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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." That's a famous quote from Groucho Marx and encapsulates perfectly what this episode is about You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin Join the Time And Life Mastery Programme here. Use the coupon code: codisgreat to get 50% off. Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Time Sector System 5th Year Anniversary The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 390 Hello, and welcome to episode 390 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. I've been coaching people one-on-one for seven years, and in that time, I picked up some ideas that, when adopted by clients, almost always guarantee they will transform their time management and productivity. None of these ideas is revolutionary, which isn't surprising since people have long struggled with time management and productivity issues. Our attitude to time and the expectations of others has changed, but the amount of time we have hasn't. Technology, rather than helping us to do more in less time, has elevated the amount we are expected to do. Fifty years ago, we might have received thirty letters; today, technology has elevated the number of digital letters and messages we receive into the hundreds. And while we may be quicker at responding, we're not realistically able to respond to hundreds of emails and messages each day and still produce work. (Even though I know a number of you are trying) It goes back to what I wrote and spoke about two or three years ago, fashions may change, but the principles don't. AI and ChatGPT are all the rage today. If you've gone down that rabbit hole, you will have been blown away by what it can do. It's incredible. Yet what is it doing? It is making some parts of our work faster. Yet, most people still don't have enough time to do all their work. What's happening? Well, telling everyone that you can now produce a sales review presentation in less than twenty minutes with the help of ChatGPT means you are now expected to create more presentations. That sales review presentation may have taken you two days before, but now, if you can do it in twenty minutes, boom! Your boss can give you more work to do! So what are the traits, best practices and ideas that do work that the people who have seen a massive increase in their time management and productivity follow? Well, that's the subject of this week's question. And that means it's time for me to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Lauren. Lauren asks, “Hi Carl, I know you have been coaching people for a long time, and I am curious to know what the most productive people you meet do that is different from those less successful at it.” Hi Lauren, thank you for your question. As I eluded to, the most productive people I've coached follow principles, not fashions, and are ruthless with their time allocation. Those principles are to collect everything, process what you gathered, eliminate unnecessary things, and allocate time for doing what's left. But it goes a little deeper than that. First, you need to know what is important to you. That relates to your Areas of Focus. Those are the eight areas of life we all share but will define and prioritise differently. Things like, your family and relationships, career, finances, health and fitness and self-development. Knowing what these mean to you and what priority they are in your life goes a long way to helping you to build productive days. Almost every client of mine that has significantly improved their time management have gone through the Areas of Focus exercise and defined each one. The second part to this is to be clear about what your core work is. This is the work you are employed to do. What I found interesting is that my YouTube Short video with the fewest views is the one asking the question: What are you employed to do?” That doesn't surprise me. Going through and defining your Areas of Focus and core work is not sexy. Quick fixes, new tools and apps are the sexy things, yet none of those will ever help you regain control of your time. Sure, they are fun, exciting and interesting to explore. But they are distractions that will never help you be better at managing your time. (I learned that one the hard way. I used to waste so much time each week playing with new apps, programmes and tools) Speaking of tools, I have noticed that the most productive people use simple tools. Often it's Microsoft ToDo or Apple's Reminders. Quite a few use Todoist, but I suspect that's because I have done nearly four hundred videos on Todoist and many of my clients found me through YouTube. People who struggle the most are using project management tools like ClickUp or Monday.com. Those types of tools require far too much maintenance to keep them up-to-date and that takes time away from you doing the work you are organising. It's as the old saying goes, you're trying to crack a nut by using a sledge hammer. But, the stand out change that people make that has the biggest impact on their time management and overall productivity is they get ruthless with their time allocation. And I mean ruthless. For example, one long term client, now a senior executive in his company, will not allow any meetings on a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon. Those times are blocked on his calendar. He uses that time for doing his most important work for that week. Three hours Monday morning and three hours Friday afternoon. That's six hours he knows will not be interrupted and so he can confidently allocate work to those times. I remember when we first started. He was all over the place. He had meetings lined up Monday through Friday and couldn't even find a hour to quietly get on with his work. His default answer to any request was “yes” and it was destroying him. Now, not only does he have greater respect for his own time, his colleagues also do. Nobody even bothers to ask for a meeting on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon because they know he will say no. The key here is to get control of your calendar. (Another principle). If you're not in control there, it doesn't matter what you do elsewhere because you've lost control in the one area that determines what you do and when. Everyone will be different here. I have one client who's a surgeon and a professor. She has to divide her time between the operating room and the classroom. Her surgery hours are fixed. So, she knows she will be in the operating room on a Tuesday and Thursday. Her teaching hours vary according to each semester, but once the academic year begins, her lecture times are fixed. These times are locked into her calendar. But she goes further. She knows that she will have to meet with patients and students. So, Wednesdays are dedicated for patients. She will visit the patients she will be operating on the next day and deal with any out-patient clinics on a Wednesday. So three days a week are dedicated to her role as a surgeon. She will do her academic work on Mondays and Fridays. Most of her lectures are in the mornings, and she will stay in her office in the afternoons so she's available for students if they need her. What she has done is to become ruthless with how she allocates her time each week. Her calendar is sacred territory. She does open Saturday mornings during exam times so students can access her if needed, and she can do any outstanding admin work in between. What got her back in control was taking back control of her calendar and saying “no” to requests that did not fit in with her priorities. And this is where it's hard for most people. Getting control of their calendar. The easy part is organising and reorganising your task manager. Really all you are doing there is moving things around. When it comes to getting control of your calendar you have to interact with other people and that means in some instances you will need to say No. And there human nature will challenge us. We're wired to “please people”. So saying “no, I cannot meet with you” is tough. It's easier to find an excuse why you are different to everyone else. Yet, you don't have to say no. You can use services such as Calendly, that lets you pick times you will be available for meetings and all you need do is share your unique link with people requesting a meeting with you. They can then choose a time that works for them without all the hassle of trying to find a time. Technology has conditioned us to become comfortable with automated systems. There's little to no pushback these days. In fact I'd go as far as to say that people much prefer to choose their appointment time from an online booking service. Another long-time client of mine is a financial advisor. He adopted Calendly for his clients to use to book a call with him. He was expecting a lot of pushback from his clients. Instead he got a lot of compliments. They loved it. They could book a time to talk with him from the comfort of their own sofa late at night without having to call or message him during “office hours”. Now, whenever he gets a message or email requesting a meeting, he sends them the link to his booking service. This means he's in complete control of his time. He can open or close meeting time slots during his weekly planning sessions, and he knows when he will be meeting clients so he can be better prepared for the meeting. And speaking of weekly planning. This is possibly the number one idea that brings the most significant improvement. Consistently planning the week is really a no-brainer no matter what role you have in your professional and personal life. The senior executive, surgeon and financial advisor I previously mentioned wouldn't dream of beginning a week without a plan. It's how they can manage conferences, holidays and other extraordinary weeks. Without a plan for the week, it's like setting out on a journey without knowing where you are going. You'll get somewhere but highly likely it'll be a place you do not want to be. The weekly plan is about deciding what is important to you that week. What projects need attention, where your meetings are, and what you want to accomplish. For instance, many of my clients will decide when they will exercise at a weekly level. They'll decide how many times they want to go to the gym or out for a run and set that as an objective. This gives them the flexibility they need to ensure they are getting the right things done whilst taking care of the personal maintenance we all need of the right amount of sleep, exercise and eating the right food types. The final piece is the daily planning. This is where you decide at a task level what needs to be done. Because the world we live in today is fast moving, there will likely be things on your weekly plan that need to change. It's the daily planning where you can make those adjustments. For example, if the senior executive came into work one day and walked into a crisis such as what recently happened to Jaguar Land Rover with the cyber attack, his whole week would need to change. It's at a daily level that those changes can be taken care of. Meetings can be cancelled, auto reply can be set up on email services to explain why they cannot respond to emails and messages, etc. That might be extreme, but it clearly can happen and things will need to change. So there you go, Lauren. The people who get it, who are living productive and well managed lives follow a few simple principles. They follow the COD methodology—collect stuff, organise and process that stuff, eliminating the unimportant and then ensure they get on with the work. They ruthlessly protect their time on their calendars and never delegate management of their calendar to anyone else. They plan the week and day to ensure they are working on the right things at the right time and are clear about what is important to them. I hope that has helped and thank you for your question. It just remains for me to wish you all a very very productive week.
The Engineering our Future Empowering Engineers to Become Leaders Podcast
Un bellissimo episodio realizzato da Giueppe Pugliese per la Community Edition di Pensieri in codice. NO SPOILER! Se anche tu vuoi parlare di qualche argomento interessante su Pensieri in codice, scrivimi su Telegram o all’indirizzo valerio@pensieriincodice.it Pensieri in codice Puoi trovare Giuseppe Pugliese sul sito https://magnetarman.com/ In particolare, il suo podcast Glitch è disponibile su tutte le piattaforme podcast e su https://magnetarman.com/glitch/ Trovi invece Good Vibrations: sviluppare nell’era dell’AI su https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/good-vibrations-sviluppare-software-nell-era-dell-ai--6747128 Entra a far parte della community Canale Telegram Gruppo Telegram Sostieni il progetto Sostieni tramite Satispay Sostieni tramite Revolut Sostieni tramite PayPal (applica commissioni) Sostieni utilizzando i link affiliati di Pensieri in codice: Amazon, Todoist, Readwise Reader, Satispay Sostenitori di oggi: Edoardo Secco, Carlo Tomas Partner GrUSP (Codice sconto per tutti gli eventi: community_PIC) Schrödinger Hat Crediti Sound design - Alex Raccuglia Voce intro - Maria Chiara Virgili Voce intro - Spad Musiche - Kubbi - Up In My Jam, Light-foot - Moldy Lotion, Creativity, Old time memories Suoni - Zapsplat.com Cover e trascrizione - Francesco Zubani
En este episodio te cuento por qué, después de probar todas las apps de productividad —Notion, GTD, Todoist, recordatorios, IA y más—, volví al papel. ✍️Sí, suena raro, pero a veces un simple cuaderno puede hacer más por tus ideas que cualquier aplicación.Menos distracciones, más foco y esa conexión real con lo que pensás y querés hacer.
Boost your productivity
Oggi esploriamo la storia dell’Intelligenza Artificiale in Trentino, ripercorrendo la nascita e lo sviluppo dell’IRST (Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica) fondato nel 1985 a Trento. Basandoci sul libro “Meglio artificiale che niente” di Oliviero Stock, scopriamo progetti pionieristici come AlFresco (un sistema intelligente per illustrare affreschi del trecento), PEACH (guide museali adattive personalizzate), e NNR Table (un tavolo elettronico per la risoluzione dei conflitti). Un viaggio affascinante attraverso ricerche avanguardistiche in elaborazione del linguaggio naturale, interazione uomo-macchina e AI applicata alla cultura, sviluppate decenni prima che diventassero mainstream. Una storia di visione, innovazione e applicazioni concrete dell’IA pensate per arricchire l’esperienza umana. Pensieri in codice Entra a far parte della community Canale Telegram Gruppo Telegram Sostieni il progetto Sostieni tramite Satispay Sostieni tramite Revolut Sostieni tramite PayPal (applica commissioni) Sostieni utilizzando i link affiliati di Pensieri in codice: Amazon, Todoist, Readwise Reader, Satispay Sostenitori di oggi: Edoardo Secco, Carlo Tomas, Alex O Partner GrUSP (Codice sconto per tutti gli eventi: community_PIC) Schrödinger Hat Fonti dell'episodio Oliviero Stock - Meglio artificiale che niente. Cronache dell'intelligenza sulla collina https://www.fbk.eu/en/research-centers/ Crediti Sound design - Alex Raccuglia Voce intro - Maria Chiara Virgili Voce intro - Spad Musiche - Kubbi - Up In My Jam, Light-foot - Moldy Lotion, Creativity, Old time memories Suoni - Zapsplat.com Cover e trascrizione - Francesco Zubani
About This Episode In this episode of The Future of Work® Podcast, we sit down with Chase Warrington, Head of Operations at Doist, the company behind Todoist and Twist, and a pioneer in managing distributed teams. With over 15 years of experience scaling remote operations across six continents and 45+ million users, Chase offers a behind-the-scenes look into how Doist creates high-performing teams across time zones and cultures. From asynchronous workflows to values-driven leadership and radical transparency, this conversation explores how modern companies can build scalable, human-centered cultures without ever requiring an office. Whether you're a leader navigating hybrid models or a startup going fully remote, this episode is your playbook for the future. Thanks to our friends at Running Remote for connecting us with Chase.
