Listen Now

In this episode the topic is of masssive importance to your quality of your life, and to your ability to achieving your goals: Your habits. The episode is a recording from a webinar I did on May 19th 2020, and I cover why shaping habits is often hard - and what you can do to succeed. In the episode, I cover the 20-second rule, the Seinfeld Method and I explain how I use my Habit Tracker. You can go here to read more about the habit tracker and download versions for your own use. Download the Habit Tracker from HappyWays.com/habittracker Questions or comments? Jon@HappyWays.com  All episodes: http://happyways.com/podcast/

My guest today is bestselling author Nikola Danaylov, from Singularity Weblog. His book, Conversations with the Future, is available on Amazon. We discuss where the world is headed, and more importantly how we will get there. We cover the current pandemic, and bad as it is, Nikola points at a silver lining.  Questions or comments? Jon@HappyWays.com  All episodes: http://happyways.com/podcast/

We're back!  Henry Stewart founded and runs Happy, a London-based training company. The company has purposefully been moulded into a happy workplace, and in this episode Henry shares some of his secrets. We discuss good and bad managers, e-mail tactics, giving people freedom, not making decisions and dealing with whining and complaining. You can read Henry's blog and download his books for free at http://happymanifesto.com. As always, your host is Jon Kjaer Nielsen of http://happyways.com. Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Each year in January millions of people struggle to meet their New Years resolutions. Struggle and fail. In this episode, Jon from http://happyways.com deconstructs goal setting and resolutions, and takes a different approach: Try with a theme or a direction instead of a fixed goal. Recomended on the show: The book "Goal-free living" by Stephen Shapiro: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Free-Living-Have-Life-Want-ebook/dp/B008NC0U4S A short TEDx talk on 30-day challenges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnfBXjWm7hc Martin Seligman at TED talking about positive psychology. This is where he drops the comment that you can loose 10% of your body weigth on any diet: http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

This episode features the audio recording from the 2012 TEDxSquareMile conference in London, where your host Jon Kjaer Nielsen from http://happyways.com gave a 10-minute talk of happiness in the workplace.   For the video, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK5FnBHTl9A     Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Jon does a short episode about how he chose to handle his motorbike getting stolen. Chosing neither anger nor sadness, he looked ahead and chose action and a positive mindset, thereby harnessing what is called the undoing effect. What follows is a small attempt at drawing a parallel to the election of Donald Trump for President, and how people react in that situation. All the while trying to avoild making political statements. Did he succeed, or did we just witness the trainwreck of podcasts? Judge for yourself. For more on Trump and the consequenses I recommed the other podcasts mentioned on this show: Common Sense with Dan Carlin Waking Up with Sam Harris Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Jon goes back to sharing facinating findings from science on this episode. This time it all recolves around incompentece.   In this show you'll learn the priciple of Hanlons Razor, saying simply: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity," Next up is the Dunning-Kruger effect, which helps explain why people act incompent and never learn. Both principles will then be applied to you worklife, and to the behaviour of your boss and others.   Mentioned on the show: Author Shrikumar Rao: http://theraoinstitute.com/ Steve Jobs on the most important findings in life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR--5Gv8kXA Will Smith dishing out the keys to life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Z0l-E8Qxk   Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

This is part 3 in a series on personal productivity. For an expanding article with tips and show notes, go to http://happyways.com/productivity   Building on part 1 and 3, Jon shared insight from brain science that shows that your ability to make descicions is rater limited. It's called Excecutive Ressource, and you really should safeguard it better. Later, Jon looks at how working in intense sprints can be the key to reaching ambitious goals, as opposed to slogging away at a marathon. Finally, Jon reads chapter 14 - The Thirty-Day Challenge - from his upcoming book with 100 Ways to Happiness at Work.   For an excelent and short TED video on this idea, see this video: https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

This is part 2 of giving an answer to the question of what your should look for when getting a new job, and in this episode Jon explores the importance of who your boss is. A boss has a massive impact on the quality of your life, both at work at outside, and so you should really pay attention when you are interviewing workplaces to find your future place to work. Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcomming Q&A? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Picking a job is one of the most important choices in life. Besides sleeping, a full-time job is your number one activity, so it really counts!   In this episode Jon answers three questions with just one answer: - What should I look for in a job? - What should we focus on when improving our business? - What's the number one predictor of success?   The answer is culture. Because culture eats strategy for breakfast.  Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcoming Q&A? Email him at jon@happyways.com

