I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Today, entrepreneur Dan Shipper walks us through what he found is the key to productivity. It's not hacking your inbox or schedule or using tools and apps. As he explains in his episode from the Way We Work series,

emotional mastery is essential after a short break.

I've always secretly wanted to be a machine.

I felt like if I was a machine, I'd never let things fall through the cracks.

I wouldn't forget things, and I'd do everything I needed to do on time every time.

I knew there were people out there that were like this, and I wanted to know, what makes them

tick?

So a few years ago, I started a newsletter called Super Organizers, where I profiled 50 of the top

performers in a variety of fields. I've talked to managers who track everything they do in a day in 15-minute increments.

I've talked to investors who keep spreadsheets of every single person they've ever met.

I've talked to CEOs who keep their calendars basically empty and rarely ever do meetings, like ever.

I've also experimented with a lot of hacks myself to try to get me closer to my ideal. I've taped my mouth shut while I'm sleeping and stared at a sunlamp to increase my energy levels. I visualized my compassionate self and tried all

sorts of supplements to hack my body chemistry. Sometimes the things I try work, and sometimes they

don't. Sometimes they're just kind of ridiculous. But I want to share with you the best trick I've

learned in all of my exploring. The ideal of being a machine is actually a trap.

It gets in the way of our productivity because it makes us blind to the roots of our actual

problems. We are not machines. We're emotional beings. And learning to skillfully recognize

and work with our emotions is the only way to actually be productive day to day.

Guilt, shame, fear, so often they're at the base of what's going on for us in ways that we barely understand.

What's underneath our productivity problems isn't just a need for a new tool or system,

but something going on in our emotional lives.

And being aware of and observing how our emotions can affect us can open up a lot of flexibility and freedom to make progress when we'd otherwise be stuck.

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