He had a great presentation. His mind told him for two days it was a disaster, and it’s all because of four seconds.

That’s not self-reflection. That’s cognitive fusion. And it’s one of the most invisible playing-it-safe behaviors there is.

Episode 101 of the Playing-It-Safe podcast is about overvaluing your thoughts and the deceptively simple ACT skill that starts to untangle it.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 A friend’s presentation and the four seconds that haunted him
0:24 How the mind fixates on the “wrong” moment over everything that went right
0:50 Cognitive defusion (ACT)
1:45 How a thinking loop works
2:30 Choosing your thought relationship
2:54 The immense cost of over-identifying with your thoughts
3:52 What cognitive defusion means
4:08 Steven Hayes on defusion and literal truth
4:22 Research on stepping back from thoughts
4:44 Thomas Borkovec on thought suppression backfiring
5:15 Exercise: don’t think about dark chocolate
5:38 The ACT skill: thanking your mind
5:50 What thanking your mind (defusion) means
6:30 How to practice it, step 1: notice the thought as a thought
7:25 Step 2: thank your mind
8:04 Step 3: choose your response based on values, not the thought
9:02 A client’s story: staying in the conversation despite the thought
9:34 Your mind isn’t the oracle of truth
9:51 A question to consider: what if anxious thoughts were just weather?
10:25 Psychological flexibility doesn’t require your mind to change
10:51 Dr. Z’s own imposter thought
11:46 This week’s playing-it-safe behavior + mini assignment

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Gloria Mark’s research found that after a distraction, it takes an average of 23 minutes to return to the original task. Yup, 23 minutes. Not because you’re undisciplined. Because the digital world you live in was literally designed, using the same behavioral principles as slot machines, to pull your attention away from what matters.

In this episode you’ll also hear four concrete skills to help you stay focused and keep doing what matters to you, even when everything around you is pulling your attention somewhere else.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 The friend who understands his values but still can’t focus
1:58 Playing-it-safe behavior #6: checking, scrolling, and drifting
2:11 Gloria Mark’s research on task-switching and the 23-minute recovery
3:09 Matthew Crawford on attention as a contested resource
4:00 Nir Eyal’s research on internal triggers as the true driver of distraction
4:16 Cal Newport’s deep work research: focus as a trainable skill
4:37 Committed action and psychological flexibility
4:55 Four principles from chapter 8 of the ACT Workbook
5:05 Principle 1: The personal commitment statement
5:37 Principle 2: Environmental design before willpower
6:11 Principle 3: Progressive focus training
6:42 Principle 4: Compassionate coaching during focused work
8:42 This week’s challenge: design a focused work session

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And if you missed any of the episodes on procrastination, one of the most classic playing-it-safe moves out there, you can catch up here:

​Ep. 93 — Understanding Procrastination: The Psychological Processes Behind It​
​Ep. 94 — You’re Not Lazy, Your Mind is Just Very Good at This​
​Ep. 95 — Stop Chasing Goals. Start Living Your Values.​
​Ep. 96 — The Second Arrow: Why Being Hard on Yourself is Keeping You Stuck​
​Ep. 97 — Your Mind is Lying to You About Why You Can’t Start​
​Ep. 98 — The Goal Trap: Why Your Goals are Keeping You Stuck
Ep. 99 — You Don’t Have a Time Problem. You Have a Time Story.

Learn research-based skills and actionable steps to make better decisions, adjust to uncertain situations, make bold moves, & do more of what matters to you.

This week on the Playing-It-Safe podcast, we are diving deep into the psychology of time, procrastination, and flow.

We are bypassing the standard “productivity culture” advice and looking at what the research actually says!

