Setting Yourself up for Success in 2022 - Dr Hayley Lewis, Organisational Psychologist

In this inspiring conversation, Vicky and Sam chat with Dr Hayley Lewis, Chartered Psychologist and one of HR Magazine’s Most Influential Thinkers of 2021. Known for her ability to simplify complex psychology into practical, visual tools, Hayley shares frameworks and insights to help us start the year with kindness, balance, and realistic habits.

Key Themes & Insights

1. WOOP: A Framework for Achievable Goals

Hayley introduces WOOP, a science-backed method to improve goal setting, especially helpful when motivation fades:

• Wish – What’s your goal or aspiration?
• Outcome – What would achieving it look and feel like?
• Obstacle – What might get in your way?
• Plan – How can you overcome those barriers?

It’s a simple but powerful way to move from wishful thinking to action.

2. Be Kind to Yourself January

Instead of pushing for big resolutions in gloomy January, Hayley encourages gentleness and self-compassion. Inspired by “Wintering” by Katherine May, she reminds us that winter is a time to rest and recharge, to embrace the Danish concept of Hygge and focus on wellbeing rather than deprivation.

3. Rethinking Productivity: Manage Energy, Not Time

Drawing on Dr Devon Price’s book “Laziness Does Not Exist,” Hayley challenges our productivity-obsessed culture. She explains that taking rest isn’t lazy, it’s essential.

Instead of obsessing over time management, she suggests focusing on energy management, being mindful of what drains or fuels us. Hayley uses a sketchnote energy grid to help visualize where we spend our energy across work, home, and self-care.

4. Small, Sustainable Habits

Hayley promotes the idea of “little and often.” Her self-compassion bingo card is a fun, visual way to track small acts of self-kindness, like taking a short walk, pausing for tea, or stepping outside between meetings.

Key Takeaways

• Prioritise sleep – it’s the foundation of good mental health.
• Don’t overload yourself with too many goals.
• Let go of guilt for taking time to rest.

Recommended Reading

• Wintering by Katherine May
• Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr Devon Price
• When: The Science of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

Hayley also references Dr Magdalena Bak-Maier’s “Grid”, a practical tool to balance energy across four key life areas.

Final Thought

The episode is a reminder that success doesn’t come from doing more, it comes from caring for yourself, managing your energy, and setting realistic goals. Be kind, stay curious, and take small steps toward a balanced, fulfilling year.

All of the resources Hayley talks about are available here

We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn! 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/

Transcript

Sam 0:09

Welcome to Get Amplified from the Amplified Group, the podcast for tech industry leaders who want to build unstoppable teams to help their organizations execute faster. So we're back with our first episode of 2022, our second in season three. I'm at home in Buckinghamshire where it's just started snowing, which is highly entertaining. So, Vicky, who have we got on our first podcast for 2022?

Vic 0:34

Well, Sam, today we have Dr. Haley Lewis, and how exciting is that! Because I know. Um, this is this is a new um certification, qualification. How do we say it, Haley? Uh yeah, so um qualification.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Qualify new two and a half years slogging my research.

Vic 1:02

And um, it's wonderful to have Hailey back because we had such great feedback from the podcast that we recorded with you last year on having important conversations rather than difficult conversations. So, what I thought would be wonderful would be for Haley to join us again to talk about how we set ourselves up for success in 2022 and to give us some tips and some hints. But before we do that, Hailey, I think you won an award since we last had you on the podcast. So can you just tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah, I was um I was I was a bit surprised um about it to be honest. So um HR Magazine, which is um a globally distributed magazine for HR professionals, um has their annual influencer um award. So um most influential thinkers and most influential practitioners, so they have kind of two lists, and yeah, I made them I made the most influential thinkers in HR list. Yeah, and that's cool. Um and I I yeah, I yeah, I was fairly high up as well out of the 53 on that list, and um I was a little bit starstruck at the at the dream. I saw lots of people that I'm in awe of, and yeah, I was having to kind of manage the fangirl inside me and with that outward feel of cool insight, just like screaming like a complete fan.

Vic 2:37

It's a real, real privilege to have you on. Thank you so much for coming back.

Sam 2:42

So, what's what are we looking at topic-wise for today?

