10 minutes or less!

Improve your focus and save yourself time. Tip taken from the book Focus On/Off by Mark Tigchelaar and Oscar de Bos

Here are four techniques that you can choose to do in moments when you feel high levels of distress or overwhelm. This is taken from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. I came across them when listening to a series of podcast episodes with Shireen Rizvi.

How to create a balance that helps you to be productive and look after yourself. We often think it is a choice between one or the other. It's not.

This episode we look at the benefit of nothingness. Well, it is really about giving your brain a break from information overload and letting it do what it's good at...processing. It is in this nothingness that great things happen.

Progress isn't linear. Managing your expectations around new habits is crucial to their success.

How to change the demands you impose on yourself to preferences that work in your favour.

This episode we look at two aspects of time that can get us into a little bit of trouble: the planning fallacy and the other one…listen to find out what they are and how you can avoid them.

6 tips to help those conversations with difficult people feel more in your control. This podcast was inspired by Mel Robbins podcastwith Jefferson Fisher, "How to handle difficult people and talk back your peace and power". Most of the tips came from there.

Your belief in your own abilities and skills is quite powerful.

We don't know why people choose to behave in a certain way, yet often we are quick to judge their actions. What if we imagined good intentions? How would that impact on how you responded and felt? Today's episode is inspired by Seth Gillihan and William B Irvine's approach to others.

This is for those thoughts that don't respond to logic or indeed the other techniques we've looked at…the What ifs…

Anxiety grabs our attention and at times doesn't let go. Here are two questions to help you prioritise what gets your attention and what doesn't.

This episode we challenge our thoughts and look at ways to make useful predictions that help us to manage our anxiety and respond to it effective.

Here is our first episode on anxiety. Over the next few episodes we are going to dive into this subject, exploring ideas presented in Joel Minden's book "Show your anxiety who's boss". We will look at how we can use these techniques to deal with our anxiety .

Failure and fearing it is natural and happens to us all. This episode is for those of us for whom the fear of failure is getting in the way of us trying things out, pushing ourselves when uncertainty is around.Tip is from Arthur Brooks.

When your emotions take you on a rollercoaster what can you do to slow it down or get off? Listen to this episode or read the title.

This episode I had the pleasure of talking to Esther Stanhope about how to make ourselves more visible in the workplace. Listen to find out how carrot cake can help.For more information about Esther's work and how to get involved go to www.estherstanhope.com/

How do you get access to a new perspective without changing the reality of what is happening? In this episode we explore exactly how.

When does your thinking tip into overthinking and what can you do about it? This episode was inspired by the Being Well podcast with Forest Hanson and Dr Rick Hanson

Focus on high quality connections to gain the benefits of sharing experiences and feeling supported by others and to reduce social isolation. Here is the name of the social psychologist I had trouble pronouncing in the episode, John Cacioppo.

Help your brain out by using this tip…and then it will remember, focus and perform better.

Before listening to this episode grab a pen and paper (or mobile) and think of a task that you are currently procrastinating on. Now you're ready to go.

I've procrastinated enough and finally got round to recording an episode…well actually there are two as there is so much to say. I recommend listening to this episode first before moving on to the second. Inspiration taken from Tim Pychyl book: Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

Today we look at how to get comfortable with uncertainty.

We've looked at uncertainty before but it's a topic is worth exploring. This episode looks at the advantages we gain from uncertainty. The source of information in this podcast is mainly taken from Maggie Jackson's book "Uncertain". Worth a read.

Rather than expecting everything you do to be 100% perfect, try 70% instead, and here’s why and how.Idea taken from Oliver Burkeman's newsletter The Imperfectionist.

Accessing a different perspective can be invaluable. How can we do this for ourselves? In this episode we look at two tips…the foreign language affect and distance self-talk.For my article of reframing visit substack: emmacreativecoach

Dr Jenny Taitz recommends that to control the trajectory of our emotions we do the opposite of what they tell us to do. Find out how in this episode of 10 minutes or less.

Our emotions help us navigate our world. However, somehow it feels as if they are steering the ship. Listen to find out how you can control where you go.

How what an astrobiologist said inspired this episode. As we are wired to take the easy option, let's use it to our advantage.

This episode is inspired by an article by Joshua Rothman called "Why Can´t You Just Deal with It?" We look at two approached to helping you get things done.

Today we look at 7 steps to help you increase the likelihood that the change you want to make sticks. In this episode we are accompanied by the sound of parrots half way through as I forget to close my window whilst recording.

This episode draws on the advice and expertise of Diane Musho Hamilton around conflict resolution. We explore the three conflict styles and what you can try next time when facing a situation of conflict.

Leslie Perlow a researcher at Harvard Business School has studied the impact of giving people autonomy at work. The results are fascinating. In this episode we discover how to get more autonomy into our lives.

Today we look at why is it better to ask for advice not feedback.

This episode explores how to reduce the friction when making a decision by taking will power out of the equation and replacing it with...well you'll just have to listen.

This episode we discover the importance of awareness in giving us more options when our choices seem limited. A series of podcast episodes by Vidyamala Burch , author, speaker, mindfulness teacher and the co-founder of Breathworks Foundation, called Pain without Suffering was the inspiration for this episode.

The second part of the wellbeing episodes looks at four questions to help you to reap some of the benefits associated with your wellbeing thriving.

We start season 6 with a two parter. In this first episode we look at what is wellbeing so that you can make informed choices on what you need to do in order to enhance it. We draw on findings from Gallup and Martin Seligman's PERMA model.

In the final episode of season 5 we explore how to use evidence from our past to help use solve problems in our present.

Final episode for awhile on productivity. This one is about working at your pace…it might sound impossible especially if you work for someone else but with a little bit of intention and some simple techniques it can become your default. For ideas on reducing procrastination go to my Substack page Emma Crook

This is our second episode looking at productivity. Building on last weeks tip from Cal Newport we explore how we can really know if we have the time and the space needed to complete a task or project to the best of our abilities and what we do if we don't.

Over the next few weeks we are going to take a look at productivity. Before you sigh and say 'not another podcast telling me how to be more productive', well yes and no. In these episodes we will be looking at some recommendations taken from Cal Newport's book Slow Productivity in particular how to take on fewer things.

Happy New Year. This episode we look at two ways that you can employ to enhance your enjoyment of the small things. If you want more tips like this check out Sasha Chapin article on Substack called "How to like everything more".

Looking forward to 2025 how do you navigate uncertainty? In this episode we take some of the key insights from the author of the book "Uncertain" Maggie Jackson, and learn why it is important to increase our tolerance of uncertainty. Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year. Thanks for being a loyal listener.

This episode we look at how we remember experiences and the two things that impact on our past memories.

Today we look at Brene Brown's tip on how to experience the joy without any of the "foreboding".

Today we look at the pitfalls of giving advice. We discover what we can do to make sure that our advice is wanted, needed and helpful. The tip for today is inspired by the author of The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay-Stanier.

We're starting season 4 with a look at catastrophisation. For those of you who's mind tends to go to the worst case scenario within a beat, this episode is for you. The technique we look at is taken from the book "Tomorrowmind" by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman.

Is it harder for you to acknowledge what you do well? You're not alone. This episode takes a technique used by Kristen Neff, a leading expert on compassion, to help make it easier for you to see your own strengths.