In this video demonstration, I share key journaling tools - simple tracking tools and intentions for success - to start my month. The ultimate goal is improving outcomes for teachers and students. That includes a sense of well-being, not just achievement. When others feel supported and successful, so do I as a coach and a leader. A written explanation is also available below if you prefer to read vs. watch.Page 1: Monthly TimelineThis idea comes from The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. It is a calendar for the month in a list format. On the first page of the month in a dot journal, I document one thing I did each day that stood out to me. For example, yesterday (Monday, September 1st, or “1M”), I took a tour of a stone cottage with my family with a realtor.It's not a calendar; I don't typically add planned events ahead of time unless they are important. That's what my digital calendar is for. The function of the timeline comes after you add your activities. It's a tool for reflection. During weekly and monthly reviews (which I will share more about next month), I examine how I am spending my time and make changes if I am not happy with my actions. One way to facilitate this reflection is to separate the monthly timeline into two columns: personal and professional. This helps me quickly assess where I am giving more of my attention and time: to work or to personal commitments. If you are limited on space in your journal, you can use a highlighting system to differentiate between the two, such as green for personal.Finally, I like to track my key habits on the side of the timeline. For me right now, that is writing (W), exercise (E), and budget ($). I put a dot under each column. Again, a simple and visual way to track the positive habits I am trying to build.Page 2: Monthly IntentionsI use the word “intention” purposefully. In the past, I have titled this page “goals”. The problem with this language, at least for me, is that my goals aren't always in my zone of control. For example, I would like to hit a certain weight. While that is a great goal, a lot of factors and influences go into making that happen: watching my diet, exercising, and eating healthy foods. So, intentions are not the same as goals, and they are more than just projects. They cannot be accomplished with one or a couple of steps. They exist somewhere above both goals and projects. More importantly, they are an aspiration for what I want to accomplish this month. It's easy to fall into the “goal/project” list. For instance, in my current set of intentions (also divided by personal and professional), I initially listed “clean out attic” and “set up yearlong P.D. schedule”. These are projects. I revised them with clearer intentions: “Create the start of a studio space for art, storage, etc.” and “Provide high-quality learning experiences for colleagues”. They are more motivating and open. Projects and goals can exist within them.Note: I don't have more than a handful of intentions listed at any one time. I have dozens of projects saved in a task management app (Todoist). What I want to accomplish this month, I migrate over to my intentions page for the month. I aim to have no more than ten (10) intentions, an idea that comes from Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. It's a good constraint: just the right amount of options to choose from in the moment. We experience decision fatigue and procrastinate when we have too many options, for example, 20 different kinds of ketchup at the grocery store. From there, my daily log should at least partially reflect these intentions. In the example below, from yesterday, I documented a tour my wife and I took of a stone cottage in our small city. We are exploring the idea of downsizing. This wasn't part of our plan when I created my intentions list. Seeing that it is important to us, I will add it. Not as something to accomplish to prioritize. That means it will get more of my attention than other, lesser requests for my attention.Likewise, today (9.2.T), I noted that I wanted to capture insights from my interactions with coaches and leaders during school visits. So I created a custom collection on the next page as a simple tool for this purpose. This became another intention on my monthly list. When this coaching log is complete, I can review all the insights and determine what the common needs are with clients. I may use A.I. to help me with this analysis (I masked the names). While technology is helpful in this way, I find paper and pen to be most beneficial for seeing everything all at once. Digital tools have a way of hiding my commitments - out of sight, out of mind. Next month (October), I will share more about daily logs, as well as how to start a brand new notebook! Let me know what questions come up for you from this post in the comments. Paid subscribers can also join me for an “Empower Hour” on Thursday, September 25 at 4:00pm CST to discuss these topics in real time. Register below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit readbyexample.substack.com/subscribe
In today's episode, Sarah shares some recent planner news. She discusses price changes at Hobonichi (she compares her recent order to years prior), and then shares about the new Minimalist option available from Full Focus.Then, she goes through Q&A, tips & planner peace submissions for September! Topics include:- Feedback from a teacher about separating work + life into different planner systems- Tip from Sara about using ToDoist as a way to remind her future self about upcoming tasks- Planner Peace (mostly digital!) from SAHM Ashley- Suggestions for compact planners designed to be used for just one month at at a time?- Advice for rebuilding one's system after a life-changing medical eventTo submit your questions, email sarah hart unger at gmail or visit theshubox.com! Episode Sponsors: IXL: Make an impact on your child's learning this school year with IXL! Best Laid Plans listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixl.com/plans. Green Chef: Make this season your healthiest yet with Green Chef. Head to greenchef.com/50BESTLAID and use code 50BESTLAID to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months with free shipping. PrepDish: Healthy menu plans and prep instruction to take the mental load out of dinner! Visit PrepDish.com/plans for your first 2 weeks, FREE. Mint Mobile: Affordable unlimited wireless! Get your new customer offer and your 3-month unlimited wireless plan for $15 a month at mintmobile.com/BLP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, host Dr. Bradley Block picks up with Dr. Cheryl Chase for part 2 on enhancing executive functioning for physicians and high-performers. They explore self-monitoring tools like tone tapes (or music playlists with varying intervals), buzzing devices, timers, and apps such as Brick for blocking distractions. Dr. Chase discusses visual timers for better time perception, productivity apps like ToDoist, Trello, and Notion, and prioritization using the Eisenhower matrix to sort tasks by urgency and importance. She emphasizes delegating to free up time and replenishing the "EF bucket" with mindfulness practices (e.g., box breathing), exercise, sipping glucose-rich beverages, sleep, and nurturing relationships. Drawing from Dr. Russ Barkley's insights, these strategies help anyone—not just those with ADHD—optimize focus, persist through tasks, and maintain work-life balance. This episode wraps up the series with essential tips for thriving in demanding roles.Three Actionable Takeaways:Enhance Self-Monitoring with Tools – Use tone tapes (or playlists with varying song lengths), buzzing watches, or timers to check in on your focus at random intervals; for distractions, try apps like Brick to physically lock social media until you complete tasks.Prioritize and Delegate Effectively – Apply the Eisenhower matrix to categorize tasks by urgency and importance, focusing on high-impact items first; delegate non-essential duties after investing time to teach others, freeing up your schedule for what matters most.Replenish Your EF Bucket – Before EF-heavy tasks, practice box breathing (inhale/hold/exhale/hold for 4 counts each) or mindful minutes; incorporate exercise (20-30 minutes, 2-3 times/week), sip glucose-rich beverages while working, prioritize sleep, diet, and social connections to boost cognitive fuel.About the Show:Succeed In Medicine covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!About the GuestDr. Cheryl Chase is a licensed clinical psychologist in Independence, Ohio, specializing in assessments and treatments for ADHD, learning disorders, and emotional challenges across the lifespan. She's an international speaker on executive functioning, dyslexia, co-regulation, and performance improvement in work and school settings. Her strategies help high-achievers, including physicians, enhance efficiency and balance.Website: https://chasingyourpotential.comAbout the host:Dr. Bradley Block – Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Succeed In Medicine podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physiciansWant to be a guest?Email Brad at brad@physiciansguidetodoctoring.com or visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to learn more!Socials:@physiciansguidetodoctoring on Facebook@physicianguidetodoctoring on YouTube@physiciansguide on Instagram and Twitter This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft skills, charting, interpersonal skills, doctor finance, doctor mental health, medical decisions, physician parenting, physician executive skills, navigating your doctor career, and medical professional development. This is critical CME for physicians, but without the credits (yet). A proud founding member of the Doctor Podcast Network!Visit www.physiciansguidetodoctoring.com to connect, dive deeper, and keep the conversation going. Let's grow! Disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, financial, or legal advice. Always consult a qualified professional for personalized guidance.
