Sept. 5, 2024

Sharpen The Saw

Sharpen The Saw

When you're up against it, have you ever felt like there's no time to pause; to refresh and recharge?

How easy do you find it to step back momentarily to gather your thoughts when your world continues at 100 mph?

So often in our professional and personal lives we're too busy to ever pause, reflect, and recharge before continuing.


One of the key mantras from Stephen Covey's book, 7 Habits of Highly Successful People is to stop and sharpen the saw every now and then to gain perspective, refresh thinking and re-prioritise.

Jono & Tommy give examples from their lives about how this approach has helped them at work and at home.

Rob brings the metaphor into the literal world with stories from his wood workshop.


In our discussion, we mention the following items, which you might want to take a closer look at:

  • This song, It Costs That Much did the rounds on social media a while back for frustrated makers and crafters. It made me laugh.
  • We covered the 5 Ways to Wellbeing with wellness expert Nancy Hey in podcast #15 from Series 1.
  • Here's an example of a 5-year journal that Tommy was talking about. (Tommy sent me one of these in the post after we recorded the episode! :-)
  • Jono references Arnold Schwarzenegger's motivational speech. Here's a clipped edit of the 1-hour a day section.
  • Sketchplanations referenced:

Jólabókaflóð - Icelandic tradition of giving books at Christmas and staying in to read them.

Forest Bathing - to soak in the atmosphere of a forest

Solvitur Ambulando - It is solved by walking


From the postbag, Jono also references sketches to do with the dining / kitchen table:


Tell us your stories or experiences with Sharpening The Saw.

email: hello@sketchplanations.com or leave us a voice note by clicking the blue microphone button.


All Music on this podcast series is provided by Franc Cinelli. Find many more tracks at franccinelli.com



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