How I Work

At Inventium, we default to asynchronous communication, and it’s been really effective. But… it’s not without some drawbacks.  The time saved cutting back on in-person or virtual meetings can sometimes get pushed into writing detailed, thoughtful emails, and you end up back at square one. I’ve tried to combat that by sending shorter, straight-to-the-point messages, but they can occasionally come a...

If you ask Marissa King how she’s doing today, she’ll tell you the truth - the good, the bad and the ugly. And her research shows that when she does, you’ll be much more likely to reciprocate that honestly. All of a sudden, you’ve made quite the connection.  Marissa calls this “mutually reciprocal self-disclosure”. For those of us who aren’t the professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale Sch...

It’s 9:30, and you’ve got just under an hour before your next Zoom meeting. There’s already just a bit too much caffeine buzzing around your brain, and your eyes are half-crossed from the last video call. So how do you recharge and show up refreshed for that next one?  If you’re Evernote and mmhmm co-founder Phil Libin, you swim laps. Thanks to the “distributed” nature of mmhmm’s workforce, he can...

Bestselling author and happiness guru Gretchen Rubin isn’t Type A. She’s Type A+, so she knows her way around a well-ordered pros and cons list.  But when she and her family were deciding whether or not get a dog, that kind of hyperlogical thinking didn’t feel quite right, and ultimately had her going around in circles.  Instead, she asked herself, ‘What’s the bigger life?’ When it comes to major...

It doesn’t matter if you’re not a professional writer - as a professional anything, you’re going to need to do a lot of writing. According to best-selling author Jamila Rizvi, this is a good thing, because your writing skills are like a muscle and therefore need constant training.  She teaches you how to improve your writing no matter what field you’re in, and shares some tips for building momentu...

Gary Mehigan had just opened his first restaurant, and was confident that he’d mastered the art of cooking. However, he’d soon realise he was yet to master the business of cooking. So, he hired a business coach, and everything changed.  The most important thing Gary learned from that coach? The one-page “reset.”  Every night, over a cup of tea, Gary writes one page of reflections, questions and go...

You’ve crushed it in a meeting - everyone seems to be listening intently, excited about your ideas, and when you ask for feedback at the end, you get nothing but praise. So why then, two weeks down the line, do you find out that a few people didn’t agree with a word you said, and there’s a slew of things you could’ve done better?  Peakon CEO and co-founder Phil Chambers says it might be because da...

You need to be in the office at nine, and if you want to be performing at your best, you’ll need to get in a quick workout and a nutritious breakfast. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for trying to pull an outfit together, so you’ll also need to sort that out the night before.   Oh, and you need to make sure your kids have eaten a healthy breakfast, put their school uniforms on, brushed their teet...

Radek Sali’s working in a cinema - his first job out of school - when he realises that encouraging his team to up-sell popcorn and make more choc-tops might be more valuable than what he’s learning at university.  It’s then that Radek decides to treat his career like that of a professional athlete: he accepts that it will be a long, tiring journey full of sacrifice, but worth it for a life of pass...

I was a competitive kid, and some classroom rivalries pushed me to better grades than I might have achieved otherwise. However, I was also a perfectionist, and any “A”s that came without a “+” beside them started to feel less like an almost-perfect achievement and more like a glaring signal that I’d missed the mark.  I hated failing, and when you combine that with believing anything less than the...

Yes, even Liane Moriarty, author of smash-hit novels like Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers is prone to “doom-scrolling” from time to time.  Liane was the first Australian writer to ever debut a novel at #1 on the New York Times’ bestsellers list. The HBO adaptation of Big Little Lies, starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, was nominated for an astonishing 21 Emmys and won eight. A...

Working can be hard work… obviously. But that doesn’t mean it should only be hard work.   Studies show we laugh and smile less as we enter our 20s - which is when most of us enter the full-time workforce.    Given how much of our lives we spend at work, we all want to make it a bit more fun. But the good news for the boss is - laughing more often at work makes us better at our jobs! So the questio...

