Love Your Work

Vanessa Van Edwards (@vvanedwards) is a recovering awkward person who teaches people how to be more successful with people. Vanessa was a great student, but, she says, she was terrible with people. Until one day she discovered that she could study people and interacting with people the same way she studied math and science. In fact, she used math and science to break down social interactions. She...

To follow a productivity system, you need to be able to trust that system. You need to trust that if you put something into the system, it will get taken care of at the right time and place. But the more complex you make that system, the harder it becomes to follow and maintain. This is where building "triggers" becomes invaluable in tweaking a system that works for you. A "trigger" is a stimulus...

Dr. David Rock (@davidrock101) is the author of Your Brain at Work, is also the founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute . They use a science-based approach to growing soft skills, working with companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and IBM. When I was just getting finished writing my first book, Design for Hackers , I was really mystified by what was going on in my own brain. I wanted to know why cr...

Creative productivity is about mind management, not time management. You have to get into the right mental state to be creative. And you need to have your brain stocked with the knowledge it takes to solve the creative problem at hand. I believe creative energy is the next resource to be managed—at least in the age of creative productivity. Think about the way we manage time, and we take that for...

Mark McGuinness (@markmcguinness) is a creative coach, a poet, and a former psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art , calls Mark an "overeducated Brit who thinks deeply about stuff you and I have never heard of." Mark is the host of the 21st Century Creative Podcast . On the 21st Century Creative , Mark explores how to take advantage of the huge opportunitie...

When you're trying to make it as a creative entrepreneur, you need to make the most out of everything you have. You need maximum output with minimal investment of time and energy. The more complex you make things, the more you get bogged down. The more you surrender your creativity to the whims of the the muse, the harder you make it to bring your work into the world. Last week, as we talked to Pa...

What if success isn't about scaling up as big as possible? What if success is actually about the freedom to call your own shots? Paul Jarvis (@pjrvs) was asking himself these questions as he left the corporate world way back in the 90s. Now he works from his home in the woods on an island near Vancouver. He explores what he's learned in his new book, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next B...

To start off the New Year you can see that we're covering topics for how to improve oneself – stuff like staying focused or even staying secure in your digital life. This week, I'd like to share with you a workout protocol that I've been enjoying for staying fit AND healthy – which, as you'll see, are not the same thing. I've tried many different workout programs, INSANITY, CrossFit, Strongfirst,...

Chris Wilken (@whereswilken) is founder and CEO of Let's Fix Security . He takes a behavioral approach to thinking about security, trying to make good security practices easy to implement. As a small business owner and a person in general, I've been thinking more and more about how to stay secure online. As soon as you start trying to think about how to stay secure online, you start to feel overwh...

Smart phones are powerful. But with great power comes great potential to get off track. Smart phones are like a superpower. If you had x-ray vision, you wouldn't want to use it all of the time. I've discovered one simple thing to do with my smartphone. Since I started doing this, it's made me more productive than ever. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now cove...

Chris Bailey (@Chris_Bailey) had a crazy thought: What if, after graduating from college, instead of getting a job – what if instead he spent a year learning everything he could about productivity? Chris followed that crazy thought into a project he called "A Year of Productivity." That was five years ago, and Chris has now written two books: First, The Productivity Project , and now his new book...

December 15th is the three year anniversary of Love Your Work . I've often found that it takes three years to really accomplish something, so I get the sense that something big is around the corner. Then again, the podcast has recently become profitable, so maybe that big thing is already here. We often want results right away, but oftentimes, it takes three years. I talk about it on today's episo...

When your life gets too comfortable, you stop taking risks. Loss aversion takes hold and you become complacent. You stop innovating. You stop being dynamic. By the time you realize you've become irrelevant, it's already too late to change. This is one of the main themes behind the work of Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen). Tyler writes one of the most influential economics blogs in the world – if not THE...

We're wired to seek pleasure, and avoid pain. But to make it as a creator, you need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. Many things that feel good about creating can hold you back, while many things that feel bad are powerful fuel. Stoicism is a philosophy that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Ryan Holiday , who we talked with on episode 31 is one modern popularizer of Stocis...

Amber Rae ( @heyamberrae ] was on the wrong path. She was swept up in the hype of the Silicon Valley startup scene. She was working too many hours on too many projects. She pushed herself so hard, she drove herself into anxiety, addiction, and eventually triggered a seizure. But Amber was doing some writing on the side. That writing helped her discover what she was hiding from, and find meaning in...

I regretfully have to cancel tonight's meetup in Chicago.

One thing I've discovered in talking to many of my guests is that your creative voice doesn't magically appear in your mind. You have to put in the work, and then your voice emerges from that work. But to do that work, you have to keep your creative machinery working. You have to keep putting out work, and you have to keep cleaning out the waste that gets in the way of putting out that work. That'...

Bad news.

A long and detailed update about the status of my Colombian visa.

Ariel Garten (@ariel_garten) envisions a world where we can control computers with our minds. She's on the cutting edge of computer and brain interfaces with her creation, the Muse headband. Ariel sent me a headband a few months ago, and I've been using it to refine my meditation sessions. The headband gives me neurofeedback to help me identify a relaxed-focus mental state. So while I'm meditating...

Productivity is about mind management, not time management. I've been thinking about how this applies to managing your tasks on a day-to-day basis. I've come to realize that as long as you have the proper due dates attached to your tasks, it doesn't matter what project those todos are for. What matters is your ability to do those tasks in an energy-efficient way. In this week's episode, I share wi...

Srini Rao (@unmistakableCEO) is host of the Unmistakable Creative podcast, and author of the new book, Audience of One: Reclaiming Creativity for Its Own Sake . In Audience of One , Srini gives you the tools and encouragement you need to stop focusing on external validation, and to reconnect with your creative spark. In a world where you can publish your creative work to more people than ever, it'...

There's something I've noticed that very successful communicators do. It's a very simple tactic, but it can go a long way in making everything you say or write more engaging, more memorable, and more effective. I'll tell you about it – this thing that successful communicators do – this week. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs fo...

You hear it all of the time. Maybe you even say it yourself: It's "crazy" at work. There are unrealistic deadlines, demanding bosses, and wall-to-wall meetings. Jason Fried (@jasonfried) believes it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, he'll tell you why in his new book, called It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work . Jason needs no introduction for many of you, but for everyone else: Jason is the C...

When you're marketing your business, it's easy to gravitate toward sure bets. Things you can do and be assured of a positive outcome. But these sure bets can cause you to miss out on asymmetric opportunities: Things that take a small amount of investment, with a small chance of a very big upside. We talked about asymmetric opportunities in last week's conversation with Tynan . This week, I'll tell...