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Self | Productivity
Science-Backed Ways To Be More Productive
With a few examples from history, mythology, and everyday life.
There’s a great example of the power of incentives from 2,243 years ago.
A brutal rebellion against the Qin Dynasty was in full swing in 221 BC. Rebel leader, General Xiang Lu, led his forces across a wide body of water, landing his army on enemy shores.
Then, Lu did the unthinkable: he purposely sank their own ships and gave his troops just three days of rations. He told his army, “You will either starve, win or die on enemy soil.”
Despite being heavily outnumbered, they fought like cornered animals and eventually won. This is the origin of the Chinese idiom, “Break the cauldrons and sink the boats.”
It is a metaphor for commitment and urgency.
Just as some behaviors are correlated to longevity, others are correlated to greater productivity and goal attainment. Here are three research-backed ways to turn the statistics in your favor.
Make your brain function like a non-procrastinator
Per a study by Dr. Shunmin Zhang, people who are great at avoiding procrastination do two things:
