Love Your Work

What if your smartphone didn’t distract you? What if your focus couldn’t be shaken by social media, by the latest news story, or even by your coworkers? What if you could be indistractable? Imagine what you could accomplish. Nir Eyal's (@nireyal) new book will help you do just that. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life will lead you away from dis-traction, so you can get traction. You may remember Nir being on Love Your Work a couple of times before. We talked about the societal implications of distracting technology more than three years ago, on episode 21. And now he’s back to show you how to fight back distractions – whatever the source. In this conversation, you’ll learn: Nir wrote the Bible on building habit-forming products: Hooked is a Wall Street Journal best-seller. So why would he also write the book on how to avoid being distracted by these products? How can you reimagine distraction to short-circuit it at its source? Nir helps you redesign your triggers, your task, and your temperament. Why is the myth of multitasking a myth in itself? Nir shows you how “multichannel multitasking” can help you do two things at once while being as focused as ever. Links Nir mentions: Schedule-maker tool Distraction guide Full disclosure, Nir is a book marketing client of mine. I consulted for him on some marketing tasks for this book, Indistractable. Of course, I rarely take clients, and I only did so because I respect Nir so much as an author and a thinker, and because I loved the book! Thanks for sharing my work! On Twitter, @noidentity_uk, @MPozdnev, and @JeffPossiel. On Instagram, @tomjepsoncreative. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/nir-eyal-indistractable/

To make it as a creative, you need to make the most of very limited resources. Your most valuable resource as a creative is your creative energy. You only have so much creative energy, but if you use that energy wisely, you can be leaps and bounds more productive than you could be otherwise. To manage your creative energy well, be intentional about how you use it. One way to be intentional about how you use your creative energy is to categorize and label different types of creative energy. Today, I introduce two types of creative energy. “Front burner” creativity, and “back burner” creativity. If you think of your creative energy in terms of “front burner” and “back burner,” you can have more creative output on your smaller projects, while still tackling those bigger projects – all without procrastinating or burning out. I’ll tell you more in this week’s episode. Image: Guitar and Music Paper, Juan Gris New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/front-burner-creativity/

Robbie Abed (@robbieab) is author of Fire Me I Beg You: Quit Your Miserable Job (Without Risking it All). Robbie is also one of the early influencers on LinkedIn's publishing platform, he’s had over 500 coffee meetings, and he's one of the key catalysts – along with James Altucher – behind why this podcast exists at all. (You’ll hear the story.) How would you feel if you got fired today? If the answer is “relieved,” you should re-think your job. I took a short visit to Chicago, and sat down with longtime friend Robbie Abed. In this conversation, you’ll learn; Thinking about quitting your job? What’s one question you should ask yourself to know if you should pull the trigger? How do you quit your job without committing career suicide? Robbie says “Never lie on your resume, but lie like hell in your exit interview.” Find out why. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »

Have you ever wondered to yourself: How the the hell did I end up in this situation? I asked myself this question once. I was changing my clothes in the bathroom of a filthy Fuck My Life laundromat in Chicago. It was a terrible situation. But I learned an important lesson. I’ll tell you about it in this week’s episode. Image from: A Bar at the Foiles-Bergére, Edouard Manet New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays Listener Showcase This week, we’re featuring Luke Freeman of positly.com. Positly.com is a platform for recruiting and managing research participants. Sign up to be featured at kadavy.net/showcase About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/problems-worth-having-podcast/

Ryan Evans (@ryanevans) wanted to make easy money. Growing up on a pig farm, Ryan was used to making little money for lots of hard work. But Ryan would soon learn an important lesson about the dangers of easy money. This is, in my opinion, the most powerful conversation I’ve had on the show yet. In it, we’ll talk about: Are there good ways to make money, and bad ways to make money? Ryan’s hard lesson gives him a unique perspective that few people have. Hear the story of what it’s like to get investigated by the SEC for insider trading. What’s it like to serve hard time for making easy money? If you’ve ever wondered what federal prison was like, Ryan will tell you. I had to cut a third of this conversation out, in order to fit our production budget. We pay by the minute for editing, so there isn’t room for the whole thing. Patreon supporters got access to the raw uncut conversation weeks ago, delivered straight to their favorite podcast apps. Support Love Your Work on Patreon to hear the whole thing, and get other goodies in the process. Join at patreon.com/kadavy. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »

