Corbett Barr - This Is How You Should Measure Productivity

“If I have something on my calendar that I’m dreading, I have to be really careful about it. If I let myself get obsessed with the fact that I don’t want to do it, then it can throw off my entire day.”

Corbett Barr has been self-employed on the Internet since 2005, earning a living from blogging, podcasting, online courses, software services, and more. He is perhaps best known for being the founder and CEO of Fizzle, a community and library of courses for independent entrepreneurs who want to make a living online. 

I first got in touch with Corbett back in 2016 or 2017, when I joined Fizzle. I learned much of what I know about running an online business from him. Corbett has such a wide variety of skills. He’s been a corporate consultant, he has founded several businesses, and he also does a lot of creative work, having written over 500 blog posts and published more than 400 podcast episodes. So I was very excited to ask him about his approach to productivity.

Corbett and I discuss:

• Digital minimalism (or at least digital mindfulness) and why he’s been cleaning up his online presence
• Why you need a “North Star” to measure your productivity
• How to do creative work (as opposed to cranking widgets)
• Operating within the constraints that you have but also challenging those constraints

And much more. Enjoy the show!

Find Corbett:

• CorbettBarr.com
• Fizzle.co
• Corbett’s blog post, “I’m Starting Over”