Starting meetings on time significantly contributes to both the satisfaction and effectiveness of the participants. Research shows that when meetings start late, this leads to lower satisfaction with the outcomes of the meeting. Participants not only have a negative attitude towards the meeting itself, but also towards the results that come out of it. This is because a late start is often accompanied by negative socio-emotional behaviors, such as frustration and impatience, which can undermine productivity and collaboration within the group.

In addition, experimental studies show that starting meetings on time has a positive influence on the expected and actual effectiveness of the meeting. When meetings start on time, participants feel more respected and motivated, leading to a more constructive and efficient collaboration. Adhering to the scheduled start time can therefore be a simple but powerful way to improve the overall quality of meetings, which ultimately contributes to better decision-making and higher satisfaction among participants.

Related:

• Professionals lose an average of three hours per week on unnecessary meetings

The use of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) is a popular way to set goals. However, there are reasons not to use this method. Firstly, the SMART principle is not based on strong scientific theories and does not align with research findings. This means that the effectiveness of SMART goals has not been well-proven by scientific research, which can lead to poorer results and confusion when using them.

The SMART framework does not take into account the type of goal being set and is often not applied consistently. This lack of consistency and clarity can result in goals that do not fit well with the personal needs and situations of the people trying to achieve them. Moreover, the SMART acronym does not provide enough detailed guidance, which can lead to a superficial approach to goal setting and a higher risk of negative effects, such as demotivation or stress if the goals are not met.

Finally, SMART goals are often not used as intended and sometimes contain redundant criteria. This can lead to inefficient and confusing objectives. Instead of sticking to a rigid and possibly flawed system, it is more useful to use more flexible and tailored methods for setting goals. These methods better fit the specific situation and needs of the people.

Related:

• Link the desired behavior to a clear signal
• Spend a little attention on planning and organizing your tasks, but not more than necessary; then, get to work

Various studies on sleep habits and work performance show that good sleep has a significant impact on how well people perform their jobs. A study by Rosekind et al. (2009) examined the sleep habits of more than 4,000 knowledge workers. They found that people who sleep well not only earn more but also perform much better than their colleagues who sleep poorly or too little, or suffer from insomnia. These good sleepers are better at time management, physical and mental performance, interpersonal skills, and their work output. These improvements are much more convincing than, for example, the benefits of shorter meetings.

Data shows that people with insomnia and insufficient sleep perform much worse at work and work less safely. They also use sleep medication more often, while others more frequently opt for non-medication treatments. Due to fatigue, employees lose an average of $1967 per year in productivity. This shows how costly sleep deprivation can be for both employees and employers.

The importance of good sleep cannot be emphasized enough. Sleeping in is seen as a major gain because it not only improves your performance and well-being but also has economic benefits. Employees who get enough and good sleep can do their work better and faster. This leads to higher productivity and ultimately more income.

Related:

• Well-rested people are more positive
• Blue light from screens has little effect on how quickly you fall asleep
• “Revenge bedtime procrastination” is the deliberate delay of bedtime to regain control

People are often happier when planning a vacation than during the vacation itself. Research shows that people who are going on a trip are happier in the time before their vacation than people without travel plans. This is because they are looking forward to a good time. By planning a vacation, people can dream about new experiences. This makes them happy.

When people prepare for a vacation, they are busy choosing places to go and what they want to do there. They imagine how fun it will be. This preparation time makes people excited and happy. They look forward to getting away from their regular life and seeing new places.

After the vacation, people are often not happier than before, except if the vacation was very relaxing. There is usually no difference in how happy people are after their vacation compared to people who did not go away. This is because people quickly get used to their normal life. It seems that planning a vacation makes people the happiest, even if the vacation itself is sometimes less enjoyable than expected.

Related:

• Take the time to think about, dream of, and look forward to future activities
• Do things that makes you happy everyday, since happy workers are 12% more productive

People who sleep well are often more positive, and this is due to how sleep affects their brains. Research shows that sleep deprivation mainly affects the part of the brain that processes positive and neutral memories, the hippocampus. The part that remembers negative things, the amygdala, is less affected. As a result, people who do not get enough sleep have more difficulty retrieving positive memories, but negative memories remain well ingrained. This means that lack of sleep has a negative impact on their mood and how they see the world around them.