In questo episodio esploriamo i motivi per cui dobbiamo mantenere un atteggiamento critico verso l’Intelligenza Artificiale generativa. Analizziamo tre fenomeni fondamentali: le allucinazioni (quando i modelli producono informazioni false ma convincenti), la sicofantia (la tendenza ad assecondare sempre l’utente anche quando ha torto) e le menzogne (quando i modelli nascondono i loro veri processi di ragionamento). Scopriamo perché questi comportamenti sono intrinseci al funzionamento stesso dei Large Language Model e come il metodo di addestramento basato su feedback umano contribuisca a questi problemi. Un episodio essenziale per chiunque utilizzi strumenti di IA nella vita quotidiana o professionale. Pensieri in codice Entra a far parte della community Canale Telegram Gruppo Telegram Sostieni il progetto Sostieni tramite Satispay Sostieni tramite Revolut Sostieni tramite PayPal (applica commissioni) Sostieni utilizzando i link affiliati di Pensieri in codice: Amazon, Todoist, Readwise Reader, Satispay Sostenitori di oggi: Edoardo Secco, Carlo Tomas, Michele S., Paola Z. Partner GrUSP (Codice sconto per tutti gli eventi: community_PIC) Schrödinger Hat Fonti dell'episodio https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-hallucinations https://openai.com/it-IT/index/introducing-gpt-4-5 https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/18/1093440/what-causes-ai-hallucinate-chatbots https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.11817 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/sycophantic-ai/682743 https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13548 https://www.anthropic.com/research/reasoning-models-dont-say-think https://assets.anthropic.com/m/71876fabef0f0ed4/original/reasoning_models_paper.pdf https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/10/the-more-sophisticated-ai-models-get-the-more-likely-they-are-to-lie https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07930-y https://www.uniladtech.com/news/ai/sam-altman-trust-chatgpt-eerie-statement-hallucination-claims-782637-20250625 Crediti Sound design - Alex Raccuglia Voce intro - Maria Chiara Virgili Voce intro - Spad Musiche - Kubbi - Up In My Jam, Light-foot - Moldy Lotion, Creativity, Old time memories Suoni - Zapsplat.com Cover e trascrizione - Francesco Zubani
Ready for the ultimate tech setup tour? After getting tons of questions about my gear and tools, I'm pulling back the curtain on EVERYTHING I use to run my business - from my $3000+ recording setup to the analog tools that keep me organized.In this comprehensive walkthrough, I cover my entire recording studio (Sure SM7B, RoadCaster Pro 2, Sony A6400), the software that powers my business (Kit, Notion, Todoist), my Spartan travel setup, and even my favorite pens and notebooks.Plus, I'll share why I'm considering going "AI vegan" and which tools are worth the investment vs. the ones you can skip.Whether you're building your own podcast setup, looking to streamline your solopreneur business, or just love geeking out over productivity tools, this episode has something for you.Are you overwhelmed by the number of tools you have? Not sure what you can eliminate vs. which you need? Get the, take the Business Overwhelm DiagnosticTop TakeawaysSeparate "business critical" software from nice-to-have apps - My core apps don't change super often. But there are a bunch I like to try and tinker with to see if they'll work better.Automation tools should enhance, not complicate your workflow - My change back to Zapier due to user-friendly troubleshooting and testing capabilities matter more than saving money when things break.Analog tools still have their place in digital workflows - Physical notebooks, quality pens, and handwritten planning complement digital systems by providing different cognitive benefits and serving as reliable backups when technology fails.Want the full list with links? Everything mentioned is at https://casabona.org/usesWhat's your essential business tool? Let me know at https://streamlinedfeedback.com (00:00) - Introduction (00:39) - Recording Setup: Microphone, Windscreen, and Boom Arm (03:38) - Software for Recording (09:24) - Simplified Travel Recording Setup (12:29) - General Hardware (15:30) - Business Software (19:16) - Essential Apps for Mac and iPhone (24:14) - AI Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, and Granola (25:00) - Analog Tools (26:17) - Final Thoughts ★ Support this podcast ★
"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." Eddie Cantor This week, I'm answering a question about why it's important to slow down and allow your brain to do what it does best and why you do not want to be competing with computers. You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin The Time-Based Productivity Course Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Time Sector System 5th Year Anniversary The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 380 Hello, and welcome to episode 380 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. It's very easy to get caught up in the hype about AI and what it promises to do or can do for you. And it is an exciting time. AI promises a lot, and our devices are becoming faster. Does this mean it's all good news? Well, maybe not. You see, while all this technology is becoming faster, our brains are not. Evolution takes time. We can still only process information at the same speed people did hundreds of years ago. And it's causing us to take shortcuts. Shortcuts that may not necessarily be in our best interests. Thirty years ago, people would buy a newspaper in the morning and that single newspaper would furnish us with analysis and news throughout the day. I remember buying my newspaper from the newsagent outside the office I worked at in the morning. I would read that newspaper during my coffee breaks and lunch. I'd begin with the front page, then the sport on the back page and usually in the afternoon, I'd read the opinion pieces. It was a daily ritual, and felt natural. I'd pay my fifty pence (around 75 cents) each morning and by the end of the day, I would feel I had got my money's worth. I remember reading full articles, getting to know both sides of the argument and the nuances within each story. Today, people are in such a rush, they rarely read a full article, and only get a snapshot of what's really going on. There are apps that will summarise documents, articles and important reports for you. But is this really good for you? This is why over the last two years, I've been intentionally slowing down. It began with bringing pens and paper back into my system, then going on to wearing an analogue watch instead of an Apple Watch. It's moved on to buying real books, and this year, reacquainting myself with the joys of ironing, cooking and polishing shoes. And that brings me on to this week's question. So, that means it's time for me now to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Michael. Michael asks, Hi Carl, you've talked a lot about your pen and paper experiment and I was wondering why you are going against technology, when clearly that is the future. Hi Michael, thank you for your question. I should begin by saying I am not against technology. I love technology. I still use Todoist and Evernote, and I use Anthropic's Claude most days. Technology is still a big part of my life. However, I began my “analogue experiment”—if you can call it that—because I began to realise that trying to keep up with all the advances in technology meant I was missing out on life. I had stopped thinking for myself and was looking for confirmation of the opinions I had formed about a subject. And technology does that extremely well. I remember during the last US Presidential election I was curious about what the arguments were about. I watched a few videos on YouTube from Fox News and MSNBC trying to maintain some kind of balance. That didn't turn out so well. I must have accidentally watched a video or two more from Fox News and suddenly my YouTube feed was full of Greg Gutfeld and Meghan Kelly. So much for trying to hear both sides of the argument. It took over a month to get those videos out of my YouTube feed. From a time management and productivity perspective I've always felt it's important that you decide what is important and what is not. For most of you, you will have gained a few years experience in the work that you do. That experience is valuable. It gives you an advantage. You have learned what works and what does not work. Not in a theoretical way, but in a practical way. Sales courses can teach the theory, but to become a great salesperson requires real, hands on experience. Talking with real people, dealing with objections and allowing your personality and charm to come through. You can't learn that from an online course or four hours chatting with an AI bot. Henry Kissinger was a divisive figure. Some loved him, others hated him. Yet successive presidents both Republican and Democrat sort his advice long after he had left government. Why? Because of his vast personal experience dealing with dictators and uncompromising world leaders. Now I understand why technology does this. Companies such as Google and the media organisations want my attention. Their algorithms are trained to do just that. And as a human being it's very difficult to resist. But the biggest problem with this is everything is becoming faster and faster. So fast, that your brain cannot keep up. Now there are things we should move fast on. An upset customer, a natural disaster in your town or city, A suddenly sick loved one or a burst pipe in your bathroom. Equally, though, there are a lot of things we shouldn't be moving fast on. Deciding what must be done today, for example, sitting down and talking with your kids, or partner. Talking with your parents, siblings, friends or taking your dog out for a walk. One work related example would be managing your email. There are two parts to this. Clearing your inbox requires speed. You're filtering out the unimportant from the important. And with experience, you soon become very fast at this. Then there's the replying to the important emails. That requires you to slow down and think. Now I know there are AI email apps that promise to do the filtering for you. Yet do you really trust that it got it right? That lack of trust results in you going through the AI filtered emails, “just in case”. Which in turn slows down the processing. You would have been faster had you done it yourself. But this goes beyond where AI and technology can help us. It goes to something deeper and more human. One of the most mentally draining things you can do is sit at a screen all day. You can respond to messages, write reports, design presentations, edit videos, and read the news all from a single screen. This means that, in theory, except for needing to go to the bathroom, you could spend all day and night without getting up from the chair. That's not how you work. Your brain cannot stay focused for much more than 90 minutes without the need for a break. Yet, if a break means you stare at another window, perhaps stop writing the report and instead read a news article, your brain is not getting a rest. Instead, one of the best things you could do, particularly now, with the new flexible ways of working, is to get up and do something manually. Perhaps take the laundry and do a load of washing. Then return to your computer, work for another hour and then hang the washing up. Two things happen here. First, your brain gets a rest from deep thinking and does something simple. And secondly, you move. Another thing your brain requires to work at its best. Repetitive tasks are therapy for your brain. This is why some say that jogging or hiking is therapeutic. The act of putting one foot in front of another is repetitive and your brain can operate on automatic pilot. Yet, there's something else here. The other day I had a pile of ironing to do. It wasn't overwhelming, but there was around forty-minutes of work there to do. At the same time, I was working on an article I was writing. That writing began strongly, but after an hour or so, my writing had slowed considerably. I was struggling. It was at that moment I looked up and saw the pile of ironing. So, I got up, pulled out the ironing board and iron and spend forty minutes or so clearing the pile. WOW! What a difference. After hanging up the clothes, I sat back down at my desk and the energy to write returned and I was able to get the article finished in no time at all. Now what would have happened had I stayed tied to my desk? Probably not very much at all. I would have continued to struggle, perhaps written a bit, but likely would have had to rewrite what I had written. Instead, I gave my brain a break. I did something manual that was repetitive, ironing. I know it's not exciting, but that's the point. It recharged my brain and I was able to return to my writing refreshed and didn't need to rewrite anything later. Other activities you can do is to make your own lunch. Going into the kitchen to make a sandwich does not require a lot of brain power. It gets you up from your desk, gives your brain a break from the screen and you're making something. It was a sense that everything I was doing was done at a screen that was the catalyst for me to return to doing some things manually. I remember when I decided to start using a pen and notebook for planning out my week. I was shocked how much better I thought. When I was planning my week digitally, I couldn't wait to get it over. Just to make it feel more worthwhile, I would clean up a folder or clear my desktop of screenshots and PDFs I no longer needed. I noticed I was doing anything but actually plan the week. When I closed my computer, pulled out a notebook and one of my favourite fountain pens, I actually planned and thought about what I wanted to accomplish that week. My Saturday morning planning sessions have become one of my favourite times of the week. I can stop, slow down and just think slowly and deeply about what I want to accomplish. And all these little things that have slowed me down have resulted in me getting far more done each week. Without consciously choosing to do so, my social media time has dropped significantly. I don't watch as many YouTube videos as I used to do, and I feel more fulfilled and accomplished at the end of the day. A couple of months ago, while my wife was studying for her end of term exams, I would finish in my office, go through into the living room where she was studying, pick up a real book and read. It was a lovely feeling. My wife, Louis and myself all on the sofa engaged in something meaningful. We were still able to ask each other questions, but for the most part it felt calm, quiet and natural. Last weekend, during my TV time, I began watching the autobiographical series on the Life and Times of Lord Louis Mountbatten. Mountbatten was born in 1900 and died in 1979. He lived through two World Wars, was a part of both, was a member of the Royal Family, being the cousin of King George 6th, and was involved in many post war events. As he was describing his work, I noticed there was no “9 til 5” hours or any of the structures we impose on ourselves today. For most of Mountbatten's life there was no television. Instead, people wrote letters or read books in their quiet times. Most weekends were spent socialising with family and friends and there was a lot of walking in the countryside. Yes, Mountbatten lived a privileged life, he was royalty after all, but even if you study the working classes of the time, they went to work—often hard manual labour, and come home where they would either spend the evening talking and playing games with their families or call into the local pub and enjoy time with their friends and neighbours. They were different times, of course, but the noticeable thing was the everything that needed to be done got done. Was was most striking about these times was the sense of fulfilment people spoke and wrote about. They were doing hard manual work, yet had a sense of accomplishment each day. Today, that sense of fulfilment and accomplish can be lost and instead because of the endless lists of to-dos, messages to respond to we feel overwhelmed and swamped. The most noticeable benefit I've found by returning to a few analogue tools is I no longer feel overwhelmed. I find I am more intentional about what I do and at the end of the day, I feel a sense of accomplishment. So there you go, Michael. That's why I've brought back some analogue tools into my life. They slowed me down, enabled me to think better and ironically, I am getting a lot more done that I did when I was completely paperless and digital. I hope that has helped. Thank you for your question. And thank you to you too for listening. Now I must go and hang up the laundry. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3696: Carl Pullein lays out a powerful framework for beginning each morning with clarity and control by focusing on three simple practices: reflection, prioritization, and intention-setting. By anchoring your day before distractions take over, you create momentum, reduce stress, and make space for meaningful progress. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-start-the-day-with-intention-and-purpose/6/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "Before you allow the world to hijack your attention, you want to establish control over your day." "The day hasn't started yet, and you have the peace and quiet to really think about what you want to accomplish." "Think about what outcomes you want from the day and why those outcomes are important." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3696: Carl Pullein lays out a powerful framework for beginning each morning with clarity and control by focusing on three simple practices: reflection, prioritization, and intention-setting. By anchoring your day before distractions take over, you create momentum, reduce stress, and make space for meaningful progress. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-start-the-day-with-intention-and-purpose/6/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "Before you allow the world to hijack your attention, you want to establish control over your day." "The day hasn't started yet, and you have the peace and quiet to really think about what you want to accomplish." "Think about what outcomes you want from the day and why those outcomes are important." