The Great Work Podcast

Evidence-based ways to spend less time online and more in the real world.

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Links: all the links and references are in the email version of this episode: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/time-online

Specific mentions:

* Smartphone addiction scale: https://www.healthyscreens.com

* One Sec: https://one-sec.app

* Rural healthcare webinar: https://ubccpd.ca/learn/learning-activities/rural-rounds-what-actually-works-stress-impostor-syndrome-and-burnout

Email me! [email protected]

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

The adult error's where, as teenagers, we learn self-discipline — and overshoot. This episode's about how to ensure that we get at least a little guilt-free relaxation every day: it makes us more productive and makes our lives better, too.

And a book recommendation and some other stuff.

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Links: all the links and references are in the email version of this episode: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/adult-error

Email me! [email protected] I'd love to know what you think.

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

What if the problem with stress weren’t the stress but, instead, our attitude towards stress—and, if we start thinking about it differently, our pressured lives will be transformed?

Or is that idea over-hyped nonsense?

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Links: all the links and references are in the email version of this episode: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/stress-mindset

Email me! [email protected]

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

We all make mistakes from time to time. Sometimes they're serious. Yet there's a culture of not talking about them, and this is a problem. So in this episode I tell you candidly about one of my medical errors. There are lessons for anyone who does work that matters and who worries about getting things wrong, or finds it hard to cope when they do.

* * *

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Links: all links and references are in the email version of this episode: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/medical-error

Email me! [email protected]

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

Six reviews of books that might improve your tough working life. Links are in the email version, which is here: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/book-reviews.

* Simone Stolzoff, How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World that Demands Answers

* Kelly McGonigal, The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

* Selina Barker, Burnt Out: The Exhausted Person’s Six-Step Guide to Thriving in a Fast-Paced World

* Bree Groff, Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously)

* Kathryn Page, Good Work: Transform Your Work from the Inside Out

* Joseph Jebelli, The Brain At Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Email me! [email protected]

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

The vacation test: a sign that something needs to change—and an opportunity to figure out what to do.

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Links: all the links and references are in the email version, available here: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/vacation-test

Email me! [email protected]

FEEDBACK: If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

How do people do tough, meaningful work—and even thrive doing it—alongside caring for being a parent or caring for family members? I've unearthed a few strategies!

WHAT'S YOUR ADVICE ABOUT THIS?

I need your input on this one—as do other Great Work listeners. Join the Great Work chat (https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/dd23f6ab-5185-4da6-921f-d5b616b9d2d3), comment on the written version (https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/caring-responsibilities), or email me at [email protected].

ARE YOU GETTING THE EMAILS?

Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

FEEDBACK

If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

STUFF REFERRED TO IN THIS EPISODE

• New research on sex differences in occupational distress: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840686

• Exhaustion: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/tired-exhausted-burned-out

• Imposter syndrome: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/remember-everyone-else-is-an-imposter

• Worrying you've screwed something up: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/remember-everyone-else-is-an-imposter

• Middle school teacher article/podcast: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/work-life-lessons-from-a-teacher

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Swanning through the tough week: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/tough-week

Are you fine? Is your job fine? Or are you too tired to tell? Three ways exhaustion warps your perspective—and how to fix it.

Stuff referred to in this episode:

* The importance of rest: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/prioritize-rest

* It's often the reaction, not the stuff: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/its-the-reaction-not-the-stuff-f74

* Imposter syndrome: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/imposter

* When to leaver a job: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/leaving-job

* Tired, exhausted, or burned out? https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/tired-exhausted-burned-out

Are you getting the emails? Great Work's an email as well as a podcast, with podcast embedded in the emails, so you can choose to read or listen. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Feedback If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

Happy, high-functioning teams need to be both kind and businesslike—yet few are. What this means and how to get there.

Are you getting the emails?

The podcast’s embedded in the emails, which you can read, if you prefer. Sign up (free, easy to unsubscribe) here: https://www.adamsandell.com/newsletter.

Feedback

If you’re willing—you can answer just two questions and it helps me improve this! https://www.adamsandell.com/survey

Stuff referred to in this episode

Almost nothing is a crisis: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/almost-nothing-is-a-crisis-94d

The “once this difficult period is over”/“now’s not the time” fallacy: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/nows-not-the-time-fallacy

Consider your options: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/leaving-job

SMART criteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

Have effective meetings: https://letter.adamsandell.com/p/good-meetings-exist

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

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsandell

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