Vic 2:45

We're looking at how to set yourself up for success in 2022 and um that in context of leadership, but also I think um something that we were just talking about was that you know, the back end of last year, certainly all the work I was doing had gone back to being face-to-face, and yet everything that we're planning, and and actually, even the three client sessions I've got this week, we're going back to being virtual, and I think that in itself is is something that we're all gonna have to face together in 2022. So I think touching on that will also be useful.

Sam 3:24

Swinging in and out of the virtual world, do you think?

Vic 3:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, Hayley, you know, you've got so many followers on LinkedIn now. So I think 10,000 followers. Uh 13 and a half now. There is gosh, that's gone up an awful lot in the last few months then.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Yeah, which must be weird because if you might I always imagine it, because I've never really been into numbers like that. I just enjoy putting content out and helping people. And when you think about it, I thought you 13 and a half thousand people, that's like a stadium. Yeah. And I just had this image of like a stadium full of people just like walking around with me as I chat. It just feels a bit weird. Um, grateful that people, because you know, our our digital space and our digital time is hugely precious. Um, and I'm always grateful when when people choose um to allow me into their online space. And you can also follow, can't you?

Vic 4:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, I saw a post from you towards the back end of last year about Whoop.

unknown 4:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Vic 4:44

Yeah, so do you want to just tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Yeah, so so Whoop um is a framework that was developed by the psychologist um Gabrielle Ottingen, and she has spent her life's research as a psychologist looking at motivation, um, and the best way to kind of motivate ourselves and others. And one of the things she was really curious about in particular was why some of us perhaps stumble with the goals that we've set ourselves, and which is which is why she ended up developing the work framework. So there's four elements. So you identify your wish, essentially your goal, but you describe in detail the outcome of that goal. So, you know, what will it look and feel like? And that can be a step that many of us miss. We kind of jump to the what you want to achieve, but not necessarily think about the impact you want it to have on yourself or others. And then the most fundamental part of the framework is the second O is obstacle. So, what obstacle or obstacles can get in your way of achieving your wish? Um, and then the P is plan. So once you've thought about the main obstacle or a couple of obstacles, big obstacles that could trip you up, what can you do to mitigate them? So it's about thinking in advance of the things that could get in your way and planning for those rather than kind of approaching it in an ad hoc way. Um, and how many of us set resolutions for the new year only to only to kind of stumble at the first hurdle? So I don't set resolutions. Um, Amy Cuddy, the Harvard psychologist, um, put an Instagram post out yesterday saying she doesn't believe in resolutions. We know from research they don't really work. It's much better to set small discrete goals, and that framework can really amplify your goal setting.

Vic 6:41

Yeah, I saw a post actually just in the December saying, let's not do resolutions, let's set goals. So the WOOOP framework fits really nicely with that, doesn't it?

Sam 6:51

January must be the worst time in the world to try and turn over a new leaf, and you know, it's dismal outside, it's getting dark at half past three, all the decorations are down, all the fun's gone.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Absolutely. I I I was having exactly this conversation, fam, on LinkedIn, um with somebody that I know. She posted something and she tagged me asking for some advice, similar to the conversation we're having now. And um I referred to a brilliant book I read in January last year called Wintering by Catherine May. What was that? Sorry, Wintering by Catherine May. Catherine um is a British author, she's based on the South Coast in the UK. Um and she talks about this concept of wintering, you know, in winter everything goes well, certainly on our side of the world. I know in Australia and Australasia it's the hottest time, but um whenever we experience water, that often tends to be a much more fallow time, food often is is um is is less available for animals, etc. etc. Um, and actually that's the best time to be gentle with ourselves and kind of hunker down and and engage in that in kind of what the Danish call kind of that healie lifestyle, yoga, um, you know, coziness, comfort, looking after yourself, being gentle with yourself. And then subsequently I came across a really interesting um conversation on Instagram. Um so it was it was it was some people um who follow kind of Eastern philosophy who were talking about that actually in some cultures the new year isn't celebrated until spring. Which back to your point, Sam, it's it's uh it's when everything starts to reawaken. We get more energy as humans because there's more sunlight. And so, yeah, why do we make life hard for ourselves and goals in January?

