On this episode of the program, I’m joined by Dr. Melanie Katzman, the author of Connect First: 52 Simple Ways to Ignite Success, Meaning, and Joy at Work. Dr. Katzman is a business psychologist and consultant to the world’s top public and private companies, government agencies and nonprofits. She is the founder of Katzman Consulting and a founding partner of the social enterprise Leaders’ Quest. During our conversation we dive into how her work can help people start connecting first, the role connection plays in how much you can impact someone, the word both of us like to use rather than the word “enough” and much more. Talking Points How does Melanie help someone break through the bias of connecting first? Melanie talks about the idea of “Got it.” How important was it for Melanie to make sure that the 52 simple ways were all simple? This is what Melanie would say about whether or not engaging your senses has to do with connecting with yourself first Melanie talks about the biases she has noticed beyond the book about what people find in their way to connect and how to solve that This is the word Melanie used instead of enough and follows up discussing the meaning behind both of those words. Why is the idea of apologizing such a key thing to keep in mind? Melanie touches on the difference between “complex” and “complicated” How can you keep fear at bay so you can continue to connect? How does connection play a role in how much you can impact someone? Which was the first of the 52 simple ways that Melanie wrote? Quote “We are naturally wired to connect and when we do biology works for us.“ Helpful Links Connect First: 52 Simple Ways to Ignite Success, Meaning, and Joy at Work Episode 246: How to Be Great at Your Job with Justin Kerr Melanie’s Website The Productivityist Podcast Pick of the Week: Curious with Josh Peck Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was not the episode I had planned. I’ve shelved that planned episode for now but while sitting with the dilemma of what episode to deliver to you this time around, I believe I’ve come up with something will do the trick. A series called TimeCrafting Tactics. Now this series won’t happen in consecutive weeks or in any sort of sequential order. After all, that’s not how most people listen to podcasts. Instead, I’ll drop an episode in this series every once in a while, taking into account the season that we may be in and any other factors that would make the subject both timely and timeless. This installment showcases the concept of The MVP Day. It’s a shorter episode and fits both the season and the series well. The only helpful links you’ll need are below. Helpful Links You Could Use An MVP Day Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m excited to welcome Thomas Frank to this episode of the podcast. Thomas is an author, YouTuber, musician, and podcaster who is passionate about helping people become more capable and productive. Thomas does most of his work at College Info Geek, one of the world’s largest and best-loved resources for students. College Info Geek includes a blog, podcast, and a YouTube channel with over 1.7 million subscribers. I’ve been looking forward to releasing this episode for a long time. As a matter of fact, it’s bizarre that I haven’t had Thomas on the show until now. (That’s probably why this episode clocks in as my longest to date, both in terms of length and amount of links in the show notes.) There’s so much we talk about during this episode – as you can see and soon will hear. I hope you enjoy this lengthy and deep discussion that I’m thrilled to send your way. Talking Points When did Thomas decide that video was the route he was going to take? Thomas talks about his inspiration to “do video” a little differently When Thomas researches these videos, what does that look like? Thomas shares how many videos he has in the making process at once This is what his framework looks like What does a typical day look like for Thomas? Who inspires Thomas to make films? Quote “If you’re the kind of person who’s only ever reading productivity books and reading self help books you’re getting a pretty narrow world view.“ Helpful Links Thomas’s Office Tour Productivity Hacks with My Friend Mike Vardy of Productivityist (College Info Geek Ep. 39) The Fizzle Show #356 How Thomas Frank grew his YouTube channel to 1.6 million subscribers and 91 million views SPI 324: From College Nerd to Wildly Successful Personal Brand with Thomas Frank Episode 290: Creative Menopause with Chase Reeves [Recorded LIVE at The BIG Ready] Habitica Episode 75: Level Up Your Life with Steve Kamb Notion The Good Place: The Podcast Process The Money Lab Podcast: Building A YouTube Engine with Thomas Frank This is How Matt D’Avella Works Jet Parker: Action Hero Should You Add This To Your Workspace? I tracked every minute of my life for 3 months. The Best Book I Read in 2019 10 Great Gifts for the Productive Person in Your Life The One Hour Morning