Time and Attention

On this episode, we chat about a potpourri of fun topics, including: What we’ve learned after 100 episodes; How to drink a glass of champagne; Our go-to productivity apps and accessories; Fantastical’s 40% price increase; Whether we still enjoy doing the show together; Tips for stimulation fasting;  How we manage our time every day; How to account for time pressure in planning your days.  Links mentioned in this episode: Book: How to Calm Your Mind Wikipedia: Parasocial interaction The post Podcast: 100 podcast episodes (and counting)! appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, I chat with Gloria Mark, the author of the new book Attention Span. Topics covered include: The benefits of managing our attention deliberately; Why (and whether) we lose control of our behavior using our devices; What makes email so damn stressful; The “attention traps” we fall into; How rote tasks are actually good for us and replenish our energy; The countless factors that influence our attention; How we all have different preferences when it comes to multitasking. Links mentioned in this episode: Book: Attention Span You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: How to build your attention span appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about how to get into a state of flow, where we’re totally immersed in what we’re doing. Topics covered include: What a “flow state” is; The characteristics of a flow state; Shortcuts to help us get into a state of flow; How flow helps us perform better with creative tasks; When a flow state isn’t helpful; The “flow channel”; Why we shouldn’t always evaluate how we’re doing as we work; The steps for focusing on something, and how these can help us enter a flow state. Links mentioned in this episode: Book: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Book: How to Calm Your Mind Book: Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Book: On Writing Article: The flow channel You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: How to get into a flow state appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about Chris’s latest experiment, to switch to a flip phone from a smartphone for a period of a month (to start). Topics covered include: How great the flip phone era was; How Ardyn feels about this experiment; The 6 reasons Chris is giving up his smartphone; The downsides to large screen phones; Whether smartphones are a net good in our lives; How personal the technology in our life has become; The “jobs” we “hire” our devices to do for us. Links mentioned in this episode: Article: Here’s why I’m trading in my smartphone for a flip phone this month Article: Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: Chatting about the flip phone experiment appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we welcome Laura Vanderkam back on the podcast to chat about her new book, Tranquility by Tuesday. Topics covered include: The three categories to use to plan your days and your life; Why we should plan our weeks on Friday afternoon; Laura’s daily planner of choice; How doing something three times a week makes it a habit; How carving out more white space can make us more productive; How to get more out of our leisure time; How to introduce more novelty into our days to slow down the passage of time. Links mentioned in this episode: Book: Tranquility by Tuesday The planner that Laura uses You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: 5 tactics for more tranquility in your life appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about how we like to go “novelty hunting,” especially in the digital world. Topics covered include: What “novelty hunting” is; The connection between novelty and dopamine; The three dopamine factors; The “novelty bias”; How novelty hunting is more stressful than we give it credit for; Superstimuli; How novelty changes our perception of time; Awareness of our novelty hunting; How novelty hunting used to look a lot different before the internet; What to do about it! Links mentioned in this episode: Book: How to Calm Your Mind You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: What to know about “novelty hunting.” appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about the science of “savoring”—the process through which we enjoy our lives. Topics covered include: How “savoring” is the process of converting positive experiences into positive emotions; The productivity benefits of savoring; How savoring helps us become less anxious; The psychological and neurological benefits of savoring; The balance between striving and savoring; How scarcity leads us to enjoy something more; The five ways we can savor everyday life; The “savor list.” Links mentioned in this episode: Book: How to Calm Your Mind   The post Podcast: The science of savoring your life appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about ideas from Chris’s new book, How to Calm Your Mind! Topics covered include: How a calm mind can make us significantly more productive; How anxiety shrinks our cognitive performance; What calm actually is; How anxiety is a spectrum; How presence is the key to productivity, and how to find it; The “accomplishment mindset”; The various drafts of How to Calm Your Mind; How we need dopamine, and also how it can lead us astray; Our brain’s “acquisition mentality”; The three factors that influence the size of the dopamine hit we get from something; What “superstimuli” are and how they highjack our attention on a chemical level; How to balance time between the digital and analog worlds; The various types of chronic stress; The power science of “savoring” our lives. Links mentioned in this episode: Book: How to Calm Your Mind You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below!   The post Podcast: The Year of Calm appeared first on Chris Bailey.

On this episode, we chat about our favorite rituals to ring in the new year. Topics covered include: Whether we make New Year’s resolutions; The importance of reflection at New Year’s; How to think back to past accomplishments; Simple rituals to set goals for the year ahead; The productivity benefits of gratitude. Links mentioned in this episode: Article: Give these 3 new year’s rituals a try You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below! The post Podcast: Our New Year’s Rituals appeared first on Chris Bailey.

This episode was originally published on May 7, 2019. In this episode, I chat with David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, about his book—and how we can carve out more space for having ideas. You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below! The post Podcast: My interview with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done appeared first on Chris Bailey.