sharppodcast

Episode 47 - Why perfectionism is, at best, unhelpful and, at worst, a serious problem. We explore what perfectionism is and how to deal with it wherever it appears.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:

• The link between perfectionism and competitiveness
• Where both of mine came from (I'm better now!)
• Why you should never declare perfectionism as a 'weakness' in an interview
• What perfectionism is, according to Steve and Lisa at the table
• What research says the different kinds of perfectionism are
• Adaptive and Maladaptive
• Self-Oriented - Other-Oriented - Socially Prescribed
• The worrying research that shows how it can be linked to mental health issues
• It's growing - especially among the younger generation
• The 6 disadvantages of perfectionism
• Why you should listen to Super Pee Pee time
• 6 ways of dealing with perfectionism in others
• How to deal with it if you manage people who have it
• 10 tips on dealing with your own perfectionism
• Baby steps
• Focus on what's enjoyable
• Be self-aware
• Focus on the positive
• Meditate
• Focus on the journey, not the destination
• Record your progress - not the target
• Laugh (a lot)
• Get inspired by dreamers and risk takers
• Embrace the idea that you are NOT in control

Here's all the research and links:

• The Curran and Hill meta-analysis of undergraduates from 1989 to 2016
• Hewett and Flett on the 3 different types of perfectionism
• Psychology Today - The Challenge Of Perfectionism
• BBC Future - The Dangerous Downsides of Perfectionism
• The University of North Carolina study showing the connection between perfectionism and psychopathology
• The 6 key problems with perfectionism according to careeraddict.com
• Super Pee Pee Time - it's bonkers and I love it!
• Psychology Today - Alan A Cavaiola on dealing with perfectionists
• The book "Impossible To Please" by Cavailoa and Lavender
• Harvard Business Review - How to manage a perfectionist
• Tiny Buddha - The one thing you need to know to overcome perfectionism
• The Muse - How to stop perfectionism from ruining your life
• Psychology Today - 5 ways to overcome fear of failure and perfectionism
• Very Well Mind - Overcoming perfectionism

Episode 46 - We dive deep into your memory and think we should probably not have looked so close, given what we found! But in this episode, we talk about why memory is important, how it works and how you can improve yours.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• Devices versus memory
• Why do I keep forgetting toothpaste
• What is memory?
• The Brain Institute at the University of Queensland's article on - 8 memory types
• What happens when severe memory loss hits us
• Memento - The IMDB summary
• Henry Gustav Molaison - his story at Wikipedia
• Adrian Ellis' story - at Headway
• Clive Wearing - the YouTube snip
• Where in your head is the memory?
• Janice Chen's experiment with - Sherlock Holmes and brain scans
• Ragbag - by Frank Burton
• University of Queensland tells us - why memory is like grass
• How to remember 20 random things
• How to remember people's names every time
• The Smithsonian article on - Simonides and the Mind Palace
• The article at BBC Future on our final memory tip
• Some of our research came from:
• The Scientific American
• The research from the Wellcome Foundation
• 12 BONUS take-away's to help you save time
• If you save an hour - you could spend 2 minutes helping us back:
• Text a friend a link to the subscription page - it's here for you to copy: Subscription link
• Share the latest episode on social media - Twitter Facebook Instagram
• Go to i-tunes or Apple podcasts and give us a 5 star review - click here

Episode 45 - We've learned amazing stuff about our brains for this episode. We give you 2 great articles, a fab Ted talk AND a smorgasbord of remarkable brain-related facts! Hold on to your hat...

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• We've realised that the SAW that we're sharpening every week is the one in our heads
• Did you ever notice it in the logo?
• All the mind-blowing facts in this episode come from this fab article at - bebrainfit.com
• How many? Phenomenal brain numbers
• A superb article from Sean Nisil at - Productivityist.com
• He has written about cognitive load
• Empty your brain
• Stop things filling it up
• You'll thank yourself, feel more relaxed, be creative and your 3 pounds of fat and water will be SHARPER!
• Lewis Hamilton doesn't drive a Hillman Imp
• A good news/bad news sandwich around how flexible your brain is
• What a great article from Lachlan Brown at - Hackspirit.com
• He tells us 7 activities or hobbies that science says can make you smarter
• Meditate
• Learn a second language
• Read
• Exercise your body
• Exercise your brain
• Learn a musical instrument
• Cumulative learning
• A lovely podcast I found via Brit Pod Scene
• It's called Tourist Podcast - and you can find it here
• A round of myths and misinformation about your grey matter
• We end up sharing one of our favourite Ted Talks
• It is by Anil Seth - his contact details are here
• And the Ted Talk is here
• Your brain hallucinates your reality - yep, how weird is that!
• We end up with the 10 oddest brain facts
• But sadly, it's not all good news
• Cheer up - it's not the end of the world

Episode 44 - Can you rely on time? Can you manage it? What were you doing with yours 3 days ago at 3:15 pm? Wanna find out? Then have a listen!

