I speed solve Rubik’s cubes as a hobby, and I’ve noticed that my solve times are consistently worse when I’m feeling anxious about my performance than when I’m relaxed and in the moment. However, I’ve heard stress and anxiety described as a response by the nervous system meant to heighten an organism’s performance in high-stakes situations. Why would stress cause me to perform worse at this task instead of better?
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The stress response evolved to improve our performance at a very specific set of tasks: fighting or running for our lives. So things like energy, blood flow, and stuff like that improve. But some things also get worse at the same time: notably for your example, rational thinking and fine motor skills.
It’s possible, with experience and practice, to reduce the bad parts.
Stress finetunes all processes in your body to funnel as much energy as possible into your muscles, lungs and heart and makes your brain switch to “quick and dirty” autopilot.
Stress / pressure has a non-linear relationship with performance on many tasks. Low levels of stress and pressure are associated with poorer performance, as are excessively high levels of stress. There is an optimum middle-ground where a moderate level of stress/pressure yields maximum performance.
This relationship is described in the Yerkes-Dodson Curve ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%E2%80%93Dodson_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%E2%80%93Dodson_law) )
Keep in mind that this relationship only holds for some tasks, and that alternative models have also been proposed.
>when I’m feeling anxious about my performance
When you thinking about something else rather than your task, you perform worse. If you start thinking about your stress, you lose concentration.
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