"How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times" by Chris Bailey
Nov 24, 2023
16:48
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Chris Bailey offers a guide to achieving calm, navigating anxiety, and staving off burnout. Topics include the role of dopamine in productivity and anxiety, the power of a stimulation fast to increase productivity, understanding burnout and its triggers, and finding balance between the analog and digital worlds.
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Quick takeaways
Managing anxiety and treating ourselves gently can increase focus and productivity.
Engaging in analog activities promotes a deliberate, present state of mind and enhances productivity.
Deep dives
Managing Anxiety for Increased Productivity
By managing anxiety, slowing down, and treating ourselves gently, we can actually become more focused and engaged and ultimately accomplish more. Chris Bailey, the author of 'How to Calm Your Mind', shares accessible science-based strategies for maintaining inner peace and productivity. By understanding the role of dopamine and conducting a stimulation fast, we can break cycles of distraction and become more present and calm. Being aware of the triggers of burnout, such as workload and lack of control, allows us to dissect and remedy our work situations.
The Influence of the Analog and Digital Worlds
The digital world, built around novelty, releases dopamine and leads to distraction. On the other hand, the analog world allows us to experience other neurochemicals like oxytocin and serotonin, promoting presence, connection, and pride. By balancing activities between the two worlds, focusing on efficiency in the digital realm and meaning in the analog realm, we can find greater depths of calm. Anxiety is the opposite of calm, and finding calm leads to greater productivity.
Finding Calm and Productivity in the Analog World
Researchers have found that anxiety is the opposite of calm, and experiencing any level of anxiety hinders productivity. By engaging in analog activities like journaling with pen and paper, playing board games, and reading physical newspapers, we tap into a more deliberate, thoughtful, and present state of mind. Calm in the analog world leads to enhanced productivity, as anxiety shrinks our capacity to think expansively.