This is the episode for the person who knows all the time management strategies and is still stuck.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 The friend who “worked better under pressure”
1:57 Using stories about time as permission to wait
2:58 Kahneman and Tversky’s planning fallacy
3:40 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow states
4:38 Principle 1: Add a 25% time buffer to estimates
4:49 Principle 2: Energy scheduling over time scheduling
5:19 Principle 3: Designing for flow rather than efficiency
5:43 Principle 4: The two-minute completion focus
6:51 This week’s challenge: examine your beliefs about time

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And if you want to see the full picture of your playing-it-safe behaviors, not just around time, my free questionnaire is at thisisdoctorz.com/playing-it-safe-questionnaire.

Learn research-based skills and actionable steps to make better decisions, adjust to uncertain situations, make bold moves, & do more of what matters to you.

Can I ask you something?

Think about a goal you’ve been carrying for a while. Something you keep coming back to. Something that matters to you.

Now ask yourself, is it really yours? Or is it being driven by fear?

Because here’s what I see over and over in my work as a psychologist specialized in anxiety: we set goals that look like aspirations but are actually running on anxiety.

This week on the Playing-it-Safe podcast, I’m talking about the three goal traps I see most, and why most of us don’t even realize we’re in them.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 The coaching client with the “wrong” goal
1:50 Playing-it-safe behavior #8: chasing outcomes and emotions you can’t control
2:55 Edwin Locke and Gary Latham’s goal-setting theory
3:49 Heidi Grant Halvorson: approach vs. avoidance goals
4:33 Tali Sharot’s research on the optimism bias & the arrival fallacy
5:15 Robert Emmons’ research on self-concordant goals
6:06 The values-based goals and actions exercise (ACT Workbook, chapter 6)
6:56 Identifying the internal obstacle to your values-based action
8:21 This week’s challenge: identify your goal type

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The rider knows exactly what needs to be done, but the elephant has decided not to move. Jonathan Haidt’s famous metaphor perfectly captures what it feels like to be stuck.

If you’ve ever sat at your desk staring at a blank screen or a looming project, you know exactly what that standoff feels like. It’s incredibly frustrating, and our immediate default is usually to blame ourselves, chalking it up to laziness or a lack of discipline.

But here’s the thing: your elephant isn’t lazy. There is actual behavioral science behind why your mind’s reasons for waiting sound so completely rational in the moment.

In this short, 10-minute episode, we look at how to stop debating the elephant and actually start moving.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 The moment right before you avoid something
1:00 Playing-it-safe behavior #7: overvaluing and over-identifying with your thoughts
2:05 Jonathan Haidt’s “rider and elephant” metaphor
2:53 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on avoidance and psychological inflexibility
3:19 Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory
3:50 Psychological flexibility as the direct answer
4:31 The “thinking log” exercise for the next 7 days
6:11 “Your mind isn’t the oracle of truth:” reframing your inner advisory board
6:51 Dr. Z’s own most reliable “ruling-thought”

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Most overthinkers and overachievers believe that being hard on themselves is what keeps them sharp.

Kristin Neff’s research says the opposite. People with higher self-compassion show greater motivation after failure, not less. They persist more. And they procrastinate significantly less.

This week, on Playing-It-Safe, I’m going into the neuroscience of why self-criticism feeds procrastination, what Paul Gilbert’s three emotional regulation systems tell us, and what happened with a client who worked through the exercises in chapter four of my workbook.

This is the episode that tends to land hardest. Which usually means it’s the one you need most.

Show notes with time-stamps

0:00 The client stuck on a project she deeply cared about
1:38 Playing-it-safe behavior #9: criticizing and judging yourself negatively
1:58 The “second arrow” loop explained
3:06 Kristin Neff’s research on self-compassion and motivation
3:45 Paul Gilbert’s three emotional regulation systems (threat, drive, soothing)
4:28 Carol Dweck’s growth mindset research
5:00 Why psychological flexibility matters
6:16 Dr. Z’s personal story of shooting “second arrows” at herself
6:54 This week’s challenge: name your second arrow

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Come continue the conversation on Instagram at ​@thisisdoctorz​.

Learn research-based skills and actionable steps to make better decisions, adjust to uncertain situations, make bold moves, & do more of what matters to you.