Sam 8:58

Absolutely, absolutely. I I mean I'm not a big big drinker really, but you know, the whole dry January thing is uh seems to me like the worst month to to give up drinking if you if if it's something that that that you enjoy because you know you need something to get you through, don't you? Maybe I shouldn't be encouraging alcoholism on on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

But whether it's so I think this idea of depriving yourself in some way, um putting on your hair shirt for the first of January, absolutely, and and kind of you know, exercising yourself down into the ground and this what I think is toxic productivity of get up at four in the morning and smash your gun. Um why why would you do that to yourself? And I've become and I've fallen prey to that myself, you know, not that long ago, actually, um, throughout most of my career, and it's only recently as I've got older, um, and you know, I'm I'm not far off 50. I need to listen to my body, my body is not what it once was, and um I think as I've become more attuned to my body and changes that happening, I've become much more curious and open-minded about we don't need to give ourselves to do our best work. In fact, it's the opposite. So, this idea of depriving yourself is just steeped in really old way and outdated ways of thinking, stemming back to kind of that Protestant and Industrial Revolution era, and that's not the era we're in now.

Sam 10:35

I see what you mean, like philosophical, haven't I? Yeah, there's a there's some there's some truth in that, isn't it? You know, the I it's tied up with my analogy of the hair shirt, you know, that's it's a self-flagellation to make oneself feel better. Um, but actually, it doesn't necessarily do that. I mean, uh, there must be healthy habits that we can try and try and develop, but you know, like get out for a walk every day, get out into nature, whatever the weather, you know, stuff like that. That that maybe is a good resolution or a good strategy to set yourself up, as opposed to depriving oneself of of a shred of comfort in the darkest, most dismal month of the year.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Only allowing yourself a carrot and a mung bean once a time.

Sam 11:21

What the hell is a mung bean anyway?

SPEAKER_02 11:23

I know.

Vic 11:24

So I really like I've just written down here, um, be kind to yourself, January.

Sam 11:31

That's a good idea. It might be a snappier title, but yeah, yeah, okay.

Vic 11:36

Go on then.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

But it'll be interesting. I I wish I could watch the listener, so people that listen to this when it goes out, it'd be interesting to watch people's reactions because my instinct tells me there will be an element of oh, that feels a bit weird, because we're not particularly in our in a in our society, you know, in in in capital in a capital culture, um we're not geared up to think that way. So when when we come along and start saying be kind to yourself, it can feel a bit, but actually, there's more and more, there's a growing body of research that shows when we look after ourselves and we're we're kind to ourselves when we rest, we actually do our best work.

Sam 12:22

Yeah, makes makes sense, doesn't it? You know, if you're constantly surfing a wave of cortisol, you're not going to be in the greatest of shape, are you?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

No.

Sam 12:33

No, it makes sense. Maybe we should call it self-care year start or something like that.

Vic 12:39

See, that's even less snappy than what I have.

Sam 12:42

Maybe, maybe. I'll work on it. I'll work on it.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Well, and the thing that's I've become really, really interested in all of this. Um, particularly particularly during the pandemic. I think, and again, I you know, I'm really conscious of my position of privilege um in being able to use the pandemic as a time to think about stuff and do research. Not everybody has been able to do that, I I get that. Um but I I I came across a book as part of this last year called Why Laziness Doesn't Exist by Dr. Devon Price, which is probably I I said I I wrote a review on it, so it's the best book that I've read this century in the last year. Yeah, absolutely mind-blowing, but really well done. Um very provocative, yeah, very challenging. Um, but it's this idea that the way the way lots of organisations and we as individuals work um doesn't work for many of us as individuals, and as I say, um stems from very outdated um ways of thinking, um, and is kind of underpinned by all sorts of things like capitalism and and and kind of air shirt philosophy as as Sam calls it. Um it's yeah, it blew my mind. And I've been recommending it to people left, right, and centre. Dr. Devon Price should send me uh do we need to put that in the show?

Sam 14:14

Do we need to put that in the show notes we're gonna do?

Vic 14:16

I've written it down, I've got it. My laziness didn't exist. Um I'm um when you said it though, I was thinking of my 13-year-old daughter, because that's a different concept altogether. But let's not go there.

Sam 14:30

That that's sloth rather than laziness, perhaps.

