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#226: The Psychological Trick That Turns Writer's Block Into Momentum
Psychology researchers uncover how personality relates to rejection of negative feedback
Jenae Spry
October 17, 2025
Productivity Stacks Newsletter
(Formerly Productivity Express)
Issue No. 226
The Best in Evidence-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
Psychology researchers uncover how personality relates to rejection of negative feedback
The Psychological Trick That Turns Writer's Block Into Momentum
Time Feels Different in Nature: How Business Owners Can Harness Natural Environments for Better Decision-Making
The Smartwatch Productivity Paradox: More Features, Less Focus?
Humans, AI, or Both? The Surprising Truth About Who Should Create Your Brand Content
👉Did you miss an issue? Check out previous Productivity Stacks issues anytime here
🔥Quote/Prompt
If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.
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)
"Daring" doesn't have to mean jumping off a cliff. It can mean sending that one email. Making that one call. Writing that first terrible draft.
Research shows that […]
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
Your client has feedback for you, and it’s not positive. Why does your brain immediately get defensive? Research from Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that your personality traits actually predict how defensively you'll react - and some surprising findings might change how you think about self-awareness.
"People want to see themselves positively and defend their self-concept in the face of threat. However, people don't all respond in the same way, and it is not just about the situation. It is also about who they are. Having high self-esteem or narcissism make people more likely to question negative feedback, especially in areas they see as strengths. Being aware of our own dispositions can sharpen our sensitivity to these tendencies as they arise."
Key Insights:
People with high self-esteem are more likely to reject negative feedback, especially in areas they consider personal strengths. For example, if you pride yourself on being socially perceptive, you're more likely to dismiss feedback suggesting otherwise.
Those who claim they want self-knowledge actually respond more defensively to negative feedback - suggesting that wanting to understand yourself and actually accepting uncomfortable truths are two very different things.
Self-reported mindfulness didn't help people accept criticism better and actually correlated with stronger defensive reactions. This might mean our current mindfulness measures aren't capturing what we think they are.
Domain-specific reactions matter most. If criticism hits an area central to your identity, such as a creative person receiving criticism about their creativity, defensive reactions are especially strong.
Narcissistic admiration drives defensive behavior more than narcissistic rivalry. It's the pride and self-importance aspect of narcissism, not the combative tendency, that predicts stronger self-protective reactions.
Read the full article for the complete research methodology involving 1,744 participants and detailed findings about how specific personality traits influence feedback processing.
⚙️ Optimization
So you’re in the zone on a project, and suddenly you hit a wall. Been there. Whether you're writing copy, creating a presentation, or planning strategy, there's a counterintuitive trick that actually uses your brain's wiring to keep momentum going - even when you have to work in short bursts.
"If something's not completed, the subconscious will carry on working on it even while you're asleep. If you're writing and you reach a scene where you don't know what happens next and you can't think of something, you put what is known as a placeholder. This technique taps into the Zeigarnik effect, named after psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. The Oxford Writer explains that waiters 'could recall far better the details of an order that hadn't been paid for.' Your brain remembers unfinished business better than completed tasks."
Key Insights:
Use placeholders to maintain momentum instead of stalling. For example, when stuck on a section of your business plan, write "[INSERT COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS HERE]" and keep moving to the parts you can complete.
Your brain naturally works on unfinished tasks in the background thanks to the Zeigarnik effect. This means that 20-minute work session you squeezed in before lunch is still processing while you handle other tasks.
Deliberately stopping mid-task when you know what comes next makes it easier to restart. Instead of finishing that email completely, stop mid-paragraph when you're clear on the rest - you'll dive right back in next session.
Creating emotional distance through placeholders prevents perfectionism from killing progress. You can defer perfection to future editing rounds while maintaining creative flow.
This technique links work sessions together naturally. Your brain hates open loops and will keep processing the unfinished work, making each new session feel like a continuation rather than a cold start.
Read the full article for specific examples of how screenwriters use this technique and additional strategies for maintaining creative momentum.
⏲️ Time Management
Time scarcity is the entrepreneur's curse - there's never enough of it, and what little we have seems to evaporate the moment we sit down to work. Research published in People and Nature reveals that spending time in natural settings actually changes how your brain perceives time, and this could be the productivity hack you didn't know you needed.
"People who spend time in nature tend to overestimate the length of that experience, suggesting that nature might be an antidote to the sensation of time flying by that many entrepreneurs experience. What's particularly interesting is that this effect doesn't require lengthy nature exposure. Even brief periods in natural settings showed measurable impacts on time perception. This makes it practical for busy business owners to implement, whether you're a consultant between client calls or a small retail shop owner on your lunch break."