Walker conducted an experiment that clearly demonstrates this effect. In this study, sleep-deprived students had to remember a list of words. The results showed that these students could remember 81% of words with a negative meaning, such as “cancer,” but only 31% of words with a positive or neutral meaning, such as “sunshine” or “basket.” This difference in memory performance shows how sleep deprivation causes people to focus more on negative information, which can lead to a more pessimistic worldview and a less positive mood.

Many people notice that they feel happier and more positive after a good night’s sleep. This is because enough sleep helps the brain process positive and neutral memories well. This allows you to look at the world more optimistically and balanced. In short, getting enough sleep is very important for maintaining a good mood and seeing the world in a balanced way.

Related:

• Take the time to think about, dream of, and look forward to future activities
• Good sleepers are more productive and earn more
• In general, people perform better in the morning hours than later in the day
• “Revenge bedtime procrastination” is the deliberate delay of bedtime to regain control

Instead of tackling every small task as soon as it arises, you can gather similar tasks and do them all at once. This is called “batching,” and it helps you spend less time starting and finishing work. For example, if you make all your phone calls at one time of the day, you stay in the same mindset and don’t have to constantly switch between different types of tasks. This way, you not only work faster but also feel less mentally burdened.

A good example of batching is how you handle emails. Instead of constantly checking your inbox and responding to every new email immediately, you can choose to check and respond to your emails at set times of the day. This way, your day isn’t constantly interrupted by new messages, and you can better focus on more important tasks. By applying batching, you create a calmer and more focused work rhythm, allowing you to ultimately get more done and experience less stress.

Related:

• Do the right thing, in the right way, and at the right moment
• Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn’t need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive
• Spend a little attention on planning and organizing your tasks, but not more than necessary; then, get to work
• Start with the difficult work and do the easy things later
• Work in 90-minute cycles separated by 20-minute breaks
• Unplanned tasks get finished more often than planned ones

This is related to your internal biological clock and how your body naturally works. Chronobiology - the science that looks at your biological rhythms - shows that you go through different cycles throughout the day that affect how alert you are and how well you perform. These natural rhythms (also called ultradian rhythms) ensure that your energy and focus do not remain at the same level all day.

Research confirms that your productivity is indeed higher in the morning than in the afternoon, and you can use this natural variation to work more efficiently. This pattern is related to various biological processes in your body, such as your hormone production and body temperature, which are optimal for mental performance in the morning. Although there are individual differences in chronotype - some people are naturally more morning or evening people - for most people, their cognitive abilities are at their peak in the first half of the day.

By consciously using this natural productivity cycle, you can better organize your workday. It is therefore wise to schedule the heaviest and most important tasks in the morning hours when your concentration and mental energy are at their best. This insight from chronobiology provides you with a scientific basis to improve your daily planning and work routines.

Related:

• Well-rested people are more positive
• Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn’t need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive
• Work in 90-minute cycles separated by 20-minute breaks
• Train when your chronotype peaks, but never let the perfect hour stop you from training

When you have less energy, it can change your way of thinking and promote creativity. You are less likely to stick to usual thought patterns and more open to unexpected ideas. Research shows that people are often better at solving problems when they are less alert, such as at times of the day when they don’t feel at their best.

Being creative means being able to make connections between things that seem unrelated at first glance. This is easier when you are less focused, as your mind can wander more freely and form new ideas. Sometimes it helps to let a problem rest for a while, so the solution emerges on its own. When you have less energy, you are less inclined to focus on direct, logical solutions and can instead make room for innovative ideas.

It may seem strange to do creative tasks when you don’t feel energetic, but that’s when surprising and original ideas can arise. Creativity doesn’t always come from hard work and focus; it can flourish when you are relaxed and less alert. By consciously choosing low-energy moments for creative tasks, you can take advantage of your mind’s natural tendency to make new and unusual connections.

