Graph of productivity vs anxiety

[jack]

http://jimhines.livejournal.com/724969.html

This post describes a productivity vs anxiety graph as a bell curve: no anxiety and you don't work on something at all; too much and you're too terrified to start.

What I take away is that if someone isn't doing something you think they should, the right answer isn't always "come up with more and more and more reasons why they should". If their problem was "they couldn't be bothered", that will help. But if the problem is "they're paralysed by terror", making it MORE urgent will make it HARDER to start, not easier.

I feel, when I'm procrastinating, I'm often in the "paralysed" state. And I feel people should be entitled to say "get on and do it" to me, but that if they want to help, it would be more useful to start by asking "do you want more urgency or more reassurance" and provide whichever I ask for.

Contrariwise, if it's something I've promised to do, and someone's dependant on that, it's my responsibility to manage my internal emotional state, not theirs, and I can't expect someone at work etc to automatically accommodate me. But I've tried to get better at recognising the problem, and asking for what I need, rather than just assuming that what I need isn't obvious, I'm wrong for needing it.

Comments

[jack]

What do you think is wrong? To me, they look like they're clearly not supposed to represent actual numbers, but just a vivid visual reminder of the idea that "more depression = less work" and "too much or too little anxiety = less work". Do you think those simplifications are wrong, or shouldn't be made into graphs, or is there a bigger problem?

[mathcathy]

From a graphic perspective: next to each other they imply a curvature for the anxiety one and not the depression one. Why not straight lines for both? Or does anxiety change at different rates at each end?

Also, I don't think that this holds true for everyone. Certainly for me, depression didn't reduce the amount of work because I used work to battle depression. I was quite cross with my doctor at the time, for saying that I should stop work because I was ill, when it was all too evident to me that stopping work would make me more ill. i.e. stopping productive work increases depression. Therefore, the causal relationship implied by the chart is perhaps out of kilter because it could be the other way around.

A jumble of thoughts, meaning I'm not sure that they're right, although I get the overall sentiment.

I'm just not sure that it's wise to try to classify something so potentially sensitive and persuasive in such a way.

[jack]

Ah! Sorry, that makes sense now.