How I Work

You and I are finite beings, my friend. That’s a pretty abstract concept until you think about just how much stuff we need to get done every day. Oliver Burkeman, a journalist and author, says the amount of things we could potentially do every day is, by definition, infinite. And a finite being with an infinitely long to-do list is not a happy being.  This causes most of us to start our days feeli...

You’ve tried it all. You’ve joined the 5AM club, done the morning HIIT workouts, tried the pomodoro technique, downloaded Headspace and worked at a standing desk.  But… you haven’t quite figured it out yet. Lisa Leong, host of the hit ABC radio show, This Working Life, says that’s the point. Every day is “lab day”, and the experimenting should never end.  Lisa’s job is to examine… well, jobs. She’...

It’s 3:30 in the afternoon and you’re pumping Red Bulls. You’ve just had a long, very cerebral meeting, and now you’ve gotta back it up with some pretty intellectually demanding writing work. But you’re exhausted.  Holly Ransom, Fulbright Scholar and author of The Leading Edge, wants you to find a different way to perk up when you’re running low on energy. The Red Bulls, the half-litre cups of cof...

**BEST OF 2021** Before you click ‘add’ on another vaguely familiar face on LinkedIn - not so fast!  But the larger your social or professional network, the larger your influence, right? Organisational psychologist Marissa King says… not always. A professor of organisational behaviour at the Yale School of Management, Marissa has studied social networks, social influence and team dynamics for the...

**BEST OF 2021** What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?  A great piece of advice can be life changing. It can set you on a whole new trajectory, land you a new job, or even prompt you to make a big career change. Group Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil, and self-described overachiever Alison Watkins shares how to make sure the advice you receive is right for you.  Global leader in innova...

**BEST OF 2021** 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 min...

**BEST OF 2021** Are you looking for ways to save time? There are plenty of tools out there to help streamline your work processes, but how do you know which ones work best? Find out what websites are causing you too many minutes of distraction, and learn how to batch check your emails rather than becoming a slave to the inbox.  Website time tracker Rooster, time calculator Erik Rood, and email cl...

**BEST OF 2021** A tip just for you - you’re doing too much, friend. You’re probably conditioned to think the harder you work, the better the results...  And you might have even hit burnout once or twice along the way.  Leadership and business strategist Greg McKeown wants you to fight against that conditioning.  Instead of wondering “How can I work harder to get more done?”, Greg wants you to ask...

**BEST OF 2021** Do you want to improve your writing? Writing is one of the fundamental ways we persuade people to take up our ideas, meet with us, or buy the thing we are selling.  Want a snappier headline or to make sure you are communicating to the right audience. Want to find those pesky grammatical errors before you send your email? What if you see a nice font you like, but don’t know how to...

**BEST OF 2021** Gretchen Rubin has dedicated the last ten years to researching and exploring how to be happier. And she’s discovered just how debilitating distraction can be - for both productivity and joy.  Gretchen has self-tested every habit under the sun, and shares which practices to incorporate into your workflow to bolster that joy… and crucially, gives insight into which ones don’t work f...

**BEST OF 2021** I place a huge value on my health. It’s my number one priority.  If you’re not healthy, chances are you’re less productive. Using these tools helps me incorporate physical activity into my day, understand my health patterns so I know where I can make improvements, and trains my brain.  I use the Apple Smart Rope to count reps when I’m skipping. The rope connects to an app on my ph...

**BEST OF 2021** Hear me out - what if you stopped trying so hard to be productive? Most of us only get a total of four thousand weeks on this earth. Do you really want to spend them answering emails? Oliver Burkeman is a “recovering productivity geek” and he wants you to make peace with the reality that you'll never get everything done. He says once you’ve accepted that hard truth, you’ll finally...

**BEST OF 2021** ‘Should’ is one of the most problematic words when it comes to self-talk. I should go to the gym. I should accept this event invitation. I should call this friend and see how she's going, I should spend less time on social media. Shoulds are very unhelpful. They have the double whammy of making us feel guilty AND they don’t actually help us change our behaviour. I’m going to give...

**BEST OF 2021** Do you hate email? Are you sick of being a slave to your inbox? Are you like the “average” knowledge worker and check your email or chat messages every six minutes? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, I think you will love today’s show. Cal Newport is a Computer Science Professor at Georgetown University and also the bestselling author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism...

**BEST OF 2021** How are you coping with this whole global pandemic thing? I feel like I'm more reliant on my devices than ever before - it's like a window to the outside world. But I have a feeling that checking ABC news 10 times a day isn't very good for my mental health. So in today's show, I have an alternative to share. Try out Amantha's favourite calendar software here: usemotion.io Check ou...

Even after a long day at work, or at the end of a tough week, when you pop the TV on and hear that familiar “BA-DUNK” as the big red N flashes onto your screen… do you feel a little guilty?  Even when I know I don’t need to be working, it’s hard to shake the feeling that TV somehow isn’t as ‘worthwhile’ as other activities - like reading, for example. But media executive Chris Oliver-Taylor disagr...

It’s the year 2000, and Steve Jobs wants Apple computers to be able to burn DVDs, but there’s a problem. A big problem.  At the time, DVD burners cost tens of thousands of dollars, and they’re incredibly difficult to use. Neither of those features fit the Apple MO. Jobs’ solution was revolutionary, but not just for the world of computing, or even the world of business.  Author Greg McKeown uses th...

When I was in my early twenties, I won an award for a scriptwriting competition run by the Fellowship of Australian Writers, and involved in that process was one of my favourite playwrights - David Williamson.  I wrote David a fan letter, and to my great surprise, he replied! That was my first taste of how deeply David respects his audience, and our interview was no different.  As the most produce...

Budgeting is… boring, right? It’s all spreadsheets, hard maths, and a hundred reasons you shouldn’t go out for brunch anymore. Try telling that to She’s on the Money founder Victoria Devine!  Victoria wants you to let go of the idea that budgets are purely a “restriction” tool. Instead, she treats budgeting as an extension of her personality: if you can align your values with your income and your...

It wouldn’t work to try to tell the Michael Bungay Stanier story - if anyone’s a collection of stories, it’s MBS. He finished law school being sued for defamation by his professor, he was a Rhodes Scholar in his early 20s, and he’s coached Brene Brown on her own podcast.  A life and career with so many twists, turns and new directions brings with it an equally eclectic and overflowing bag of tips,...

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...