Related:

• Add some art to your workplace for reduced stress and increased creativity and productivity
• Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn’t need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive
• Work in 90-minute cycles separated by 20-minute breaks
• Give your mind time to wander

This phenomenon, also known as “elimination neglect” or “subtraction neglect,” is deeply rooted in our basic cognition. Research by Gabrielle S. Adams of the University of Virginia and her colleagues shows that people tend to add complexity rather than reduce it when faced with problems. This pattern has been consistently demonstrated in a series of 8 studies, where participants systematically overlooked that removing elements could be an effective solution.

This “addition bias” manifests in various contexts, such as building Lego models, planning trips, and even improving universities. People tend to add more layers of complexity, often leading to overcrowded schedules and inefficient processes. This behavior is not only limited to individual decisions but also occurs in group dynamics, such as meetings, where more and more items are added to the agenda without considering removing existing ones.

By becoming aware of this cognitive bias, individuals and organizations can learn to be more effective by considering what can be removed instead of added. This can result in simpler, more streamlined solutions that save both time and resources.

Related:

• A four-day workweek improves employee well-being without reducing productivity
• Reduce mobile phone use to improve your life satisfaction, well-being, and health
• When starting a new habit, routine, or project, it is important to consider the future maintenance costs that may arise

People who value spiritual values and social relationships are much happier than those who focus mainly on their own achievements and possessions. How happy you are is directly related to what you value: spirituality is at the top, followed by your social relationships, your physical health, and lastly external achievements like money and status. This pattern shows that the more you focus only on yourself, the less happy you become.

This is because we are naturally social beings. People who prioritize their family and friends over their own well-being are ultimately happier than those who focus mainly on their own needs. Spirituality is seen as the least egocentric value because it helps you look beyond yourself, which psychologists call ‘self-transcendence’. In contrast, external achievements like career success and material possessions are the most self-centered values, which explains why they contribute the least to your sense of happiness.

This does not mean that personal goals and physical health are unimportant, but that they work best as part of a broader perspective where connection with others and meaningful values are central. Developing spiritual growth and investing in deep social relationships are therefore the most reliable paths to sustainable happiness.

Related:

• Appreciate the feedback you receive and be deliberate about the feedback you give
• Do things that makes you happy everyday, since happy workers are 12% more productive
• A Inipi ritual is a spiritual cleansing ceremony focused on connection and healing

While the concept of a growth mindset, as popularized by Carol Dweck, suggests that people can develop their basic abilities through dedication and hard work, a critical analysis of the literature shows that interventions designed to promote this mindset often do not lead to significant improvements in academic performance. This may be due to inadequate research, poor reporting, and bias in the studies evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions.

It is important to emphasize that the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions does not mean that the growth mindset itself has no value. The core ideas of the growth mindset, such as the belief that skills can be developed and that effort leads to improvement, can still be valuable for personal development and motivation. However, the specific programs and interventions designed to promote this mindset do not consistently result in improved academic performance, suggesting that there may be other factors at play that limit the effectiveness of these interventions.

Related:

• Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right
• The conscious belief that effort is the good part links dopamine to the process rather than the result

A habit has two parts: an impulse, and the behaviour that follows it. The impulse comes from a cue in your surroundings or in your head, and the behaviour arrives without you deciding anything about it. You only notice it when it does not happen. Not washing your hands after using the toilet, or going to bed without flossing, feels uncomfortable, and that discomfort is the proof that the behaviour no longer rests on a choice.

A habit like that is learned, not innate. That is exactly why it is useful: once the behaviour runs automatically, your attention is free for something else. Your brain outsources it, the way you stop thinking about changing gear after years of driving. So habits are not evidence of discipline, but of something that no longer needs discipline.

From that follows the limit that is easy to forget: not every behaviour can become a habit. Anything that asks for a judgement each time, or consists of a series of steps you have to think about, keeps demanding attention. That is a routine you run deliberately, not a habit that starts by itself. If you want something to become truly automatic, keep the behaviour small and attach it to a cue that comes back in the same place every day.

Related:

• Link the desired behavior to a clear signal
• Physical cues affect our state of mind and can be used to switch between different productive modes

In recent years, our phone usage has increased significantly. Do you know what research shows? We pick up our phones on average more than 350 times a day! That means you reach for your device approximately every two minutes and 43 seconds. These figures are almost four times higher than in 2019, when we checked our phones on average only 96 times a day. This increase is partly due to changes in our daily lives and how we work since COVID-19, with much more online communication.

