The OptimalWork Podcast

#172: Many people think that they and others work best under extreme external pressure: impending deadlines, demanding bosses, etc. In this rebroadcast, Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif Younes discuss better ways to achieve intensity. Find more at ⁠https://www. OptimalWork.com⁠ .

#171: Have you ever worked with great intensity and lost track of time, only to realize later that it was all a waste? You had fallen for the trap of hyperfocus. In this episode, we’ll distinguish between hyperfocus and true flow, and show you how to always attain the latter. Find more at https://www. OptimalWork.com.

#170: With rising rates of anxiety and depression, some have suggested that managers be trained to provide “mental-health first aid” to employees in distress. In this episode, we discuss the best ways managers can help employees thrive at work, how to help them grow, and how to balance the need to get results from their teams with the ideal of supporting and mentoring them. Find more at https://Op...

#169: What’s the best way to prevent distractions? Are prevention techniques — like website blockers — effective? In this episode, we discuss different strategies aimed at behavior change. We argue that the source of the most sustainable behavior change is to build self-mastery through right action. By doing this, you’ll be laying the foundations for new predictions by your brain. Over time, it wi...

#168: Reframing is a practice that developed from cognitive behavioral therapy. It means discovering the opportunity present within a challenge. If you face a challenge that causes anxiety, distraction, or burnout, reframing can help you approach it more effectively. But reframing can do more. It will also help you harmonize the different parts of your life so everything is working in the same dir...

#167: At the heart of our approach is the practice of a Golden Hour: preparing your mind for a time of work, focusing on one thing, and setting a stop time in advance. Doing a Golden Hour brings the key practices of psychology into your hour of work, so you not only do your best work, but you also practice bringing your highest ideals into your actions, which is the entire goal of OptimalWork. In...

#166: Shame is the emotion we feel when we fear that our failures or weaknesses will become known. This fear can lead us to pursue certain outcomes as defenses — money, success, prestige, etc. — or to shy away from challenges that will expose us. In this episode, we discuss how to experience and accept shame, and why doing so gives us a profound freedom and unlocks the most meaningful forms of gro...

#165: When people experience cognitive dissonance — that is, a clash between one’s self-concept and reality — they will tend to favor their self-concept, and can rationalize this bias in a process of self-justification. This process can thwart meaningful personal growth. In this episode, we discuss self-justification, how to identify it and how to overcome it — and a clever way to use it to develo...

#164: It’s a widespread belief that when experiencing negative emotions like anger or frustration, it’s helpful to vent them. In fact, this practice is counterproductive. Studies indicate that when people express negative emotions in this way, far from letting them out, they in fact get more of them. This result is confirmed by a consideration of the neuroscience of perception and appraisal. In th...

#163: In their 2019 book “The Power of Agency,” Paul Napper and Anthony Rao lay out their theory of growth and happiness, which centers on the concept of “agency.” In this episode, we compare their seven principles with OptimalWork’s approach, and show how ideals are essential to true agency. Find more at https://OptimalWork.com

#162: Procrastination is something of a mystery. Its costs — decreased quality of work, fraying of bonds with others, increased negative emotions like stress, even health effects — are universally acknowledged. Yet procrastination persists — or, put precisely, people persist in procrastinating. In this episode, we discuss the primary cause of procrastination (a reluctance to experience negative em...

#161: This episode continues our discussion of Alfie Kohn’s “Punished by Rewards.” Kohn believes that a person’s motivation (especially a child’s) starts out pure but gets corrupted by rewards and praise. Here we explore the possibility that intrinsic motivation is actually something that develops over time, and thus behavioralist psychology, rather than destroying intrinsic motivation, in fact op...

#160: In this episode, we explore the radical claims made by Alfie Kohn in his 1993 book Punished by Rewards . Kohn, an expert in education and psychology, argues against the use of rewards to incentivize behavior. For Kohn, such incentives cause people to lose intrinsic motivation: for instance, kids get motivated by grades, not learning; employees get motivated by money, not creativity and servi...

#159: At OptimalWork, we often emphasize generosity as a crowning ideal: a key character quality to strive for. But this raises some questions. Should you just give everything to everyone? What are the limits? What if people start to take advantage of your generosity? In this episode, we discuss how to set boundaries that will help you maximize your generosity by making it sustainable. Find more a...

#158: Conversations can be a source of frustration, but they can also be the source of our deepest and most fulfilling joys. The bonds that we form with others are forged in large part through conversations. In this episode, we’ll talk about the key skill needed to have good conversations. Find more at https://OptimalWork.com

#157: Do you have any anxiety that you feel might be holding you back? In fact, anxiety is like a forge that you can use to shape yourself according to your highest ideals. In this episode, we show you how to find the challenge at the root of your anxiety and engage it as a unique opportunity. Find more at ⁠https://www. OptimalWork.com⁠ .

#156: Do you ever find that you don’t have enough time to accomplish all the things you’d like to? Small blocks of time may seem inconsequential, but they add up. Making wise use of these blocks can increase your productivity by 20% — the difference between getting ahead and falling behind. How to do it? That’s the topic of today’s rebroadcast. Find more at https://OptimalWork.com

#155: A lot of people have heard about the practices of sleep hygiene, and are using them, but still struggle to achieve sleep. It may seem like sleep is something that either happens effortlessly or not at all. Recent research, however, suggests that falling asleep is a skill that can be learned. Find more at https://OptimalWork.com

#154: The pain you experience from negative emotions is your brain’s way of predicting and preparing you for some kind of avoidant behavior. In this episode, we’ll show you how to most directly change your brain’s predictions and thus attain a new mastery over discomfort. Find more at https://www. OptimalWork.com . 

#153: When you experience anything — tiredness, pain, distractions — you’re engaging not just reality, but also your brain’s predictions. This insight has profound consequences for how you should engage challenges like tiredness, and for the types of beliefs you should have about yourself. In this episode, we discuss how to interpret and respond to your experiences and your brain’s predictions. Fi...

#152: You may have a goal of achieving a high level of performance with no difficulty, no inner turmoil whatsoever. In this rebroadcast, Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif discuss approaching challenges in a different way: not aiming for effortless success, but rather for acceptance of difficulty and perseverance — what Dr. Majeres calls aiming for silver, rather than gold. Find more at https://www. Opt...

#151: More and more people report experiencing “imposter syndrome,” often in new and challenging social or professional situations. They are unable to internalize their own success, attributing it instead to external factors like chance or luck; as a result, they often see themselves as “frauds.” In this rebroadcast, we introduce a solution to imposter syndrome that gives us independence from the...

#150: If you think you waste too much time—for example, on social media, internet, and entertainment—there is likely some part of you that is urging you to do better. In this rebroadcast, we show how to redirect the energy of these different “parts” of you—the one seeking entertainment, and the one criticizing your time wasting—in order to integrate them and achieve inner harmony. Find more at ⁠ht...

#149: Are you hypnotized right now? It might surprise you to learn that, in a technical sense, you very well may be. Understanding how trances work, the topic of today’s rebroadcast, will allow you to free your attention from the things that capture it. Find more at https://www. OptimalWork.com . 

#148: We work in order to produce something of value for others. In order to work better, rest is important to restore ourselves and maintain energy. But activities of leisure carry us beyond rest to contemplation, and are done for their own sake. In this episode, Dr. Majeres and Sharif discuss the relationship between rest, work, and leisure. Find more at https://www. OptimalWork.com .