Vic 14:34

Yes, indeed, particularly in these these dark times. But I I just coming back to this being kind to yourself in January and why we set these resolutions. When you were saying, you know, the spring, you know, you start thinking of the spring and spring lambs and new life, and you know, the flowers starting to come up, and it's it puts you in a better frame of mind, doesn't it? It does. And I've never thought I'm gonna start then, or but it it it's again, it's not really resolutions. I like this idea of setting setting goals. So, with the context of that and the root framework you spoke about, have you got anything else relative to that that you think is appropriate for this discussion?

SPEAKER_02 15:23

So, I think there's something about working with your energy. Yeah. So um, you again you might have seen uh a sketch note from a few years ago now. It remains my most popular and most viral one, which was based on Tony Schwartz's work from the energy project, um, about manage your energy, not your time. And this is something that Dr Magdalena McBear, um, and I'll send you her name, um, talked about as well in terms of setting yourself goals but working towards achieving them based on your energy. So I I went to I went on a uh one-day session with Magdalena um at the British Psychological Society. So she's a neuroscientist, and her research is in um energy and how people can apply their energy to be successful. That's it in a nutshell. Um she kind of looks at how the brain works and science and all. Um and she talks about splitting your aims up into kind of four areas. So you've got home, you've got work, you've got health and well-being, and then you've got career and kind of development, which is different from work because sometimes those two can get wrapped up in each other. And what she asks you to do is to track your time. So, how are you spending your time against each of these things? Are there some things that you're not spending any or barely any time on? Um, the goals that you've set yourself, are they primarily falling into one pot or a couple of pots? And are you neglecting others? Because it's based on this an idea that we're whole people, we're more than our work. Um, and if we neglect things like home life and health and well-being, that's going to impact work and our kind of professional development. And so she gets you to kind of track how you're spending your time. That's why I colour code stuff in my diary, because it's like I can quickly see doing a lot of work projects, I haven't really spent any time on home or health or well-being stuff.

Vic 17:49

And do you put that in your diary as well, just out of curiosity? Yeah, I put everything in my diary. You put everything in your diary, absolutely everything there.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, so you so you're kind of looking at where am I spending all my energy or the bulk of my energy, and what can I do to kind of digby that up? And then she gets you to think about how you carve up your day or your week. So, when are you at your most energetic? And when you look kind of at how you're spending your time, are you spending it on the best things? So I know I'm at my most energetic um in the morning, not too early in the morning, as my family will tell you. I am grumpy first thing. Don't talk to me when I first get up until I've had my coffee. Um, but from about half nine till about half one, I have loads of energy. So I know that that's when I should be doing important deep work. Um, or if I've got a tough coaching session with a client, that's that's when I should book stuff. Um, I know that I like to segment my day, so end my working day at home with a workout because that mentally tells me work is done and I can go into my relaxation time. So I kind of should have got a transition, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's just I think when you lay energy on top, it just helps us think differently about how we carve up our time again in order to achieve our goals, um, and also to check in oh, are we spending energy on the things that really matter to us? Yeah, could it just make so much sense? Yeah, I'll send you the sketchnote, the the the manager of energy notch. It every time I share it, I've shared it probably about five times over the last three or four years, and it goes viral every time. The first time I shared it, it had been it had been shared by about a quarter of a million people in a couple of days. Wow. Yeah, it went in my mind.

