How you really can be happier, and achieve more, if you’re kinder to yourself

If you haven’t already done so, please consider signing up for the email version of this, which has the podcast embedded in it: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter

All the links and references are in the email version of this episode. That’s available here: https://letter.adamsandell.com/go-easier

Would you do me a one-minute favor and help me involve these podcasts by answering two questions—what you like about Great Work, and how it could be better? https://forms.gle/dK2xsEMY9fgGf12B7

Oliver Burkeman’s email, The Imperfectionist: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/the-imperfectionist

Book recommendations:

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less (Basic Books, 2016).

Joseph Jebelli. The Brain at Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life (Random House, 2025).

Other stuff:

PAMELA talk sign-up: https://forms.gle/zVx66EUqLDAsUtrV8 (Friday 16 January 2026, 1pm UK time)

Interested in me speaking at your event/to your team? https://www.adamsandell.com/speaking

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

The Startling Benefits of Taking Some #&@*?%! Responsibility

Or: Things Go Dramatically Better When You Tend to Them

The second Great Work principle.

Links:

Work should be one of the great things in your life: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/core-ideas-1

Growth mindset: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/growth-mindset

Often, it's the reaction, not the stuff: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/its-the-reaction-not-the-stuff-f74

Saying no: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/saying-no

Known what you want to do, and what you really don't: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/know-what-you-want-to-do

Leaving a job: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/leaving-job

Difficult conversations: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/difficult-conversations

Being kind and businesslike: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/be-kind-be-businesslike

Being kind and businesslike (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSGx_g47nS4&t=911s

It's not a crisis: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/almost-nothing-is-a-crisis-94d

Looking after yourself: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/tough-week

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Seven core ideas form the foundation of Great Work, and this episode considers the first of those, that work’s a huge part of life, and it should therefore be a part of what makes your life fulfilling and fun.

For references and links, see the email version at letter.adamsandell.com/core-ideas-1.

If you haven't already signed up for the email newsletter (which contains the podcast version too), you can do so at www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Thanks so much for listening.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

When to leave a job because it's wrong with you, why you should think twice about that, and why it's right for some people to reinvent themselves every few years.

Links from this episode:

• Surviving winter working life

• The eleven lives comic

• It's the reaction, not the stuff

• Know thy working self

• Catcher in the Rye syndrome

• The importance of working relationships

• Getting through the tough week

Thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to sign up for the email version, or want to share the podcast or emails with anyone, here's the link: www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Do use LinkedIn? I’d love to connect there.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Surviving Winter Working Life—and how to get through the cold, dark, wet months for those who, like me, become a grumpy git when the clocks go back.

Also: a reader comment on my last article • a podcast on AI and work • and an update about my own work and the Great Work book I’m writing.

Books I refer to in this episode:

Kari Leibowitz, How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days*. New York: Penguin, 2024.

David Robson, The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World*. New York: Henry Hold, 2022.

MY ROBOT BOSS podcast:

* Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/my-robot-boss/id1831832043

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/74csYO02Y6HcIn1tITZwmh?si=3e1b15568d3c4bbb

* Devon Forster McConnell (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/devonmcconnell/

Links:

* Light therapy (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_therapy

* Light therapy/seasonal major depressive disorder (research): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032724000399

* Light therapy/milder symptoms (research): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12167524/

* Kari Leibowitz’s research: https://internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/article/view/935/977

* Hygge (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

* Previous episode—“It’s the reaction, not the stuff”: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/its-the-reaction-not-the-stuff-f74

* Reader comment on time-boxing: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/time-boxing

* Comment on time-boxing piece: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/time-boxing/comment/160768193

* Evidence on harms of task-switching: Robert D. Rogers and Stephen Monsell, “Costs of a Predictible [sic] Switch between Simple Cognitive Tasks,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 124, no. 2 (1995): 207–31, https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.124.2.207; Renata F. I. Meuter and Alan Allport, “Bilingual Language Switching in Naming: Asymmetrical Costs of Language Selection,” Journal of Memory and Language 40, no. 1 (January 1, 1999): 25–40, https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1998.2602; Joshua S. Rubinstein, David E. Meyer, and Jeffrey E. Evans, “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27, no. 4 (2001): 763–97, https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.27.4.763; Ulrich Mayr and Reinhold Kliegl, “Task-Set Switching and Long-Term Memory Retrieval,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 26, no. 5 (2000): 1124–40, https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.26.5.1124.

* Multi-tasking and gender (research): https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220150

* I need a break: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/tired-exhausted-burned-out

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Time-boxing—perhaps the most effective way of getting more done while looking after yourself and being realistic about how much you truly can get done.

And a book review: Mark Zao-Sanders's new book Timeboxing: The Power of Doing One Thing at a Time.

Links:

* Parkinson's law

* The necessity of rest for being more productive

* Budget and schedule your Internet time

* Pomodoro technique

I've started making short videos about Great Work topics. If you're interested, follow me on any of these:

* TikTok

* Instagram

* LinkedIn

* YouTube Shorts

Share Great Work, or sign up for the email version of this (which comes with the podcast embedded), here: www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Thank you to Bren Russell for editing the podcast.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

More ideas about how to manage a tough working life, this time from middle school teacher and Great Work reader Sarah Wendel. Imposter symptoms, boundaries, and difficult conversations. And for the first time it's professionally edited, with music, and Sarah's voice, and everything!

Links from the podcast:

* Imposter symptoms and CBT

* Imposter symptoms: not just in your head

* The importance of working relationships

* Having difficult conversations

Share Great Work with this link: www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Thanks to Sarah Wendel for the great conversation, and to Bren Russell for editing the podcast.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Tired, exhausted, or burned out? Which are you? And how to avoid all three. There are multiple links in this episode: to see them, click here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Taking Work Relationships Seriously

Good relationships with everyone you deal with at work are central to your well-being and ability to get things done. There’s almost always an approach that addresses whatever’s mattering to you while strengthening relationships.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com

Why saying "no" is often the most responsible thing to do—and how to do it confidently and well.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letter.adamsandell.com