5 Scientific Facts To Maximise Your Productivity
Proven and tested by experts in motivation and willpower.
Did you know that people tend to buy more coffee once their loyalty cards are almost complete? That’s what Oleg Urminsky, a professor of marketing at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues have found.
Urminsky belongs to a scientific community that is probing motivation, desire, and willpower like never before. Using neuroscience, cognitive psychology, big data, and case studies, these researchers study all sorts of triggers behind elite productivity, leaving no stone unturned.
While many of their findings are still elusive, five scientific facts stand out. They are easy to grasp, simple to follow, and can help you maximise your results.
#1 — The Closer the Reward, the Harder You Work
So why do people buy more coffee when their loyalty cards are almost complete? That’s because the closer a reward (the free cup of coffee), the more we want it, and the harder we work to get it. This behaviour is known as the goal gradient hypothesis and was discovered in 1932 by psychologist Clark Hull in rats and other animals. Humans, it turns out, are no exception: we work harder as we approach a reward.
The goal gradient hypothesis is the reason why small tasks are great for motivation. Picture your task as a loyalty card and its completion as a reward. The bigger the task, the more points you need to get the reward, which means you won’t feel the urge to work harder for a long time. Small tasks, however, are like a loyalty card with just a few points. The moment you start, the reward is near, which means you’ll work harder sooner than later.
“We think about goals more if they can be achieved sooner. We also take them more seriously and value them more.” — Oleg Urminsky.
Always break your work into milestones that are quick to finish. Twenty to forty minutes per milestone is perfect. This way, you’ll always be eager to get to the finish line.
#2 — Making Progress Visible Improves Motivation
In a follow-up study, Urminsky and his colleagues examined how progress impacts motivation. To do so, they offered participants two types of loyalty cards: a ten-point card and a twelve-point card with two bonus stamps. In both cases, people were ten points away from a free cup of coffee. What do you think happened?
You might have guessed right. People with the twelve-point cards got their free cup faster. “While the distance to goal is the same, two bonus stamps make a big difference. It’s as if they’re already on the way there,” Urminsky says.
Making progress visible, even in small ways, boosts your motivation. You won’t get fit if you put your running shoes on the doorway before going for a run, but this small act makes you think you’re already two steps to the finish line. Similarly, organising your desk, buying a few books, or booking a seminar, have the same effect as bonus stamps. They help you feel you’re already on track to get what you want, motivating you to do the work.
#3 — Productivity Fluctuates Through the Day and Week
Do you feel energised on a Wednesday and less so the next day? Does your productivity fluctuate throughout the day? You are not alone. Researchers found that memory, perception, and problem-solving skills fluctuate according to a person’s chronotype. Some people do better in the early hours. Others are at their best later in the day. When psychologists measured these same cognitive abilities in people over a week, they found them to vary as well.
Make careful note of the hours and days when you are at your peak productive state. You will certainly notice a consistent pattern of ups and downs. This way, you can allocate tasks more strategically. For example, if you’re an evening person and feel most energised on Tuesdays, maybe a Tuesday evening is the perfect time to work on your most challenging tasks. After all, it’s not a matter of how you compare to others but rather how to maximise your potential to do your best work.
#4 — You Can Solve Problems While You Dream
Each night before sleeping, French poet Saint-Pol-Roux hung a sign on his bedroom door that said: “Poet at work.” According to research, dreams are yet another doorway to productivity. That’s because while we dream, the brain mechanism that restricts thinking to the logical and familiar shuts down. In our dreams, we dare more. We are bolder. We take more risks. But there is more to it than that.
According to psychologist Deirdre Barrett, people can intentionally dream about a particular problem through a technique called dream incubation. During an incubation training program, Barrett taught students and professionals to dream about work-related challenges. Within just one week of practice, many of her subjects reported insightful dreams. “A problem difficult at night is often resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it,” says Barrett in her book, The Committee of Sleep. She suggests the following steps to put your sleeping mind at work:
- Write your problem on a note and place it next to your bed with a pen and paper.
- Review the problem for a few minutes before sleep.
- While in bed, picture the problem as a concrete image, if possible.
- Tell yourself you want to dream about the problem as you drift off to sleep.
- Once awake, stay in bed for a while. Try to recall any trace of a dream. Then write it down.
We spend a third of our lives asleep and a third of that time dreaming. Of course, dream incubation is no guarantee of having the best ideas. But learning this skill can help you find creative ways that might escape your waking mind.
#5 — Surprising Knowledge Improves Learning and Memory
Did you know that:
- The more money a lost wallet has, the more likely people will return it.
- Ants can shrink and expand their brains by more than twenty per cent.
- A Greenland shark born before Isaac Newton was still alive in 2020.
When was the last time you learned something that made your eyebrows jump?
According to research, moments of intellectual surprise can boost memory, curiosity and make you an effective learner. What’s more, learning as a habit extends longevity and lowers the risk of brain-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.
A hungry mind, curious about the world, can take you far in life. Make sure to get your daily fix of new ideas and exciting discoveries. Read Scientific American, the New Scientist, or the science section of the New York Times. If you do this daily, it won’t take long before you learn a thing or two that make you pause in wonder. And it sure feels good.
Take Away
To make the most out of your days, productivity experts says to follow these steps:
- Always work on small tasks: the closer the end, the more eager you want to get there.
- Make progress visible, even in small ways.
- Be aware of your daily and weekly ups and downs. Such awareness helps you allocate tasks strategically.
- Practice dream incubation to solve problems while you sleep.
- Learn surprising things to improve your memory and boost your curiosity.
Scientists are grasping the factors behind elite productivity like never before. Their message is clear: sometimes, it’s the little changes, the nudging you do here and there, that brings your best self.
