Why Working More is Making You Less Productive Success Magazine, Shawn Achor April 21, 2016 You could be much more efficient, productive and happy if you changed the way you view the hours in your day. Many of the business leaders and Harvard students I work with exhibit the telltale symptoms of the “workaholic’s curse.” They…
Why You Should Map Your Mental World Success Magazine, Shawn Achor March 10, 2016 While working as a teaching fellow for one of my psychology professors at Harvard University, I often conducted an insightful experiment called mental mapping in which students created a map of the world around them. The experiment was simple—students had three…
How Asking for Help is a Sign of Strength & Humility Success Magazine, Shawn Achor February 2016 My senior year of high school, I decided to become a volunteer firefighter. In order to do so, I had to complete 90 hours of training, plus a final test called the Fire Maze. The objective was simple: Rescue…
Increase Your Activity; Increase Your Happiness Success Magazine, Shawn Achor January 2016 Want to become more optimistic? Try playing tennis. Or walking a dog. Or go dancing. Supposedly if you run enough miles, you become addicted to running due to endorphins, the brain chemicals that lead to pleasure. I’ve never gotten close to this experience as…
The Busier You Are, the More You Need Mindfulness Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan December 2015 The most forward-looking companies are willing to take risks to achieve greatness. Most leaders give lip service to this idea, but few actually do it. We have worked with banks willing to take on toxic assets…
The Right Kind of Stress Can Bond Your Team Together Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor December 2015 This past fall, I did a documentary with HBO, directed by Peter Berg and produced by Michael Strahan, called State of Play: Happiness. In the film, we explored how to create a positive culture in organizations where the culture…
3 Secrets to Happiness this Holiday Live Happy Magazine, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan November 2015 Expectations and stress seem to increase over the holidays, especially in the weeks leading up to them. We need to make the perfect meals, wear the perfect clothes and, of course, get the perfect gifts. But while it is easy to…
Why You Need to Stop Worrying About Failing Success Magazine, Shawn Achor October 2015 Do you know what “icing the kicker” means? In football, when a kicker is preparing to make a potential game-winning field goal, the opposing coach will often call a timeout right before the ball is snapped. The thinking behind this strategy…
Consuming Negative News Can Make You Less Effective at Work Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan September 2015 We’ve known for some time now that hearing negative news broadcasts can have an immediate effect on your stress level, but new research we just conducted in partnership with Arianna Huffington shows how significant these negative…
Make Yourself Immune to Secondhand Stress Harvard Business Review, Shawn Achor & Michelle Gielan September 2015 Over the past decade, we have learned how our brains are hardwired for emotional contagion. Emotions spread via a wireless network of mirror neurons, which are tiny parts of the brain that allow us to empathize with others and…