For a quick productivity boost, look at some pictures of cute baby animals. (Really!)

by | Jun 28, 2013 | General Productivity

Takeaway: Looking at pictures of cute baby animals has been shown to boost your cognitive and motor performance.

Estimated Reading Time: 50 seconds.

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Not only does looking at pictures of cute baby animals make you go “awwwww, look at the cute little thing!!”, it has also been scientifically shown to boost your productivity.

I recently stumbled across an academic article that explores the relationship between looking at pictures of cute animals, and productivity. Across three experiments, researchers exposed participants to images of cute images of baby animals (along with other cute images, which didn’t have the same effect), and then measured how the participants performed in both cognitive and motor tests.

According to the study, “viewing cute things improves subsequent performance in tasks that require behavioral carefulness, possibly by narrowing the breadth of attentional focus“. Cute images also “induce careful behavioral tendencies in the users, which is beneficial in specific situations, such as driving and office work“.1

I always knew something would come out of all of those hours I’ve spent on Cute Overload.

Here are a few pictures of cute baby animals for a little productivity boost!

Image from here.

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Now go out there and have a productive day!

Turtle image borrowed from Cute Overload.


  1. Source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0046362 

Written by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity and is the author of three books: How to Calm Your Mind, Hyperfocus, and The Productivity Project. His books have been published in more than 40 languages. Chris writes about productivity on this site and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive without hating the process.

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