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3696: Carl Pullein lays out a powerful framework for beginning each morning with clarity and control by focusing on three simple practices: reflection, prioritization, and intention-setting. By anchoring your day before distractions take over, you create momentum, reduce stress, and make space for meaningful progress. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-start-the-day-with-intention-and-purpose/6/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "Before you allow the world to hijack your attention, you want to establish control over your day." "The day hasn't started yet, and you have the peace and quiet to really think about what you want to accomplish." "Think about what outcomes you want from the day and why those outcomes are important." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Word-processing is a normative, standardised tool. Obviously, you can change the page layout and switch fonts, but you cannot invent a form not foreseen by the software. Paper allows much greater graphic freedom: you can write on either side, keep to set margins or not, superimpose lines or distort them. There is nothing to make you follow a set pattern. It has three dimensions too, so it can be folded, cut out, stapled or glued.” That's a quote from Claire Bustarret, a specialist on codex manuscripts at the Maurice Halbwachs research centre in Paris. And is the start of my attempt to explain why you don't want to be abandoning the humble pen and paper just yet. You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin The Time-Based Productivity Course Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Time Sector System 5th Year Anniversary The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 378 Hello, and welcome to episode 378 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. I recently came across a short video from Shawn Blanc of the Sweet Setup website who argued that paper-based planners enable better focus and less distractions that their digital counterparts. And in my now ten-month experiment with the Franklin Planner I also have discovered that planning on paper gives me greater insights about what is important and what is not, it has allowed me to reduce my to-do list dramatically and improved my ability to think at the next level—the level that really matters if you want to go beyond just the rudimentary basics and create something special. This week's question is about my “experiment” and what I did it and what I learned. So, without further ado, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Phil. Phil asks, hi Carl, I'm curious about your Franklin Planner experiment. Why did you do it and what have you learned from the experience? Hi Phil, thank you for your question. Before I begin, I should give you some background. My planner journey began on my 18th birthday when my uncle and auntie bought me a black leather Filofax. These were all the rage in the mid to late 1980s. They were a symbol of what we called in the UK the “YUPPIE generation” A YUPPIE was a young urban professional or young upwardly mobile professional. It was a term used to describe a young, well-educated, and affluent person who worked in a city. It was often associated with a particular lifestyle and consumption patterns. Filofaxes had a diary—usually a week to view—, an addresses area, and other planning pages such as a goals and notes area and an expenses tracker. I loved that Filofax. And I remember carrying it around with me everywhere. I was living the YUPPIE lifestyle without having the job, type of car or luxury apartment associated with them. I was pretending hahaha. A few years later, while working in car sales, I was introduced to the Franklin Planner. I think it was around 1992 or 1993, by my general manager, Andrew. That changed everything for me. No longer was I just carrying around information—really what a Filofax did in those days—and I had a tool that enabled me to establish what was important to me (my “governing values”) and a way to plan the day, and week. I used that Franklin Planner for fourteen years. It went everywhere with me. I'd take it on holiday with me and often find myself sat on the hotel's balcony late at night writing out how I felt my life was going and what I wanted to change. It was a tool that kept me accountable to my goals and values and really did change my life for the better. Then came what I call the digital explosion in 2009. That's when I got my first iPhone and that coincided with my first reading of David Allen's Getting Things Done. I stopped using the Franklin Planner and began a transition to digital tools. It was an exciting time and my whole time management system began to change. Often for the better, sometimes for the worse. Yet, on the whole I enjoyed the evolution. That's the background. So, why did I decide to go back to using a Franklin Planner. Well, I had begun to notice that I felt I was rushing everything. Sure, some things needed to be done quickly, but the majority of my work didn't need to be done right now. Those tasks in my task list could wait until another day, yet, I had this feeling I had to complete them today. It created a sense of anxiety. A sort of low level buzz in my head telling me I should be doing work, checking off my tasks and not taking time to step back and think if what I was about to do was necessary or important. It was unpleasant. So, I decided to go back and try a Franklin Planner for a few months to see what would happen. It was a revelation and I was shocked. The first thing I noticed was I slowed down. Because you have to manually write out your tasks and appointments each day, you had time to contemplate whether they really needed to be done. With my digital system, I had things like watch this YouTube video, or read this article. Yet, these were not important at all. For some reason the digital task manager elevated their importance because they were on the list and had to be done—which, of course, they didn't. I never wrote those down in the Franklin Planner. I might have written them down in the notes area for later, but they would not be a task. It was too easy to add stuff to a digital task manager, which meant all sorts of rubbish got added to the list. What that did was to make my task lists bigger and bigger. It got to a point where there were over 600 tasks in my task manager. I remember looking at that realising that 80% of what was in there was either no longer relevant or would be a waste of time if I did do them. That never happened with the Franklin Planner. The act of writing down tasks, meant you would carefully consider whether it was worth doing or not. The result of this transition was instead of having fifteen to twenty tasks on my task list each day, in my Franklin Planner I had less then eight most days and what was there was genuinely important. Another area that changed almost immediately was I started to think again. Earlier last year, I had started planning out my projects, YouTube videos and weekly plans in what I called my Planning Book. This was an A4 ring-bound notebook that contained all my plans and initial thoughts about a project or video. Suddenly, I found I was thinking things through better. When I sat down to plan out something, I was completely engaged. There were no pop-up notifications, or other digital distractions that would stop my thoughts. I could go deep, much deeper than I ever did digitally. And the results were almost instant. My YouTube video views went from an average of 3 to 4 thousand in a week to over 10,000! The only change I had made was to plan out my videos on paper instead of an Evernote note. On analysis, what I noticed was I became a better storyteller—and important part of creating YouTube videos. And that resulted in almost three times more views on YouTube. I quickly began to see that there was something going on here. Digital tools are great. They are so convenient, and it's fantastic that you can carry around fifteen years of notes on a simple device like your phone. But, is that really helpful. 99% of my journeys and trips never required me to have to look up some important information. And on those rare occasions when I did need to look up something, I could have easily explained to the person I was meeting that I would send the information when I got back to my office. In fact, remembering to do that after writing it down on a piece of paper may have impressed the person I was meeting and would have given me time to think of a memorable way to convey the information. Returning to the Franklin Planner and bringing some paper-based planning back into my life has been a revelation. It's slowed me down, while at the same time has helped me to become far more productive. It's done that by getting me to think again. And that's perhaps where digital tools are failing us. Technology is all about speeding things up and making things more convenient. Think about it, the introduction of elevators and escalators has coincided with people becoming less fit and healthy. The convenience of delivery food has created a generation of people who wake up, sit down at a desk all day, then order food and continue to sit while they eat highly processed foods that are slowly killing them. Walking up stairs and cooking your own food ensures you are moving and likely eating a lot healthier. It also means you more likely to eat with your family and as a consequence maintain that all important communication with the people you love. Technology has massively increased the speed at which things can be done. And in some areas that's helpful. But, and this is a big but, your brains ability to process all that information has not speeded up. This means, if you want to feel fulfilled and be more productive, you should become better at filtering out the noise and focus on the things that are genuinely important. Digital tools make that difficult with their emphasis on speed and monotonous lists. Paper-based tools enable your brain to slow down, work at a healthy pace and to think deeper. A consequence of which means you think better, make better decisions about what to work on and feel less stressed and overwhelmed. Will I go back to an all-digital system? No. I've found a happy balance. My Franklin Planner allows me to make better choices about what I should work on today. My Planning Book gives me a space to think about what I am trying to do and to brainstorm better ways of doing the work. However, I do see a space for digital tools. I always scan in my plans to a digital project note. The output of my work is digital. Blog-posts, YouTube videos, online courses and even my coaching programmes are all done digitally. (I use Zoom to talk with my clients who are based all over the world) I also use Todoist to keep track of the recurring stuff I would likely forget to do. Reminders to water the office plant (every four days), to do my expenses, respond to my actionable emails and to send out regularly recurring invoices are all managed in Todoist. The conclusion I have come to from this experiment is that the perfect system is a hybrid of digital and analogue tools. Your calendar works best digitally, yet on a daily basis, slowing down and writing out what you will do that day works better in an analogue form. It stops you from overwhelming yourself. Thank you, Phil, for your question. And thank you to you for listening. It just remains for me to wish you all a very very productive week.
Tech Productivity to AI to Cybersecurity to Sports Cars - Best of Tech 1st half 2025 - AZ TRT S06 EP12 (274) 7-6-2025 What We Learned This Week ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, developed by OpenAI, that can engage in human-like conversations Obvious Future is building Machine Learning (AI) programs to be used onsite for a business Oilstain Lab creates high end retro futuristic designer sports car - in EV models ACTRA - Cyber threats affect everyone from Gov't to business to private and growing Clips form podcasts focused on tech in the 1st Half of 2025 Notes: Segment 1: Tech Productivity - AZ TRT S06 EP06 (267) 3-23-2025 What We Learned This Week ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, developed by OpenAI, that can engage in human-like conversations ChatGPT can read docs, edit docs, answer Qs, and transcribe Elevenreader – app that turns any document into audio Google Drive – office suite of tools for spreadsheets, docs, powerpoints, & more Todoist – task management program Pocket – web research tool that saves & organizes links Guest: Denver Nowicz, President - Wealth For Lifehttp://wealthforlife.net/ Denver is an advisor with nearly 20 years experience working with clients in investments and insurance, designing retirement plans with a combo of both. He takes us through different strategies for clients to get the best allocations for their money over the long term. It is the Combo Strategy of both Offense and Defense, the synergy of the mix, not ‘All or Nothing'. Full Show: HERE Segment 2: Cybersecurity Response Plan w/ Frank Grimmelmann of ACTRA - AZ TRT S06 EP03 (264) 2-9-2025 What We Learned This Week ACTRA Arizona Cyber Threat Response Alliance Cyber threats affect everyone from Gov't to business to private and growing Companies need to be responsive with speed to be effective + share information of attacks ACTRA has members from both government and private sector ACTRA helped create a state cybersecurity response model that other states can use Guest: Frank Grimmelmann https://www.actraaz.org/actra/leadership President & CEO/Intelligence Liaison Officer Mr. Grimmelmann also serves as Co-Chair (together with Arizona's Chief Information Security Officer) for the Arizona Cybersecurity Team (‘ACT'), created through the Governor's Executive Order signed in March 2018. He also serves as a Founding Member of the National Leadership Group for the Information Sharing & Analysis Organization Standards Organization (‘ISAO SO') at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), created under the President's Executive Order 13691 in February 2015. As ACTRA's leader, Mr. Grimmelmann was invited as the first private sector representative in the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) and served as its first private sector Executive Board representative from 2014-2019. He presently acts as ACTRA's designated private sector liaison to ACTRA's Key Agency and other non-Member Stakeholders. Full Show: HERE Segment 3: Futuristic EV Designer Sports Car w/ Nikita Bridan of Oilstainlab - AZ TRT S06 EP02 (263) 1-26-2025 What We Learned This Week Oilstain Lab creates high end retro futuristic designer sports car - in EV models EV Car Designers for Gearheads who hate EVs All the capabilities of a sports car, on a liteweight carbon fiber frame, + sound & an electric motor Inspired by the race cars of Italy & classic 1960s sports cars Guest: Nikita Bridan, Co-Founder, CEO Nikita Bridan is co-founder & chief executive officer of Oilstainlab. A car design strategist with 15 years of OEM and startup experience, Nikita has worked with world-renowned brands including Lyft, Cruise, GM, Toyota, Genesis, ONE, and more on electrification, platforms, and strategy. In 2019, Nikita co-founded Oilstainlab with his twin brother, Iliya, as an automotive design consultancy service and playground, and developed it into a boundary-pushing, custom vehicle manufacturer. Nikita lives his life as fast as the cars he builds, once being pulled over at 140mph in Arizona and getting off with a warning. Nikita earned bachelor's degrees in Transportation Design from the Istitudo Europeo di Design in Italy and the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he now serves as an instructor to the next generation of designers. Leading a New Generation of Automotive with Oilstainlab Co-Founder Nikita Bridan The future of automotive design is in the hands of twin brothers, Nikita and Iliya Bridan. The founders of Oilstainlab have turned heads worldwide with their automotive creations, most notably the Half-11, its half Porsche-half Formula 1 race car that pays homage to the golden age of motor racing. Full Show: HERE Segment 4 Machine Learning (AI) Onsite w/ Eddi Weinwurm of Obvious Future - AZ TRT S06 EP01 (262) 1-5-2025 What We Learned This Week Obvious Future is building Machine Learning (AI) programs to be used onsite for a business Corporate Data is too sensitive to be in the cloud / internet Business cannot use cloud AI programs like ChatGPT, Google Cloud, etc because of IP and privacy concerns Large Language Models are not necessary, have more data than needed, can have smaller AI programs tailored for business Guest: Eddi Weinwurm AI is top of mind for most enterprises…but most don't know the risks especially in the cloud. https://obviousfuture.com/# Eddi Weinwurm is a co-founder and CEO of Obvious Future an AI company with a new approach to keeping AI local and secure. Eddi Weinwurm has many years of experience in both the development of media management software and AI. As a visionary he formed the company to address critical enterprises in the growing AI market. ObviousFuture Resident AI: Faster, Safer, and Transforming Enterprise AI Eddi Weinwurm co-founder and CEO of ObviousFuture is on a mission to make AI safer and faster for enterprises. ObviousFuture, a trailblazer in secure and private AI solutions, will be unveiling a disruptive AI solution for the enterprise on December 18—Resident AI. This solution empowers enterprises to harness the full potential of AI while safeguarding their data locally, marking a critical evolution in the AI landscape. ObviousFuture's Resident AI operates entirely on-premise, solving a $500 billion market problem by addressing vulnerabilities like data privacy risks, compliance challenges, and vendor lock-ins. The company is focused on key sectors such as government, defense, surveillance, medical, and media. Early adopters, have achieved ROI within just two months of deployment of the Resident AI platform. Full Show: HERE Biotech Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Biotech-Life+Sciences-Science AZ Tech Council Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=az+tech+council *Includes Best of AZ Tech Council show from 2/12/2023 Tech Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Tech-Startup-VC-Cybersecurity-Energy-Science Best of Tech: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=best+of+tech ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the AZ TRT Podcast. AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business. AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving. Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more… AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/ Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.
