How to Automate Tasks and Processes

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Sally Kohn: I love an example of a task or process that you do say at work that a lot of people do on a repeating basis. By far, the way that I have found to reduce the friction and get that off my calendar is asynchronous messaging tools like Vox or like Marco Polo. She says this can also just reduce the friction of what did I want to tell them again or what have I gotten done. And it allows you to create enough written updates of what's obvious so that you can spend the time in a more meaningful way with someone who wants to pick your brain.

Got a career or business question for the Brainstrust? Submit here.

Question - when it comes to work, do you really care about being more productive, or is the real goal to get all the important stuff done, but in a way that actually gives you back more free time to do the things, in both work and life, that you’re genuinely passionate about and excited to do? Because, they’re not the same.

Sometimes, we talk about productivity as if it’s the end-goal. It’s not. The real goal is what it gives us. Which begs a question, are all those productivity methods, tools, strategies actually working for you? Are they giving you back your life? And the free time to choose what matters most, even if it’s just taking a nap or playing, and spend more time doing just that?

This is where we’re heading in today’s provocative hot take with SPARKED Braintrust regular, Jenny Blake. These Hot Take episodes are where we look at hot topics in conversation with expert guides from the SPARKED Braintrust.

In today’s Hot Take episode, Jonathan & Jenny discuss:

The benefit of scheduling a ‘do not schedule’ time block on your calendar
Asking what can you batch, delegate or automate?
The power of A-synchronous communication tools
How a rolling agenda can save you time and bring less friction to a meeting
Why we need to run our own experiments on when and what works best for us
Why we shouldn’t underestimate how helpful systems & processes can be ie. Canned or Guided Responses in your email for repeating conversations

And, today, we’re going on a myth-busting journey, taking a bit of an ax to old school ideas of productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and sharing powerful insights and practical tools from her body of work designed not just to help you be more productive, but to literally create a volume of free time you never knew was possible.

Jenny also reminds us that ‘Free Time’ is not about floating through life as if on perpetual vacation. Free Time is about optionality: the ability to choose when you work, with whom, and on the projects that most excite you—on the work that you and only you can do. It is about moving from friction to flow through the power of focus and smart systems.

SPARKED HOT TAKE WITH: Jenny Blake | Website

Jenny is a podcaster, career and business strategist, and an award-winning author of three books: Life After College, the groundbreaking Pivot for navigating what’s next, and her recently published Free Time for optimizing what’s now.

IN CONVERSATION WITH: Jonathan Fields

Jonathan is a dad, husband, award-winning author, multi-time founder, executive producer and host of the Good Life Project podcast, and co-host of SPARKED, too! He’s also the creator of an unusual tool that’s helped more than 650,000 people discover what kind of work makes them come alive - the Sparketype® Assessment, and author of the bestselling book, SPARKED.

How to submit your question for the SPARKED Braintrust: Wisdom-seeker submissions

More on Sparketypes at: Discover You Sparketype | The Book | The Website

Read more on the Sparked Newsletter on LinkedIn.

Connect with Jonathan Fields on LinkedIn.

Presented by LinkedIn.