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Life and Lessons by Sean Spooner
E194: Oliver Burkeman: Working Harder Isn't Helping You! You'll Never Reach All Of Your Goals!
Oliver Burkeman is a journalist and author of books including The Sunday Times Bestselling 'Four Thousand Weeks' and his latest release, 'Meditations For Mortals'.
No matter how hard you try, you're never going to get everything done. There simply isn't enough time in our finite lives for us to tackle everything we'd like to. Our to-do lists are always going to win the battle. So what can we do about that?
In this conversation, Oliver makes the case that surrendering to reality and being kinder to yourself is the true source of productivity, and offers practical ideas on how you can get more done and feel better in the process.
Listen to Meditations For Mortals on Audible for free: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-Free-Trial-Digital-Membership/dp/B00OPA2XFG?tag=seanspooner-21
Buy Meditations For Mortals on Amazon: https://amzn.to/48fJAvc
Oliver Burkeman: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/
Sean Spooner: https://www.seanspooner.co.uk/
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198. E198: 7 Lessons I Needed to Hear at 19
31:08||Season 1, Ep. 198Download the 20 books that changed my 20s – for free: https://seanspooner.co.uk/booksOn this week's episode of Life and Lessons, to make turning 29, I share 7 lessons I needed to hear 10 years ago, when I was 19.197. E197: How I'm Planning 2025, and If I'm Quitting The Marathon Challenge
30:20||Season 1, Ep. 197Download the 20 books that changed my 20s – for free: https://seanspooner.co.uk/booksOn this week's episode of Life and Lessons, I give you an update on running three marathons in ten weeks, and I share some details on how I'm approaching my planning for 2025.196. E196: Act Like The Person You're Not
18:26||Season 1, Ep. 196On this week's episode of Life and Lessons, I make the case for why you should act like the person you're not, and I explain why right now is a perfect time to turn off the noise of the world and focus on yourself.195. E195: You're Winning The Slow Uphill Battle of Life – Even if it Doesn't Feel Like it
27:22||Season 1, Ep. 195If you feel like you're fighting a constant uphill battle that you can't seem to win, it's probably your mind playing a trick on you. You are making progress, even if it doesn't feel like it. And when you zoom out far enough, you can see just how dramatically your life is changing. So you need to keep going.193. E193: Running 2 Marathons in 3 Weekends
34:35||Season 1, Ep. 193On this week's episode of Life and Lessons, I tell you all about running two marathons over three weekends, I share details of the talks I've given across the UK this month, and I discuss the foundation I'm building for 2025.Donate on JustGiving: https://www.justgiving.com/page/sean-spooner192. E192: Rory Sutherland on Self-Improvement, TikTok Fame and 20mph Speed Limits in Wales
59:10||Season 1, Ep. 192Rory Sutherland is an author, behavioural scientist, and vice-chairman of Ogilvy. If you’re anything like me, you could listen to Rory talk for hours. I was lucky enough to speak to Rory for the podcast a couple of years ago, and the scope of our conversation back then was fairly all-encompassing.This time around, I wanted to get Rory’s insights on how we can use the principles of behavioural science to apply to self-improvement. But during the conversation, we go into all kinds of interesting rabbit holes and explore some really useful ideas – on everything from self-improvement, the trap of over-optimisation and how to live a more meaningful life, through to the 20mph speed limits in Wales, and the Sainsbury’s in Pontypridd.-If you want to catch the latest episodes of the podcast, plus EXCLUSIVE daily Little Lessons episodes, you need to be subscribed on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7LF1Hao4i4CYeNNYiFaoixI write a weekly newsletter every Monday morning, sharing one simple idea to help shape your week. It's free and you can join here: https://seanspooner.co.uk/-Follow Rory on Twitter here: https://x.com/rorysutherlandHave a question? Want to suggest a guest? You can message me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/spoonersean/or X/Twitter here: https://x.com/spoonersean191. E191: Hyper-Optimisation is Ruining Your Progress
19:57||Season 1, Ep. 191It can be tempting to focus your self-improvement efforts on the areas of your life where things are already going well. But this isn't how you bring about meaningful change. In this week's episode of Life and Lessons, I explain why you should focus on the things you suck at first, before trying to hyper-optimise pointless 1% skills.I also discuss the idea that winners hardly ever realise they're winning, and explain why you need to keep score for yourself.-If you want to catch the latest episodes of the podcast, plus EXCLUSIVE daily Little Lessons episodes, you need to be subscribed on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7LF1Hao4i4CYeNNYiFaoixI write a weekly newsletter every Monday morning, sharing one simple idea to help shape your week. It's free and you can join here: https://seanspooner.co.uk/-Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/spoonersean/or X/Twitter here: https://x.com/spoonerseanLittle Lesson: Somebody is Waiting to Hear From You
02:15|Did this lesson resonate with you? Please leave a review in your podcasting app. If you enjoyed today's Little Lesson, please consider sharing it with a friend. This podcast only grows when you make it grow. If you want more life lessons delivered directly to your inbox, join my free weekly newsletter here: https://www.seanspooner.co.uk/ Want to say hello? Drop me a message on Instagram, here: https://www.instagram.com/spoonersean/ Subscribe to Life and Lessons wherever you get your podcasts to never miss an episode.