Key Insights:
Nature exposure makes time feel longer and less rushed, even when the actual time available remains the same. For example, a 30-minute planning session in a park might feel more substantial than the same session in your office.
Natural settings help balance your temporal perspective - reducing excessive focus on past failures while improving your ability to connect past data with future planning. This is particularly valuable for quarterly reviews and strategic planning sessions.
Even indirect nature exposure helps. Adding plants to your workspace or working near a window with natural views can influence time perception and reduce the feeling of time scarcity.
The cognitive benefits are immediate and don't require extended nature immersion. A brief walk between client calls or holding a team meeting outdoors can shift your time perception enough to improve decision-making quality.
Different types of work benefit from different nature exposures. Creative problem-solving might benefit from walking meetings, while detailed analysis could improve with stationary work in a garden setting.
Read the full article for specific implementation strategies, research citations from multiple studies, and a two-week experimental schedule template for optimizing your nature-work balance.
💻 Tools & Technology
Your smartwatch is either helping you crush your days or it's just a $300 distraction machine strapped to your wrist. The difference comes down to setup - most people turn their watch into a mini phone that constantly steals their focus, but configured correctly, it becomes a legitimate productivity multiplier.
"This is where most people completely mess up their smartwatch setup. They turn their watch into a mini phone strapped to their wrist. Every. Single. Notification. Think about it: this is basically an energy thief in disguise. Every unnecessary notification is a tiny energy vampire, sucking away your focus drop by drop. Here's what actually works: Turn OFF everything – Start with zero notifications. It feels weird at first, but trust the process. Add back only essentials – For me? Calendar alerts. That's it."
Key Insights:
Start with zero notifications and add back only essentials. Most people need just calendar alerts - everything else is an energy vampire that disrupts focus without adding value.
Silent alarms are the secret weapon for productivity. Use vibrating alarms to transition between tasks smoothly, such as gym departure reminders or deep work warnings, eliminating decision fatigue.
Sleep tracking reveals productivity patterns you can't see otherwise. Consistent tracking for at least a month shows what actually affects your sleep quality and energy levels the next day.
Battery life matters more than fancy features. A watch that needs daily charging disrupts sleep tracking, while 7+ day battery life lets you gather consistent data.
Choose features that give energy rather than steal it. For example, stretch reminders might energize you while social notifications drain focus - track what actually helps YOUR productivity.
Read the full article for specific setup instructions, recommended watches by budget, and a complete action plan for turning your smartwatch into a productivity tool.
🤖 AI
The AI content creation debate is settled, at least according to new research from Italy. A study by De Cicco and colleagues tested whether audiences care if their educational content comes from AI, humans, or both - and the results might surprise those still hesitating to incorporate AI into their content workflow.
"Human-only and AI-human hybrid-authored content both outperformed AI-only labelled content in terms of customer engagement. Brand attitude and brand advocacy intention likewise were higher for human-only and AI-human hybrid-authored content, significantly better than AI-only content. Another interesting finding — contrary to the researchers' hypothesis — pure human authorship was not clearly superior to AI-human authorship. There was no significant difference in the impact on the three variables of engagement, brand attitude, and advocacy between human-authored versus AI-human hybrid-made content."
Key Insights:
Content quality perception is identical whether audiences are told it's AI or human-made. In blind tests with 172 participants viewing the same Instagram carousel, ratings for accuracy, interest, and value showed no significant difference.
Human involvement drives engagement, not content quality. Even when content quality is perceived as equal, audiences feel more connected and interested when they know humans are involved in creation.
AI-human collaboration performs as well as pure human authorship. The hybrid approach achieves the same engagement, brand attitude, and advocacy levels as human-only content while offering efficiency benefits.
Transparency about AI use doesn't hurt if humans are involved. Disclosing AI-human collaboration doesn't negatively impact consumer perceptions, suggesting brands can be open about their process.
The human element matters most for connection. Audiences want relatability and empathy - things that come through when humans add their voice, personal stories, and real examples to AI-generated drafts.
Read the full article for detailed experiment methodology, cultural considerations for different markets, and specific implementation strategies for creating an effective human-AI content collaboration process.
🎉 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!
Got offered a recurring content contract with major platform until end of year.
Two more leads moving forward.
Finished all billable work and caught up on admin.
What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!
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Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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