Researching Happiness: 8 Really Helpful Productivity Blogs

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Researching productivity seems to be a today’s trend. Experts and bloggers are talking and writing about boosting productivity at the workplace, defeating procrastination and increasingwork efficiency. Research-backed conclusions and personal thoughts, motivational stories and expert studies – there’s more than enough information on productivity and related issues. So here’s our list of productivity blogs that are worth taking a look at – for those who want to know more about social, psychological and behavioral aspects of working, learning, and communicating with others in a positive and efficient way.

99u is a creativity and productivity blog. Among the topics it covers, career stories of creative people, remarkable design ideas, and psychological topics should be mentioned. Interviews with people who achieved success in their creative professions would be interesting for ambitious beginners and professionals. Psychological articles on motivation, focusing, and building up self-confidence combine theoretical facts with practical advices, so it’s helpful for those who need science-backed recommendations on improving their work environment, attitude, and, eventually, career.

Dumb Little Man is a blog full of not really dumb advice for all spheres of life on how to ensure your success, achieve more, and change your life for the better. Its topics range from success stories to improving and maintaining physical health, covering such issues as learning foreign languages, beating fear of failure, stepping out of the comfort zone, and developing success as an entrepreneur. In general, it’s about happiness in work and life, positive habits, and gratefulness.

Barking Up The Wrong Tree. Another humble blog author who chose an ironical domain name for the blog: it means “actually, I’m a fool” in Japanese. Its contents cover productivity, success, happiness, and relationships. With its easy-to-read style and in-depth analysis, it presents a really good food for thought and reflection on many psychological issues that keep us from getting what we want in our careers, relationships, and life.

The Muse. Those who don’t really like theoretical psychologies, preferring practical advices and experience sharing, would appreciate this career and productivity blog. It is literally about everything in professional life: advices for job interviews, tips on how to interact with difficult people at work, recommendations on improving career prospects, etc. An interesting feature of this blog is lists of companies that are worth checking out because of promising work prospects or exciting workplace conditions. So it’s really a muse for job seekers.

Productivity 501. Just another boring productivity blog full of clichés on boosting efficiency and dealing with your bully boss? No. In fact, it provides realistic but not always evident suggestions on bringing order, harmony, and efficiency into your work process. Among the publications, you can find such non-trivial ones as thoughts on dependence between battery life and productivity, laziness and talent, and the power of physical communication on hard copies.

actiTIME blog. Productivity and efficient time management is the main idea of the blog. Thoughts and recommendations on project management, tips on how to measure your productivity, a statistical research on work and leave time tracking, and a study on understanding and beating procrastination are the topics covered here. Its audience is those who prefer relying on facts and statistics more than on personal opinions in understanding productivity problems.

Mike St. Pierre’s blog. The topics of this blog may seem more than trivial – office distractions, bad workplace conditions, overworking –but the point is that the author sets right and simple questions to answer and understand your personal scale of the problem.

James Clearu. A blog where forming positive habits, developing productivity and efficient decision making, mastering creativity, improving health, and lifelong learning are discussed. The author develops his own philosophy and provides his readers with lists of recommended books to help them understand their own ways to improve their productivity and performance, and to achieve more without compromising happiness and peace of mind.

It is remarkable that in all productivity blogs, success and achievements are closely interrelated with physical and emotional comfort. Psychologists and writers point out that there is always a way to increase your performance and improve your career prospects without sacrificing free time, healthy habits, or anything that makes you happy. What is more, beating negative attitudes, fear of failures, and reliance on social expectations is what helps you achieve your goals and makes you happy, successful, and productive.