It’s 4:27AM. That’s right. Not 4:25, not 4:30, but exactly 4:27. When you’re a veteran breakfast radio host like Christian O’Connell, you calculate your latest possible wakeup time to the second.  Once he’s out the door, it’s a 20 to 30-minute commute, but it’s one he really enjoys. It’s the only time in a pretty hectic workday he has completely to himself. After that, it’s 15 minutes of solitude...

Working from home used to sound like the dream, didn’t it? If you work from home, you’re always at home! But I think we’re all starting to realise the flip-side of the WFH movement - if you work from home, you’re also always at work.  And for most people, the move to working from home has been quite sudden, and you likely don’t have the space for a designated office. A lot of us are working from o...

As the Phantom of the Opera, Josh Piterman’s story is already pre-written for him. But as an actor and a person, Josh writes that narrative himself.  Josh shares how repeating the same esoteric ritual before every show helps him enter a flow state. For him, focusing on being present ensures that every performance feels like a brand new show.  He also breaks down how journaling and teaching meditat...

What do you have to do today?    A long, detailed report? A whole slew of meetings? Make dinner, do laundry, somehow squeeze in a workout? I feel you! Between work, family, friendships and looking after our health, there’s a lot we feel like we have to do. But therein lies the problem…    Thinking that we have to do something automatically makes it feel like a burden. Your self-talk is really powe...

Today's show is brought to you by Nespresso Professional . In previous episodes of How I Work, we’ve talked about the value of “micro-breaks” for maintaining energy over a long day at the office. Nespresso’s Jean-Marc Dragoli takes this to a new level, stealing away for a “coffee moment” seven to ten times a day!   He teaches you how a cup of coffee can facilitate anything from quiet reflection to...

***BEST OF HOW I WORK*** Does business really need to be so serious?   Stanford Business School humour lecturer Naomi Bagdonas believes there’s always room for humour, even when you’re trying to accomplish very serious things.    She’s found utilising humour can boost innovation, foster creativity, and bolster resilience through hard times.    Naomi says bringing levity into your day-to-day exchan...

Levels CEO and digital nomad Sam Corcos teaches you how to get a bird’s-eye view of your company with a quarterly “think week.”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When his past students complained of being stuck in jobs they hated, organisational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant decided he needed to find a remedy. He says we should all be scheduling regular life check-ups.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kara Swisher doesn’t have imposter syndrome… And for good reason. She’s a celebrated journalist, opinion columnist for The New York Times , the host of the Sway podcast, and the co-host of Pivot .    Kara teaches you how to be practical in your self-evaluation, which often means you need to give yourself some praise. She reflects on how society’s views on her sexuality and gender have forced her t...

Do your knees shake at the thought of public speaking? Are you intimidated before a big interview? Do you worry about finding the right mentor?    Holly Ransom, Fulbright Scholar and author of The Leading Edge, says it’s because you’re thinking about yourself. All those nerves will fall away if you re-frame and focus instead on the value you can bring to others. And if you’re hoping to find a grea...

Cal Newport gets a lot done. He’s a computer science professor at Georgetown University, he’s written several bestsellers on productivity, and he now hosts the popular Deep Questions podcast.    He shares the secrets to getting more done in less time by eliminating the bottle-necks in your organisation. Back-and-forth messages to organise meetings and unstructured chat in the office can pile up fa...

Yep, a lot of Australians are still in lockdown. But Dr Norman Swan, physician, journalist and presenter of The Health Report and Coronacast, is here to help you get through it.   Norman is the author of So You Think You Know What’s Good For You?, a book that dispels common myths and half-truths about health.    He tells you how he managed to stay sane during 2020 lockdowns, and how he hopes to do...

Networking can sometimes feel like a dirty word… It’s like the evil twin sister of making friends. But according to Business Chicks founder and Global CEO Emma Isaacs, networking and making friends are really the same thing.   Emma teaches you how to shed that icky feeling so you can embrace the fun of meeting new people. She gives tips on active listening, soothing that “new people” anxiety, and...