This week, we're finding out how accessible the gaming platform ‘Steam' can be for blind and partially sighted players, we'll be hearing another ‘Tech Timeline' and getting ourselves organised with the ‘Todoist' app for iOS and Android. You can listen to the show live in the UK every Tuesday at 1pm on Freeview Channel 730, online at RNIB Connect Radio | RNIB , or on your smart speaker. You'll hear new episodes of the Tech Talk Podcast every Tuesday afternoon, so make sure you're subscribed to never miss an episode. We'd love to hear your thoughts on accessible technology, drop us an email at techtalk@rnib.org.uk
Sentir agotamiento todo el tiempo no es normal, aunque sea común.Pero… ¿cómo lograr el balance entre ser productivos y descansar?Este episodio está lleno de herramientas para gestionar el estrés, armar tu agenda y aprender a vivir de acuerdo a tus prioridades.@paumorenowellness, experta en productividad consciente, no nos regala más horas para el día, pero sí tácticas que lo hacen rendir: desde cómo usar tu calendario de forma estratégica, hasta qué hábitos y apps te ayudan a enfocarte sin quemarte.Disponible en Spotify, Apple Music y YouTube. Transforma tu cuerpo y hábitos con Phit. Entrena donde quieras y desde 20 minutos diarios. Síguenos en Instagram. Te regalo 7 días: https://www.phit.mx/offers/hACuVsND/checkout Síguenos en nuestras plataformas: Instagram: @denissephit @Phitchallenge Entrena: https://www.phit.mxRecomendaciones: Thrive, The Power of Full Engagement, Hábitos Atómicos, entre otros.Apps clave: Screen Zen, Todoist, Notion, Insight Timer, Google Calendar.
The Road to Macstock and Macstock Conference and Expo takes us to Jill McKinley, who previews her upcoming talk on how Apple's ecosystem helped her lose weight and build a healthier lifestyle. She will explain how the Apple Watch, Fitness+, and apps like MyNetDiary and Todoist make tracking effortless, with reminders and data centralization driving consistency. In typical Jill fashion, her session will guide attendees through the full range of Apple's health tools with small, sustainable steps. This edition of MacVoices is supported by MacVoices After Dark. What happens before and after the shows is uncensored, on-topic, off-topic, and always off the wall. Sign up as a MacVoices Patron and get access! http://patreon.com/macvoices Show Notes: Chapters: 00:07 Road to MacStock with Jill McKinley 01:26 Jill's Journey to Health 04:12 Apple Technology in Fitness 07:38 Impact of the Apple Watch 10:22 Apps for Health Tracking 13:42 Creating a Health Ecosystem 14:49 Upcoming Presentation Preview l17:55 Promoting Jill's Projects Links: Macstock Conference and Expo Save $50 with Chuck's discount code: macvoices50 Guests: By day, Jill McKinley is an IT professional with deep experience in enterprise hospital software, server administration, and digital workflow optimization. With decades of hands-on work—from Windows environments to Apple ecosystems—she combines technology, usability, and human-centered design to make systems work smarter for real people. Outside of tech, Jill is the creator and host of multiple YouTube channels and podcasts, including Start with Small Steps and Buzz Blossom & Squeak. Her shows explore personal growth, productivity, and the wonders of the natural world—all through the lens of curiosity and exploration. Whether she's automating her home, unpacking the meaning of ancient texts, or nerding out over bird migration, Jill brings energy, insight, and just the right amount of geekiness to everything she does. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss
The Road to Macstock and Macstock Conference and Expo takes us to Jill McKinley, who previews her upcoming talk on how Apple's ecosystem helped her lose weight and build a healthier lifestyle. She will explain how the Apple Watch, Fitness+, and apps like MyNetDiary and Todoist make tracking effortless, with reminders and data centralization driving consistency. In typical Jill fashion, her session will guide attendees through the full range of Apple's health tools with small, sustainable steps. This edition of MacVoices is supported by MacVoices After Dark. What happens before and after the shows is uncensored, on-topic, off-topic, and always off the wall. Sign up as a MacVoices Patron and get access! http://patreon.com/macvoices Show Notes: Chapters: 00:07 Road to MacStock with Jill McKinley 01:26 Jill's Journey to Health 04:12 Apple Technology in Fitness 07:38 Impact of the Apple Watch 10:22 Apps for Health Tracking 13:42 Creating a Health Ecosystem 14:49 Upcoming Presentation Preview l17:55 Promoting Jill's Projects Links: Macstock Conference and Expo Save $50 with Chuck's discount code: macvoices50 Guests: By day, Jill McKinley is an IT professional with deep experience in enterprise hospital software, server administration, and digital workflow optimization. With decades of hands-on work—from Windows environments to Apple ecosystems—she combines technology, usability, and human-centered design to make systems work smarter for real people. Outside of tech, Jill is the creator and host of multiple YouTube channels and podcasts, including Start with Small Steps and Buzz Blossom & Squeak. Her shows explore personal growth, productivity, and the wonders of the natural world—all through the lens of curiosity and exploration. Whether she's automating her home, unpacking the meaning of ancient texts, or nerding out over bird migration, Jill brings energy, insight, and just the right amount of geekiness to everything she does. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1727: Carl Pullein shares six straightforward yet powerful tips to help anyone regain control over their time and boost productivity. With a focus on practicality, his strategies encourage small shifts in daily habits that create long-term impact, making productivity more accessible and less overwhelming. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/6-common-sense-time-management-and-productivity-tips-anyone-can-use/27/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "One of the most effective ways to become better at managing your time is to start planning your day before the day begins." "You don't need a new app or the latest gadget to be more productive, you need clarity." "If everything is urgent, then nothing is." Episode references: Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/ Trello: https://trello.com/ Getting Things Done: https://gettingthingsdone.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1727: Carl Pullein shares six straightforward yet powerful tips to help anyone regain control over their time and boost productivity. With a focus on practicality, his strategies encourage small shifts in daily habits that create long-term impact, making productivity more accessible and less overwhelming. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/6-common-sense-time-management-and-productivity-tips-anyone-can-use/27/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "One of the most effective ways to become better at managing your time is to start planning your day before the day begins." "You don't need a new app or the latest gadget to be more productive, you need clarity." "If everything is urgent, then nothing is." Episode references: Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/ Trello: https://trello.com/ Getting Things Done: https://gettingthingsdone.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1727: Carl Pullein shares six straightforward yet powerful tips to help anyone regain control over their time and boost productivity. With a focus on practicality, his strategies encourage small shifts in daily habits that create long-term impact, making productivity more accessible and less overwhelming. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/6-common-sense-time-management-and-productivity-tips-anyone-can-use/27/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "One of the most effective ways to become better at managing your time is to start planning your day before the day begins." "You don't need a new app or the latest gadget to be more productive, you need clarity." "If everything is urgent, then nothing is." Episode references: Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/ Trello: https://trello.com/ Getting Things Done: https://gettingthingsdone.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1727: Carl Pullein shares six straightforward yet powerful tips to help anyone regain control over their time and boost productivity. With a focus on practicality, his strategies encourage small shifts in daily habits that create long-term impact, making productivity more accessible and less overwhelming. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/6-common-sense-time-management-and-productivity-tips-anyone-can-use/27/11/2019 Quotes to ponder: "One of the most effective ways to become better at managing your time is to start planning your day before the day begins." "You don't need a new app or the latest gadget to be more productive, you need clarity." "If everything is urgent, then nothing is." Episode references: Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/ Trello: https://trello.com/ Getting Things Done: https://gettingthingsdone.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
”But the fact remains, with all the changes that have happened in our lifetime—whether we're “boomers,” “Gen Xers,” “Millennials,” “Gen Zers” or whatever comes next—one thing has never changed nor will it ever change, and that is the amount of time we all have.” That's a quote from Hyrum Smith's book, The 3 Gaps: Are You Making A Difference You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin Areas of Focus: The Foundation Of All Solid Productivity Systems. Take the Areas of Focus Course Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived The Time Sector System 5th Year Anniversary The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes Subscribe to my Substack The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 375 Hello, and welcome to episode 375 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. One thing you may have noticed is that there are many things we have to or want to do, yet there never seems to be enough time to do them. You are not alone. Everyone feels this either all the time or at least some of the time. The reason is that it's true. There will always be more to do than time available to do it. This means we should approach the problem from a different angle. Traditionally, people have spent extra hours trying to catch up. Working late or even working the weekend. Yet, is throwing more time at the issue the best solution? I don't think so. We live one life. Our work is just one part of that life. If you work an average forty-hour week, your work only accounts for around 25% of your time. Yet, for many people, their work causes 80% or more of their stress. This week, I want to share some ideas and a paradigm shift in how you think about the tasks you have to do and the time you have available. It's a simple shift, but one that will reframe your relationship with time and ultimately give you more time for the things you want time for. So, without further ado, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Marcos. Marcos asks, Hi Carl, I struggle to keep up with all the tasks in my task manager. Most days feel like I am adding more tasks than I complete, and my inbox is now full. Todoist won't allow me to add any more. How do you cope with an ever-growing list of things to do? Hi Marcos, thank you for your question. There could be a number of reasons for this. One of the most common ones is moving any email you need to respond to into your task manager's inbox. You don't need to do that. Instead, you can create a folder in your email system and call it “Action This Day”. Then, any email you need to act on—reply, read, forward, etc. You place it there. Then, add a recurring task in your task manager that tells you to “clear my Action This Day folder”. That will remove many tasks from your task manager. It will also begin the process of changing the way you think about things to do and the time you have available to do them. It's no longer about how many emails you must reply to; it's about when you will work on your emails. Other things that can clog up a task manager are articles and newsletters to read, YouTube videos to watch and books to buy. All good stuff, but since so many of these are non-urgent, you would be better putting them in a dedicated note in your notes app. That way, when you do have time to read or watch these, you can open up your notes app and choose something. I covered this recently in one of my YouTube videos. There is information we like to collect—articles, YouTube videos, etc., often the easiest thing to do is to add this information to your task manager's inbox. After all, reading or watching them is something to do. Yet, the worst place to collect these items is your task manager. There's no urgency to read or watch these. We can do it anytime. Perhaps we're waiting at the doctor's office, or, in my case, for my wife somewhere. In these situations, I can open my notes app and, depending on my mood, choose between reading or watching something—my notes are always on my phone. So, Marcos, one of the first things you can do is to remove all these non-urgent informational items from your task manager and move them to your notes app. I would add that a great place to read articles is something like Instapaper or Read. Both of these apps are designed to collect newsletters and articles. Using tools like these gives you a central place to read your saved articles. It's like having your personalised curated news feed. The only addition is finding a regular time to read what you collect. The problem with keeping these in your task manager is that you're not reading them. Moving them out of your task manager and into a read-later app is just shuffling things around if you are not committing to a daily reading time. When I commuted to work each day, I read these articles on bus and train journeys. This prevented me from getting sucked into the negative news cycle and clickbait headlines. My news feed was free of junk and algorithmically generated stuff I was no longer interested in. And there is another tip for managing the things we