Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? (video)

It might seem ironic and a total opposite of the nature of things but I am the type of person who needs as much distraction as possible to get me more focused and interested. You could say I am a multi-tasker, have a very short attention span or that I am totally crazy and you might even be right.

As a simple example, I need to either be listening and singing to music or just listening and reacting to speeches to keep me able and wanting to continue doing tasks for my multiple clients. (ofcourse this does not apply if my tasks require me to be on the phone and literally talking to another person for very obvious auditory reasons…)

So you can imagine my internet browser open with both work-related (Gmail, Zoho, etc) and non-work related sites (ted.com, live365.com, etc) on a daily basis – both of which I just could not live without if I were to remain sane and functioning properly.

Unlike other people who want to view videos or listen to songs without really putting much thought into it, I like to saturate myself with ideas and thoughts that keep my mind still working while I do rudimentary and routinary tasks such as those I have been doing for the past few weeks. This is the very reason why I have Ted.com open daily. (If you have been on my page before but didn't notice, I have a link at the right side for Ted.com as well for easy access for me and for interested readers.) 

To give you a little idea about TED, here is what is on their About page:

Our organization

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

Our Mission: Spread ideas

TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.

In fact, everything we do — from our TED Talks videos to the projects sparked by the TED Prize, from the global TEDx community to the TED-Edlesson series — is driven by this goal: How can we best spread great ideas?

TED is owned by a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation. Our agenda is to make great ideas accessible and spark conversation.

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Just today, I listened to their Playlist (4 talks): Angela Duckworth: 4 talks on human behavior and part of this list was the video from Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work?

Dan Ariely is an Israeli American professor of psychology and behavioral economics. He teaches at Duke University and is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and also the co-founder of BEworks. 

I am sharing this here because I think this is an idea definitely worth sharing:

By sharing this here, I am hoping that this idea reaches the tables, monitors and pens of  business owners and decision makers… thereby instrumental in making employees happier, satisfied and therefore more effective and productive. (I don't need to rationalize and say that equates to better businesses, right?)

Nmed 11/12/14 @ 9:25am