Do you see the world in a half-glass-full or half-glass-empty perspective? And, pertinent to us, how does optimism versus pessimism affect your personal productivity? That’s the topic we tackle on this week’s episode of ProductivityCast.
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In this Cast | Optimism versus Pessimism for Productivity
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Art Gelwicks
Francis Wade
Show Notes | Optimism versus Pessimism for Productivity
Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
Are You an Optimist or a Pessimist?
Planning Fallacy
Use PERT technique for more accurate estimates
World War Z (IMDb)
The Productivity Paradox: Pessimism vs. Optimism
The Positive Power of Negative Thinking by Julie Norem, PhD
The Positive Power of Negative Thinking (article by Adam Grant, PhD)
The Surprising Upside of Pessimism (And How To Use It For a Psychological Edge)
Six Thinking Hats (Wikipedia)
Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono, MD, PhD
Transcript | Optimism versus Pessimism for Productivity
Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).
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Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17
And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith.
Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud.
Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade.
Art Gelwicks 0:27 I'm Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:26 Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to another action packed episode. Today we are going to be talking about an interesting psychological construct, which is optimism versus pessimism as the two constructs. And the idea here is for us to talk about optimism and pessimism as it relates to our own personal productivity. When we talk about optimism and pessimism, I think it's good to understand the definition of that. And so that's what we'll do out the gate will define optimism and pessimism. And kind of in the context of personal productivity to some great extent, will each tell whether or not we're optimists or pessimists, generally or otherwise. And and then we'll in our third segment, talk about how we actually use our own optimism or pessimism, our outlook on on the world to affect greater productivity or how we overcome it. If we are, our productivity is lessened by the impact of our outlook. So let's get started. optimism and pessimism. optimism, pessimism can really be defined very simply as optimism as a general outlook on things, having possibilities having opportunities, you see the see the world with the glass half full, as opposed to the glass half empty, and more of a personal productivity perspective. I see it more as the fact that in in a moment, we define risk differently as optimists than we do as pessimists, right, we see the the opportunity of overcoming a risk, more likely than not overcoming that risk. And I think that can be actually a very positive thing, right? Studies show that optimists tend to be more successful, happier in relationships, they tend to have less depression. And so just generally healthier people than pessimists. But there are some good positive benefits to pessimism. pessimism, on the other hand, is an outlook on the flip side, which is that you see the glass half empty, most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time. And that means that you see the risk, the obstacle, the challenge, as being greater than the opportunities available to you. So we as pessimists, then have to decide how do we set Low, low expectations for ourselves while still being productive. And when bad outcomes do come not allowing them to de motive beta, and to cloud our judgment in terms of perspective outcomes in the future, or that is just perspective outcomes?
Art Gelwicks 3:08
When I think about optimism, pessimism things to me, they're very much extremes for personalities, they create this image, either the optimist of sunshine and rainbows and rose colored glasses, the pessimistic is he or from Winnie the Pooh. And somewhere in the middle is where everybody seems to follow. We were talking about this a little bit before the show. And I think if I had to define myself, I would say I am probably more of a procedural optimist. What the heck does that mean? I start off as a pragmatist, wanting to know, okay, what's the situation glasses and half full or half empty? I just want to know what's in it first, then I become a pessimist. Well, what's the worst thing that can happen right now? plan for those worse things? And know that because I understand the situation because I plan for the worst case, I think, a very good chance of things working out for the best, therefore winding up as an optimist. Yeah, it's a really long circuitous route to get to the end. But that pretty much defines the way my brain mechanic works on this.
Augusto Pinaud 4:13
I tend to be more on the optimistic side, to be honest, I, I wish to be more in the center, as are defined, but I tend to look at things from that optimistic lens, that I think, to an extent is what sometimes allow me to do some of the things I do because without that hope on that positive and they may not be some of them even possible. So understanding that and I agree that optimism and pessimism goes on that extreme or are both extremes.
Francis Wade 4:48
They started out more as an optimist, but have become more pessimistic over time. So I'm wondering if, if what happens is that we we start off at one of the extremes in our younger years, and then over time with experience will become more pessimistic. So this sorry, more pragmatic. So we become more realistic, just because we have more data to work with. I still think I remain pretty optimistic. But I'm better estimate or risk. So I'm not sure where that puts me
Art Gelwicks 5:22
that risk estimation pieces of big part of this too. I think you're right, it does come with experience, as if you are perpetually optimistic, and you wind up getting burned, which always happens not always happens, but it does happen to everybody. You start to incorporate that into your analytical processes and start to say, Okay, this is what could happen. I'm going to have to backtrack a little bit and see, what can I adjust for this to work out to the best positive reaction? I think
Francis Wade 5:52
there's a practical also example that I I use in my work, which is our own time estimation. And the plan fallacy, which for our listeners, has to do with the the tendency for people to underestimate how long a task will take. So it's a psychological effect, where we think it's going to take FAR shorter than the task actually does. And I've been sort of working on that for a bit in sort of my work and looking at how do people become better estimate dissolve time durations, which is essentially, if you're a someone, for example, in project management, or if you're someone who is just extremely busy, estimating your time becomes a very, very critical tool.
Art Gelwicks 6:40
See, this is also one of those things that can really derail, trying to get some things accomplished. If you're overly optimistic, you're right, your estimates are going to be off, you're going to miss things in the analysis that you have to do if it's a project or plan. If you're always really pessimistic, you can wind up in analysis, paralysis in a heartbeat. Because you get can't get past the things that seem to become the impossible roadblocks. You've got to have a mental methodology to be able to get you through those different stages. As you start to plan out whether it's personal activities, or professional activities, or, or really anything. I mean, if you focus on one of those two extremes too much, you're never going to get a realistic perspective, and you're never going to be able to put things in place to be able to execute. Like, I think it was, Franklin said all things in moderation. Well, this qualifies, especially when you're trying to get work accomplished.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 7:47
And in response to Francis, you know, the the idea of time estimation, it's been well documented that the younger you are the more impulsivity, and so therefore, the more likely you are are to think a minute lasts less than an actual minute. And that the older you get, then the more likely you are to be more accurate about time registration. So taking into account that I think the answer to the question is, is that for those of us who are over the age of 24, and probably under the age of 65, in that in that timeframe, when we're, you know, in our in our peak mental health, and I probably mean that that upper age limit is probably increasing as our longevity and our lifespan increases. But the point is, is that we, during that timeframe, it's practice.