You may have heard that you should assign yourself an “aspirational hourly rate.” That you should tell yourself you’re worth, say, $300 an hour; and if you can spend $300 to save yourself an hour, you should do so. That’s a powerful idea for making the most of your time and energy, but is all of your time equally valuable? In this week’s essay, I propose a variable money value for your time. Image: Glass and Checkerboard, Juan Gris Thanks for sharing my work! On Twitter, @EvryLovelyThing and @tchassakamga. On Instagram, tomjepsoncreative of The Sideman Designer podcast. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/variable-money-value-time/

Rob Wiblin (@robertwiblin) is the Director of Research at an organization called 80,000 Hours, and host of the 80,000 Hours Podcast. 80,000 hours being the amount of hours you will spend working in a typical career. 80,000 Hours is dedicated to finding out just how effective various careers are, and who is suited for those careers. We all want the work we do to matter. But how do we really know whether the work we do does matter? The foundation of 80,000 Hours is a philosophy called Effective Altruism. The EA community asks tough questions about what are the most important issues facing humanity, and how best to address those issues. EA tends to come up with counterintuitive conclusions that go against most people’s first instincts. You’re going to hear some of those counterintuitive conclusions. You’re also going to learn: Why did Rob insist on having a much longer conversation than the typical one-hour conversation you hear here on Love Your Work? He has data to back up his suggestion. Why should you stop listening to your gut instincts about what actions have an impact? Following the research can increase your impact a thousand times over. Why are the highest-profile issues some of the last issues you should be giving your attention to? Rob provides a framework for making the most of your money, time, and attention. This is a much longer conversation than usual. I’d like to thank Rob Wiblin and 80,000 Hours for offering to cover the extra production costs over our usual shorter conversations. We pay by the minute, and they were happy to chip in to make this conversation more in-depth. You’ll find out why early on in the conversation. Links mentioned The benefits (and lack of harm) of nicotine Nature.com: Impact of plastic straw ban on oral health advice? Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean by Jambeck et al,. Science (2015) What you think about landfill and recycling is probably totally wrong by Rob Wiblin Population ethics Population axiology The Non-Identity Problem How many lives does a doctor save? Simplifying Cluelessness, by Philip Trammell Crucial Considerations and Wise Philanthropy, by Nick Bostrom A year’s worth of education for under a dollar and other ‘best buys’ in development, from the UK aid agency’s Chief Economist 80,000 Hours Key Ideas New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/robert-wiblin-interview/  

We’re so accustomed to operating in a time management world, we can’t imagine it being any different. We all have our calendars full, and even then we can’t seem to manage it all. Believe it or not, it wasn’t always this way, and if you want to stay relevant in the coming years, I think you’ll have to learn to operate under a completely different paradigm. We need to stop thinking so much about how to better manage our time, and start thinking about how to better manage our minds. I’ll tell you more in this week’s episode. Photo by milan degraeve on Unsplash. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays Listener Showcase Vidas Pinkevicius is not only one of our top-contributing Patreon backers, he’s also an organist who draws. Vidas is author of Pinky and Spiky comics. You can check out his work on Steemit. About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger Support the show on Patreon Put your money where your mind is. Patreon lets you support independent creators like me. Support now on Patreon »   Show notes: >http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/mind-management-world-podcast/

In this podcast, Dr. Robert Maurer discusses the concept of Kaizen and how making small steps can lead to big changes. He shares insights on why starting with small habits is more effective than setting large goals. The podcast explores the power of small steps in various areas of life, including relationships and creative progress. It also discusses the use of Kaizen in language learning and breaking tasks down. The episode concludes with a discussion on being present in conversations and a call to support the show.

Breaking through resistance to be creative is a battle with your own mind. We learned last week from Dr. Robert Lustig about how commerce is set up to hack your mind into a state of constant wanting, wanting, wanting. But the more you seek satisfaction from the outside world, the harder time you’ll have finding it. That’s why I think you should shut off the consumer mind, and fire up the creator mind. Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash Thanks for sharing my work! On Instagram, tammylynnmcnabb, and tomjepsoncreative of The Sideman Designer podcast. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays About Your Host, David Kadavy David Kadavy is the author of The Heart to Start and Design for Hackers. Through the Love Your Work podcast and his Love Mondays newsletter, David explores what it takes to make it as a creative. Follow David on: Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube Subscribe to Love Your Work Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher RSS Email Facebook Messenger     Show Notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/creator-mind-podcast/