All our Linked Resources

Procrastination and Anxiety Loop

A diagram showing the interaction between procrastination, overwhelm and anxiety, including some solutions

Time to run or time to walk?

Walking consumes lots of energy for a long time without the muscle strain of high-impact activities. To get more out of your walking, you only need to increase energy consumption by going beyond a comfortable speed and effort.

How You Can Gain Self Control Without "Self-Control"

By adjusting these easier-to-change parts, you may be able to increase how much control you have in your life, even if you can't change your "self-control” (as some would think of it). If you can achieve this, it may well translate into making healthier choices and achieving more of your life goals.

How To Say No, For The People Pleaser Who Always Says Yes

It can be tempting to say yes to things you just don't want to do. Might as well just get it done so nothing bad happens, right?

Oliver Burkeman’s last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life

After more than a decade of writing life-changing advice, I know when to move on. Here’s what else I learned...

How to be indistractable

Manage your inner triggers to enjoy greater focus and a fuller life

You probably have Idea Debt + How to ‘cure’ it

There’s nothing crazy about having Idea Debt. It’s the most natural thing to result when you have big creative ideas, but no real plan for working towards making them happen.

The drawing advice that changed my life

A video blog on creativity and focus.

What Happens When Your Career Becomes Your Whole Identity

Hating your job is one thing — but what happens if you identify so closely with your work that hating your job means hating yourself?

Relax for the same result

"...half of my effort wasn’t effort at all, but just unnecessary stress that made me feel like I was doing my best"

How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals

In his talk, Stephen explains that what truly defines him aren't titles, but an approach to decision making that transformed him from someone who struggled with simple tasks to a guy who is continuously achieving even his most ambitious dreams.

Why Walking Helps Us Think

"What is it about walking, in particular, that makes it so amenable to thinking and writing? The answer begins with changes to our chemistry."

How much work is enough work

Many people believe the more they work, the more productive they are. But it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Why procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

Address the real reasons you procrastinate and you’re more likely to start achieving your goals.

Burnout: 'Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired'

"My identity was so wrapped up with work. If I wasn't doing that job, I didn't really know who I was."

Loneliness - How to identify and deal with it

Self-Knowledge by Looking at Others

An important but relatively neglected source of self-knowledge derives from one's assessment of the outside world -- especially one's assessment of other people.

The Simple Dutch Cure for Stress

“Uitwaaien is something you do to clear your mind and feel refreshed—out with the bad air, in with the good,”

The best books on Burnout recommended by Josh Cohen

Overwhelmed, exhausted, yet unable to relax when you have the chance? You are not alone. Josh Cohen, psychoanalyst and author of Not Working: Why We Have to Stop, discusses the symptoms and causes of burnout—and why relentless activity is at the source.

Our Brains Are Not Multi-Threaded

The closer I look at the evidence regarding how our brains function, the more I’m convinced that we’re designed to be single-threaded, working on things one at a time.

What wartime ‘munitionettes’ can teach us about burnout

A short overtime sprint won't kill you but, as data from World War One shows, consistently putting in too many hours at work hurts employees and employers.

Timeless app: Reduce time anxiety

Get a more subtle sense of what time it is. Reducing time pressure and distraction.

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

This book explores twenty years of cutting-edge research to solve the mystery of why sleep matter

Nobody cares about you after you're dead and the universe destroys itself

Time Anxiety as a Maker: A Warning

...the time in your life when you realize that you are mortal and life is short, and you respond by filling your time with as much meaning as possible.

A Stanford University psychologist’s elegant three-step method for creating new habits

To create a real lifelong habit, the focus should be on training your brain to succeed at a small adjustments, then gaining confidence from that success.

Time anxiety: is it too late?

Time anxiety is the fear of wasting your time. Paradoxically, over-optimisation may prevent us from creating the most value with our lives.

Charting loneliness

Loneliness is increasingly recognised as a public health issue, but to tackle it effectively we need to be able to accurately distinguish between the many forms it can take

Why You Should Try Micromastery

The wellness case for learning new skills

Burnout and the Brain

Just as the impact of burnout stifles healthy professional growth, emerging research shows that the chronic psychosocial stress that characterizes burnout not only impairs people’s personal and social functioning, it also can overwhelm their cognitive skills and neuroendocrine systems.

How to Be Great? Just be Good, Repeatably

Greatness is not about overnight successes or flashes of excellence, but periods of repeatable habits

Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle - Ezra Klein show

What happens when work becomes an identity, capitalism becomes a religion, and productivity becomes the way we measure human value.

You Procrastinate Because Of Emotions, Not Laziness

Procrastination is not a time management problem. It is an emotion regulation problem - we delay activities which might make us feel not-so-good.

How I run a company with ADHD

Is Hustle Culture Actually Hurting Us?

Does success have to feel like such a slog? And worse still, are we somehow confusing that slog with an embodiment of feminism?

Exercise as a treatment for depression: A meta-analysis adjusting for publication bias

Our data strongly support the claim that exercise is an evidence-based treatment for depression.

Productivity Isn’t About Time Management. It’s About Attention Management

Prioritize the people and projects that matter, and it won’t matter how long anything takes.

