The Yerkes–Dodson Law (Yerkes & Dodson, 1907)



This is true not just for more tangible types of performance such as being given a stressful new task at work, but also in many life areas such as understanding ourselves, relating to others, and so on.

The core idea is that our nervous systems have a Goldilocks zone of arousal. 

• Too little, and you remain in the comfort zone, where boredom sets in. 

• But too much, and you enter the ‘panic’ zone, which also stalls progress.