Sam 19:42

I couldn't keep touching it's really interesting that because as a as a society, we tend to sort of celebrate the lark and denigrate the owl, don't we? You know, it's it's good to be, you know, you mentioned getting up at four to do whatever. You know, society is conditioned to think that it's a good thing to be up early in the morning, and and well, I think in on occasion, it's a good thing to work late as well. You know, clearly you can't burn the candle at both ends, and you know, there's the school system is set up like that, and and it goes from there on in. And there is an awful lot of evidence to talk about, I guess you call it teenage jet lag, you know, where a teenager's circadian rhythm is four or five hours later than everybody else's, and that's why they want to stay up late, and that's why they don't want to get out of bed in the morning. And actually, the fact that school is set up to be almost exactly contrary to that isn't really necessarily a healthy thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Absolutely not, and then we wonder why people subsequently struggle when they go into the workplace exactly when you lay on top personality, and when you lay on top other aspects such as you know, neurodivergence, um that makes it even more important for us to think about energy versus time. Um, my husband, for example, so I so so Daniel Kink talks about this in his book When? Um so the the Science of Perfect Timing. And so he talks about the lark, the early birds and the owls, but he says there's a third studies show there's something called the third bird. Um and that's me. I'm not great first thing in the morning, like really, really early, and I'm not great really, really late. I'm that person that can operate in the middle. Whereas my husband's a complete and utter owl. And so he he can fortunately as a freelancer do work and work in a way that's best for him. And again, I'm conscious of not everybody has that.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Um, but again, it's something maybe that organizations need to think about. Whenever I manage teams, I was always much more interested in the quality of the work. And I say to them, I don't care, I don't care. When you do it, yeah. As long as the work gets done.

Sam 22:02

Do you think the pandemic and the move to wide scale working from home, certainly within um you know our our industries, um, has accelerated a move to judging people on out output rather than input?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

I think in some instances, but not all. I think, and I'm and I'm sure you've both seen elements of this, um, perhaps with some of the people that you've worked with. What I have seen, so I've said I've seen some really creative responses as well, but then I've seen others simply um try and pick up and drop what was in the traditional sense shoe hauling into the kind of digital um space. So and again, you're probably familiar with this because of the work that you do, but I was doing some work with a uh a local authority before Christmas, and we were talking about hybrid working, and I shared Gartner's uh kind of look to uh whether you needed to be with other people or not, and whether you needed to be uh in the same location, you know, um where you were based. And so we talked about four different modes of thinking and actually helping managers to think about what is the work that needs to be done and what's the best way to uh to achieve this. Um but yeah, so many have uh fallen prey to the the gods of email, invites. And what I what I see with some of my very stressed coaching clients when we get to the root of the stress, it's it's because they're trying to work in a way that they were trying to work pre-pandemic, but do it all digitally, and they have back-to-back meetings with no breathing space at all, and they're doing their safe space of home. So home is no longer their place to switch off or be safe, and so you you kind of have this real build-up. Um, because where do you go to switch off?

Sam 24:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Yeah, it's all like a mess of stuff, really.

Sam 24:11

No, I know what you meant. I I thought it was interesting, you know, you use your workout as the segregation between your workday and you know, because yeah, clearly in the in the traditional world and in the pre-pandemic world, people had in many cases a commute that was their separation, you know, whether it's 20 minutes or half an hour or whatever, and you stick the music on or stick the radio on or what whatever, and that was your decompression time, and then you get home and you sort of clear down your work day mentally, but now we don't have that. So that's probably a healthy habit to develop, isn't it? Something to create separation, yeah. Maybe a cocktail.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

So I I I um run a few workshops, um including on hybrid working, and I believe in tapping into the wisdom of the group. Um, you know, I don't I definitely don't have all the answers. Um and it's been really interesting getting people to share the tactics that they put in place. And quite a few were saying that they've they've put in a version of their commute. So one woman, for example, said she has uh she goes for a 10-minute walk around the block before starting work, and then she has a 10-minute walk um in the other direction, presumably. Yeah, yeah, going to the opposite direction. Um and so some people who've got dogs um said, Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Why don't I use my time? Why don't I change the time I walk the dog and use that as an opportunity?

Sam 25:40

Hey, but yeah, people are just assuming that's okay with the dog, right? Yeah, exactly. That's the most important factor.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

That creates a whole set of other achievements. It was really interesting and also heartwarming to hear and I think reaffirming for people as well that actually they they had put in place some tactics to protect themselves and and their well-being. Um, so they weren't just slogging away all day and then moving from the table to the the couch, and and that's it. Um, because that's not going to help our energy either.

