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- #220: How Does Your Motivation Affect the Achievement of Goals?
#220: How Does Your Motivation Affect the Achievement of Goals?
What Happens to Your Body When You Take an Afternoon Walk
Jenae Spry
September 26, 2025
Productivity Stacks Newsletter
(Formerly Productivity Express)
Issue No. 220
The Best in Evidence-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
What Happens to Your Body When You Take an Afternoon Walk
Use the 2-7-30 rule to radically improve your memory
How Does Your Motivation Affect the Achievement of Goals?
Google is testing a way to drop Drive files into your Calendar tasks
Meta unveils new smart glasses with a display and wristband controller
👉Did you miss an issue? Check out previous Productivity Stacks issues anytime here
🔥Quote/Prompt
The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.
Use the quote as a writing or thinking prompt to finish your week strong.
A bit from mine:
(posted in our Doer Entrepreneurs Free Community — off social media)
That big, audacious goal staring you down? The one that makes your productivity apps cry? Yeah, that one.
Here's what I've learned: "impossible" is usually just "I haven't broken this down into small enough pieces yet."
Your brain sees "launch a new service" and […]
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
We all have those days when your brain feels like mush and your energy tanks around 2 PM. One thing I do is take a short walk when I just can’t manage any more exciting movement. It turns out a simple afternoon walk might be more powerful than that third cup of coffee. This research breakdown reveals exactly what happens in your body when you step away from your desk for a quick stroll.
"Walking increases the flow of blood and oxygen to your muscles and brain which promotes optimal energy production. Research shows that even short periods of light physical activity like a 10 minute walk can improve energy levels and reduce tiredness. [...] Taking a brisk, 30 minute walk each day, five days a week, may help lower your risk of serious conditions like heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and even cognitive decline and dementia."
Key Insights:
Even a 10-minute walk triggers immediate energy production through increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to your brain and muscles. For example, walking after lunch can prevent that afternoon crash better than caffeine.
Walking outdoors provides double benefits by combining movement with sunlight exposure, which regulates your circadian rhythm and improves sleep quality that same night.
Post-meal walks specifically help regulate blood sugar levels and prevent spikes, making them particularly valuable for anyone dealing with insulin resistance or just trying to maintain steady energy throughout the day.
Read the full article for specific safety tips, optimal walking pace recommendations, and research on how walking supports healthy aging.
⚙️ Optimization
Your brain is designed to forget most of what you learn - it's actually a feature, not a bug. But for those of us trying to master new skills or retain important information for our businesses, this natural forgetting can be frustrating. This research-backed technique from 150 years of memory science offers a simple system to override your brain's default settings.
"The scientific underpinnings for this rule aren't new. Neuroscientists have long understood that, when it comes to our brains, forgetting isn't a bug. It's a feature. [...] After a month, people tend to remember only 20-30 percent of what they were first taught. [...] Here's the basic idea: When you're trying to learn new material, test yourself by trying to recall it two, seven, and 30 days after you initially learn it."
Key Insights:
Memory is a competitive process where your brain actively discards information it deems unimportant, which is why you naturally forget 70-80% of what you learn within a month.
The 2-7-30 Rule leverages spaced repetition by having you test yourself at strategic intervals. For example, after reading a business book, write a one-page summary and rewrite it from memory on days 2, 7, and 30.
Setting calendar reminders for these review sessions turns a vague intention to "review later" into a concrete system that actually works, making it practical for busy professionals to implement.
Read the full article for the complete forgetting curve research, specific implementation examples, and tips for adapting this method to different types of learning.
⏲️ Time Management
Setting ambitious goals for your business feels productive, but we all know the graveyard of abandoned resolutions is vast. This research from Psychological Science reveals a surprising truth about why some goals stick while others fail - and it's not about willpower or having a strong enough "why."
"The level of intrinsic motivation at one time predicted goal engagement at a later time. The level of extrinsic motivation did not predict engagement. [...] American participants also believed (mistakenly) that extrinsic motivation would matter more for their likelihood of succeeding at the goal than intrinsic motivation. [...] In the 24 hours after downloading the app, participants searched more products with it when given the intrinsic framing than the extrinsic framing."
