Taking It Easy Increases Productivity

Pushing yourself doesn't always result in greater productivity.

Anyone in a creative field can empathize with this piece by programmer Derek Sivers on the need to relax. He found that dialing back his effort by 50% only resulted in a 4% drop off in productivity.

makes me realize that much of my effort apparently wasn’t effort at all, but just ineffective stress added on top of something to make it feel like I’m doing the best I can.

Might be something to think of if you're nearing a deadline, or your starting to stress it about NaNoWriMo.