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The Biology Behind Productivity

what do managers do all day

Superb time-management skills are worthless when you’re feeling unmotivated, distracted or tired at work. Until robots take over our day-to-day workloads, our productivity is directly linked to our mental and physical well-being.

biology of productivity

via GIPHY

The expectation at work to remain competent, motivated and attentive for the entire workday puts a huge strain on our biological resources. Thankfully modern science has given us a better understanding of how our bodies work, which can help us leverage our physiology to work smarter.

By implementing a few biological disciplines, you’ll be able to work with your body and avoid unproductive behaviors like impulsivity, sleep deprivation, and stress.

Here are some hacks based on the biology of productivity that can help you and your team perform at their best:

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Your Brain on Dopamine: The Science of Motivation

your brain on dopamine
  1. The Origins Of Motivation (Hint: It’s Neuroscience)
  2. What Causes Your Dopamine To Spike
  3. How To Hack Your Dopamine To Boost Your Productivity
  4. More Physical Tricks To Kick Your Dopamine Into High Gear
  5. Take The First Step
  6. TL;DR
  7. Popular Questions
  8. Glossary
Dopamine representation

I spent an hour on this opening paragraph.

The hour wasn’t time well spent, mind you. Sure, I was working — writing, deleting, tinkering with words here and there — but my one-paragraph-per-hour pace wasn’t out of indecisiveness as much as a lack of motivation.

I spent

  • five minutes on the email
  • ten minutes on Instagram
  • and fifteen minutes doing who-knows-what on Tumblr

(Just kidding, I know exactly what I was doing: watching cat videos.)

Sound familiar?

Motivation is a tricky thing to corral. Tricky, but not impossible.

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