Productivity Bit: Tell Yourself You Suck

This is sort of cool that one of the authors of the study is from my home town - apparently those with low self esteem shouldn't bother trying to fight it - they should embrace it (Time):

A study just published in the journal Psychological Science says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are. [...]

Wood, Lee and Perunovic conclude that unfavorable thoughts about ourselves intrude very easily, especially among those of us with low self-esteem — so easily and so persistently that even when a positive alternative is presented, it just underlines how awful we believe we are.

The solution? "Mindfulness and meditation techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking."