Author Daniel Pink’s recent blog posting illuminates the power of work-day progress. Authors Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer compiled 12,000 days of diary entries and questionnaire from 238 people in 7 different companies for their latest book The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. One of their biggest conclusions, writes Pink, is this: “what motivates people the most day-to-day is making progress on meaningful work.”

In this blog post, Pink interviews Amabile, asking her why small wins are so important. She points out that reaching enormous achievements are rare, but “small wins happen all the time.” This type of progress motivates people on a daily basis.

Their research also showed “people perform better” when they were less stressed. “People are more likely to come up with a creative idea or solve a tricky problem on a day when they are in a better mood than usual. In fact, they are more likely to be creative the next day, too, regardless of that next day’s mood,” says Amabile.

Amabile also relays a good way to improve one’s work life. “Religiously protect at least 20 minutes – and, ideally, much more – every day, to tackle something in the work that matters most to you. … Then make note of any progress you made (even if it was a small win), and decide where to pick up again the next day,” she says.