How I Work

Kara Swisher is a no-nonsense journalist with a reputation as both the most feared and the most respected journalist to cover Silicon Valley.  When she interviews the biggest names in tech, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk, they’re usually visually nervous and on their toes. She's been covering the industry since the early 90s and knew many giants in the tech world when t...

Are your routines still serving you? Maybe they were when you first made them, but are you still getting the same results as when you started? I’ve recently been revising my own rituals and routines in my day, week, and month. I’ve discovered that by mixing up some of my routines, such as my workout and weekly psychologist appointment, I’ve been more energised and productive.  So I’m challenging y...

Can you become happier in your job simply by managing your time better?  At Inventium, our Workday Reinvention Program is one of our most popular programs with clients. The program increases productivity by teaching people to prioritise deep work over shallow work. This can lead to 20% more productivity and a huge increase in job satisfaction.  A recent study published in PLOS One looked at the ou...

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, and most recen...

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 innovation Scott...

Hate networking but know you need to get better at it?    Career entrepreneur Emma Isaacs has built her professional network of people - including Richard Brandson, Nicole Kidman, and Arianna Huffington - from the ground up. She bought her first business at the age of 18 and has never looked back.    Today Business Chicks is a global social networking group with over 44,000 members, hosting events...

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 phone and lets me...

If you left your job, could your company go on without you?   Booktopia’s CEO Tony Nash believes a company should be more robust than the people working for it. When someone walks into his office to resign, they don’t get the reaction they expect. Instead of alarm, Tony feels excitement when someone decides it’s time to move on.    Before starting Booktopia in 2004, Tony ran his own online recruit...

Welcome to my home office.  Since Inventium officially became a remote-first organisation, I’ve been making improvements to my set up with the help of my dad, who’s very tech savvy. By using a semi-professional camera as a webcam, I get amazing clear images for online meetings and presentations. I can control the lighting and make sure I look great, without lights shining in my eyes.  I’ve turned...

If you're anything like me, your inbox is cluttered with e-newsletters that you don't read. But there are a handful I actually look forward to reading. One of them is called Recomendo, co-written by Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly. As you would expect from someone who founded arguably the most influential tech magazine on the planet, Kevin epitomises the phrase "finger on the pulse". I  interviewed K...

Do you want to nail engaging virtual meetings? Make presentations feel more like they do in real life. The mmhmm app helps you to configure your screen for more effective presentations. By appearing next to your slides instead of being replaced by them, you’ll enhance human connection and communicate more naturally.    Increase interaction with your audience with fun polls and live voting. The Sli...

If you have a meeting with Cameron McIntyre there are a few things about him that might surprise you.    The first one is he will remember your name and the second is that he’s always present, prepared, and not easily shaken.    But how does he manage to do this?    What is his trick for recalling names in a meeting full of people he’s never met before?    Cameron shares his hacks for always being...

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 find out which on...

Can you be creative when you have a time limit?    A new life for ABC breakfast radio presenter, TV writer and comedian Sammy J means more demands on his time. Gone are the days of creatively exploring ideas all day before performing at night.    Sammy J has to organise his home and work life precisely to keep up with the demands of several jobs and his new role as a father.    How has he learned...

If there’s one thing leaders and entrepreneurs know, it’s that business is a rollercoaster. And sometimes you’re hit by something you couldn’t even see coming.     There’s extreme highs and some devastating lows, and yet somehow you have to keep going. You need to adapt, pivot, and keeping moving.    If you love  How I Work , chances are you’ll enjoy  Curveball . In revealing, personal conversatio...

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 exchanges can diffuse tension a...

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 client Tempo are th...

How often do you stop and check-in about how you’re tracking with your career and the job you are in? How do you know you're not blindly following a career path you’re going to regret years down the track?    Organisational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant says we should all be scheduling life check-ups.  A life check-up is just like scheduling an appointment with a doctor, even if...

Do you have Zoom fatigue? What if you could cut your meetings down by 50%? Gitlab’s head of Remote, Darren Murph, believes time spent face-to-face is precious and should be reserved for informal communication and team bonding. So he’s created a four-step barrier to scheduling a meeting that means only the most important meetings make it onto his calendar.  By preferencing documentation over meetin...

On March 15, 2020 Ben Shewry woke up knowing his business was going to collapse. It was his birthday and also the worst day of his life.  Melbourne was going into lockdown, forcing him to close the doors of his restaurant Attica, and to cancel thousands of bookings for his $300 a head tasting menu.  But instead of giving up, Shewry decided to make a commitment to his 40 full-time staff to keep goi...

Do you want more time for creative and strategic work?   Inventium’s CEO Michelle Le Poidevin says removing the idea of ‘managers’ from a team structure is one of the best things she’s done for the company.    When looking into the holacracy structure, Michelle realised the most senior people in the company were spending most of their time managing people, instead of doing the work that really mat...

Have you ever felt like an imposter?    Of course you have! Because 82% of people have experienced it at some point. Imposter syndrome is the persistent thought we are undeserving of our achievements. People fear they might be ‘found out’ or that they ‘don’t know what they are doing’.    How can you rethink or reframe these thoughts so they don’t have so much power over you?   How I Work guests sh...

My favourite tip from my chat with tech journalist Peter Wells was on how anyone can use software to automate their job. You can find the full interview here:  Tech journalist Peter Wells on how to automate your job Connect with Peter: Twittercom/peterwells Meta podcast The Helpdesk podcast Subscribe to my new podcast How To Date in  Apple Podcasts  or  Spotify . If you are looking for more tips t...

With just $12,000 borrowed from her boyfriend’s father, Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris started Australia’s first beauty e-commerce site in 1999. Adore Beauty has expanded its offer to more than 200 brands and 13,000 products, earning Kate the Business Innovation Award for Victoria at the Telstra Business Women’s Awards in 2014, and an induction into the Australian Businesswomen’s Network Hall of...

My favourite tip from my chat with global innovation thought leader Scott D Anthony was on his new rituals for Deep and Shallow work. This extract is from my second time having Scott on the show - you can check out the full interview here . And check out my first interview with Scott here . Get your copy of Scott’s latest book  Eat, Sleep Innovate  and check out the book's  companion website here...