EDITION 760
8 APRIL 2019

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1. How to stop procrastination. If you're a chronic procrastinator, you’re familiar with the pain and stress that goes hand in hand with leaving things to the last minute. Even if you want to accomplish or finish a task, you’re likely having trouble getting started in the first place. Here are are several strategies that can help you stop procrastinating right now: [MORE]
     
2. Politicians losing face. When asked which of the main political parties they felt an affinity with, 19% of voters said the Tories, 15% Labour, and 3% the Lib Dems; 54% said none. Of the Tory leadership contenders, 93% of Britons can correctly identify Boris Johnson from a photograph, but only 59% can correctly identify Jacob Rees-Mogg, 56% Michael Gove, 37% Jeremy Hunt, 35% Sajid Javid, and 28% Andrea Leadsom. YouGov
    
3. Amazon is the hottest employer in the UK. The tech giant takes the top spot on LinkedIn’s Top Companies list, which is based on billions of actions taken by LinkedIn’s more than 610 million members worldwide. The list, now in its fourth year, highlights the UK’s most sought-after employers – the firms that have figured out how to attract and keep talent. Rounding out the top five are JPMorgan Chase, Sainsbury’s, GSK and Bupa. LinkedIn
    
4. Eight in 10 UK firms pay men more than women. According to new gender pay figures, UK firms with more than 250 employees were required to disclose their gender pay gap by midnight on 4 April. Of the 9,961 companies which had filed by 5pm on 4 April, 7,755 paid male employees more than female staff based on median hourly pay. Vida Healthcare was the worst offender, paying women just 21p for every £1 men earned. Fashion brand Uniqlo reported a 2.9% difference in favour of men. The Guardian
    
5. Put perfectionism in its place. Striving for perfection may sound admirable, but it’s more likely to lead to anxiety and depression than improved performance, according to research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. That’s partly because having impossibly high standards can put us in paralysis. What should we do instead? Embrace the fact that your first attempts are likely to be mediocre, or perhaps worse; focus on the task rather than your immediate feelings; and seek out people you trust to help you improve. Would you like to improve your awareness of this discipline? [MORE]
    
6. Ryanair one of Europe’s top polluting companies. Research group Transport & Environment reveals the carrier’s carbon dioxide emissions increased 6.9% in 2018, making it the tenth top polluter in Europe- the first time a company that doesn’t operate coal-fired power plants has featured on the list. The findings reinforce the increasing role the airline industry plays in contributing to greenhouse gases. Bloomberg.
    
7. Heart deaths more than halved since smoking ban. The rate of deaths from heart disease dropped by 63% in the UK between 1989-91 and 2013-15, new research shows. Experts attribute the reduction in part to the introduction of the ban on smoking in public places, along with the decline in smoking generally and improvements in healthcare, monitoring and NHS coordination. The Times
     
8. Men earning £150,000+ outnumber women 5-1. Five times as many men as women earn more than £150,000 - and 10 times as many earn more than £1m. The remarkable grip that men have on the highest-paid jobs in Britain emerges from analysis based on a freedom of information request and HM Revenue & Customs figures. About 295,000 men earn more than £150,000 a year, which is roughly Theresa May’s salary, compared with only about 61,000 women. The Sunday Times
    
9. UK passports issued without European Union on cover. British passports are being issued without the words “European Union” on the cover page, even though Brexit has yet to take place. The new burgundy passports were introduced from 30 March, the day after the UK was supposed to leave the European Union. Blue passports evoking the pre-EU British design are due to be issued from the end of 2019. BBC
    
10. The bottom line. The average cost of a basic funeral (not including flowers), is £4,271 according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The price of a funeral has gone up by 6% every year since 2004, prompting the CMA to open a full inquiry into the £2bn market. The Times