iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 19h

If you're rubbish at waiting, it might not mean you're weak-willed. It might be that part of you doesn't quite trust the thing is actually coming.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 16/10/2026

Ninety-nine NHS staff, traumatised during Covid, had ten times fewer flashbacks using a guided method built around Tetris. Here’s why a puzzle game might help a memory settle.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 15/10/2026

Kids who ate the marshmallow straight away weren't lacking willpower. In one study, children who'd just been let down by an adult waited about 3 minutes. Those with a reliable adult waited about 12. That's not self-control. That's trust. #MarshmallowTest

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 14/10/2026

Someone comes to therapy for a fear of needles and leaves with a new job. It happens more than you'd think, and mind wandering might help explain why.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 13/10/2026

People who let their minds wander can come up with more uses for everyday things, but only for objects they'd already been thinking about. Staring into space has its uses, apparently.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 12/10/2026

Houston Airport cut baggage waits to 8 minutes. Complaints carried on. So they moved the gates further away. Same 8 minutes, but now 6 were spent walking. Complaints almost vanished. They didn't shorten the wait. They stopped it feeling like one. #Psychology

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 12/10/2026

Monday Motivation! Life is a roller coaster. It has both ups and downs, and it’s your choice whether to scream or not.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 11/10/2026

Thinking about a faraway holiday made people forget more of a word list than thinking about one closer to home. Nobody's quite sure why.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 10/10/2026

Why do some waits feel endless? Research on queues found that empty time feels longer than occupied time, uncertain waits feel longer than known ones, and anxiety stretches everything. #Patience #Psychology

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 09/10/2026

When your mind wanders, it's rarely to the beach. More often it's last week's argument or the email you haven't answered. Where does yours tend to go?

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 07/10/2026

People focused on a dull commute were happier than people whose minds had drifted somewhere nicer. Maybe it's not the moment you need to escape!

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 06/10/2026

A colleague was late every day because "the traffic was bad." But it wasn't bad. That's just what the traffic was like. The thing that needed to change wasn't the road. It was the picture in her head. #Expectations #Psychology

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 05/10/2026

An app asked thousands of people where their minds were. In the shower, elsewhere 65% of the time. At work, half. Only one activity came in under 30%.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 05/10/2026

Monday Motivation! Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 04/10/2026

My wife's gran had a laptop that took five minutes to switch on. I was silently screaming "come on!" She was perfectly happy, off making a cup of tea. Same wait, different expectations. Turns out I was the one with the problem. #Patience #Mindset

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 03/10/2026

An app asked thousands of people where their minds were. In the shower, elsewhere 65% of the time. At work, half. Only one activity came in under 30%.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 02/10/2026

Ever notice how your brain treats next month's plans like they're happening right now? Brilliant for holidays. Less brilliant for job interviews. And a bit annoying when the future doesn't turn up on time. #Patience #Psychology

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 01/10/2026

People find two hours a week for therapy but not thirty minutes for a book. Was it really the time, or something else?

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 30/09/2026

Four lines that sum up life pretty well, and a gentle defence of Norwegian heavy metal. Write both lists. You might be surprised.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 29/09/2026

So complain. Please do. If something isn't right, say so. But do it with purpose. And if it's the people around you doing the moaning, see if you can get them to dig a bit deeper and find an action, even if that action is realising they can let it go.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 28/09/2026

Three things each for work, rest and play, and why I genuinely love Mondays. Try it this weekend and see how next week feels.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 28/09/2026

Monday Motivation! Make a list of things you value. Make a list of things you do every day. Compare the lists. Adjust accordingly.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 27/09/2026

How do you want people to treat you? It's a simple question. Answer it, then see whether you'd pass your own test.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 26/09/2026

The people who wrote about their thoughts as well as their feelings didn't get ill. They got insight. And it made them feel stronger rather than weaker. There's a name for that. And the ones who just wrote the cold facts with no feeling? They got nothing.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 25/09/2026

If a relationship feels lopsided, it might be worth asking what you've been showing that person about how you expect to be treated.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 24/09/2026

Why looking after yourself isn't selfish, with help from the Sermon on the Mount and the UN. And a question about the one person you keep leaving off the list.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 23/09/2026

Over 120 people were asked to write about something negative twice a week for a month. The group who wrote only about how they felt reported more physical illness. Congestion, sore throats, fevers. I mean, what? Moaning can genuinely give you a blocked nose!

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 22/09/2026

Last one on this topic for now. A lazy day doesn't make you a lazy person, and a hundred failed attempts isn't the same thing as evidence. I'll leave you alone about it now. Until the next topic, obviously.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 21/09/2026

Rather than moaning that your shifts stop you meeting up as often as you'd like, celebrate the times you can. Talk about what you're looking forward to. It gives you a sense that there's something different coming, and that changes how the week feels.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 21/09/2026

Monday Motivation! Instead of looking at the hundred reasons to quit, look at the thousand reasons not to.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 20/09/2026

This one's about the little twinge you get when someone else is doing the thing you keep meaning to do. There's a word for the opposite and it's harder than it sounds. Nearly done with this topic. Hopefully you've found them interesting so far?

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 19/09/2026

If the first thing you do in a conversation is find something to moan about, it drags you down and everyone near you as well. And eventually they'll limit their exposure to you. Which then gives you something else to complain about, doesn't it?

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 18/09/2026

Number five, and this one might annoy a few people in my own profession. Picturing yourself having already done the thing probably isn't as inspiring as you might have been told it would be. Yes, I'm still talking about this topic. Nearly done though.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 17/09/2026

Some things really do need complaining about. If the working class hadn't complained about not being able to vote, we'd never have got there. But it wasn't the complaining that did it. It was the action. The focus was on the preferred outcome, not the problem.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 16/09/2026

Four of these now. This one's about how the feeling of being ready shows up AFTER you start rather than before, which is deeply inconvenient. I am aware I've been going on about this topic for a little while.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 15/09/2026

Creme Brulee will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

5 members of Crème Brûlée, the fictitious band in The League Of Gentlemen. They attended the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 you know.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 15/09/2026

Concentrating on the problem narrows your view of the world, and that's true whether it's your partner leaving the bathroom in a mess or spilt milk in the supermarket. Point your brain at what you do want to see happen and it gets a bit happier about it.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 14/09/2026

Number three in the series about taking action, and this is the one where I admit I could have started my podcast in 2005 and didn't.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 14/09/2026

Love it when my timeline accidentally follows on.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 14/09/2026

Monday Motivation! People tend to be judgemental no matter what, so don’t live your life trying to impress others. Just impress yourself.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 13/09/2026

If you need to moan about a bad meal, don't just say it was bad. Say what you'd have preferred. I'd rather they'd cleaned the table before we sat down. I'd rather they'd given us more time to eat. Your brain does something very different with that.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 12/09/2026

Part two of the taking action lot. This one asks you to check what time it is, which sounds like a gimmick and kind of is.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 11/09/2026

So instead of training my brain to look for reasons to be annoyed, I look for what I'd have preferred instead. It might seem to be the same grumble, but it's pointed somewhere useful. It sounds like a tiny change but it really isn't. It all adds up.

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Richard Nicholls @richardnicholls.net · 10/09/2026

New topic for a week or so, and it's about taking action today. Or more accurately, about the fact that your brain builds tomorrow out of yesterday's leftovers. There are probably seven of these coming. I am gonna try to keep each one short. Not sure I'll succeed but hey.

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