Having watched a few videos of Ali Abdaal, I recognised the author and hence the interest in the book. The author has shared most of the ideas that have worked for him. I like the switch from SMART to NICE goals, CALM choices. There are references to many studies and takeaways to overcome fear, procrastination, getting started. Very accessible book. If you like reading or learning about self development, you can add more to your knowledge repertoire. I knew the concept of self-efficacy, now to that I add the "enactive mastery" term. Interesting fun facts or alternative perspectives on how Feynman used play when his research stalled, Leonardo's career and choices. I took other pointers from the book for eg to read Matthew Dicks book - I have already started reading "Someday is today".

I thought three parts of the book were a very helpful break down of the content: energize, unblock, & sustain. That's what I want to figure out, how to tackle my productivity in a more positive & manageable way! The small illustrations and highlighted important points help to soak in the content. I love how Abdaal shows us that accomplishing our tasks can have a positive affect on our energy and mood. She shows us simple ways to get that cycle started so we can reap the benefits.

This was an interesting read. As someone with a professional background in mental health, a lot of this information was not new to me. I think this might be a good introductory book for mainstream readers who are wanting to boost their productivity.

This book takes research that is fairly mainstream and repackages it with a heavy dose of positivity. Fine. But, nothing new here.

Feel Good Productivity means well, both literally and figuratively.

Written by a popular YouTube productivity blogger, the book is touted as an antidote to the popular hustle-culture and life hack proponents. To that end, the book delivers: Ali Abdaal’s bright, cheerful encouragement to find the pockets of life which interest people works well.

However, the issue which plagues many a *book that should have stayed a few blog posts* is very evident here. Abdaal’s case is made on mostly anecdotal stories, which makes sense given the topic isn’t easily quantifiable. The sheer volume of padding makes for an exhausting read and rapidly becomes little more than skimming until the next point is made.

Like most people living in late-stage capitalism, I’m interested in productivity and the way to balance inner satisfaction and outer results. For readers who have not already tackled the big bestsellers in the career self-help space, then Feel Good Productivity may contain new and useful information. If you are like me, it reads like a repackaging of other often superior books with little to recommend that is new or novel.
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Thank you to NetGalley and Celedon Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date Dec 26th, 2023.

<i>Feel-Good Productivity</i> is a shallow pastiche of better books.

Can you get value out of it if you haven't read a productivity book before? Absolutely. But is it the best place to build solid understanding of both what to do and why? That's a hard no.

Abdaal breaks his material into three sections, each with three chapters. Part 1 is about building and maintaining positive emotions through play, power, and people as 'energizers'. Part 2 looks at three 'blockers' that sabotage our energy: uncertainty, fear, and inertia. Part 3 looks at three different types of burnout: overexertion, depletion, and misalignment. Each chapter shares a few anecdotes from Abdaal's direct experience, books he's read, or authors that he has interviewed.

I may not be in the audience for this book, since I have read a large portion of the source material Abdaal draws from, but even so, I was hoping for more <i>synthesis</i> -- i.e., more useful connections and insights drawn from the connections between the original sources. There was, however, little of that to be found.

So, if you haven't already read David Allen (<i>Getting Things Done</i>), Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (<i>Flow</i>), or Stephen Covey (<i>7 Habits of Highly Effective People</i>), I highly recommend starting with one of those. Even second-generation authors like Nick Winter (<i>The Motivation Hacker</i>), Dan Charnas (<i>Everything in its Place</i>), Oliver Burkeman (<i>Four Thousand Weeks</i>), or Brian Tracy (<i>Eat That Frog!</i>) have deeper insights that will offer you better value for your time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.