“Even in the absence of recognition, people often felt incredible elation when they made progress in work that was meaningful to them,” said Dr. Amabile, who has studied the impact of daily events on one’s productivity and inner work-life, “which is the thoughts and feelings and motivations that people experience as they react to and try to make sense of events at work.” She found that the most impactful events are small moments of progress, reinforced by the process of reflecting on them.

What work counts as meaningful depends on the person, but motivation is typically stronger when it’s connected to your core values. Dr. Chris Cascio, an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that when participants were subconsciously primed to think about things they cared about, and then shown messages encouraging new exercise habits, the areas in their brain associated with reward and positive self-valuation lit up. That group also went on to change their behavior, by improving their exercise regimens, the most often.

Dr. Amabile’s team even found that personal satisfaction had a stronger impact than external praise if employees felt like the compliments they received didn’t connect to work they valued or “were just empty attaboys” from management.

So what does this mean for you?

Keeping a daily list of your accomplishments can be one of the most powerful ways to improve your intrinsic motivation, productivity, creativity and mood.

Celebrate the small stuff

How you track your wins is a matter of personal preference, but like budgets and diets, the best method is the one you’ll keep up with.

All you need to do is jot down tasks you complete throughout your day, or carve out a few minutes in the evening to write a reflection. Unlike the aspirational and often ambitious to-do list, the focus here is looking at what you’ve already accomplished, not things still on your plate.

That’s because these “small wins,” even if they barely chip away at our larger goals, can still boost our mood and motivation, giving us an important sense of progress, according to Dr. Amabile.