One of the articles linked below is on the topic of stress and how it can actually be addictive. Stress works similarly to other things we're addicted too, releasing dopamine, making us inadvertently dependent on stress.
But there's another stress-related term I hadn't heard before that I just came across: It's called
eustress. Eustress is defined as 'beneficial stress', or as
Wikipedia explains:
"Eustress occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. The goal is not too far out of reach but is still slightly more than one can handle. This fosters challenge and motivation since the goal is in sight. The function of challenge is to motivate a person toward improvement and a goal."
Yerkes–Dodson curve for a difficult task
From way back in 2013, there's a study that was conducted entitled, Generating eustress by challenging employees: Helping people savor their work. It's an older study, so that link won't give you full access to the paper, but you can read the summary at the beginning to get an idea of what it set out to accomplish.
Should more organizations today pay attention to the results of this and similar studies? Should eustress be an ongoing objective of organizations that care about their workers? I would say yes, but it would also be good to know if any other studies in this area have been done since then.
Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!
