Ep 211: Reflecting, on a continuum
My Pocket Psych
In this third episode exploring the benefits of reflection, I take a look at how reflection can exist on a continuum of time and complexity. From a few moments in between meetings through to taking the time to review the week, month or even year gone by! It needn't be an enormously time-consuming activity, or one that requires us to maintain a complex and all-consuming diary of thoughts, feelings and events. Don't forget, I'll be facilitating a masterclass on how to make reflection a habit on April 29th, and you can find out more and reserve your place via the link in the resources...
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Ep 210: Help! What do I do with this feedback?
My Pocket Psych
In this second part of our focus on reflection and self-awareness, we take a look at the role of feedback. While it's not always comfortable to ask for - or receive! - feedback from our colleagues can make a valuable contribution to self-awareness and personal development. Others' perspectives can round out the view we hold about our own skills, behaviour and performance. In this episode, we look at how to request feedback from others, how to deal with the emotions we feel when we receive it, and how to make sense of what we receive. As always, thanks for listening! Resources...
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Ep 209: Making time for reflection
My Pocket Psych
In this episode, we take a look at a key element of personal development and growth: reflection. While so many of us feel we're too busy to engage in reflection, or worry that it's too time-consuming, this episode illustrates that we can start with tiny steps and grow from there. But it's not just thinking about our experiences. It's about sense-making and identifying ways that we can turn our insights into action. And don't forget about this month's masterclass on reflection, where you'll learn how to structure your reflection, ensure you have a accessible record of your experiences, and know...
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Ep 208: From procrastination to proactivity
My Pocket Psych
In this, the final episode in our mini-series on procrastination, Richard is joined by fellow psychologist Dr. Joe Gray for a conversation about workplace proactivity - and how it can be a useful antidote to our procrastination habit. Joe explains the different ways we can be proactive, while also sharing the fundamentals that need to be in place to facilitate proactive behaviours. Joe is the author of 'Powering workplace productivity: How to create future-focused, change-oriented culture' and simply illustrates the ingredients of proactivity and its benefits for employees and employers. Let...
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Ep 207: Tackling your procrastination habit
My Pocket Psych
Last time, we explored procrastination, its origins and how it impacts our wellbeing, productivity and relationships. In this second part of our three-part review of procrastination, we look at how much psychological discomfort can lead us to delay taking helpful action. We look at some of the sources of this discomfort, how it can show up and how we can effectively reframe it to side-step procrastination. In the next episode, we'll be joined by Dr. Joe Gray for a conversation all about how to turn our procrastination into proactivity at work, and in life more generally. Resources...
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Ep 206: Your secret procrastination habit
My Pocket Psych
In this first episode of a three-part series, we take a look at the origins of procrastination, how it can show up, and the impact it can have on our wellbeing, relationships and performance at work. Rather than being some kind of moral failing, procrastination is essentially part of being a human with a mind! And rather than being a permanent fixture or part of our identity, we can view it as a habit to change. We are more likely to procrastinate when our work systems fail to give us clarity on what needs to be done, or when we focus on avoiding the psychological discomfort associated...
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Ep 205: It's not just 'bouncing back'!
My Pocket Psych
Building on our last episode, when we looked at how organisations can misinterpret resilience at work, this time we look at how individuals can expand their perspective on resilience. There are so many misconceptions when it comes to resilience. That it's just about keeping going, persistence, bouncing back. When over-simplified like this, it can lead to disappointment, unhelpful behavioural responses and interpersonal difficulties. Instead. we can benefit from viewing resilience as something inherently flexible, a way of responding to dificculty that is based on our context, and...
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Ep 204: Resilience - it's not the answer to everything!
My Pocket Psych
The topic of the month over on WorkLifeSpark, our online personal development community, is resilience. So for the next couple of episodes, we're going to take a look at this concept. In particular, why it's not the panacea or answer to all organisational problems. In this first episode, we look at resilience from the organisational perspective, and how it often gets over-emphasised and how. If "you need to be resilient to work here" is the pervading message, what does this do to employee behaviour, performance and wellbeing? What message does it send out to prospective employees? And...
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Ep 203: It's never too late for a fresh start
My Pocket Psych
In this episode, I take a few minutes to remind us all that we can make a fresh start on any day of the year. There's nothing particularly magical about January 1st! So if your attempts at change since New Year's Day haven't been fruitful, it's never too late to try again. But rather than simply repeating the same unhelpful or overly-demanding approach again and again, I have some recommendations for how you can Reflect, Recalibrate and be Realistic about your planned changes and then leverage the 'fresh start' effect. "Fresh starts increase your motivation to change because they give you...
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Ep 202: Culture isn't a Pinterest board!
My Pocket Psych
Welcome back for the first of our episodes for 2026 🎉 In this episode, Richard is once again joined by business psychologist Kara Daley. This time, it's for a discussion on the wide-ranging topic of organisational culture. What exactly is it? Why can it be so hard to pin down and change? And what exactly is the role of leaders in culture development and change? We'd love to hear from you on this key topic. Drop us an email "podcast at worklifepsych dot com" or join us for online discussion on WorkLifeSpark, our personal development community. . As ever, thanks for listening!...
info_outlineIn this episode, I take a few minutes to remind us all that we can make a fresh start on any day of the year. There's nothing particularly magical about January 1st!
So if your attempts at change since New Year's Day haven't been fruitful, it's never too late to try again. But rather than simply repeating the same unhelpful or overly-demanding approach again and again, I have some recommendations for how you can Reflect, Recalibrate and be Realistic about your planned changes and then leverage the 'fresh start' effect.
"Fresh starts increase your motivation to change because they give you either a real clean slate or the impression of one..." - 'How to Change' by Katy Milkman
I also explore some other simple behaviour change principles you can put into practice to make your attempts at change more likely to stick.
And remember: there's no law that says you have to make personal changes in January - or at all. Don't feel pressurised to jump on the change bandwagon if things are going well or if this time of year just doesn't work for you.
Thanks for listening!
Resources for this episode
- 'How to change' by Katy Milkman - https://www.katymilkman.com/book
- You can sign up for our online personal development community WorkLifeSpark here: https://www.worklifespark.com/sign-up