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1. Letting our minds wonder is an essential mental state that helps us develop our identity, process social interactions and it even influences our internal moral compass. Productivity has wrapped itself up in our self worth so that it’s almost impossible for us to allow ourselves to stop working.

The average US employee only takes half of their allocate paid vacation leave. Further proving that even if we have the option to take a break, we don’t. To be clear, I don’t think that productivity or trying to improve our performances are bad. I’m just saying that the current models we’re using to measure our creative work don’t make sense.

2. We are like family. This is a phrase that’s become quite popular in our places of work. It’s a phrase that started in the last decade or two. It’s a phrase that started with positive intent and has had positive outcome.

However, what’s gone far or less recognized and discussed is how calling work our family can actually be quite detrimental to our mental and emotional health without our knowing it. Which is why I’m here today to offer the reminder that work is not your family. And to explore how this cool culture catch phrase often ends up breeding burnout instead.

3. Maybe we land in a workplace and we hear ‘we are like family’ and our brain just triggers into ‘give it everything no matter what’. We sacrifice our boundaries, our time, our relationships.

Our cognitive schemas are essentially how our brain forms all of our subconscious behavior, patterns, thoughts, and emotions. Which our brain largely learns based on past experiences we’ve had. A majority of our subconscious schemas, or behaviors, are formed and adapted early on in life because our brains are kind of blank slates We haven’t experienced a much of life yet. So, out of safety and efficiency, our brain takes each big experience and wants to say, ‘Okay, this is what I did, these were the factors around, this is what happened, and therefore, is how I should predict, I should feel, think and act from here on now and puts on autopilot into our subconscious.

4. We get in our own way, we want to be perfect, we want to give the right answer, we want our toast to be incredibly memorable. These things are burdened by our effort, by our trying.

The best thing we can do, the first step in our process, is to get ourselves out of the way.

5. So, the first step in our process today is to get out of our own way, dare to be dull. Easier said than done. But once you practice, the game, just as simple as the one we practiced, is a great way to do it.

But that’s not enough. Getting out of our own way is important. But the second step of our process, change how we see the situation we find ourselves in.

6. It reduces the cognitive load of figuring out what you’re saying and how you’re going to say it. It means that we have within our ability the tools and the approaches to help us in spontaneous speaking situations.

Give gifts. By that I mean, see your interactions as ones of opportunity, not challenges.

7. Cause most of our fears tied to …there’s block there. Fear, like, narrows our view so tightly that we forget that there’s tomorrow.

8. Solving these problems is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle. We engage in unhealthy behaviors because of our genetics, because of brain neurotransmitters, because of environmental influences, such as peers and the media.

Each of those pieces of the puzzle are not things that you and I can solve on our own.

9. But, there is one piece of this puzzle that may hold the key. Our choices about what we do with our cravings to engage in addictive behaviors, like smoking, or overeating. Our choices.

10. Every day a sea of decisions stretches before us, some are small and unimportant, but others have a larger impact on our lives for example which politician should I vote for? Should I try the latest diet craze or will email make me a millionaire?

We're bombarded with so many decisions that it's impossible to make a perfect choice every time but there are many ways to improve our chances and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking.

11. We’ve convinced ourselves that these behaviors are no big deal. It’s just one email.

But there’s a real cost to these interruptions and there are smart strategies we can all take to better protect our time.

12. These moments seem so small at the time. An yet, research suggest they add up to a tremendous loss. The constant creep of work into our personal lives increase our stress and undermine our happiness. So, just what is the cost?

13. As we remake our models of work in the wake of the pandemic, now is our opportunity create a new culture that respects time.
And the way to make this really big change is through small steps that we can take right now.

14. If you’re looking for a place to start, try spending some time with the following ten topics, which I’ve listed in the description of this video.

Motivation, attention, memory, persuasion, learning, decision making, emotion, the difference between sensation and perception, and cognitive biases. If you wanna get started right away, check out our free study guide to all our resources on psychology and UX.