How I Work

**BEST OF 2022** There’s a moment in the 2013 comedy movie We’re the Millers that points to how pervasive - and misguided - the “no regrets” life motto has become. A character proudly displays a tattoo that reads, “no rAgrets”, and even more proudly proclaims that he really doesn’t have any regrets. Not even one letter.  Bestselling author Dan Pink highlights this scene as a great metaphor for society’s almost comical underappreciation of regret. Dan is an advocate for the transformative power of looking back on your past actions, processes and routines in order to learn from them, and do better next time.  He discusses what’s changed about his working habits since his last appearance on the show, why he was drawn to the concept of regret in the first place, and how compassion changed his whole approach to learning from past mistakes.    Connect with Dan on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn Pick up a copy of The Power of Regret *** Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin Twitter Instagram    If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au   CREDITS Produced by Inventium Host: Amantha Imber Production Support from Deadset Studios Episode Producer: Liam Riordan Sound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How would you feel if we were in the middle of a conversation and I suddenly started talking to someone else from across the room?  Well, that’s exactly what we’re doing whenever we let our phones or laptops drag us down the multi-tasking rabbit hole.  Leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss are hyper-vigilant of their device usage. This makes sense for two people who are devoted to productivity, but that’s not the end of the story. Frances and Anne are also devoted to connections. They write constantly about the importance of trust and empathy, and neither of those things can flourish if we (or the people we’re talking to) are distracted.  Frances and Anne share how they manage their technology for both productivity and empathy, and how they work around the day-to-day logistics of not being connected all the time.  Connect with Frances and Anne on LinkedIn You can find the full interview here: Trust, leadership and taking a break from technology with Frances Frei and Anne Morriss *** My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.   Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin Twitter Instagram    If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au   CREDITS Produced by Inventium Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**BEST OF 2022** If your job title is “Executive Productivity Advisor for Google,” you probably need a pretty refined definition of productivity, right? And Laura Mae Martin certainly does. But she says it’s equally important that every individual has their own, unique definition of productivity. It’s all too easy to fall into “busy language”, she says. Back-to-back meetings and a three-page to-do-list might make you feel productive, but if you’re not making time for your most important work (and for rest), you might just be running in circles. So how do we see through the guise of busy-ness and get the real work done? For Laura, and the suite of Google execs she coaches, everything starts with the calendar. Whether you’re in too many meetings or spending too much time in your inbox, poor calendar hygiene is probably the root cause. Laura teaches you how to implement “zero-based calendaring”, calendaring for focus, calendaring for connection, and much more. Connect with Laura on her YouTube channel or at the Google Keywords blog *** Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin Twitter Instagram   If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au   CREDITS Produced by Inventium Host: Amantha Imber Production Support from Deadset Studios Episode Producer: Liam Riordan Sound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whatever happened to that huge, game-changing project you started working on last year? Or the idea you had a couple of months ago?  If you’ve got an ever-lengthening list of unfinished and abandoned pursuits, it’s probably because you’re not prioritising the correct ‘time horizons’, as Atlassian’s Dom Price calls them. The first horizon is the short-term: answering emails, making sales calls, delivering final products - anything that gives you a sense of immediate gratification.  And while wins in this first horizon are crucial, they’re also a bit of a trap. After all, when immediate gratification’s available, it’s hard to resist. But if anything truly special’s going to happen, it’s going to take the disciplined pursuit of longer-term goals.  Dom also highlights why simply setting long-term goals isn’t enough, and details his system for nurturing these seeds over multiple months, or even years.  Connect with Dom on Twitter or LinkedIn You can find the full interview here: Atlassian’s Dom Price wants you to up your communication by designing a “working agreement” *** My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.   Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin Twitter Instagram    If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au   CREDITS Produced by Inventium Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa Doyle is a picture of professionalism. She’s adamant that even when she had young children, and felt like she hadn’t slept for weeks on end, she never had good cause to complain about her 4am call times as a news presenter. After all, she’d dreamed of being on the news since she was a little girl, and now it was a reality. Plus, she was working with a fiercely focused purpose. Melissa shares how this purpose-drive philosophy helped her through tougher moments in her presenting career, like her award-winning reporting on the Lindt cafe siege. And she highlights some of the astounding stories of courage and resilience that make up her latest book, 15 Seconds of Brave. Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn or Twitter *** My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.   Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin Twitter Instagram    If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co   Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au   CREDITS Produced by Inventium Host: Amantha Imber Production Support from Deadset Studios Episode Producer: Liam Riordan Sound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Picture this: you’ve just finished an incredibly important presentation. It was dense with crucial information… And you absolutely nailed it. At the end, one of your colleagues wants to give you some feedback. You thrive on constructive criticism, and welcome the chance to learn. But all he says is: your outfit is too distracting. Your dress is so sparkly it made it difficult to concentrate. How do you react? Most of us would blow a gasket - to hear something so overtly sexist and inappropriate would send almost anyone into a fit of rage, or even despair.But not Dr Catriona Wallace. When this happened to her (yes, this actually happened!), she’d spent enough time navigating male-dominated businesses and boardrooms to know that outrage wasn’t the answer. It might’ve been reasonable, but it wouldn’t have been productive. Instead, Cat chose empathy. She put herself in that colleague’s shoes, and understood that even though what he’d said was absurd, he clearly didn’t mean to insult her. By meeting him where he was instead of where she wanted him to be, she was able to help him understand the contents of her presentation without diminishing herself, or descending into an all-out shouting match. Cat shares how this moment, and others just like it, turned her into the empathetic leader she is today.Connect with Catriona on Twitter or LinkedInYou can find the full interview here: Dr Catriona Wallace’s million-dollar nose ring and what it taught her about running a business***My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.Connect with me on the socials:LinkedinTwitterInstagram  If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.coVisit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auCREDITSProduced by InventiumHost: Amantha ImberSound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does success really mean? And more importantly, what does it mean to you? These are big questions, questions that author and executive coach Nigel Marsh says we can’t ignore. In fact, he believes that we can’t reliably achieve anything meaningful if we don’t first answer these questions. Nigel’s mantra is “clarity, alignment, momentum”, and he seeks each in that order. Without clarity and alignment, he says, momentum isn’t just useless - it can actually be destructive. After all, being ever more efficient, if you haven't worked out what you want to be and how you want to live, might just lead you to do even more of the wrong thing, even more efficiently.Nigel shares how he and his coaching clients seek clarity, as well as the lessons he’s learned since writing his first book more than two decades ago. Connect with Nigel at his website and pick up a copy of Smart, Stupid and Sixty***My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here. Connect with me on the socials:LinkedinTwitterInstagram  If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.coVisit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au CREDITSProduced by InventiumHost: Amantha ImberProduction Support from Deadset StudiosEpisode Producer: Liam RiordanSound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to productivity, you are your own worst enemy. Nobody knows how to trick you into procrastinating or cutting corners quite like you do. You know all of your own strengths, weaknesses and thought patterns. But if you know yourself better than anyone else does, that also means you are your own best resource for productivity tools, hacks, tips and tactics. Writer Eric Barker knows how important specificity is, especially when it comes to productivity. So while he loves poring over productivity books, courses, videos and articles, he knows that ultimately, it’s all down to him. Enter the “Book of Me.” Eric wants you to write your own productivity “bible”, specific to your needs and habits. If you know you don’t work well when you’re hungry, put it in the book. If you know you’re easily distracted by your phone, put it in the book. Eric details exactly how he approaches his own “Book of Me”, and how you can write your own. Connect with Eric on Twitter or LinkedInPick up a copy of Plays Well With OthersYou can find the full interview here: Eric Barker on his Five-Hour Rule and deliberate work-life imbalance***My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.Connect with me on the socials:LinkedinTwitterInstagram  If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.coVisit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au CREDITSProduced by InventiumHost: Amantha ImberSound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not long ago, Australian theatre star Elise McCann was struggling. Like everyone else in the entertainment industry, her work ground to a screeching halt early in the pandemic, and she turned to mindfulness and meditation for help. But unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. Elise’s good friend and fellow actor Lucy Durack was struggling, too. In fact, she felt like she couldn’t even get meditation right: she was listening to guided meditations while changing her baby’s nappies in an effort to fit the practice into her day-to-day. Disenfranchised, the pair relied on one another for pep talks during lockdowns, and realised: they couldn’t be the only ones feeling like meditation wasn’t meant for them. So, they decided to share their pep talks with the world, and Hey Lemonade was born. But in order to take their new well-being app to market, they needed help - and how do two seasoned actors prepare for a meeting with one of Australia’s biggest names in business? By writing a script, naturally!Elise shares how she scripted her entire pitch meeting for Hey Lemonade, and breaks down the time management system that allows her to perform, produce and run a company all at once. Connect with Elise on LinkedIn, Instagram or on the Hey Lemonade website ***My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.Connect with me on the socials:LinkedinTwitterInstagram  If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au CREDITSProduced by InventiumHost: Amantha ImberProduction Support from Deadset StudiosEpisode Producer: Liam RiordanSound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Wiseman’s love of magic has improved his work as a psychologist in some unexpected ways. Of course, it’s helpful when he’s conducting experiments or research into the psychology of magic and illusions; but the lessons magic teaches about performance and holding an audience’s attention have been just as valuable. For one thing, Richard never gives away “the answer” too early. If you open your presentation with your findings or big ideas, you have nowhere else to go. Richard instead teases the answer, builds suspense, and constructs a story around it - so his audience has to lean in and pay close attention to make sure they don’t miss anything. Richard also shares a simple mental re-frame for when he’s feeling uninspired or unexcited at the prospect of yet another presentation…Connect with Richard on Twitter and at his websiteYou can find the full interview here: “Quirkology” Professor Richard Wiseman on using magic to up your public speaking game***My new book Time Wise is out now. You can grab a copy here.Connect with me on the socials:LinkedinTwitterInstagram  If you’re looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.coVisit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auCREDITSProduced by InventiumHost: Amantha ImberSound Engineer: Martin ImberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.