The increase in phone usage has various causes, including phone addiction. Social media and other apps are designed to capture your attention, making it easy to get distracted. The constant need to stay connected and not miss out makes it difficult to put your phone down. Additionally, notifications constantly interrupt your activities, explaining why you reach for your phone so often.

This trend also affects your productivity and mental health. Constantly switching between tasks and checking your phone makes you work less efficiently and experience more stress. Although technology has improved our lives in many ways, it’s important to be mindful of your phone usage and also take time to digitally unwind. By paying better attention to how often you use your phone, you can find a better balance between being online and offline.

Related:

• Avoid excessive task switching to increase efficiency
• Workers lose 9% of their time at work by toggling roughly 1200 times per day between applications and websites
• Hiding your phone doesn’t help you concentrate better
• Mobile notifications cause significant distraction and performance reduction due to prolonged mind-wandering

A 5-minute unstructured break can be sufficient to restore your concentration. Research from the University of Sydney has shown that a short interruption of just five minutes, without specific activities or structure, is enough to bring your attention back to optimal levels. This means you don’t necessarily have to take a walk or watch a relaxing video; simply doing nothing for a short period can be effective. This finding supports the theory that a short, unstructured break is a powerful way to combat mental fatigue and increase productivity.

The attention restoration theory suggests that our brains need periodic rest to function optimally. Unstructured breaks, where you step away from your work without specific tasks or goals, can help restore your cognitive resources. These types of breaks offer a moment of mental rest and can therefore contribute to better focus and concentration when you return to work. It is a simple but effective strategy to improve the quality of your work without needing extensive or planned activities.

Related:

• Take regular ‘thinking walks’ to change your brain to enhance thinking, creativity and memory
• Try to get four hours of concentrated work into a workday, and never more than six
• Work in 90-minute cycles separated by 20-minute breaks

Research shows that mindfulness meditation, even in short sessions, helps you distribute your attention better. This means that your brain handles the attention needed for difficult tasks more efficiently. In a study, people who meditated briefly performed better on attention tests, such as the Flanker Task and the Attention Network Test, without their reaction time worsening. This shows that meditation helps you concentrate better, even if you don’t have much experience with it yet. Although we don’t know exactly how long this improved concentration lasts, the results suggest that even a short meditation can enhance your concentration ability.

Related:

• Mindfulness meditation reduces the size of your amygdala, making you less prone to distractions and procrastination
• Give your mind time to wander

Noise-cancelling headphones are often seen as the solution to distractions in open offices. They are designed to muffle ambient noise so you can concentrate better. But you know what’s funny? Research shows that even though you think your concentration improves with such headphones, there is actually no real difference in how well you can focus. You might feel calmer, but you’re not really more productive or focused.

In open offices, where it’s often very noisy, noise-cancelling headphones serve another purpose. They are actually a kind of “do not disturb” sign for your colleagues. If you’re wearing such headphones, your colleagues are less likely to approach you for a chat. That helps a bit against distractions. But the real problem of all the noise around you remains. And because your concentration doesn’t really improve, it remains difficult to work well in such an environment.

Related:

• An increase of 10 dB noise in the workplace reduces productivity by 5%
• An open office is a cheap short-term solution with high intangible costs in the long term

Research shows that there is a correlation between income and happiness, but this relationship is complex and not straightforward. According to a study by Kahneman and Deaton (2010), happiness increases with income up to a certain point, after which the effect diminishes. This means that there is a threshold above which additional income does not significantly contribute to more happiness. On the other hand, research by Killingsworth (2021) indicates that happiness continues to increase with income, even at higher income levels. However, this effect is stronger among people who are already happier.

A joint reanalysis of these studies showed that the level of happiness mainly stabilizes among the least happy 20% of people. For the rest of the population, happiness continues to increase with higher income, and among the happiest people, this effect even accelerates. This means that the relationship between income and happiness is not the same for everyone and depends on how happy someone already is. The misinterpretation of earlier studies may partly be due to limitations in research methods and the way happiness was measured.