Key Insights:
Extrinsic motivation like "this will grow my business" gets you to set the goal, but intrinsic motivation - actually enjoying the process - determines whether you'll achieve it. For example, choosing marketing tactics you find interesting rather than just effective.
People consistently overestimate how much external rewards will drive their behavior and underestimate how much enjoyment matters, which explains why so many well-intentioned business goals fail.
Reframing tasks as games or discoveries rather than obligations significantly increases engagement. In the study, people used a health app more when it was positioned as a game with surprises rather than as a useful tool.
Read the full article for the complete four-study breakdown, specific data on step-tracking and resolution success rates, and strategies for finding enjoyable paths to your important goals.
💻 Tools & Technology
Google Tasks has always been the forgotten stepchild of Google's productivity suite, lagging behind standalone apps like Todoist. But Google might finally be giving it some love with this new Drive integration that could make it genuinely useful for business owners who already live in the Google ecosystem.
"The outlet has recently spotted upcoming support for attaching Google Drive files in Tasks. The feature isn't live in the standalone Tasks app yet, but Android Authority managed to enable it through Google Calendar, where Tasks is already built in. The attachment option shows up right below a task's description. Hidden in version 2025.36.0-804188751 of the Google Tasks app, it lets you open a file picker to grab any files or folders from your Drive. The process feels identical to how you already add Drive documents to Calendar events."
Key Insights:
The feature lets you attach multiple Google Drive files directly to tasks, similar to how you currently attach them to calendar events. For example, attaching project briefs to client tasks or linking spreadsheets to financial review reminders.
This only works when editing existing tasks through Google Calendar for now, not when creating new ones. This means you'll need to create the task first, then go back and add your attachments.
The integration currently only works on Android and attachments won't sync to the web version yet. For those managing tasks across devices, this limitation means waiting for the full rollout before relying on it for critical workflows.
Read the full article for details on the specific version requirements and current limitations of this feature in testing.
🤖 AI
Smart glasses have been the tech world's white whale for years, but Meta just announced a product you can actually buy in two weeks. The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses include a built-in screen for apps and notifications, plus a wristband that reads your brain signals to control them - and they'll cost $799 starting September 30.
"This is Meta's latest attempt to ship a pair of consumer smart glasses that can handle many of the tasks users traditionally do on a smartphone. For years, Meta has been forced to reach users through its competitors' devices, namely those sold by Google and Apple. [...] The Neural Band that ships alongside the device looks similar to a Fitbit, but without a screen, and allows users to navigate apps with small hand movements. [...] The device uses electromyography (EMG) to pick up on signals sent between your brain and your hand when performing a gesture."
Key Insights:
The Neural Band wristband uses EMG technology to detect brain signals sent to your hand, creating a new interface that doesn't require touching a screen or speaking commands. For example, subtle hand gestures can navigate through Instagram or pull up directions.
Unlike Meta's futuristic Orion AR glasses shown last year, these are shipping immediately with practical features like displaying Meta apps, showing directions, and providing live translations directly on the lens.
Meta has already sold millions of the original Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, suggesting there's actual consumer demand for wearable tech that looks like regular eyewear rather than bulky headsets.
Read the full article for details on the 18-hour battery life, water resistance features, and how Meta plans to compete with inevitable smart glasses from Google and Apple.
🎉 Celebration Corner
Every week Doers Inner Circle members do a weekly review & get help when they need it — check out the progress they made this week!
Made strong progress on Masterclass preparations.
New outsourcing collaboration is underway and seems promising.
Stayed fully on top of the inbox all week.
What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!
🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements
Announcement: Upcoming Schedule Changes ahead. Read here
Doers Book Club: What book would you like to read next? Vote here
Monday: {EU Time} Work ON Business. Theme: 1️⃣ Strategy & Mission RSVP here
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I hope you found this valuable!
Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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