In this episode Jon read from his just-translated and upcoming book on happiness at work. You'll get three out of the 100 chapters, and they are: Yell At The Pages The Order Of The Elephant Trial Periods   To be notified when the book is released, sign up to the newsletter at http://happyways.com/podcast   Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcomming Q&A? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Lee Caraher is the CEO of Double Forte, a consultancy with offices in San Fransisco, New York and elsewhere.   She is also an expert on Millenials in the workplace, and author of the book Millenials and Management.   On the show we talk about how Millenials can better work woth older generations in the workplace, and Lee provices some great and practical tips for both Millenials and their older peers.   She mentions the 5-step conflict resolution wheel. It, and a few other helpful items, are availeble for download here: http://www.leecaraher.com/books/resources2/ You can find Lee at http://www.leecaraher.com/ and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeeCaraher     Her book is availeble on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Millennials-Management-Essential-Guide-Making/dp/1629560278     Her other book recomendations are: Oh, The Places You'll Go: https://www.amazon.com/Oh-Places-Youll-Dr-Seuss/dp/0679805273 Primal Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Leadership-New-Preface-Authors/dp/1422168034/   For a full list of episodes with show notes, go to http://happyways.com/podcast Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcomming Q&A? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Meetings can be an aweful waste of time, or they can be the place where you recruit people to your cause. In this episode, Jon shares three simple and powerful tools that will make you more succesful at persuading people when you present, be to a group or a crowd. Recomended reading: Antono Damasio, "Descartes' Error": https://www.amazon.com/Descartes-Error-Emotion-Reason-Human/dp/014303622X For a full list of episodes with show notes, go to http://happyways.com/podcast Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcomming Q&A? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Just like we saw with BREXIT, asking people for their oppinion on a matter can be a dangerous thing. Despite best efforts to keep it about one thing, people thend to make it about everything else. In the workplace we see this when we do employee engagement surveys and thereby finally give people a chance to voice their oppinions, and so it raises the question: Should we stop asking? In this episode Jon argues that you should definately not. Rather, you should start asking way more questions, involving people whereever you can, and you'll see happiness levels rise. Lastly, Jon give recomendations for how you could respond when you experience that management is not doing enough to solve issues, and how you can be of assitance. For a full list of episodes with show notes, go to http://happyways.com/podcast Do you have a comment or a question for Jon, perhaps for an upcomming Q&A? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

In June 2016 Jon was interviewed for the live show DojoLive, broadcast online from Mexico. Here you get a slightly edited version of the audio, as well as Jon elaborating on a few points made there. For the full video from the show, visit here: http://dojo.nearsoft.com/episodes/jon-kjaer-nielsen/ There you can also find links to other past episodes, and register for future shows. Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Science shows that people consistently rate past experiences better that they actually did at the time, something called Rosy Retrospection. This is true for holidays where it rained a lot, it's true of past job and past relatonships, and it's true when you look at your country and where you grew up. Things really were better before! Right...? In this episode Jon rambles on about situations where the Rosy Retrospection rears it's pretty head, and he trieds to give a few pointers to how you can be a bit more careful when choosing your future. Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

It's summer, and your host is planning to go on vacation. In preparing for a month of riding Europe on his motorbike, Jon shares his approach to really taking time off and not working. In this episode you'll hear though on: - How to set things up so you can be away - How to not work while away - How to come back without instantly being on high alart and stressed. Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Part 2 in the series on productivity talks about procrastination and how we ofte get distracted from doing the important stuff... stuff like recording this episode! The show then moves on to cover how there is no longer a link between hours spent working and the results we create, and so adding more hours is not the answer to productivity. Worrying and putting things off is another issue covered, and finally the show looks into the Eisenhower Method, or Matrix, and how we tend to spend too much or our time on urgent things, instead of dealing with the really important issues. Books mentioned on the show: Eat that frog, by Brian Tracy. https://www.amazon.com/Eat-That-Frog-Great-Procrastinating/dp/1576754227 Rework, by Jason Fried from 37signals: https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745 Please share your experiences or questions on productivity. Email Jon at: jon@happyways.com

This is part 1 in a series on personal productivity. For show notes and a text version, go to http://happyways.com/productivity Most people seem to be struggling with getting enough done, or with finding the right "work/life balance", and this topic has been of special internst to Jon over the years. In this episode Jon looks at a brief history of Time Management (read more in this article: http://www.brighthub.com/office/home/articles/76908.aspx) and he establishes some fundamental principles that we must follow regarding the overload of work facing us, as well as our futile attemt to "get it all done". The episode ends with an introduction on using a timer to increase your focus, and it asks the listener to reflect on how they're actually dong at work. Mentioned on this episode: Ray Cronise and the Thermogenics blog: http://hypothermics.com/ Steven Covey: “The 7 habits of highly effective people”: http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/1451639619/ David Allen: Getting Things Done: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563 One Minute Manager, by Ken Blanchard: http://www.amazon.com/New-One-Minute-Manager-LP/dp/006239312X Pomodoro Technique: http://www.amazon.com/Pomodoro-Technique-Illustrated-Pragmatic-Life Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com

Blueboard is a San Francisco based startup helping clients use experiences as recognition, in place of traditional methods like the classic (and boring) Amazon gift card. On todays' show Jon interveiws Blueboard founders Taylor Smith and Kevin Yip. Topics include why experience based reconnitions is so powerful, and how millenials have different needs than more senior employees. Find BlueBoard online: http://blueboard.com and on Twitter: @blueboard Mentioned on the show: Google Founder Awards: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2015/07/google-found-out-that-giving-its-employees-trips-to-hawaii-is-better-than-1m-awards Gallups' State of the Global Workplace report: http://www.gallup.com/services/178517/state-global-workplace.aspx Book recommendations: Punished by Reward, by Alfie Kohn: http://www.alfiekohn.org/punished-rewards Drive, the surprising truth about what motivates us, by Dan Pink: http://www.danpink.com/books/drive Eat Mor Chicken - Inspire More People, by S. Truett Cathy: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Mor-Chikin-Inspire-People/dp/1929619081   You can also find all the links for todays show at http://happyways.com/blueboard   Do you have a comment or a question for Jon? Email him at: jon@happyways.com