12 Science Approved Hacks To Boss Your Productivity

8. Think Negative

In the past, experts always used to recommend positive visualisation to boost productivity. The idea was that if you imagined yourself achieving your goal, you would be more motivated to work towards it.

A study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology titled "Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy" found that the more you fantasise about your success the more likely you are to fail as these fantasies will sap you of energy and drive.

Basically, when we picture ourselves achieving our goal, the brain falls for it and responds as though it has actually happened - i.e. it causes you to take your foot off the accelerator and begin to relax as though you have already finished your task.

This is also true for the bit of age old wisdom that you should tell people about your goals (learn French, lose 10lbs, take up the sitar etc.) in order to achieve them more easily. It turns out that, when you do this, your brain gives you the warm fuzzy reward of having done it without having to put the effort in, meaning that you're less likely to get up off your arse and actually learn French/lose 10lbs/take up the sitar.

If you want to motivate yourself, considering the possibility of failure, or even just weighing up the different outcomes is more likely to light a fire under you.

However, positive visualisation still has it's place as it is a great way to calm yourself down if the stress gets a bit too much and this is for exactly the same reason that it's bad for motivation.