The Productivityist Podcast: Ideas And Tools For Personal Productivity | Time Management | Goals | Habits | Working Better

I’m joined this time around by Josh Kaufman, the author of three bestselling books – including his latest effort How to Fight a Hydra: Face Your Fears, Pursue Your Ambitions, and Become the Hero You Are Destined to Be. Josh’s research focuses on business, entrepreneurship, skill acquisition, productivity, creativity, applied psychology, and practical wisdom and he’s someone I’ve wanted to have on the show for a long time. Josh and I carry on a conversation that revolves around the differences between How to Fight a Hydra and his previous books, the power of story (particularly fables and parables), why I never thought of Josh as a productivity expert yet he describes himself as such, and much more. Relevant Links How to Fight a Hydra: Face Your Fears, Pursue Your Ambitions, and Become the Hero You Are Destined to Be | Amazon The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield | Amazon Josh Kaufman’s Website I had a fantastic time chatting with Josh and I hope you enjoyed our conversation as well. If you did

On this episode, after years of crossing paths both online and offline, I speak with Farnoosh Brock. Farnoosh went from electrical engineer and rising leader at corporate to business coach and entrepreneur. She shows businesses the mindset of serving over selling to build deep trust and sustainable profit. She is the author of several books, including the one we focus on during our conversation, The Serving Mindset. Farnoosh and I have a lively discussion around changing your mindset when it comes to selling your services – something that I offer through my coaching practices. We dive into a variety of elements of this, but the core of our conversation revolves around how The Serving Mindset is helpful in making one not just more successful but also more efficient in one’s business. Relevant Links Prolific Living | Farnoosh Brock The Serving Mindset: Stop Selling and Grow Your Business by Farnoosh Brock | Amazon The Coaching Habit with Michael Bungay Stanier | The Productivityist Podcast The NOW Year Ca

On this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Brett Pinegar. Brett is the founder of the X Group, where he helps individuals and teams multiply their effectiveness by adopting the techniques and mindsets great leaders use. Brett is a three-time tech CEO, a trail runner, and most importantly, a dad to five great kids. During our conversation, Brett and I spoke about how to lead with excellence daily, how an aspect of our mind can sabotage our pursuit of excellence, and how to adopt a mindset of excellence. We also discussed the power of routines and reveal a condition that Brett struggles with that could have hindered his mindset – but he refused to let it define him. (And that’s just for starters.) Relevant Links Brett Pinegar’s Website Avoid Perfection – Embrace Excellence by Brett Pinegar X Notes – Living and Leading with Excellence by Brett Pinegar Brett Pinegar on Twitter I enjoyed my time chatting with Brett and I hope you did as well. If so, do me a favour and leave a rating and review wherever y

Scott Amyx joins me on this episode of the podcast. Scott is the author of Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success, which has been endorsed by Tony Robbins, Forbes, Singularity University, Tribeca Film Festival and other influencers. Relevant Links About Scott Amyx Books by Scott Amyx Scott Amyx Redefines The Roadmap To Success With Six Simple Steps | Forbes Bitcoiners Take New York, but Wall Street Resists The Lure | MoneyBeat @ Wall Street Journal STRIVE: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success  | Amazon Scott’s Website Scott Amyx | Twitter I haven’t explored this area so much in the past – perhaps because I’ve found it uncomfortable – so having this conversation with Scott was quite refreshing. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please share this episode and make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to the show. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode

I welcome Jennifer Dawn, creator of the Best Planner Ever, to the podcast this time around. Jennifer is a serial entrepreneur who has grown two multi-million dollar businesses and serves high-achieving entrepreneurs through private business coaching helping to take their companies further, faster. Since I’ve got a “mild” obsession with paper planners I wanted to talk with Jennifer about what went into building the Best Planner Ever. We discuss how it got its name, the elements that are unique to the planner, and why she thinks it’s important to bring what’s important to you into the planner that you use and how you can do that. Best Planner Ever Jennifer Dawn Coaching Jennifer and I could have kept going for much longer but there’ll (hopefully) be another time for that. Right now it’s time for you to check out her planner (linked above) and check out The Productivityist Playbook as well. You can get The Productivityist Podcast at a discounted price by clicking here. Want to discover some of the books ment