Money is not the only factor that contributes to happiness, but a higher income can help. It provides financial security, better healthcare, and more opportunities for relaxation and personal growth. However, the pursuit of more money can also lead to constant comparison with wealthier people, which can make you unhappy. Therefore, it is important to find a balance between financial goals and other sources of happiness, such as friendships and personal fulfillment.

Related:

• Take the time to think about, dream of, and look forward to future activities
• Do things that makes you happy everyday, since happy workers are 12% more productive

Research shows that employees who work fewer hours experience less stress and are less likely to burn out. During a trial period, 39% of employees reported feeling less stressed, and 71% reported fewer burnout symptoms. Issues such as anxiety, fatigue, and sleep problems also decreased, while their mental and physical health improved. This indicates that shorter workweeks can be beneficial for employee well-being.

In terms of productivity, the results of shorter workweeks show that productivity does not always decline. In some cases, company revenues remained stable or even increased slightly, with an average increase of 1.4% during the trial period. Compared to previous years, companies saw an average revenue increase of 35%, indicating healthy growth despite the shorter workweek. Although employees work fewer hours in a four-day workweek, the better work-life balance and improved well-being can lead to a productivity increase of about 10%.

While the results are promising, there is still some criticism regarding the long-term impact on productivity. The trial periods were relatively short, and it is possible that the positive effects are partly due to work done before the trial. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that a four-day workweek could be a viable option for companies looking to improve employee well-being without significant negative impacts on productivity.

Related:

• The optimal amount of free time seems to be between 2 and 4 hours per day
• Our go-to approach for problem-solving is to incorporate something new, rather than eliminate something existing
• Professionals spend about 60% of their time on work about work
• Large organizations extinguish employees' passion
• The expectation that you check email outside of working hours can lead to health problems, relationship issues, and anxiety
• Longer workdays undermine productivity and cognitive skills

Employees lose nearly four hours a week due to constantly switching between different apps. This may seem inevitable in a digital work environment, but it often results from choices companies make about how they organize their work and what software they use.

For many employees, there is no easy way to avoid the constant switching between documents, websites, and apps. This is because their tasks are often designed in such a way that they need to use multiple programs, and most business programs do not work well together.

To solve this problem, leaders need to invest in better software solutions and focus on the user experience. This way, employees can work more efficiently without unnecessary time loss.

Related:

• Avoid excessive task switching to increase efficiency
• Ensure that your computer screen is large enough so that you can view both the work document and the reference material at the same time
• Attempting to do two or more attention-demanding tasks simultaneously reduces productivity
• A little time pressure while working on your tasks helps to reduce ‘attention residue’
• We pick up our phones over 350 times per day, almost four times more than in 2019

Research shows that happy employees are up to 12% more productive. This is because happiness boosts your motivation and energy, allowing you to work better and faster. When you feel good, you are more likely to tackle challenges and come up with creative solutions. Therefore, it is important to make time every day for things that make you happy, whether it’s a hobby, spending time with friends and family, or just relaxing.

A job that makes you happy can also improve your well-being and productivity. If your work makes you happy, you are more engaged and motivated, leading to better performance. This improved performance gives you a sense of satisfaction and happiness. This creates a positive cycle where your productivity and well-being continue to grow. Therefore, it is important not only to do things outside of work that make you happy but also to choose a career that matches your interests.

Related:

• Spend at least 2 hours per week in nature
• Take the time to think about, dream of, and look forward to future activities
• More money will make you happier
• Looking forward to your vacation and making travel plans often makes you happier than the trip itself
• Spiritual and social values make us happier than self-interest
• The conscious belief that effort is the good part links dopamine to the process rather than the result

Research shows that many knowledge workers check their email within half an hour of waking up. This is because email can be addictive, especially for younger people. They want to know immediately what’s going on and feel productive when they check their email, even before their workday officially begins.

However, quickly checking email can also have drawbacks. It can make people feel overwhelmed by all the requests and information they see right away. This can cause stress, especially if there are urgent matters. Also, constantly switching between emails and other tasks can make people work less efficiently and find it harder to concentrate.

