Ali Abdaal Books

Many people assume that exhaustion is evidence of ambition, but Feel-Good Productivity begins by exposing how destructive that idea can be. Ali Abdaal opens with a powerful memory from his time as a junior doctor, working a Christmas shift under immense pressure, physically depleted and emotionally ...

From Feel-Good Productivity

We often think of feeling good as a reward for finishing work, but Abdaal makes a compelling case that feeling good is actually what helps us do the work in the first place. Drawing on research from positive psychology and neuroscience, he explains that positive emotions broaden attention, improve c...

From Feel-Good Productivity

One of the book’s most memorable claims is that play is not a distraction from serious work but a catalyst for it. Abdaal illustrates this through the story of physicist Richard Feynman, who rediscovered his love for science when he stopped treating it as a grim obligation and began following what a...

From Feel-Good Productivity

A major barrier to productivity is the feeling that our work is happening to us rather than being shaped by us. Abdaal calls attention to the energizing effect of power, not in the sense of dominance over others, but in the sense of personal agency. When we feel that our actions matter and that we h...

From Feel-Good Productivity

Productivity is often presented as a private battle between an individual and a to-do list, but Abdaal argues that our relationships shape our output far more than we realize. Human beings are social creatures, and energy is contagious. Encouragement, accountability, collaboration, and belonging can...

From Feel-Good Productivity

One of the most useful ideas in Feel-Good Productivity is that procrastination is often not a character flaw but a signal of friction. We delay tasks not simply because we are lazy, but because something about the task feels unclear, emotionally heavy, or cognitively overwhelming. Abdaal argues that...

From Feel-Good Productivity