Sam 26:14

No, no. We're almost developed to developing a little list of not new resolutions, but maybe tips or positive habits to try and develop in the new year to get us through what could be a you know a dark couple couple of months as the weather improves and as Omicron spreads. I think we're all hoping that it will be short and sharp and we'll be back to normal by March. Um, but that that does mean that January and February could be a really hard couple of months for people.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yeah. So the other thing that I can send over to you, um, and again, it's it's a really and I shared it in my my December newsletter. So Chris Germa is a clinical psychologist and he specialises in compassion and self-compassion. So if a couple of years ago, I created a self-compassion checklist based on the five pillars he talks about that we all need to live to in order to be compassionate to ourselves. So it's like a bit of a bingo, and what I'm conscious of is they're just my ideas. And so um, what I always say to people um on the occasions that I I kind of reshare um the self-compassion bingo card, if you like, is create your own. So I've kind of got a blank template as well of things that you can uh put in under each of those five pillars, and really you should be doing one at least one thing from each of the five pillars each day to be compassionate to yourself. And they don't have to be huge things, they don't have to be huge things at all. This is something that I found in the early days of the pandemic, so the first lockdown, lots of my leadership clients were uh just burnt acute stress, if not fully burnt out or on the verge of burnout. And we talked about this concept of little and often. Because when we put pressure on ourselves, and again going back to kind of new use resolutions, oh I've got to I've got to go for an hour run and I've got all these meetings and blah blah blah, um, it just adds that further pressure. Whereas if we break things down into little and often, I'll go for a 10-minute walk in the morning, I might do some stretching for five minutes in the afternoon, I'm gonna have a nice cup of tea and just stand, um, not in the snow or rain. But if it's nice weather out, you know, I'll stand and look at the feels less overwhelming, but you're still doing good for yourself. Um, I really love that.

Vic 28:39

Even in our busy days, and you know what we were talking about earlier. One of my goals for this year is for the meetings that I have to give people five minutes back. So, say we've got a 45-minute meeting, actually, let's just make it a 40-minute meeting and have an objective to finish five minutes early. So, giving everybody, and that's a little and often thing that fits in there really nicely, and then they can use that five minutes to go and have a cup of tea and stand outside, and yeah, or but it makes it so much more achievable, doesn't it? Because I know myself at the moment with work is crazy busy, family to look after, animals to look after. Running the house there's just I've just got so much on elderly parents trying to look after them and support them. Yeah, so much going on. It feels really hard to find time for myself, really hard, but little and often, just a I I love that bingo card. I think that's that's a wonderful thing.

Sam 29:39

I think that's a I think that's a great shout. I think we are conditioned. I think we're conditioned to feel guilty about taking time for ourselves because we should be doing this, we should be doing that, we should be working on our business, or we should be you know reading to our children, or and yeah, okay, we we should be doing all of those things, but unless we keep ourselves in the best possible shape, we're not gonna be able to do that for everybody else. So we shouldn't feel guilty. Um maybe breaking it, as you say, Haley, breaking it up into little chunks rather than saying, right, I'm gonna do a two-hour workout every morning at 5 a.m. It's not necessarily healthy. You're gonna burn out and you're gonna knack your body, but I'm gonna go and have a 10-minute walk first thing in the morning, get outside, I'm gonna do whatever. Stretching, I think, you know, as I get older and stiffer, you know, I've always been sort of physically strong, but not as flexible as I should be. And that that's certainly gonna be a goal for me this year.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah. My my goal is to do more things that bring me joy. Oh, I love it. So, and and you know, I love reading. Um, and so I have incorporated reading into my morning commute.

Sam 30:57

Um, so it just don't just don't bump into any lampposts.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

I don't so just listening to a book or reading a physical book for 10 minutes.

Vic 31:07

Um my thing that I found last year was audible books, and Sharon, my old um business partner, had kept saying to me, Oh, do you need to go order? And I'm like, No, it doesn't work, it doesn't work for me, it doesn't work for me. Oh my goodness, the amount of books that I can now consume because I can do it whilst doing other stuff. It's just wonderful. Um, I mean, the last one that I listened to was um, you know, I'm a huge fan of Adam Grant and um think again. Oh, just wonderful. Yeah, yeah. So audible books, why aren't we doing more of those?

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Yeah, or even just listening to music in the you know, so it can really change your mind. Yeah, so it's interesting the word guilty. Um use the word guilty, and I think as I say, much of much of the way that we're taught to think, and that's in our education system, particularly in the Western world, and it goes into the workplace, is is kind of based on this kind of guilt ethic that stems from you know Victorian England and before, and we're in the 21st century. Um and I just so so you know, my my energy is to feel less guilty about taking time out um and and and do things that that give me give me joy.