How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs

Is Willpower a Finite Resource, or a Myth?

The common, monolithic definition of willpower distracts us from finer-grained dimensions of self-control and runs the danger of magnifying harmful myths—like the idea that willpower is finite and exhaustible.

Patience is something you do

The idea is that we can be patient for just about anything if we know it’s only for a short amount of time, and often that’s all that’s needed.

How I got my attention back

There are a thousand beautiful ways to start the day that don’t begin with looking at your phone. And yet so few of us choose to do so.

The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

Why freelancing can create anxiety around money

With Lifelong Struggles, Effort Isn’t What’s Missing

When we account for the unseen complicating factors going on inside each of us, nobody can ever tell you how hard or easy something should be for you. They don’t have enough information.

Proper Breathing Brings Better Health

Stress reduction, insomnia prevention, emotion control, improved attention—certain breathing techniques can make life better. But where do you start?

To Take Charge of Your Career, Start by Building Your Tribe

There Is More to the Job Experience Than Just Burnout

Burnout occurs when exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy combine in the most extreme negative pattern. But it is usually a minority of the working population that is experiencing burnout — so what is happening with everyone else?

Makers and mental health

...makers in particular need to play close attention to their mental health. Why?

How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation

"I couldn’t figure out why small, straightforward tasks on my to-do list felt so impossible. The answer is both more complex and far simpler than I expected."

How to find the right career for you

Everyone says it’s important to find a job you’re good at, but no-one tells you how to do so.

How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You

The Very, Very Complete Guide to Productivity, Focus, and Your Own Longevity

Let’s hear it for the four-hour working day

Spending more hours doing work does not necessarily produce superior results. The analogy can be made to “Quality is better than Quantity”. A couple of hours of doing quality work beats doing long hours of work

The brain-changing benefits of exercise

What's the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain today? Exercise! says neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki. Get inspired to go to the gym as Suzuki discusses the science of how working out boosts your mood and memory.

Grit: the power of passion and perseverance

Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled.

Why your critics aren't the ones who count

There is nothing more frightening than the moment we expose our ideas to the world. Author and vulnerability researcher Brené Brown shows us how to deal with the critics and our own self-doubt by refusing to "armor up" and shut ourselves off.

The power of vulnerability

Brené Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity.

How to Get Things Done When You Don't Feel Like It

Five strategies for pushing through

How to switch off at the end of the working day

Working too many hours leads to diminishing returns. It impacts both your business and your health. In the long run, it’s simply not sustainable.

Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

Tim Urban knows that procrastination doesn't make sense, but he's never been able to shake his habit of waiting until the last minute to get things done.

What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

Remote workers shouldn’t feel like they have to travel to lead interesting, fulfilled lives. It’s ok to prioritize friendships, community, and your mental health over traveling.

How to be alone: the difference between loneliness and solitude

Loneliness is being alone — and not liking it. It’s a feeling. Solitude is being alone — and content. It’s a choice.

Finally, a cure for insomnia?

We are living through an epidemic of sleeplessness, but the medical establishment has largely ignored the problem. Can a radical new therapy help you get some sleep?

The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies

Productive Procrastination: How to Get More Done by Procrastinating on Purpose

Most people don’t procrastinate to avoid work; they procrastinate to avoid the negative feelings that come from misinterpreting the urge to procrastinate.

Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation

An examination of the effect of mindfulness meditation practice on the brain systems in which psychological functions such as attention, emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, and self-view are instantiated.

For Depression and Anxiety, Running Is a Unique Therapy

What I learned after 60 consecutive days of running

If you’re wondering why you’ve lost friends in adulthood, this is probably why

Need More Self-Control? Try a Simple Ritual

How To Let Go

Probabilistic decision-making as an anxiety-reduction technique

Running as an experiment to reduce anxiety and facilitate healing

The Power of Positive People

Are your friendships giving you a boost or bringing you down?

What Happens When a Computer Runs Your Life

Exploring doing random new things, and the impact on your life

There’s no such thing as motivation

The Willpower Instinct

Sleep and Mental Health

Sleep and mental health are closely connected. Sleep deprivation affects your psychological state and mental health.

Happiness Habit: Printing photos

Coach.me App

Build your career. Get in shape. Learn a new skill. Habit tracking app.

Growth Mindset

It's not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset

Growth Mindset (animated book summary)

The Flinch

A book that will push you, scare you and possibly stick with you for years to come.

Solitude and Leadership

When Panic Attacks

The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

Zen of Creativity

Cultivating Your Artistic Life

Man's Search for Meaning

The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

Rework

Change the way you work forever

Toggl - Time Tracker

Use this to help split working time from rest; manage over-work; and help focus

Self-Help Anxiety Management

Anxiety Management on your Mobile

Oak

Meditation and Breathing Exercises

Buddhify

Meditation & Mindfulness App

Calm

Meditation Techniques for Sleep and Stress Reduction

Headspace

Meditation and Mindfulness Made Simple - use this to help switch between work and rest

Is Chronic Anxiety a Learning Disorder?

Some psychiatrists think it might be, but the data are still too sparse to be sure