have to do. Having a set time each day for doing the things we want to do. The challenge we all face today is that everything is so convenient; we can pretty much do anything at any time. You can set up a bank account, apply for a credit card, and even buy a car online today. You don't have to leave the comfort of your own home. In the past, if we wanted to open a bank account or buy a new car, we would have to go to a specific place. Going to these places meant we needed to schedule time to go. I remember when I was in car sales and couples would come in either in the evening or at weekends. During the weekday, things were relatively quiet for us. Time spent with a customer would typically be around an hour or two. So the customer had to go to a showroom intentionally, talk to a human being and in most cases test drive a car. Now, if you can do almost anything at any time from anywhere, the challenge becomes, what do you do now? If you are task counting, you're putting yourself into an impossible situation. The number of tasks you have to do is not within your control. You do not have control over what your boss or customers will ask you to do today. You don't have much control over what your partner or family members may ask you to do. You also don't know when they will ask you to do something. By focusing on what you have to do, you're setting yourself up for overwhelm. Instead, you will find focusing on when you will do something a much more realistic approach. Not only do you put yourself back in control, you will also be working within a realistic system. This system is called time-based productivity, and it's been around for a very long time. I've tracked it back to 1918 with the Ivy Lee Method. That's where you wrote down the six things you want to get done the next day, and when the day began, you started with the first item and worked your way down the list until the end of your work day. Anything you did not get done would be moved to the list for tomorrow. It's simple and based on a realistic evaluation of how much you could get done in a day. From there, it advanced throughout the century to when we began using things like the Franklin Planner. Something went wrong in the early 2000s. Somewhere along the line, we stopped calculating how much time we had available to do things and began focusing on the things themselves. Well, that's an impossible situation. You'll always have stuff to do. If you focus on all that stuff, you're going to feel anxiety, stress and overwhelm. If you want to stop the struggle Marcos, then returning to a time-based system will do that for you. The first step is to look at all the tasks you have to do and categorise them. You will have admin and communication tasks—we all do. Then there will be tasks related to your specific work. If you work with clients, then there will be client work to do. If you work in management, there will be management duties you will need to perform. Once you know what your categories are, you can then allocate specific time for doing those categories of work. Let me give you an example of this with email. Imagine you get 150 emails a day. Of those, around thirty require you to take action. When you process your email, you move those actionable emails into your action this day folder, and either delete or archive the rest. This leaves you with thirty emails that require some action from you. If you were to allocate an hour each day for dealing with your actionable emails, you will always have time to respond to your email. Sure, some days you may not be able to clear them all. However, if you consistently spend an hour a day on these, you will never develop a significant backlog. Most days you will be ahead; other days you might be slightly behind. But you won't feel it's out of control. You can also apply this to your admin tasks. Admin tasks have a habit of building up over time because they are generally low in urgency and importance. If you were to give yourself thirty minutes or so each day for admin tasks, you would find that no backlog is building up, and you are, for the most part, on top of things. You can do the same for your client work. If part of your responsibilities is to send out proposals to customers, then allocating some time each day for doing this means all you need to do is refer to a list of proposals to write, and for that allocated time, you do as many as you can. That list may be in a CRM system or a simple note in your notes app. Your calendar will tell you that it's time to write proposals. You then go to your list of proposals to write, and start. This way, you won't need to use your task manager. I do this with my coaching clients. Every day, I allocate an hour to writing feedback for each client. The list of feedback to write is in Evernote. Some days, there will be six or seven pieces of feedback to write, and other days, perhaps only two or three. I know I can write around three pieces of feedback in an hour. This means if I do this every day, nobody is likely to be waiting more than 48 hours for their feedback. I'm not focused on how many pieces of feedback I have to write. All I am focused on is writing the feedback in the hour I have to write it. I will write as many as I can. No pressure. Just begin with the oldest and carry on down the list. And that, in a nutshell, is what time-based productivity is all about. It's not about how much you have to do. It's about how much time you have available to do the work you have to do. If you have enormous backlogs now, you may need to increase the time you allocate to specific work periods for a little while. That actually helps because it means you are learning new habits and processes for getting the work done, which ultimately speeds you up over time. So there you go, Marcos. I hope that has helped. Take a look at your task manager. Remove individual emails and stuff to read or watch. Then in Todoist, use the labels to categorise your work and use those categories to protect time in your calendar to do the work. Be consistent with this and you will soon find that the overwhelm and struggle diminish. Thank you for your question and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.
We've got a special guest on the pod today! Louis from Sparkloop joins to share how they evolved from referrals to recommendations and sold to Kit!
It's an Automation AMA! From scheduling social media content to making kids' lunches (yes, really), fellow solopreneurs shared their biggest time-wasters. I ended up creating custom automation solutions for everything from podcast guest research to email management.Special thanks to Kit for letting me record in their Studios! I highly recommend them for email and newsletters!Get my free automations database at **https://streamlined.fm/automation** (powered by Kit, natch)Top TakeawaysSocial media scheduling can be mostly automated using a this kind of workflow: keep video details in Notion or Google Sheets, trigger Zapier when updated, and automatically schedule posts through Buffer or similar tools.Email overwhelm has multiple solutions including using Sanebox and Todoist for organization, plus Zapier watching for specific emails by subject or sender to automatically process them with custom workflows.Podcast guest research becomes manageable with tools like PodMatch for automated guest suggestions, intake forms for self-selection, and Google Alerts or PodScan to identify experts in your niche.AI transcription and summarization saves hours on client calls by automatically processing Zoom transcripts through ChatGPT with custom prompts for different call types (discovery, coaching, etc.).YouTube chapter creation gets easier when you use tools like Ecamm Live's marker button during recording, then search edited transcripts for your noted timestamps instead of relying on AI timing.The "one platform, do it well" approach beats spreading yourself thin across all social media—pick LinkedIn or another single platform and focus your automation efforts there.Show NotesSee the entire conversation hereHow I Keep my Email at Inbox ZeroAutomate Email Management with SaneBoxMy Brown M&M for Podcast Guest PitchingGrowth in Reverse PodcastPodMatchSanebox - Email filtering serviceTodoist - Task managementBuffer - Social media schedulingZapier - Automation platformNotion - All-in-one workspaceEcamm Live - Live streaming softwarepodscan.fm ★ Support this podcast ★
What if you could take six weeks off from your business, and nothing falls apart? In this episode, systems and automation coach Joe Casabona joins us to talk about how solopreneurs and creators can work smarter, not longer.Joe shares the behind-the-scenes systems that help him run multiple podcasts, coach clients, and still be a present parent. We cover his favorite tools, how to get started with automation (even if you're not techy), and the key mindset shift that makes delegation actually work.From streamlining content production to landing consistent sponsorships, Joe shows how automation isn't about cutting corners—it's about clearing space so you can show up as your best self in business and life.Key Points:The first system every solopreneur should set up to reclaim timeWhy automation and delegation are better togetherJoe's favorite automation tools (and why he prefers Make over Zapier)Using Notion, Todoist, and Apple Notes to capture ideas and get things doneHow to automate podcast workflows from booking to publishingThe surprising benefits of on-demand coaching (and how he delivers it)Balancing automation with authentic engagement in a world full of AI noiseResources:40+ Automation Templates – casabona.org/automationOn-Demand Coaching with Joe – casabona.org/unstuckStreamline Solopreneur Podcast – casabona.org/podcast----------------------Ecamm - Your go-to solution for crafting outstanding live shows and podcasts. - Get 15% off your first payment with promo code JEFF15SocialMediaNewsLive.com - Dive into our website for comprehensive episode breakdowns.Youtube.com - Tune in live, chat with us directly, and be part of the conversation. Or, revisit our archive of past broadcasts to stay updated.Facebook - Stream our show live and chat with us in real time. Connect, engage, and be a part of our community.Email - Subscribe and never miss a live show reminder.----------------------JeffSieh.com - Unlock the power of authentic storytelling with me! With over 20 years of marketing experience, I'm here to elevate your brand's narrative in an ever-competitive market. My expertise spans consulting, visual marketing, and producing podcasts and live videos.Additionally, as a seasoned speaker, I'm not just about...
We spent the week learning keybindings, installing dependencies, and cramming for bonus points. Today, we score up and see how we did in the TUI Challenge.Sponsored By:Tailscale: Tailscale is a programmable networking software that is private and secure by default - get it free on up to 100 devices! 1Password Extended Access Management: 1Password Extended Access Management is a device trust solution for companies with Okta, and they ensure that if a device isn't trusted and secure, it can't log into your cloud apps. Unraid: A powerful, easy operating system for servers and storage. Maximize your hardware with unmatched flexibility. Support LINUX UnpluggedLinks:
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1707: Carl Pullein breaks down how a structured weekly planning session can significantly boost your productivity and reduce stress. By aligning your tasks with clear goals and blocking time for focused work, you can regain control of your week and prevent overwhelm before it starts. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-do-a-weekly-planning-session/18/11/2020-1 Quotes to ponder: "A weekly planning session gives you the opportunity to take back control of your life." "You are not planning tasks, you are planning time." "When you know what needs doing and when you are going to do it, stress and overwhelm disappear." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1707: Carl Pullein breaks down how a structured weekly planning session can significantly boost your productivity and reduce stress. By aligning your tasks with clear goals and blocking time for focused work, you can regain control of your week and prevent overwhelm before it starts. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-do-a-weekly-planning-session/18/11/2020-1 Quotes to ponder: "A weekly planning session gives you the opportunity to take back control of your life." "You are not planning tasks, you are planning time." "When you know what needs doing and when you are going to do it, stress and overwhelm disappear." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1707: Carl Pullein breaks down how a structured weekly planning session can significantly boost your productivity and reduce stress. By aligning your tasks with clear goals and blocking time for focused work, you can regain control of your week and prevent overwhelm before it starts. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-do-a-weekly-planning-session/18/11/2020-1 Quotes to ponder: "A weekly planning session gives you the opportunity to take back control of your life." "You are not planning tasks, you are planning time." "When you know what needs doing and when you are going to do it, stress and overwhelm disappear." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1707: Carl Pullein breaks down how a structured weekly planning session can significantly boost your productivity and reduce stress. By aligning your tasks with clear goals and blocking time for focused work, you can regain control of your week and prevent overwhelm before it starts. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.carlpullein.com/blog/how-to-do-a-weekly-planning-session/18/11/2020-1 Quotes to ponder: "A weekly planning session gives you the opportunity to take back control of your life." "You are not planning tasks, you are planning time." "When you know what needs doing and when you are going to do it, stress and overwhelm disappear." Episode references: Evernote: https://evernote.com/ Google Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/ Todoist: https://todoist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
¿Te cuesta recordar todo, vivís apagando incendios y tu cabeza está “al borde del overflow”?