Although it’s tempting to check your email immediately, it might be better to do so later in the morning. This way, people can start their day with important tasks without being distracted by their inbox. By handling email more consciously, they can be more productive and start their workday calmer and more focused.

Related:

• Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn’t need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive
• Start with the difficult work and do the easy things later

This phenomenon has been studied in various studies, involving both students and full-time employees. The results showed that the awareness of working outside of standard working hours has a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. This effect occurred regardless of whether participants were explicitly reminded that they were working outside of normal working hours.

An important factor contributing to this undermining of intrinsic motivation is the social norm. People are social beings and tend to synchronize their schedules with those of others. When someone works outside of standard working hours, this can lead to a feeling of isolation and the idea that they are not in line with the rest of society. This can result in an increased awareness of alternative, possibly more satisfying ways to spend time, such as social activities or relaxation.

Related:

• The optimal amount of free time seems to be between 2 and 4 hours per day
• The expectation that you check email outside of working hours can lead to health problems, relationship issues, and anxiety
• Large organizations extinguish employees' passion

By tackling tasks immediately, you prevent them from piling up and getting in your way later. This is similar to the idea that a task is a debt you have to pay off in the future. While it can sometimes be useful to postpone things, it is usually better to handle them quickly. This keeps your task list short and allows you to make progress faster and adapt more easily to changes.

Working quickly and efficiently is often praised by successful people like Sam Altman and Tyler Cowen. They emphasize that acting quickly and adapting swiftly to new information is important for success. This means not only responding quickly to emails and meeting deadlines but also making decisions quickly and adjusting them if necessary. This approach ensures that you keep moving and don’t get stuck in long decision-making processes.

A short task list helps you focus on what really matters and prevents you from being overwhelmed by a lot of unfinished tasks. By handling new tasks immediately, you reduce stress and make room for new challenges and opportunities. This not only increases your productivity but also your ability to remain flexible and resilient in a changing work environment.

Related:

• Make reversible decisions as quickly as possible
• Do the right thing, in the right way, and at the right moment
• Although time pressure makes us work faster, it does not automatically mean we work better

People are not good at doing multiple things at once. Our brains are not designed for this. Our cognitive and neural systems, which are responsible for mental functions, do not have the right architecture to effectively support multitasking. When we think we are working on different things at the same time, we are actually switching quickly between tasks. This back-and-forth switching costs energy and time. As a result, we make more mistakes and the work takes longer.

Our brains work best when we do one thing at a time. This is due to how we have evolved as humans. If we try to do different things at once, it becomes too much for our brains. There are some people who can do this better, but they are very few. For most people, it works better to focus on one task. This way, you get the best result.

Related:

• Avoid excessive task switching to increase efficiency
• Schedule two hours every day for important work that doesn’t need to be completed immediately; this helps you become happier and more productive
• Attempting to do two or more attention-demanding tasks simultaneously reduces productivity
• A little time pressure while working on your tasks helps to reduce ‘attention residue’
• A small part of the population is able to multitask without performance reduction
• Multitasking leads to an overestimation of your own ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously

“Work about work” refers to the activities you do to organize and coordinate your work, but that do not directly contribute to your main task. These include tasks such as communicating about work, searching for information, switching between different programs, dealing with changing priorities, and figuring out the status of ongoing projects. While these activities are necessary to move projects forward, they can be time-consuming and distract from truly productive work.

The concept of “work about work” is well-researched, including in Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index, which surveyed over 10,000 knowledge workers worldwide. This research shows that these additional tasks take up a lot of time, leaving less time for important work that directly contributes to the organization’s goals. This can be frustrating for employees, as they feel they cannot use their time effectively and that their productivity is hindered by these ancillary tasks.

To reduce the impact of “work about work,” organizations can simplify their workflows and use technologies that require less communication and information searching. Spending less time on “work about work” can not only increase productivity but also enhance job satisfaction and employee well-being.

Related

• Professionals lose an average of three hours per week on unnecessary meetings
• Modern work is unconfined work
• Spend a little attention on planning and organizing your tasks, but not more than necessary; then, get to work
• A four-day workweek improves employee well-being without reducing productivity
• Start with as little as possible and add complexity as you go