional productivity muscle. I'm gonna introduce this with an analogy. Have you ever seen those gym bro videos from like the toughest, strongest like men and women in the world? Giving their exact routine. These people can like crush cars. I don't like, I don't even know what they're capable of. They are like so strong. I don't know, maybe it's just my algorithm. I will occasionally get these videos and I'll watch them because I wanna be able to crush a car. But something they always incorporate in their routines that I've begun to notice is rest.

• 47:38Jemma Sbeg?

  It's like a huge part of how they grow is how they rest. Now, before you stop listening here, because I feel like you know where I'm gonna take this. I need to make my argument for why you should be pausing and stepping away from work. More than you probably are. For at least an hour or two every single day. And I need you to be as serious about your unproductive downtime as your productive uptime. Similar to that all or nothing fallacy we end up in. We also end up in a rest is either optional or a distraction mindset. And we kind of half ass our rest. We don't fully dedicate ourselves to having time off or to switching off.

• 48:24Jemma Sbeg?

  And by not doing that, we don't realize the insanely positive consequences of this for regular productivity. An article published by Berkeley in two thousand and seventeen, I was reading about just recently, was speaking about how even in our brain's resting state, when we are not directly focused on a task, our brain is still active. It is engaging its default network to plug away at problems, examine and toss out possible answers, discard others, look for new information. We may not be able to come control these processes completely, but by learning to rest better, we support them. We support the secondary kind of work our brain can only do when we are calm.

• 49:08Jemma Sbeg?

  We let our brain do the automatic stuff. If you're constantly working, that doesn't happen. Additionally, when we rest and we are intentional about rest, it replenishes what was previously depleted by hard work. Things like our attention, our focus reserves, even our eyes' ability to direct themselves, our body's ability to calm itself, our capacity for divergent thinking. This is what this means for you. When you're not working, when you're taking a break, you need to be as present in the break as you are present in the work. Often, you know, we're not fully working, but we're not fully resting either.

• 49:50Jemma Sbeg?

  We kind of sit down to relax, but we like keep scanning for like what else we should be doing. You know, we're meant to be replying to messages from friends. And then suddenly we're also refreshing our email. Like we've told ourselves we're just gonna sit and read a book. And then suddenly now you're half answering the messages. Like we take a break, but we feel guilty the whole time. So we're like doing twenty five percent of a task at any given moment. That that that is not a productive way of being. You need to be able to mode switch. When you're in work mode, you're in it. When you're in re- relaxation mode, you're in that as well. Staying in the middle ground where you're like, I really deserve a break, but I don't deserve a break. I have to work. I really should be working, but I haven't given myself a break, so I should have a break.

• 50:36Jemma Sbeg?

  It just wastes more of your time. Now, is there a right way to rest? Yes, I'm very glad you asked. The author, Sa- uh, what's her name? Sandra Dalton Smith. She did a really famous TED Talk in which she identified seven types of rest that we need to be hitting across the week to be productive. These are physical rest, emotional rest, spiritual rest, mental, social, and sensory. Sounds like a lot of things. You often tick them off at the same time. The most important one, though, that she says is also the most neglected, is psychological rest. Authors of a two thousand and seven paper, I think it was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,

• 51:20Jemma Sbeg?

  identified that to truly recover from work stress and to be able to be productive, day in and day out. Yes, we need to engage in relaxation. Yes, we need to see our friends, of course. But most important for recovery cognitively and mentally is psychological detachment. So being able to put emotional distance between you and a task, having a sense of closure to the work or to the productive day. Just physically relaxing is not enough, which sounds like a bummer, because it's like, wow, we're already doing so much, but you, even if you stop working physically, sometimes your mind lingers mentally. So you need to have some kind of ritual, some kind of interrupter,

• 52:05Jemma Sbeg?

  some kind of pattern shift or mode shift that can say, we're not doing that anymore. I'm out of that zone. I'm in this zone now. And I know that in order to be the most productive when I'm in the zone from before, I need to be all here. Like, I need to be mentally disengaged from work. And it's not helping me switching between one and the other.

• 52:30Jemma Sbeg?

