Productivity Nerd

In this quickfire mini episode, Kathy shares the 3-Second Rule for clearing digital clutter, the test that decides in a heartbeat whether a file, app, or screenshot earns its place on your devices. If you cannot say what it is, why you need it, or when you will use it within three seconds, it goes. Kathy walks through where to start, from desktop chaos to phantom apps to screenshot graveyards, plu...

Gilly Mulford wrote her book Where Dandelions Grow while her world was falling apart - not after it, during it.   In this conversation, Kathy catches up with Gilly to explore what happens when the usual productivity tools - the habits, the systems, the routines - fail you because your nervous system is too frazzled to play along. They dig into the relationship between resilience and getting things...

Are your fitness trackers actually helping you...or quietly making things worse?   In this mini episode, Kathy takes a deep dive into the world of wearable trackers: steps, sleep scores, HRV, and the growing body of research that suggests obsessively monitoring all of it might be doing more harm than good. From the surprising (and very made-up) origins of the 10,000 steps target, to the genuinely...

In a slightly different episode Kathy sits down with ops VA Helen Taylor and tech specialist Chris Davies for a proper conversation about AI.Not a how-to, but an honest look at how small business owners and solopreneurs are actually using it, where it falls flat, and what separates the people getting real value from the ones walking away disappointed. From writing and admin to thinking partnership...

In this minipod Kathy takes a brief detour from planners and systems to explore something every productivity framework quietly depends on: happiness. Drawing on Yale psychologist Laurie Santos's wildly popular Science of Wellbeing course, this episode unpacks why the things we chase most fiercely, promotion, money, status, rarely deliver the lasting happiness we expect. Santos calls it the sat...

Kathy is joined by Natanya Gidoomal, interior designer, somatic trauma-informed coach, and neuroscience enthusiast, for a conversation that will make you look at the room you're sitting in very differently. Natanya's journey through design, coaching, and lived experience has led her to one powerful insight: your workspace isn't just a backdrop. It's actively shaping how you think,...

In this minipod Kathy explores the relationship between micro wins and macro goals, and why those small, unglamorous daily actions are the real fuel behind big ambitions. Drawing on the work of performance expert Brad Stulberg, Kathy unpacks why the journey matters more than the destination, how to build mental resilience without making it feel like an SAS selection process, and why your brain is...

This week Kathy and co-host Claire Ennion dig into Dan Martell's bestseller Buy Back Your Time, and ask what if the thing holding your business back isn't your product, your market, or your team - it's you? Martell's central argument is simple but radical: stop hiring to grow your business and start hiring to get your time back. That means auditing what you're doing, working ou...

Kathy takes a deep dive into gamification and what neuroscience actually has to say about it. In this mini episode, she explores how borrowing tricks from video games and apps like Duolingo can hijack your brain's reward system and make even the most tedious tasks feel genuinely motivating. From points systems and streaks to Pomodoro timers and celebrating micro-wins, Kathy shares four practic...

In this episode, Kathy and Helen Taylor dig into The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom.   Bloom walked away from a high-flying finance career with all the markers of success and a hollow feeling he couldn't explain. This book is what he figured out. Time, social, mental, physical, and financial wealth: most of us spend our working lives chasing the fifth while quietly going bankrupt in the othe...

In this mini episode, Kathy Soulsby gets straight to the point on one of the biggest productivity drains in any working week: meetings that should have been an email.   Kathy walks through six practical steps to make meetings genuinely useful, not just shorter. From asking the right question before you even hit "invite," to building a proper agenda, managing the clock ruthlessly, keeping...

In this minipod Kathy sits down with breathwork coach Phoebe Newman of Flown to explore one of the most overlooked productivity tools hiding in plain sight: your breath. They dig into what most of us are getting wrong about breathing, how chronic low-level stress is quietly wrecking focus and decision-making, and why the foundation of high performance might be less about your calendar system and m...

In this mini episode of Productivity Nerd, Kathy Soulsby shares her six-step "Done for the Day" checklist - a simple end-of-workday ritual designed to give your brain the off-switch it's been waiting for.   If your evenings are quietly haunted by half-finished tasks and forgotten Slack pings, this one's for you. Kathy walks through how to capture loose ends, tidy your physical and digital desk, re...

