Getting the Most Out of Your Good Deeds

Blogging, humor, lessons learned, Teaching and Education 1 Minute

I think most of us would agree that doing a good deed is doubly good. Good for us, and good for the person we are doing it for.

But is there a way to make a good deed even more effective?

Apparently, there is. And Dan Pink has a short video about it.

Research seems to suggest that clumping your good deeds together will help us feel a bit better…

So instead of doing one good deed a day for five days, do five good deeds in one day.

As Dan notes in his closing remark “I’m guessing that you’ll feel better, but I’m certain the world will be better.”

If you’re not sure what to do, tomorrow read five of my posts from 2017 and like and comment on all of them. If Dan is right, you’ll feel really good, and I’ll feel great…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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49 thoughts on “Getting the Most Out of Your Good Deeds”

  2. I don’t know if it’s essential to do good deeds in succession or not, but I am such a believer in the pay it forward concept. What’s better than doing something good for someone else and feeling good about ourselves in the process?

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    1. I’m with you Pete. I find this research somewhat questionable. I don’t think we need to do a bunch of good deeds to feel good. In fact, I think it would be better to do a good every day, rather than do them all at once…

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  5. Five good deeds done any time are still five good deeds, clumped together or not. Would doing just four at a time count as failure in Dan’s eyes? Oh, the shame of it 😂

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  6. mine are varied, scattershot, as opportunity presents itself, and as needed, there should be no end to good deeds, but i couldn’t keep track of the math of it if i had a required number each day. i figure it evens out over time.

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  7. That’s an interesting concept. I don’t think I do good deeds to feel good, though. I do them to be helpful. If I did the good deeds to feel good, I’d just feel guilty about my motivations, which would make me feel bad. And if I clumped them together, I think I’d feel five times as bad.

    I’m getting a headache thinking about this.

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    1. I think Dan is not suggesting that we do god deeds to feel good, but that is a byproduct. and if we more good deeds, there is a stronger byproduct…

      Now I’m confused… 🙂

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  8. If you pick a day to do “Good Deeds”, I don’t think you are doing Good from the Heart. It isn’t about how many you do or even what you do. It’s more about the mindset of why you are doing anything Good in the first place.

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  9. Oh, god, this topic… about 30 years ago at the apex of my drinking problems, I got in a heated argument with about 8 people. I was very drunk and unwilling to see anyone else’s point of view. I argued that humans are incapable of performing selfless acts–at a minimum, that glow achieved by giving is a motivating factor. Now whenever this topic comes up I hang my head in shame at my behavior that night and I wonder if the other people still remember it. But as this article suggests, it is a big factor in why people do good deeds. As a parent, I’ve since learned that there are all sorts of actions I can (or must) take that bring *me* no benefit at all.

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    1. I see your point, Jeff, and sometimes I think that is how humans behave. But I’m sure many of us have done selfless acts for our children, with no motivation behind it. I think Dan is pointing out that a side benefit of a good deed is making you feel good, but that is not the primary reason we should be doing it…

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  10. I think the more good deeds I do the better I feel. The problem with clumping them for me would be putting them off until I can do a bunch at a time might mean I pass up earlier chances to do good and I might procrastinate doing the clump, if that makes sense.

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    1. I know what you mean, and I’m not sure I agree with this research 100%. I think it would be btter to do one good a day for five days, rather than five in one day. That’s five days of potentially helping others, and feeling good about ourselves. As opposed to just having that feeling one day a week…

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