On this episode of the show, I speak with New York Times best-selling author Dan Schawbel. Dan is the author of Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation and the host of the 5 Questions with Dan Schawbel podcast. He’s also Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, and the Founder of both Millennial Branding and WorkplaceTrends.com. Dan and I have a history back when I was the Managing Editor of Lifehack and while we’ve never spoken prior to this episode, we were able to jump into a lively conversation about using technology as a bridge to more human conversations rather than making it a barrier, how technology can also help deepen relationships, the importance of getting out to events and gatherings that push your comfort zones, and more. Relevant Links Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation | Dan Schawbel The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains | Nicholas Carr How our 269 billion emails a day have made us miserab

Tim Grahl joins me on this episode of the podcast to talk about his latest book (and most personal one to date), Running Down a Dream: Your Road Map To Winning Creative Battles. Tim and I have had several conversations before and we make every effort to get together whenever we’re in the same city. This time I speak to him over Skype (with some microphone issues on my end to start off the show) as we dive into why he wrote this book, how tough it was to write it, the productivity practices he has put in place to aid him in running down his dream, his thoughts on social media, and much more. Relevant Links Running Down a Dream | Amazon The War of Art by Steven Pressfield | Amazon Story Grid Podcast with Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl Free Time is the Enemy of Progress | Medium The Autofocus System | Mark Forster World Domination Summit How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe | Be More with Less Tim Grahl’s Website Tim Grahl on Twitter Thanks for listening to the show and if you enjoy the podcast, please subscri

On this episode of The Productivityist Podcast, I speak with Jay Miller of Productivity in Tech. I’ve known Jay for a few years now and it was a pleasure to have him in my studio to talk about productivity, technology, and the intersection between them. We cover a wide range of topics during our conversation so prepare to dig in for a lot of productivity neediness for this episode (more than usual). Relevant Links Productivity in Tech Blog Productivity in Tech Podcast An Interview with Jay Miller | Joe Buhlig Jay Miller on Twitter Thanks for popping by to give the show a listen. If you enjoyed the show, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts or whatever you use to listen to podcasts. Better still, rate and review the show to help more people find it (and help us make the show even better). Take care and keep moving things forward! 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 rat

Have you ever wanted to hear the story of how one of the most popular productivity methodologies came to be? Then you’ll enjoy this episode as I’m joined by the creator of the incredibly popular Bullet Journal, Ryder Carroll. Ryder is also the author of the book – his first – The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future which goes deeper into the Bullet Journal phenomenon (as do we during our discussion). Ryder and I speak about how his creation took off, the importance of patience, how to deal with one’s own expectations, and more. It’s a fascinating conversation that will go beyond the “how” of The Bullet Journal Method and into the “why.” Relevant Links The Bullet Journal Method The Bullet Journal Method Collector’s Set The Productivityist Podcast: The Best Kind of Paper Pushing BulletJournal.com Ryder Carroll on Twitter I had an absolute blast chatting with Ryder and am excited to share this episode with you. I hope you enjoy it! Want to discover some of the book

On this episode of the show, I speak with Andy Molinksy. Andy is a professor of International Management and Organizational Behavior at Brandeis University, an author of two business books – Global Dexterity and Reach and a columnist at HBR, Psychology Today, and Inc.com. He lectures, teaches, and consults on helping people step outside their personal, professional, and cultural comfort zones. Talking Points How Andy helps people get past the mindset shift it takes to reach beyond their comfort zone. The pain points that keep us in our comfort zone, preventing us from stepping outside of it (and what ones are what Andy calls “The Big Three”). What Andy learned during a “ride along” that has helped him with his work. You’ll find out if (and how far) Andy went outside of his comfort zone when writing Reach. What the 3 Cs approach is and how it helps you reach outside of your comfort zone How both of us use avatars and triggers to help us do things that are uncomfortable…or things that we may feel as if w