Routine Icicle Swords (Live Looping) So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love The Ultimate Study Music Playlist Nebula Baby Driver, by Edgar Wright (2017) – Opening credits Potato Jet on YouTube BEING Potato Jet // Working 70 hours a week to be a Youtuber Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Thomas Frank’s Website The Productivityist Podcast Pick of the Week: College Info Geek Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of The Productivityist Podcast I’m sharing with you insights from my inactive daily podcast “3 Minutes of TimeCrafting”, which concluded after this run of episodes in April 2019. Some of the insights I share on this episode include: The importance of flexible frameworks The concept of “necessary endings” The focus pulling of push notifications What noticing does for your productivity The problem with hidden tasks (And that’s just scratching the surface.) This episode is loaded with three-minute bits of productivity and time management tips that you can adopt and adapt as you see fit. I hope you like what I offer in this slightly longer-than-usual episode. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the program I’m joined by David Marquet, best-selling author, student of leadership and organizational design, former nuclear submarine Commander, and named one of the Top 100 Leadership Speakers by Inc. Magazine. David’s new book, Leadership is Language, is a re-engineering of the language we use at work and a new playbook for leaders. “It’s time to ditch the Industrial Age playbook of leadership.” This book provides insights on how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution skills for teams.  We talk about the concept that David explores in this book (that leadership is language), why this is as much a playbook as anything else, what leaders need to work on in order to take their leadership skills to the next level, and much more. I enjoyed our conversation and I’m certain you’ll get plenty out of it. Talking Points What lead you to writing this book and why is it so important? David explains the terms “red work” and “blue work” Why do you consider this book to be a playbook? What does David mean by the “be good self“ and the “get better self“? What can someone do to start applying leadership as language today Quote “Start your question with the word ‘how’.“ Helpful Links Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders Intent-Based Leadership David on Twitter: @ldavidmarquet Leadership Nudges The Productivityist Podcast Pick of the Week: Help Me Pick Future Ones by emailing me at podcast at productivityist dot com Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’ve tried my fair share of fitness programs and plans over the years and have always found them to be more of a challenge than I’ve been willing to deal with. But the time has come for me to face the challenge that fitness presents and conquer it once and for all. So on this episode I share with you the things I need to overcome this challenge on an ongoing basis, what I’ve tried before, and what I’m doing that I’m committing to for the foreseeable future. Helpful Links P90X Body for Life Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Episode 249: The Magic of Metabolic Profiling with Angelo Poli Future Episode 109: Whole Life Fitness with Dai Manuel Episode 265: Bringing Gratitude with Karl Staib Episode 286: Doing Project 333 with Courtney Carver The Whole30 Program Episode 116: The Power of When with Dr. Michael Breus Centr Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself How I’m Challenging Fitness Couch 2 10K DDPY The Spotify Playlist I Use When I’m Running Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m joined by David Allison on this episode of the program. David Allison is the founder of The Valuegraphics Database, the world’s first database that can predict and influence behaviour for anything on earth. He is a pioneer of ‘Values Thinking’ as the new best practice for organizational decision-making. I’m thrilled to have met David recently and once we had a conversation about what we were working on, I knew I wanted to have him on this podcast. David has coined the term, and become a champion of, Values Thinking, the new best practice for organizational decision-making in a post-demographic world. I find the practice fascinating and definitely worth your attention. We talk about why values thinking works, the difference between virtues and values, what led David to pursue this practice, and much more. David and I are aligned in our thinking in plenty of ways and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this conversation. Talking Points David explains what he does, how he got into it, and what “Valuegraphics” actually are How valuable can data be in times of uncertainty? This is what led David down this specific path David explains why it’s important to get your values in check to be productive and take productive actions Does David believe there’s a difference between values and virtues? How validating does it feel for David when he sees something that is proof of his concept? Quote “We have these giant stereotypical ideas in our head of what people are like based on what they are and not who they are.