EDITION 907
21 FEBRUARY 2022

There is no escaping it: too much news is bad for you. It should come with a government health warning: “This intellectual diet is fine taken in small doses, and preferably in weekly instalments, via a well-balanced newsletter, such as 10 things from William Montgomery."

So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How COVID-19 changed the world. As the UK government is due to set out its plans to scrap all remaining Covid legal restrictions in England, including the requirement to isolate, it would appear we have reached the ‘end of the beginning' of the pandemic. So what lessons have we learnt? READ MORE >>

2. PM should quit if fined. Two ministers have said the PM should quit if he is fined over Downing Street parties. “If he gets an FPN (fixed penalty notice) he’ll have to go. How can you have a prime minister who has been found guilty of breaking the law?”, one unnamed minister said. Another minister said that “if the Met’s conclusion is effectively that he broke the regulations” then “it’s going to be very difficult for him to stay”. Legal experts say Johnson, who denies wrongdoing, could be fined more than £12,000 if he is found to have breached Covid laws. The Times

3. Hybrid working here to stay, managers say. Working from home for part of the week has become the norm for some employees, with more than 80% of managers saying their firms have adopted hybrid working, according to a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) survey. Two-thirds said this was prompted by the pandemic and, while many businesses are coaxing employees back to the office, the CMI says they should embrace hybrid patterns, citing evidence of an "uptick in productivity". Research by the property analysts Remit Consulting found that occupancy reached 27.5% on 10 February. BBC

4. Latest postgraduate course: happiness. Courses on managing happiness - where skills like emotional awareness, balance and well-being are taught - are filling up quickly at Harvard Business School and other top MBA rams, The Wall Street Journal reports. The goal is to help future bosses learn how to build their own happiness at work, as well as cultivate it within their teams. The growth of such courses comes as leaders are increasingly seeking soft skills, and work-life balance comes into focus in light of the pandemic. Our acclaimed 10/10 leadership development programme also includes a tutorial on wellbeing. READ MORE >>

5. Sleep longer to lose weight. Sleeping for an hour more every night could help overweight people shed excess pounds, a small clinical trial by the University of Chicago has suggested. The study, published in the journal JAMA, found that participants who had been helped to extend their sleep ate significantly less than those who received no counselling, equivalent to about 270 fewer calories a day. Sustained over three years, this reduction could lead people to lose around 12kg, the researchers said. The finding builds on previous studies which have shown that being sleep-deprived can affect appetite-regulating hormones such as ghrelin. Bloomberg

6. How to build fulfilment at work. A lot of people complain about going to work, but others find fulfilment in their jobs and careers. What's the difference? How do you define fulfilment at work and how do you find it while going about your duties. I  suggest: [1] Aligning your own mission with that of your job or company. [2] Asking yourself whether your job is making you feel connected or accomplished. [3] Asking if your job provides what you want out of your career. Editor

7. Mind stays sharp until 60. A new study has found that a person’s mind is as sharp as ever until the age of 60, contradicting the longstanding belief that our brains begin to slow down after the age of 20. Researchers found that mental speed consistently improves until a person is in their late-20s, indicating they do not reach peak mental performance until they are around 30. After this, the mental speed metric remains “fairly stable” until the age of 60. Researchers from Heidelberg University in Germany said that the results challenge the widespread notion of an age-related slowdown in mental speed. BBC

8. Optimism falls from age of nine. A study has concluded that childhood “hyper-optimism” begins to fade from the age of nine. Academics from University College London found that constant exposure to bad outcomes causes optimism to diminish as a child grows up and that having high expectations, only to consistently fall short, takes its toll. The ground-breaking study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Daily Telegraph

9. Statin side effects ‘overestimated’. Statins have fewer side effects than previously thought, new research published in the European Heart Journal suggests. The drugs, which are taken by millions in Britain to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, should continue to be prescribed to combat high cholesterol because the side effects reported by patients may be “overestimated and over diagnosed”, the study found. Previous studies have estimated that the prevalence of statin intolerance may be as high as 50%, but data drawn from more than four million people suggested it is likely to be below 10%. The Guardian

10. The bottom line. Wages grew by 3.7% between October and December 2021 compared to the previous year but have failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, according to new data. The Office for National Statistics said that when taking inflation into account, real pay showed a 0.8% fall from last year. Job vacancies also hit a record high of 1.3m between November and January, and as companies struggle to recruit, workers are pushing salaries higher and higher – something the Bank of England governor raised concerns about last week. BBC