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Tech Productivity - AZ TRT S06 EP06 (267) 3-23-2025 What We Learned This Week ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, developed by OpenAI, that can engage in human-like conversations ChatGPT can read docs, edit docs, answer Qs, and transcribe Elevenreader – app that turns any document into audio Google Drive – office suite of tools for spreadsheets, docs, powerpoints, & more Todoist – task management program Pocket – web research tool that saves & organizes links Guest: Denver Nowicz, President - Wealth For Lifehttp://wealthforlife.net/ Denver is an advisor with nearly 20 years experience working with clients in investments and insurance, designing retirement plans with a combo of both. He takes us through different strategies for clients to get the best allocations for their money over the long term. It is the Combo Strategy of both Offense and Defense, the synergy of the mix, not ‘All or Nothing'. Notes: Seg 1 https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/ ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, developed by OpenAI, that can engage in human-like conversations and generate various text formats, including articles, emails, and code, based on the prompts it receives. Denver uses ChatGPT daily for both business and personal use You can have live interaction with ChatGPT where you can actually talk with the AI program using a microphone Example of this, Denver had to fix his boat motor and suspected something was wrong with the fuel line. Able to turn on the camera on his computer to show it to ChatGPT who helped diagnose the problem in real time. Another example is you can use ChatGPT for cooking to help with recipes It's important to understand how you frame the questions to ChatGPT, to get the best answer as possible. ChatGPT can create work docs and summary docs. Common use is as an editor to what you write. Denver uses ChatGPT to help with his weekly newsletter. He will voice text into his phone the Notes. Then he copies those notes into the AI program and it helps create and write the newsletter. Then Denver can make edits on it. Can also upload previous docs that you have written, so the AI can figure out your writing style, and philosophy. Then the AI can write future docs in your style. The speed of AI is amazing where it literally saves you time and makes you more efficient. AI program can even read PDFs and screenshots, or you can give it a link to a video and it can pull the audio transcript. AI can be used as a teacher to discover new things, and even as a psychologist. There is a tech arms race going on in AI with programs like Microsoft Copilot, Google Bard, ChatGPT, and now Deepseek. Seg 2 Productivity apps recommended by Denver Many of the apps he uses are free or a very low cost, here are some he likes: Elevenreader AI voice app Turns any document into an audiobook. This can be time saving as you can listen to it vs reading it. App also has a library to store your audiobooks. https://elevenlabs.io/blog/introducing-elevenlabs-reader-app Google Drive Has a number of programs you can use like docs, storage, PowerPoint, share forms, and folders with people, an easy to tag and organize https://workspace.google.com/products/drive/ Todoist task management program The program can also sync up with your Google calendar, so you can voice task, text a task and then categorize it https://www.todoist.com/ Carl Pullen on time blocking – videos on LKIN YouTube link: HERE Pocket - web research tool so you can save links of website websites you search Also can organize your web, searches and links, and it saved in an app on your phone Search features in categorize in a folder Visual dashboard with links Very good to use with work or especially if you're saving notes for a newsletter https://getpocket.com/home Wealth for Life Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Wealth+For+Life+ Investing Shows: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Investing-Stocks-Bonds-Retirement ‘Best Of' Topic: https://brt-show.libsyn.com/category/Best+of+BRT Thanks for Listening. Please Subscribe to the AZ TRT Podcast. AZ Tech Roundtable 2.0 with Matt Battaglia The show where Entrepreneurs, Top Executives, Founders, and Investors come to share insights about the future of business. AZ TRT 2.0 looks at the new trends in business, & how classic industries are evolving. Common Topics Discussed: Startups, Founders, Funds & Venture Capital, Business, Entrepreneurship, Biotech, Blockchain / Crypto, Executive Comp, Investing, Stocks, Real Estate + Alternative Investments, and more… AZ TRT Podcast Home Page: http://aztrtshow.com/ ‘Best Of' AZ TRT Podcast: Click Here Podcast on Google: Click Here Podcast on Spotify: Click Here More Info: https://www.economicknight.com/azpodcast/ KFNX Info: https://1100kfnx.com/weekend-featured-shows/ Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the Hosts, Guests and Speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent (or affiliates, members, managers, employees or partners), or any Station, Podcast Platform, Website or Social Media that this show may air on. All information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes. Nothing said on this program should be considered advice or recommendations in: business, legal, real estate, crypto, tax accounting, investment, etc. Always seek the advice of a professional in all business ventures, including but not limited to: investments, tax, loans, legal, accounting, real estate, crypto, contracts, sales, marketing, other business arrangements, etc.
Do you use collaboration tools such as Trello or Planner while also keeping a to-do list in Todoist or To-Do? In this week's Done!, you will learn how to connect these tools to get a better overview of everything you have to do. Here are some useful links from the episode: Trello connector in Power Automate in Microsoft 365 Todoist connector in Power Automate Ready-made integration between Trello and Todoist Have you made any other clever connections between Planner or Trello that have made it easier for you? Please write to me and let me know. I'm curious! Here's how to identify and eliminate those small, daily nuisances. These episodes are also available as a weekly newsletter to your email. If you rather read than listen (or both!), sign up for a free subscription. David Stiernholm is a ”struktör”. As such he helps people and companies become more efficient and productive by creating better structure. His motto is: Everything can be done easier! David is frequently hired as a speaker by all kinds of businesses, from well-established major corporations to entrepreneurial companies in hyper-growth. He extinguishes himself by providing clients with concrete tools and methods that can be applied instantly both at work and in your personal life. During a talk with David Stiernholm, you will realize that structure is both liberating and fun and that establishing a better structure makes you less stressed and more efficient.
20250408 Tame Your Tasks with Todoist: A Beginner's Guide Originally Broadcasted April 8, 2025, on ACB Media 5 Participants discovered how Todoist can help you stay organized, on track, and stress-free. In this session, we explored how to create tasks, set reminders, and manage your to-dos using accessible tools available on your computer or smartphone. Find out more at https://acb-community.pinecast.co
This morning I find myself saying to Sean, not for the first time: “You know, whenever I build a task up in my head and then actually sit down to do it, it's easier than I imagined? Not sure why I put things off.”I am not proud of this recurring declaration.I've long been a bit of a procrastinator—usually motivated by perfectionism—who manages to rarely miss deadlines but consistently doubt the quality of what she turns in. I often feel like I don't have the resources or focus or ability to do something perfectly right now… but maybe I will tomorrow. Or the next day. Or, you know, when rubbing right up against the due date.This tendency got worse the first year we lived in our converted van. We were so busy with the logistics of a life on the road (and, admittedly, the associated joys) that I grew accustomed to putting tasks off before knocking them out in a late-night haze. I once set an alarm for three am to finish a copywriting assignment I'd had a full week to complete. (I mean, that's inexcusable.) Even just last fall, after I'd organized my life on the Todoist app and kicked my writing practice into better gear, I still occasionally fell into the habit. I revised my first piece for ROVA Magazine (an article I was so excited to share) up until the morning it was due.On the surface, everything is fine. I'm a functioning (perhaps even highly functioning) professional. Most of my clients and editors are happy to work with me; at least some of my quality concerns have more to do with imposter syndrome and overthinking than the actual work I submit.But too often—entirely too often—I carry the weight of an uncompleted task days longer than necessary. It infiltrates my ocean swims. It colors my interactions with Sean. It pushes me to maniacally read other people's words in hopes of forgetting that I am not (but should be) writing my own.I feel even worse about this impulse to put things off because I work from such a privileged position. The reasons I procrastinate are 1) I'm concerned about doing things well enough or 2) I'm distracted by living in the real world—basically never because I'm truly exhausted, lacking support, or bereft of the right resources. There are people producing amazing art and commentary and impact in astronomically more difficult situations than mine. My life is so cushy. I should be able to write an article about training rescue dogs in one damn sitting!Lately my procrastination takes a disguised form: Enthusiastically working on something that isn't due while ignoring a piece that is. It's increasingly rare that I put off a task because I'm lounging in the sun or burying my nose in a novel or scrolling social media. That's good—that's great!—but just because I'm writing doesn't mean I'm writing the most important thing.Of course, what's “important” is a whole discussion. Sometimes inspiration strikes in a moment I blocked off to finish work for a client and the romantic artist in me latches on with worry the idea will disappear before I can act on it. Sometimes this situation produces a piece I love, and that sense of accomplishment lifts me through the rest of the day (maybe even the rest of the week), and I'm happy in all the ways: creatively, logistically, professionally.Other times the inspiration is a red herring. Or too complex to tackle right away. And I can't even live under the illusion that I was being productive by spending my time on a half-baked, questionable premise instead of the clearly defined task begging for my attention.The solution here seems simple: Just do the thing. I know, logically, that I always feel better after doing the thing! Doing the thing rarely prevents me from also doing other things later on! Why is this a problem?!A whole bunch of reasons, I think: I'm a creatively minded person willing to ride whims. I have no semblance of a structured schedule. I've built rapport enough with my editors—and also am content enough with my life in general—that the stakes usually feel low. (And while I used to long for this level of comfort, there's no denying we sometimes need a fire under us to get going.)So I'm trying to light more controlled fires. In the upper right corner of my desktop, a digital sticky note displays my top six life priorities in order. I've set a rule—and asked Sean for enforcement help—that I'm not allowed to reschedule tasks on my to-do list unless there's an emergency. (Not wanting to put down an interesting book is not an emergency.) I'm reaching out to fellow writers to build a stronger craft community, something I've been lacking for too long. I am repeating, over and over, that “done and good enough is better than perfect”. I am setting more ambitious deadlines for client work—and communicating those deadlines to editors ahead of time so I have no way out.I am also giving myself grace, because I love this life I've built (and lucked into), and there's a reason I left my stable 9-5 in pursuit of greater flexibility. I do not need—and sure as hell do not want—to work all the time. I just want to work more effectively.And float on my back in the Atlantic without worrying about missing checklist ticks. Get full access to Paws and Reflect at www.pawsandreflect.blog/subscribe
I hate CRMs. I know I need one—I'm doing more coaching, getting more inbound leads, and ranking in the top three organic search results for podcast coaches on Google.But no matter how many times I've tried HubSpot, Zoho, or whatever the flavor of the week is, they've never fit into my workflow.So I did a totally normal, not weird thing: I built my own CRM.In this episode, I walk through the simple system I set up using Notion, Todoist, Make.com, and my website. I'll share why I built it this way, how it automates lead tracking and follow-ups, and why reducing friction is the key to sticking with any system.Plus, I'll show you how you can apply this same approach to streamline your own processes—without forcing yourself into tools that don't work for you. For all of the links mentioned in this episode, go to https://streamlined.fm/464Top TakeawaysThe best CRM (or any tool) is the one you'll actually use—start simple and build on tools you already know.If you struggle with sticking to a system, it's likely because it doesn't fit your natural workflow. Adapt the system, not yourself.Don't limit yourself because of past experience. There is lots of flexibility in the apps we use today, and you can take advantage of that.Show NotesScreenshots I posted on LinkedInAutomations DatabaseNotionTodoistMake.comGravity FormsWant to see the automations I use? Get access to my 40+ Automations Database at streamlined.fm/automation.Send feedback to https://streamlinedfeedback.comFeeling stuck? Check out my unstuck sessions at https://casabona.org/unstuck ★ Support this podcast ★
Si parla di problemi con Starlink e pfsense, di come alimentare un device non POE tramite un cavo POE, di come usiamo Todoist.