“ Helpful Links Valuegraphics How Our Values Unite Us In Times Of Uncertainty We Are All the Same Age Now Who We Are is Very Important. What We Are is Not. Episode 251: Being a Late Bloomer with Rich Karlgaard Episode 234: Bolder with Carl Honoré Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the podcast I fly solo! I talk about why I’ve added a second episode to the podcast each week and present (nearly) all of the story of how I’ve built my business as per a request from a podcast listener. While I’ve shared my story in bits in pieces both on this podcast and elsewhere, listener Jeffrey Fate wanted me to try to share how I’ve built my business in one fell swoop somewhere. I asked him if he’d like that somewhere to be a single episode of The Productivityist Podcast, and he loved the idea! So I share my long and winding journey from Costco to today, with all (or most of) of the “built my business” highlights and waypoints along the way. I also discuss why I’ve decided to double the amount of episodes I produce per week and what that means for the future of this podcast. Helpful Links Jeffrey Fate and Me: The Twitter Thread that Led to This Episode’s Topic Effing The Dog: The Podcast | Episode 3 from 2008 (Effing is short for Efforting) The posts I’ve written for GTD Times My posts at WorkAwesome Articles I’ve authored for Cult of Mac My posts at The Next Web Check out what I’ve written for Lifehack My posts at Lifehacker What The — Happened to Lifehacker? Time to Say Goodbye | My Lifehack Farewell Post System.ly (from Greg Hickman) The Daily Driver: Get my FREE daily paper planning tool Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special episode I’m joined by Chase Reeves LIVE at The BIG Ready to talk about many things, including something Chase calls “creative menopause.” Chase co-founded Fizzle.co — the first education platform designed for modern indie entrepreneurship — as well as the Chase Reeves YouTube channel, where he makes 60 minute reviews of backpacks that somehow people love watching. When I asked Chase to join us at The BIG Ready I knew that having him record a live edition of this podcast was the way I wanted him to present. Chase has a natural gregariousness that simply fit this model, especially in front of a live studio audience (of sorts). We talked about productivity, his journey from Fizzle to creating a YouTube channel where he shares his insights and ideas on bags of all shapes and sizes, creativity, and much more. It’s an engaging, entertaining, and endearing conversation that I’m certain you’ll get a kick out of. You may even learn a thing or two! Talking Points Why did you choose the word Fizzle for your business? Chase talks about if he taps into or uses willpower at all in his life and work What was so promising to Chase about switching to do YouTube and bag reviews? How important is sitting with questions for Chase? Chase touches on letting go of things and how that can lead to moving on and making new things This is what the word BIG means to Chase How important is patience when it comes to work and knowing when to stop? Quote “We’re constantly stepping in without certainty.“ Helpful Links Corbett Barr Fizzle.co The Fizzle Show #338: The Best Productivity Routines with Mike Vardy and Chase Reeves The Productivityist Podcast #164: Faster Than Normal with Peter Shankman The Diagram of Success Twyla Tharp Alan Watts The Productivityist Podcast #54: Voice Lessons with Todd Henry Seth Godin Chase’s YouTube Channel The Productivityist Podcast Pick of The Week: The Knowledge Project Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we head towards the end of March, I wanted to share another bonus episode of the podcast featuring every episode from March 2019 of my inactive daily podcast 3 Minutes of TimeCrafting. On this bonus episode you'll hear me discuss the following: How your to do list can be deceptive The concept of "overchoice" and how it can derail your productivity Why just getting through today is plenty productive Insights on wasting time The reason your to do list is a story ...and much more! This stretch of episodes also includes a mini-series called "Work By Mode" that deals with one of the primary elements of my TimeCrafting method and philosophy: Mode-Based Work. http://productivityist.com/fivedollars/ (Take my 30 Days of TimeCrafting fundamentals course) Want to discover some of the books mentioned in this episode on Scribd, my reading app of choice?https://www.scribd.com/g/9a8d8 (Click here.) If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking https://productivityist.transistor.fm/subscribe (here). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices