The Productive Pessimist

This week (March 18th-24th 2024) is Neurodiversity Celebration Week. As a neurodiverse-led organisation (our Director, co-founder, and lead Trainer, Morgana, has ADHD and autism, both of which were diagnosed in adulthood, but which influenced her experience of childhood and adolescence), The Productive Pessimist are aware that 'celebration' can feel like a very loaded word, both to people who live with a particular condition or experience, and to those who work with them, educate them, and parent them. Social media, in particular, has often centred white-passing female/femme individuals, who are highly verbal, skilled at art, and with strong social skills as "neurodiversity rep", a backlash to society's frequent presentation of socially-inept, emotionally unavailable men, or hyperactive boys, often as the "accepted medical presentation" of neurodiversity. Many people would ask how someone who is non-verbal, someone who lacks awareness of their basic bodi

  We've had the UK Spring Budget 2024. We've had the media commentary on Jeremy Hunt's Budget. You may be scratching your head, wondering what you're supposed to do  with all the information about the information you have. What's the best move? Where should your business be? How screwed are you? Here at The Productive Pessimist, we're all about keeping it simple, whilst respecting that you're not stupid. So: Are You Screwed? If you earn under £32,500 a year, probably. But, then, you probably already knew that. However, the freeze on tax bands means the best advice is not  "get a better paid job".   As the government has opened up the definition of 'high net worth individual', enabling more people to qualify as 'sophisticated' investors, and thus be approved to take a chance on unproven entrepreneurs, the best thing you can do if you're not making £32,500 a year is to get together a business plan, and a series of pitch decks (we

  Have you been watching BBC One's The Apprentice over the past few weeks? (or years, for many of us?!) Here at The Productive Pessimist , our Director, Ash, has been a fan of the show from the beginning - he even got an audition for the 2011 series! (Unfortunately, he was out of work at the time, and ended up having to go to a less illustrious job interview on the same day... he didn't even get the job... the paths we didn't take, eh?) We all sort of know, the way we do with all 'reality' shows, that it's probably not as disastrous as it seems. Editing can tell a completely different story to what actually went on, and how many of us would actually tune in every week to see people being competent, capable professionals? (Our bosses tell us that's what we go to work for!) However true or constructed it may be, all we have to go on as far as the capabilities of the wannabes are concerned is what we see when we switch on. Which...isn't always that inspiri

Are you a pessimist wondering whether life coaching would actually support you?  A question many people ask us is: "Does life coaching work for people who are pessimistic?"   Many people will tell you it doesn't, that pessimists don't have the open-mindedness required to engage effectively with life coaching. At The Productive Pessimist, we firstly don't just  work with other pessimists - we actually like to work with people who have a different outlook to us, although, obviously, we have a natural connection with our fellow pessimists who are looking to become more productive. If you're wondering whether life coaching from The Productive Pessimist is for you, the following extract from our book "People Have a Problem With Your Attitude", which is available to order for just £4.99, or is sent free when you book a life coaching, business coaching, or business consultancy session with us (email us at theproductivepessimist@yahoo.com to order your copy,

  Do you love your job?  Do you love your life? What would you most love to do? What's your heart's desire for your business, yourself, your family? Other coaches talk a lot about 'love'.  Every other piece of professional advice tells you to 'find a job you love.' What do they actually mean when they use 'love' like this? Clearly, no one's suggesting you get into the same mindset around going to work Monday morning, sitting through yet another PowerPoint presentation, or organising the kids and arranging the online grocery deliveries as the thought of a hot date with someone who hits all your buttons, or a weekend spent in the company of your best mate puts you in.  And we're definitely not advocating that 'married to the job' should be a literal matter of legally-validated fact. You're not going to be serenading your office block, or sending a dozen roses to your project teams.  You're not going to be inviting your new hire out

1. Know what you don't know Barney down the pub, Jan at slimming group, and Kayleigh, your 13yr old, may think it's "obvious" how to resolve a particular crisis, but the age and treachery which will overcome youth and inexperience knows that, the more 'obvious' the problem seems, the more aspects of it you have underestimated, ignored, or simply never been aware of. 2. Accept your limitations You cannot solve the crisis. YOU. CANNOT. SOLVE. THE. CRISIS. Loud enough for you?  You can't solve the crisis. Your team can't solve the crisis. Your organisation can't solve the crisis. What you can do - what you have  to do - is to realise that every 'crisis' is simply a series of smaller problems. You can solve problems. Your team can solve problems. Your business can solve problems. You can't solve the crisis.  You can  solve the problems that comprise it. 3. Don't micromanage crisis Crises are frightening. They upset people. People get tr

2024. A new year, a new five year plan - and one that brings us to the eve of not just a new year, but a new decade!  This  five-year plan is going to really count!  No Brexit, no Covid, no new wars... nothing to derail your ambitions from being achieved, and your company, specifically, dragging the entire British economy back to its feet. Nothing stopping you achieving your personal goals. You absolutely would  have been a better person by now, except so much has happened in the past few years... honestly, no one could really  expect you to achieve anything when things in the wider world just kept happening. Pro tip: 2029 won't be any different for you, for your company, for the country, than 2024.  Five-year plans don't work; over 300 years of government by carefully pre-selected elected representatives who have always best represented their own interests should have taught us that particular lesson by now. Wherever you are in 2029, it's mostly going to be by accident, ra