Vic 32:32

Um because because going back, giving you joy also gives you energy, doesn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Well I do my sketch notes, so I like to help people, helping people really makes me happy, but also I find it so immersive. There is something about because I get lots of messages from people going, What software do you use? and do you use an iPad right? No, I use pen and paper. I it's like proper old hands, yeah, pencil flips. We still get it something about pens and colouring in, yeah. Back to my childhood, it's just such a you know, you immerse yourself in stuff, and it's yes, much more relaxed and ready to face the day.

Vic 33:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brilliant.

Sam 33:18

Fantastic.

Vic 33:19

I think we probably need to start wrapping up, don't we?

Sam 33:21

So no, I was gonna say exactly that. So, in in the interest of trying to keep these in the new season to about 30 minutes, we should probably bring it to the end. So, what uh slightly different from the usual close. I'm gonna ask each of you, including myself, just for a good tip, a good habit to develop in the new year, not a new year's resolution, but something that you would encourage our listeners to think about taking on to improve their January.

Vic 33:49

As Haley's our guest, can we have three from Haley?

Sam 33:53

Go on then. Go on then.

Vic 33:54

You have one, three from you.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Three, three key takeaways. Oh blind. I think my first tip would be to prioritize sleep, you know, sleep.

Sam 34:05

Do naps count?

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Yeah, oh I am uh I am a fan of naps now.

Sam 34:11

Me too, me too.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Everybody wants to do that or maybe can do that, but I would say prioritize sleep. Don't if you're not an early riser, please don't put pressure on yourself to be crushing the day by getting up at four. Sleep matters, it's the basis for good physical and mental health. The second is I don't feel the need to set to kind of set too many goals for for yourself. Um maybe just set a couple and think about are they all kind of focused on the professional and work? Are you are you kind of getting that balance right? And then the third tip, which isn't that easy, but my third tip is try and feel less guilty about taking a bit of time out and looking after yourself because when you're at your best, you're more likely to be able to help others and and help them do their best as well. Brilliant.

Vic 35:05

Thank you.

Sam 35:06

Thanks so much well. So shall I go next?

Vic 35:11

Go on.

Sam 35:11

Yeah, so my mine's really simple. Just get the hell outside every day. It's too easy in January when the weather is dismal, not to get outside. And you know, if you can get amongst some greenery or brownery as it tends to be this time of year, that's that's all good, you know. Woods, fields, trees, um, you know, playgrounds, parks, whatever. If you've got it in here, you go out and enjoy it, even if it's just for 10 minutes. If you can, if it's a sunny day, that bright light, little smidge of vitamin D. I just think looking at the horizon rather than looking at your screen is a massive positive. Having a dog clearly helps with that because it's pretty much essential, unless you don't mind doing a lot of mopping.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

What about for you, Vitamin?

Vic 36:00

Well, I'm I'm gonna take one that we we had earlier, actually, which is when you said about little and often, because I think that is is a is really realistic, and that little and often kind of incorporates also the little and often getting outside. That that for me works an absolute dream. I can get again going back to the energy thing, I can feel absolutely exhausted, and I particularly did when I was in corporate world, and I would drag myself down to my horses to muck them out, and they are the most neglected animals on this planet. That they get five minutes of my day, but I would come back from them after looking like a minion with my head torch on, completely energized and ready to go again. It's just astonishing what that did and does. So that little and often, and I have to do that, and it is only five minutes, but my goodness, I get my energy back from it.

Sam 36:50

So yeah, you're re-oxygenating yourself from the exercise and shoveling all the you know what.

Vic 36:56

Yeah, anyway, I think that might have been just a little bit too much information.

Sam 37:01

Maybe, maybe. So on that note, we should probably bring it to a close. So it just remains for me to say thank you, Haley. We really appreciate it, or Dr. Lewis, as I should say.

Vic 37:11

Um we really appreciate your insight for our list as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

And thank you for having me and happy new year.

Sam 37:24

Yeah, new year, everybody. It just remains for me to say thank you very much for listening to Get Amplified from the Amplified Group. Your comments and your subscriptions are as always gratefully received.