The one best productivity practice I have learned in 2021

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”– Jerzy Gregorek

Coming up with New Year's resolutions feels great, but carrying through is often quite challenging.

Whether it's becoming more productive at work, being more lenient at home, or eating healthier – the difficult part of accomplishing our goals is making the hard choices to get there each day. Hands down, the one best productivity practice I have learned in 2021 does that trick. 

As I have explained earlier, two parts of our brain shape our decisions throughout the day. The prefrontal cortex allows us to reason and pursue our longer-term goals, while our limbic system lets us give in to temptations and seek short-term gratification. Resisting an unwelcome urge – such as quitting on a challenging task or having yet another cookie – feels so hard because it takes up a lot of mental energy for the prefrontal cortex to go to war with the reflexive limbic system.

As it turns out, there's a third brain area that enables our prefrontal cortex to win that war and follow through with our plans. Scientists call that area the basal ganglia. Like an inner conductor, it underpins our ability to engage (termed "go") in desired behaviors and suppress (termed "no-go") undesired ones.

The productivity practice I am recommending here was inspired by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, who tries to do 21 "no-go's" each day. Whenever he notices that he is about to reflexively engage in an undesired behavior, he tries to catch himself and not do that thing. If he succeeds, that ups his "no-go" count by one.

The number 21 is as ambitious as it is arbitrary, but the practice works surprisingly well. Just as counting breaths during meditation makes it easier not to get taken away by thoughts, counting "no-go's" makes it easier not to get taken away by urges. From my experience, that's due to three interconnected reasons. First, it feels like fun at the moment: Counting a “no-go" when an urge arises replaces the feeling of stress with one of curiosity and playfulness. Second, it feels good after implementation: When we succeed in not giving in to an urge, we feel positive and proud of ourselves. Third, if implemented regularly, counting "no-go's" eventually becomes a habit, making it much easier to resist unwelcome urges as they arise throughout the day.

In a nutshell, counting "no-go's" makes us less prone to giving in to all kinds of urges – including throwing in the towel on a challenging task, getting rude with someone who triggers us, or eating something we'd rather avoid. So, whenever you feel like doing something that you know is not in line with your goals, count up one "no-go" – and see what happens.

Pro tip: As I have learned over Christmas, the practice doesn't work all too well after a drink or two. But at the turn of the year, that's okay. So enjoy your NYE, and cheers to a great 2022!

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Until next week,Christian