Kathy and Claire Ennion dive into The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, and the unofficial subtitle of this episode says it all: why do incredibly smart people still forget the obvious things? Gawande's answer is both humbling and reassuring. It's not about intelligence. It's about complexity. Modern work has too many moving parts, too many steps, and too much cognitive load for any...

Do you have 43 browser tabs open right now? One of them is definitely making a noise and you have no idea which one. In this bite-sized episode of Productivity Nerd: The Minipod, Kathy Soulsby tackles Open Tabs Syndrome - the twitchy, brain-scattered habit of hopping between tasks, apps, and windows like a caffeinated squirrel, while actually finishing absolutely nothing. Kathy breaks down why it...

What if the thing tanking your productivity isn't your task list...it's your body? In this episode of Productivity Nerd, Kathy sits down with personal trainer and performance coach Duncan Vincent to talk physical energy, movement habits, and why your next productivity upgrade might involve fewer browser tabs and more lunges. They cover cortisol, energy slumps, the "I don't have ti...

In this mini episode of Productivity Nerd, Kathy shares a simple reminder inspired by a postcard hanging in her loo: “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” It’s tempting to chase the latest productivity app, gadget, or perfectly colour-coded planner (Kathy is absolutely guilty of this). But real progress usually comes from something much less exciting: quietly showing u...

This week on Productivity Nerd, Kathy is joined by Rich Gwilt from Flown - a platform she’s been a member of for years (because even productivity nerds need help focusing).Flown is known for its virtual coworking sessions designed for deep work - structured, intentional time to actually finish something. Not “open 47 tabs and call it research” work. Proper work. Kathy and Rich explore why virtual...

In this mini-episode, Kathy dives into seven practical techniques from bestselling author Daniel Pink that will help you remember more from the books you read - especially non-fiction, business and personal development books.   Because let’s be honest, we all adore buying books. We feel wildly optimistic while reading them. And then… poof. The knowledge disappears like a Post-it note in a strong b...

In this episode of Productivity Nerd, host Kathy Soulsby is joined by “the email whisperer” Kim Arnold, coach, consultant, and author of Email Attraction . Together they dive into the psychology of inboxes, persuasive communication, and why badly written emails are one of the biggest hidden drains on productivity. Kim and her team have worked with major organisations to transform dull, bloated ema...

Inbox Zero. Two words guaranteed to make some people twitch. In this mini episode of Productivity Nerd , Kathy Soulsby makes a passionate (and slightly sweary) case for why Inbox Zero isn’t the problem...inbox overwhelm is. If you’ve ever opened your email, seen four figures glaring back at you, and quietly closed the tab again… this one’s for you. Kathy shares:   Why leaving thousands of emails u...

What do mood swings, motivation dips, and your productivity have in common? Hormones, baby. In this episode of Productivity Nerd , host Kathy Soulsby chats to nurse and clinical hypnotherapist Liz Sherlock about how our hormonal cycles can mess with our mojo - and what to do about it. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel like Superwoman one week and a sentient sock the next, you’re not imagining i...

Ever feel like no matter how much you get done, it’s never quite enough? Like you're on a hamster wheel powered by colour-coded to-do lists and vague guilt? In this episode, Kathy talks about toxic productivity - that sneaky voice that tells you to "try harder" even when you're running on fumes. We’ll meet the ancient metaphor of the “hungry ghost” (spoiler: it’s not just a spook...

In this episode of Productivity Nerd , Kathy Soulsby is joined by her fellow productivity enthusiast Claire Ennion for a deep dive into Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. This isn’t your standard self-help hustle fest. It’s about escaping “the drift” - that sneaky slide into autopilot - and creating a Life Plan that helps you live on purpose.   They chat legacies (yes, there’s tal...

In this bite-sized January episode, Kathy (planner addict, colour-code enthusiast, and long-time hot water bottle evangelist) dives into the art of staying warm without melting your budget. Because it’s 2026, energy bills are still soaring, and frankly no one should have to freeze just to get through their inbox. From USB hand warmers to bubble-wrapped windows (yes, really), this cosy listen is pa...