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:

• Time management doesn't work
• What does 'time' even mean?
• Could we change how we measure time - some people already have
• Time seems to stretch depending on what you are doing
• Psychology Today explains why the years pass faster as you get older
• Terry - come one, give him a chance! At least his facts are real
• The earth doesn't revolve every 24 hours
• The French tried to 'decimalise' time - TWICE!
• In the Soviet Union, they changed the length of the week 3 times in the 20th Century
• Changing your approach to what fills your day could work two ways:
• Getting more done in the same time
• Doing the same amount in less time
• Which one do you want? They're both good for different reasons
• Lunchtime - how do you do yours?
• Why measuring 'performance' just based on how many hours someone works may not be useful
• Is it time to find out what fills your 168 hours?
• E-mails take up more than we think, according to - Forbes.com
• That's just e-mails; where are your other 'time-thieves'?

Track your time - it's VERY revealing

• The Art of Manliness wrote - this article on the subject
• You can do it in different ways - one way is with apps
• Here's one 
• The one we used was - Toggl
• Consider how you're going to track your time with an app; there are 2 key ways:
• Every time you start a new task, log it
• Checking in each 15/30 minutes and logging what you've been doing
• The great thing about Toggl is that you can select categories and tags
• My categories were:
• Work-reactive actions (meetings, resolving stuff etc)
• Work - proactive actions (planning, developing, strategy)
• Routines
• Travel
• Calls
• Self-development
• Eating
• Family time
• Relaxing
• Meditating
• Messing about
• Podcast production
• Instead of apps, try tracking time using a paper-based method
• Decide on doing weekday/weekend or both
• Log actions every 15/30 minutes (you decide)
• Write EVERYTHING down - including messing about time (e.g. social media scrolling)
• Be honest
• Suspend judgement until you've finished
• Do it for at least 1 week - 2 if you can
• If you want to - log it on paper first (the raw activities) and then put into Toggl afterwards
• You can then categorise, and Toggl gives you reports in different ways
• Take what you've learned and use it to inform what steps you want to take
• Go and look at any of our other episodes to work on what you've decided on
• A good place to start if you want to plan your day better is Episode 35
• We discovered that Terry needs some equipment training!

Episode 43 - What makes us happy? Lots of things. Whether being happy means getting through things quicker, spending more time focusing on what's important, or being inspired - here are some ideas.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• A recommendation from Charles Duhigg (Author of Smarter Faster Better and The Power of Habit)
• It was this excellent piece by Alice Boyes at Harvard Business Review:
• Why do we fail at focusing on what's important
• How to change that
• Schedule time for them
• Isolate the most impactful bits
• Anticipate and manage your feelings of anxiety
• Spend less time on unimportant tasks
• Prioritise tasks that will reduce your number of urgent/unimportant tasks
• Pay attention to what helps you see and track the bigger picture
• A podcast recommendation we've made before - 10% Happier
• Being happy doesn't just mean laughing; it can also come from feeling uplifted
• The latest episodes of 10% Happier do just that, give them a listen
• If you want to just get things done in the day, we found a resource with 5 quick tips
• It was compiled by Ashley Stahl at Forbes.com
• We've covered these tips in various guises before, but they are worth revisiting and checking in with ourselves by asking, "Do I do these well?"
• Stop multitasking
• Take breaks
• Set small goals
• Take care of the biggest tasks when you are most alert
• Implement the two-minute rule
• Question - What are you doing when you are happiest?
• The answer may not be what you think
• We look at and listen to the Ted Talk by Matt Killingsworth
• He explains how he created an app that 15,000 people responded to
• From 650,000 reports, he learned that there is one thing we're doing more than anything else when we are happy
• You'll have to watch the talk or listen to the episode to find out!