  I think we also need to learn how to say when a task is finished or finished enough for now. Like, this is another thing I find with people who are very motivated, very ambitious. I'm sure you're one of these people like. There's always more that can go on the to do list. There's always more that can go on the to do list. Like, there's always gonna be something else that hasn't been done. That's why all of these, I think, tasks and all of these tips kind of combine to create a productive day where. You know, you are doing enough. That three to one list, you know, by the end of the day that you have completed what is required. I'm sure you've heard of this idea of hedonic adaptation where people get more and more used to pleasure until they need more and more of it. So like.

• 53:13Jemma Sbeg?

  It's the same with greed, like, you know, a hundred dollars is a lot until you have a thousand dollars and then a hundred dollars isn't that much. And then you get a million dollars and a thousand dollars isn't that much anymore either. Like, that happens for greed, that happens for enjoyment. It also happens for productivity. I think this is something you need to be very aware of. The more productive you become, the more productive you expect yourself to be. And so dedicating yourself to your rest and being like, alright, I'm gonna switch off, stops you from feeling like, oh my god. This whole day was a waste because it wasn't as good as the day before or the day before that. There are times to be on, there are times to be off.

• 53:56Jemma Sbeg?

  Even nature understands that, even the cells that make up your like most basic state of being. Understand the flow of, I guess, creation and reproduction and then also slowness and renewal. You need to be following that as well. I really, it's really just like a wave chart or like a wave structure of like. If you wanna hit the peaks of your productivity, you have to hit the lows of your rest. So. That is all I have. That is my final soapbox moment for this episode. Treat your rest as important as your work. I hope that the combination of these tips was useful. I hope that you found.

• 54:39Jemma Sbeg?

  The research helpful to summarize the seven tips so you can just go away with the basics. Implement the three to one method, so three chores, two small tasks, one big task. Eat the frog. So do the hardest task first or when you are most productive. Speaking of when you are most productive, learn your chronotype when you are going to be the most on. Habit stack, reject all or nothing thinking. Carve out some time to be productive in an enjoyable, spontaneous way. I E. With a shoot your shot Wednesday and take your rest seriously.

• 55:20Jemma Sbeg?

  That is all. If you have any further to so, you can always leave them in the comments down below. If you are listening on Spotify, a big thank you to our researcher Libby Comet for her help with today's episode. Reminder, we are on Netflix, we are on Substack, we are on Instagram. We'd love to see you over there. And whatever it is you're working towards, whether it is your dissertation, I don't know, a big work project. Oh, my God, I can only ever think in like work and school. I'm, there's like a thousand things in the middle. Maybe it's an art fair, maybe it's a marathon, I don't know, whatever it is that you are dedicating yourself to right now, I'm. I'm just rooting for you and I hope that this more sustainable approach to productivity and devotion.

• 56:03Jemma Sbeg?

  And success is something that will help you get to where you want to go. So good luck. Until next time, be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. We will talk very, very soon.

• 56:18Jemma Sbeg?

  This episode is sponsored by Gymshark. Gymshark has spent over fourteen years obsessing over gym clothing and the people who wear it. And let me just say, I think we all know they are very, very good at what they do. No, seriously, their stuff is so good. Their everyday seamless collection is light, it's soft, it's stretchy. All of their stuff just looks good on and it's made for people who love to exercise, whatever exercise that is. Lifting, cardio, Pilates, running around campus, maybe just doing errands. Discover Gymshark and find your new favorite gym clothing at gymshark.com.

• 56:55Jemma Sbeg?

  I've been really trying to prioritize my health in a realistic way this year. And something that has kept me really motivated is my Whoop. I am such a data person, which is why I love Whoop. Because I can genuinely see why my body feels differently depending on the day. Why I'm running differently, why I'm maybe less focused. Whoop effortlessly tracks my sleep, it tracks my strain, my recovery, my stress. And most importantly, my overall health. And it just gives me all that data and all those patterns. So I can make better decisions, which includes knowing when to go easy and knowing when to go hard. New members can try Whoop with a 30 day free trial before committing to a membership. That's join.whoop.com/psychology for your free month of Whoop.

• 57:40Jemma Sbeg?

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