Spencer Greenberg
Related people
Episodes
Notes
Modern Wisdom · The Only 12 Lessons Buried In Every Self-Help Book - Spencer…
-
Why Won't Reading Self-help Change Your Life?
Spencer Greenberg says the least sexy, highest-impact part of self-help is that you cannot just learn techniques. You have to sit down, make time, and do them. Many people read self-improvement books and do nothing differently afterward. Reading will not change your life until you put the ideas into action.
Chris Williamson says it is better to read one chapter and then go away, or to follow a single strategy. Atomic Habits and Tiny Habits keep you on one track, so you are still doing a thing while you learn how habits happen. Chris Williamson contrasts that with a 500-page collection of disparate protocols. He says reading the material is not doing the work, and reading can hand you a simu
-
Why Does Spencer Greenberg Swap Phone Scrolling for Documentaries?
Spencer Greenberg calls them glad you did it activities. Afterwards, you are glad you did the activity. People often scroll on a phone or watch too much television instead. Replacing all downtime with something productive denies your own needs. Coming home from work tired means you need to relax, which is why the phone scroll happens. Swapping the scroll for more work denies the need to relax, and Spencer Greenberg says it is not a very healthy thing to do.
Spencer Greenberg loves documentaries and still has many unseen. Instead of doing whatever bullshit to relax, Spencer Greenberg pulls up a documentary long wanted. Watching it feels like a meaningful use of time. The documentary stays me
-
Why Can Five Hours of Typing Last a Lifetime?
Spencer Greenberg says the first way to work more efficiently is coming prepared. He knows many people who type a lot as part of their job, and some of them are really slow typers. Five hours spent improving typing gives gains for the rest of your life.
On his phone, he worked on typing speed and felt significant benefits after five hours of practice. He thinks the gains stuck. He is faster than he used to be, he is not the fastest typist on his phone, and he says he is not amazing. Practice includes a game where you blow things up by typing, plus many other apps.
Coming prepared also means the desk is ready before work starts. Chefs lay everything out in the perfect position so the focus
-
Why Does Spencer Greenberg Call 70-hour Weeks a Trap?
Spencer Greenberg says healthy productivity equals time times efficiency times importance. It is the value you produce each week from what you fundamentally value, across everything you care about, rather than one kind of output.
Time is the number of hours you work. Efficiency is the fraction of a project you complete with each hour. Importance is the total value, based on what you care about, of finishing the project. Chasing only how much you create at a job can cost family life, relationships, and hobbies.
The equation shows where to tune. When the hours on things you care about are low, raise time. When the week is already 70 hours, pushing time is a trap. The last few hours cost a lo
-
What Is Cognitive Restructuring?
Spencer Greenberg says cognitive restructuring is learning to change the thoughts a person has over time. A person often cannot change the first thought. A person can often change the second thought, the response thought, and Greenberg says the change can make a tremendous difference.
In the example of fighting with a girlfriend a lot, she asks why the dishes were left in the sink. The first thought is wanting to do things one's own way and feel comfortable at home. A person is not necessarily in control of that thought, then asks whether it is the most helpful thought right now. The next step is a more helpful thought that is at least as true, without self-delusion. Greenberg offers that t
-
How Does Spencer Greenberg Use Worry Time?
People with a lot of anxiety hold beliefs about worry that work against them. Worry feels urgent, so it has to be handled now. They believe they cannot do anything except worry, as if they are not capable of stopping. They also believe worry is valuable, because something bad would happen if they stopped.
The method Spencer Greenberg loves is worry time. Pick one time of day, for example 5 p.m., and do not pick a time before bed. Through the day, write each worry down once. The example is not knowing whether a project will go well tomorrow. When the same worry returns, leave it off the list and wait until 5 p.m. The wait is batch processing: defer the worry, and if it comes back, say it has
-
How Does Cold Water Stop an Emotional Spiral?
When people are highly emotionally dysregulated, Spencer Greenberg says grounding outside the body helps. Look at three different things outside the body, notice three things that can be heard, then notice three things in the body, and switch between them. Chaos is going on in the mind, and getting out of the mind is what temporarily feels better. Chris Williamson puts the same sequence as a focus outside the body, a focus on the body, and a focus inside the body.
When the grounding does not work, a stronger shock can. Not electricity. A brief splash of super cold water can suddenly shock a person out of an emotional disruption. Chris Williamson asks whether the splash sits next to the mamm
-
Why Did Spencer Greenberg Ask Men for Hugs?
Spencer Greenberg says many people are limited by fear and could benefit from not letting fear stop them from the things they find most valuable. He was anxious his whole life from childhood. Going up to a stranger at a party made his heart pound, and his brain predicted he was going to die, even though he knew it was safe.
In his early twenties he found a specialist who works on anxiety. The therapist said he could help, but Spencer Greenberg was not going to like how they would do it. Homework was to go to a bar every weekend alone and talk to five strangers. They built a fear hierarchy. The bottom was stressful but bearable: going up to people and asking what time it was. When that got e