Learn and Work Smarter

Send me a message!🤓 “Adulting” has nothing to do with age. Instead, it has to do with the ability to operate independently and function in a way that supports your goals.  In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I reveal the top 5 secret skills of adulting that, when they’re mastered, make everything else about school and work (and life) so much easier and less dramatic. This episo...

Send me a message!🤓 In this monthly Q&A episode, I answer two questions submitted by listeners of the show. Question 1: How can I make my commute to and from work more productive? Question 2: How can I be an effective leader when I’m burned out and unmotivated? What You'll Learn: A unique commute strategy that can clear your head, increase your clarity, and improve your productivity A co...

Send me a message!🤓 Deadlines don't care how overwhelmed you feel. Tight deadlines? Those require a completely different approach — more urgency, more intensity, and a clear plan for execution. In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter Podcast, I break down six strategies for meeting tight deadlines without losing your mind. Part one covers three pre-work strategies that take maybe 10 mi...

Send me a message!🤓 ⭐Get the Scholarship Summer Camp + Note-Taking Power System Bundle right here: https://www.scholarshipgps.com/katie (you get my whole note-taking course for free!) It’s a common misunderstanding that scholarships are only for graduating students headed right to college. In fact, students of all ages can and should apply for scholarship money as soon as possible. In this episo...

Send me a message!🤓 ⭐ FREE Parent Training: How to Help Your Teen Handle School Like a Pro Most struggling students are in the situation they’re in because no one ever taught them how to actually DO school. We expect them to learn, but nobody ever teaches them HOW. Therefore, the "just study more" might be the most well-meaning, unhelpful advice we keep giving them. In this episode of...

Send me a message!🤓 Frustration tolerance is one's ability to sustain attention, endurance and emotional composure during frustrating tasks. While we all get frustrated from time to time, having a low frustration tolerance can have a serious impact on our work, school and personal lives. In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I dive deep into frustration tolerance, its connec...

Send me a message!🤓 In this Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer three questions submitted by listeners of the show. Question 1: How to take notes during phone calls. Question 2: How to support a struggling college student Question 3: How to ask for ADHD accommodations (in graduate school and work) What You Learn: Why capturing notes is only half the job, and what the m...

Send me a message!🤓 The work we do is more important than the tools we use. But that said, having the right tools can make a difference in how productive and organized we are. In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I’m sharing with you my 10 favorite tools that I use nearly every single day to manage a busy business, family and life.  No affiliate links or promotions here … just a...

Send me a message!🤓 Sweaty palms. Racing breath. A pit in your stomach. And the worst one of all, a blank mind. Test anxiety does not feel good, and it most certainly doesn’t help your grades. But in this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I make the (controversial?) case that test anxiety is the result of something you have complete control over. What You Learn: The most common misun...

Send me a message!🤓 The way I teach it, a personal operating system is a set of systems and routines we use to manage the information that comes at us all day long. Whether we're students or professionals, we're constantly bombarded with information we can ignore, information about tasks we need to act on, and information we might need in the future. And if we don't have a way to c...

Send me a message!🤓 You're putting in the work. You're doing the readings. You're showing up. So why does it still feel like you're missing the mark? In this month's Q&A episode, I'm answering two listener questions that are completely different on the surface, but have the same root issue. Question One is from a grad student who's annotating and highlightin...

Send me a message!🤓 The most dangerous people in school and work aren't always the smartest in the room or the ones grinding the hardest. They're the ones who are steady, focused, and nearly impossible to knock off course. In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I'm sharing 10 characteristics of people who are hard to overwhelm — and spoiler: underneath all 10 of the...

Send me a message!🤓 It's 5 PM, everyone is leaving the office, but you’re staring at your to-do list thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be here all night.” When we regularly can’t get our work done within typical office hours, we’re quick to think it’s because we have too much work. And while that might sometimes be the case, usually there’s another reason (or 5) at play. In this episode of...

Send me a message!🤓 Struggling to perform in school or work is rarely the result of just one missing skill. Sure, your procrastination tendencies might have to do with poor time management skills, but that's not the full picture.  Academic and professional success is the result of having a functioning ECOSYSTEM of skills that not only work by themselves but also interlock together. In other...

Send me a message!🤓 In this monthly Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer two questions submitted by listeners of the show. Question 1: A working professional asks for tips as he transitions back to in-person office work after years of working from home. Question 2: A student asks about the benefits of using color (specifically colored index cards) in his study methods....

Send me a message!🤓 ALL relationships are hard. But the hardest ones are those we can't avoid, like at school and work.  In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, we dive into the reality that sometimes we don't like our boss or our teacher. Whether it's a personality clash or differences in communication, sometimes people just aren't compatible. But what do we do...

Send me a message!🤓 Thinking is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be messy and fragmented and dead-endy. It's supposed to make us feel vulnerable and like we don't know the answer, the solution, or the idea. That's the nature of thinking. It's SUPPOSED to be that way. But more than ever, I see students and professionals quit the thinking process before they've ev...

Send me a message!🤓 Everyone says you need balance. But what if the entire concept of “balance” is nonsense in the first place? In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I break down why traditional work-life balance theory doesn't work, and more importantly, what you should do instead. Specifically, I'm giving you three practical frameworks that are way more realistic than...

Send me a message!🤓 We tend to make things way more complicated than they need to be. And honestly? It's because thinking and planning feels easier than actually sitting down and doing the thing. In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I reveal the three areas that we tend to WAY overcomplicate more than anything else. And when we do, we prevent ourselves from taking action on...

Send me a message!🤓 In this monthly Q&A, I answer two questions submitted by listeners of the show. While the questions are different in their details, the fundamental theme of today’s show is consistent: the key to learning and working smarter is knowing what’s in our control and what’s not, and optimizing everything we have the power to change. What You Learn: The real reason juggling multi...

Send me a message!🤓 Most people set goals completely wrong. They focus on outcomes they can't control, ignore their real schedules and energy levels, and wait for January 1st like it's some magical reset button. Then they wonder why they quit by February. In this episode, I'm showing you a different approach: the anti-goal goal-setting strategy. This isn't about avoiding goals...

Send me a message!🤓 Are you someone who says yes because you can see exactly how to make it happen? Do people come to you because they know you'll deliver? And are you so darn exhausted because of it? In this episode, I'm diving into the high performer's trap, a pattern where your competence becomes the primary reason you say yes to everything. The better you get at something, the...

Send me a message!🤓 You had a study system that worked perfectly. Then suddenly... it didn't. What happened? In this episode, I'm breaking down the #1 reason why legitimate study systems stop working: developmental transitions. Whether you're moving from high school to college, freshman to upper-level courses, or undergrad to grad school, the academic demands don't just get ha...

Send me a message!🤓 In this month's Q&A episode, I'm answering two questions that hit on some of the biggest study and productivity myths out there.  Question One: A college student asks how to study for six to eight hours straight without crashing. My answer? Don't.  Question Two: Someone asks about staying motivated to finish projects once the initial excitement wears off. Sp...

Send me a message!🤓 Most of us end our week by simply stopping, closing the laptop, and walking away. But then we wonder all weekend long why we can’t stop thinking about work or school. That’s where the Friday Review comes in. This simple 5–10 minute habit helps you close the loops from your week, get some clarity about what your weekend work schedule might be (or not be!), and set up next week...