Top 3 TED Talks From The Man Who Watched 70 Hours In A Week

Hankering for a bit of inspiration? This guy watched 296 TED talks in one week. Here's his pick of the bunch.

A Year of Productivity / Via ayearofproductivity.com

We're all prone to a TED talk viewing or two to convince ourselves all we need is a little pep talk to kickstart our creativity, but Chris Bailey decided to watch 70 hours of TED talks in a week – that's 296 to be exact.

Starting his blog A Year of Productivity as soon as he graduated from university – the exact moment all we have is free time – he has conducted experiments to try and create the best conditions to harbour…well, productivity. He meditated for 35 hours over seven days, lived in total reclusion for 10 days, and limited himself to using his smartphone one hour a day for three months.

It wasn't all just watching, oh no. He got productive and made three different lists – 100 incredible things I learned watching 70 hours of TED talks last week, 10 things I learned about productivity watching 70 hours of TED talks last week and The 7 characteristics of highly effective people who give TED talks. For those who don't have the time to flick through his round-ups, Chris' interview with TED revealed his top three videos from the whole set.

1. Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what

TED Blog / Via blog.ted.com

"It’s just a beautiful talk about the human condition and about acceptance. It was one of the most emotional talks — one of the most inspiring and warm talks — that I watched throughout the course of the experiment."

2. Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity

TED Blog / Via blog.ted.com

"That made me laugh like no other TED Talk did throughout the course of the experiment. There’s a quote from a famous monk: 'You have to open the mouth before you can throw in the pill of wisdom.' I think humor is an incredible way to connect with people, and that’s something that he did so well in that talk."

3. Benjamin Zander: The transformative power of classical music

TED Blog / Via blog.ted.com

"For a lot of people, including myself, I’ve been to a few classical musical concerts and I’ve enjoyed myself. It’s been calming, but I wasn’t able to connect with the music. He takes a topic that some people are afraid of — that some people misunderstand and other people push away — and he brings it down to earth."