In this edition of the AppleVis Extra, David Nason speaks to Saqib Shaikh, a key member of the team behind Microsoft's Seeing AI, winner of Best App in the 2024 AppleVis Golden Apple awards.TranscriptDisclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers' names, voices, or content.Hello there, and welcome to another episode of the AppleVis Extra Podcast.My name is David Nason and I am delighted to be joining you again to talk about the 2024 Golden Apple Awards.Today's focus is the best app category.We had 10 brilliant nominees in this category and they were One Password, Anytime Podcast Player, Drafts, Mona from Astadon, OKO, Cross Street and Maps, PixieBot, Seeing AI, Tapit Pro Audio Recorder, Todoist, To Do List and Calendar, and Voice Vista.So a great list of nominees there, very strong.Our runners up getting special mention are PixieBot and Voice Vista.So again, huge well done to them for being runners up.Our winner and a very familiar winner, I think it's their fourth Golden Apple, which is amazing, is Microsoft's Seeing AI.So huge well done to them.It's an app that's been around a long time and is still available in the App Store.If you search for Seeing AI from Microsoft.So yes, huge well done to Seeing AI for winning the best app, Golden Apple 2024.And to chat about it, I am delighted to be joined from the Microsoft Seeing AI team by Saqib Shaikh.Hello Saqib, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.Hi, thank you so much for having me.It's a pleasure to be here.And you're here because Seeing AI, I don't think for the first time won a Golden Apple Award for 2024 in the best app category, which is fantastic.So congratulations on that, first of all.Thank you.A great honor and actually a surprise.And it means so much because it's from the community.You know, there are so many awards from either the government or industry, but I think the ones from the community just mean that much more.Absolutely.You know, to be voted by the people who are using apps and there's, you know, a great range of apps nominated this year.So to top the pole is absolutely brilliant.And actually, before we jump into too much detail, maybe for the uninitiated, if there are any in our community, can you give us a quick rundown of what Seeing AI is?Good point.Seeing AI, we talked about it as a talking camera app or a visual assistant.It's a mobile app where you open it up and it uses the camera to tell you what it can see.And it has different modes for different tasks in your daily life from reading things to you, whether that's immediately or more slightly with formatting through to describing photos that you take or from your camera roll or from other apps, all the way through to very task-specific channels, as we call them, like finding something or exploring the world around you or knowing if the lights are on.Amazing.What do you do yourself on the team out of interest and are you there long?Have you been there, you know, part of Seeing AI from the start or can you…
Is automating your finances the key to effortless money management, or a one-way ticket to financial autopilot disaster? Paula Pant, Jesse Cramer, and Doc G join us to navigate the fine line between automation genius and accidental money mayhem. Done right, automation saves you time and stress. Done wrong? You might be funding a forgotten gym membership for the next five years.
With more criticisms of NixOS than ever—do they have a point? We'll dig into the tough critiques and give our perspective.Sponsored By:Tailscale: Tailscale is a programmable networking software that is private and secure by default - get it free on up to 100 devices! 1Password Extended Access Management: 1Password Extended Access Management is a device trust solution for companies with Okta, and they ensure that if a device isn't trusted and secure, it can't log into your cloud apps. Support LINUX UnpluggedLinks:
What does it take to lead a remote-first organization with 100+ professionals across 35 countries? In this episode, Chase Warrington, Head of Operations at Doist (the creators of Todoist and Twist), shares how he has helped shape a fully remote company that serves over 40 million customers in 19 languages. From building operational infrastructure to fostering a culture of transparency, Chase provides actionable insights for leaders navigating the complexities of flexible-first work.
This week, why it's important to know what kind of person you are. You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived Subscribe to my Substack Take The NEW COD Course The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 350 Hello, and welcome to episode 350 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. WOW! 350 episodes. I never thought this podcast would still be going strong after six years. Thank you to all of you for following me and this podcast and to everyone who has sent in questions. Please keep them coming in—they are the fuel of this podcast. So, back to this episode. One way to destroy your efforts to become better organised and more productive is to fight against yourself. This can manifest itself when you are a deadline-driven person trying to be a carefully planned out person. Let me give you an example: if you struggle to find the motivation to begin a project because the deadline is six months away, yet you pressure yourself to start now. You'll likely find yourself losing interest and giving up after a few weeks. Then you beat yourself up. But, perhaps you're not doing anything wrong; you're just trying to do something you are not wired to do. That's why it's important to know what kind of person you are and to figure and what works and what doesn't. Okay, before we go further, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question. This week's question comes from Matthew. Matthew asks, Hi Carl, What do you recommend to someone who finds it difficult to get motivated unless there the deadline is right on top of them? Ho Matthew. Thank you for your question. I've witnessed something like this very close to home. My wife struggles to start work on a project or a task until the deadline is right in front of her. She then pulls out all the stops pulling all nighters if necessary. Yet, she always meets her deadlines. In the twenty + years I've known her, I cannot recall a time she missed a deadline. Ever. My mother, on the other-hand is the complete opposite. She will begin getting her holiday items together sever months before she travels. I know, when we travel to visit my family over the Christmas holidays, he will be wanting to plan her next trip to Korea with me. Six months before she's likely to travel. She even gets her suitcase ready. It would be fruitless to encourage my wife to be more like my mother or vice versa. My mother hates stress—it gives her a headache. My wife doesn't see the point in over preparing. Yet, we shouldn't be looking at the methods, instead look at the results. Neither my wife nor my mother miss deadlines. They have different approaches, but still achieve the same results. Some of my coaching clients wake up very early 4:30 - 5:30 am and like to plan their day before they finish their morning routines end. Others find it more beneficial to plan the day the evening before. Yet, as long as you begin your day with a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished that day, does it really matter when you do your daily planning? I recommend if you are an early bird, do your planning in the morning. If you are more of a night owl, do it the evening before. What matters is you plan the day. The benefits of having a clear idea of what you want to get accomplished that day, far outweighs the timing of your planning. I have clients who see Ali Abdaal's productivity recommendations and wonder how he gets any work done with so many tools being used to organise something as simple as what to do and when. Yet, I have other clients who love using the tools Ali recommends. There's no right or wrong way to do this as long as you are getting the results you want. In your case, Matthew, the productivity tool that you should master is your calendar. If you are motivated by deadlines, you will need to be very clear about when you deadlines are. Having your deadlines on your calendar in the all-day section and in a colour you cannot fail to see will ensure you know when your deadlines are. All my project deadlines are in my calendar in red. These are hard deadlines and when I am planning my week, all I need to do is look ahead two or three weeks to see what's coming up. You may also find it helpful to have a Master Projects list in your notes app so when you are planning the week you have a central place where all the information you need is. On your Master Projects list you can have the deadlines, and what needs to happen next. That way you can judge how much work is still required to meet your deadline. That's something I've learned from my wife. While on the surface she looks a disorganised mess, underneath that disguise is someone who's looking at the calendar on her phone every evening to see what's coming up over the next few days. Last Monday, while we were sitting on the sofa, my wife reminded me that Louis had a grooming appointment on Thursday and she wanted to check I was sill okay to take him. And there I was thinking she was scrolling social media, yet, she was looking at her calendar for the week to see if she needed to to do something. Did she need to know about that last week? No. I did, though. My system's different from hers. Yet both our systems produced the same result. Louis arrived for his grooming appointment on time. However despite having very different methods for getting our work done, there are some principles that will never change. Writing your commitments down somewhere you trust is critical. While my wife does not use any kind of task manager, she does use, and trusts, her calendar. And I've seen this with many other people who don't use a task manager—they still use something they trust. A former boss of mine, would have his secretary print out his Outlook calendar for the week each Monday morning. He would then fold that calendar up into his pocket diary. Throughout the week, he would add to-dos and appointments to that printed calendar as required and on Friday afternoon update his Outlook calendar so the up-to-date version would be ready for him the following Monday morning. Again, he never forgot anything as far as I could tell. It was an unorthodox system, but it worked. This is why it can be dangerous to copy other people's systems. They are not you. Earlier, I published my latest Todoist setup on YouTube. I do this twice a year, and I suspect I do it more for me than for anyone else. I have been doing this since around 2019, so now I have five years of set-ups I can refer back to and see my evolution. The biggest change came in May 2020 when I launched the Time Sector System. That was a result of struggling to make Getting Things Done work for me in the digital age. I remember walking to the gym one day and being hit be a sudden realisation that really the only thing that mattered was “when” I would do a task, not what I needed to do. It doesn't matter how much you have to do if you don't have time to do it. What matters is what you do when you do have time. This realisation solved so many struggles for me. It caused me to limit the number of meetings I was available for each week, and if I could not restrict my meetings, then I had to restrict the number of tasks I was trying to do. Perhaps I am more aware of the limits time imposes on us than others, or others knew all this before I became aware of it. Either way, it helped me to begin working to my strengths rather than fighting against them. This also applies to when you are at your most focused. Most people will find they are at their most focused in the mornings but not everyone is. Some people will find they are at their best in the evenings. This is one reason why flexible working times work for some and not for others. If you are more a night owl, working for a company that allows you to work to your own schedule will help you thrive. Working for a company that keeps strict 9 till 5 hours will create all sorts of difficulties for you. Doist, the parent company of Todoist, works flexible hours. Because they are a 100% remote company, their team is spread throughout the world. They have people on the west coast of America, and people here in Korea. That's a seventeen hour time difference. Insisting everyone worked a 9 till 5 day would not work. Doist has an unenviable staff turnover level. I believe over the last ten years only four or five people have left the company. That's incredible for a company that employs over one hundred people. I've discovered more on this with my pen and paper experiment this year—well, it began as an experiment. It's hard to call it an experiment now. Returning to pen and paper has helped me to rediscover the art of thinking and the importance of slowing down from time to time. Digital tools are great, they make storing and finding documents easy. They all help manage quick notes and ideas. Paper, though is different, there's no batteries and if you grab an A4 pad of paper, and a Bic ball pen, and disappear to a cafe, you could spend all day there and never have to worry about recharging your device. That bit ball pen will draw a 3 kilometre (about 2 miles) line before it runs out. And of course, there's no notifications or beeps and buzzes. Yet, pen and paper doesn't work for everyone. There's a lot of people who do love them, there's also a lot of people who hate them. And that's fine. So, Matthew, look at how you prefer to work. If you need deadlines to motivate you, the only thing that matters is you meet your deadlines. If that causes you to have to work later than you want to, perhaps you could create a false deadline. You could say this piece of work must be finished tomorrow by 5PM so I can hand it in the next day. False deadlines are great. I generally have most of my projects finish at the end of the month, so my “fake” end of the month is the 25th. This gives me around a week before the real deadline hits and ensures I am not scrambling to finish things late into the night. I hope that has helped. Thank you for your question, Matthew. And thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.
Filling out paperwork. Making travel reservations. Paying bills. Shopping for groceries. Returning packages.These are all examples of life admin — the little tasks we have to do to keep our lives moving along.Life admin is typically pretty tedious and annoying. But staying on top of it is essential to reducing the stress and chaos that would otherwise burden our relationships, muck up the gears of our schedules, and prevent us from participating in all the fun and fulfilling parts of life.Fortunately, there are ways to better manage your life admin. Here to share some of them is Dinah Rowe-Roberts, the co-host of the Life Admin Life Hacks podcast and the co-author of a book of the same name. Today on the show, Dinah explains what lists you should be keeping, including the 10-minute time killers list, why you should do a regular “hour of power” to stay on top of things, how to schedule your life admin, how to keep track of and divvy up chores between you and your spouse, how to get all your meal planning and grocery shopping done in less than 15 minutes a week, how to streamline your kids' schedules and your vacation planning, and much more.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM article on shadow workAoM article and podcast on how to have a weekly marriage meetingAoM article on how to have a weekly family meetingAoM article on how to use Todoist to get things doneAoM article on how to manage your lifeadminAoM article on how and why to have a reset dayAoM article on 8 lists you should be keeping (besides the to-do list)Connect With Dinah Rowe-RobertsThe LifeAdminLife Hacks websiteLifeAdminLife Hacks on IGDinah on LinkedIn