On this episode I speak with fellow Canadian and productivity expert Chris Bailey. Chris Bailey is the international bestselling author of The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction. Chris writes about productivity at Alifeofproductivity.com, and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive, without hating the process. It’s always fun to chat with Chris and in this particular discussion we talk about focus and its effects on productivity, the different types of focus that he has written about, how to get around distraction, and much more. There is so much productivity goodness in this episode! Relevant Links Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction The Productivity Project The Productivityist Podcast Episode 77: The Productivity Project with Chris Bailey A Lesson from “About a Boy” on Hyper-Scheduling The Hyper-Scheduling Experiment | MacSparky Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Essentialism by Gre

If you’ve ever faced burnout, then this discussion I have with Dr. Clark Gaither is definitely for you. Dr. Gaither is a family physician, author, speaker, blogger, corporate consultant, personal life coach, and an expert on Job Related Burnout. His latest book on this topic, *Reignite*, was released in March 2018. Talking Points Why he is so fascinated with job-related burnout. How burnout nearly led him to leave his thriving medicine practice. What steps he took to take on his burnout…and beat it back. What “presenteeism” is and how it can impact burnout. How to recognize the signs of burnout – even those that are a little more subtle than others. The relationship between stress and burnout and what the 3 principle hallmarks of burnout are and how to face them so you can reignite your work (and more). Relevant Links REIGNITE Designing Your Mindset with Andy Murphy | The Productivityist Podcast The REIGNITE Workbook The 8 Steps to Recognize and Eliminate the Burned Out Mindset ClarkGaither.com

On this episode, I chat with Erin Acton, someone that I’ve known for a few years since we’re both based in Victoria, BC. Erin spends her time providing coaching in groups and in one-on-one settings, which allows her to nurture her passion – supporting business owners and leaders to improve their soft skills, which often have the power to create massive shifts both personally and financially. Erin and I discussed the idea of helping people with hard and soft skills – how you can take the temperature of your own hard skills and soft skills sets so that you can figure out where you’re at with them, how she helps people balance qualitative and quantitative results in their business, and how a sick day with her daughter changed everything for her. Relevant Links Erin Acton | Website Erin’s Work/Life Balance Assessment Erin Acton | Twitter This was a fun conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choic

I’m pleased to welcome to Chris O’Neill on this episode of the podcast. Chris is the CEO of Evernote and I spoke with him over the course of the show about the past, present, and future of Evernote. I’m really happy with how this conversation went down. Whether you’re new to Evernote, have been a long-time user, or have dabbled in it from time to time over the years, there’s plenty of food for thought that you’ll find in this conversation. Relevant Links Evernote Evernote’s CEO Reveals The 5 Keys To The Ultra-Productive Team Of The Future | Forbes Chris O’Neill | Twitter I hope you liked this episode. You can always keep up with episodes through subscribing to the show in your podcast platform of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.). And feel free to share this episode with anyone and everyone you think would be interested in hearing about all things Evernote! Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode,

Matt Bodnar joins me on this episode of the podcast to discuss what goes into the art of making decisions. Failing to decide or having too much to decide upon can be a pain point in personal productivity so I am happy to have Matt on the show to dig into that (and more). Matt hosts The Science of Success podcast and clearly getting clear on decision-making is a component of one’s success. So I wanted to dig deeper into that…and we did. I hope you enjoy our discussion. Relevant Links Matt Bodnar | Website The Science of Success Podcast Matt Bodnar | Twitter This was a fun episode to do. If you liked it and don’t want to miss a single episode of the podcast (or simply want to cherry pick those episodes you do want to listen to without skipping a beat) then you can subscribe to The Productivityist Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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

On this episode, I’m joined by KC Procter of Fit Dad Life. KC is a good friend and since he’s a dad like me (albeit with a few more kids) I wanted to talk to him about fitness and health and how they relate to personal productivity. We talked about eating habits, why it’s important to make time for fitness in your life no matter how “busy” you are, and why he decided to start Fit Dad Life in the first place. It’s an enlightening and engaging conversation between two dads (and friends) that have known each other for quite some time. Relevant Links Fit Dad Life World Domination Summit Special stuff for listeners of THIS podcast | Fit Dad Life KC Procter | Twitter Thanks for listening to this episode. If you liked it, please share it with someone that could benefit from it. If you don’t want to miss another episode then be sure to hit that subscribe button in your podcast listening platform of choice. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.

Judy Machado-Duque joins me on this episode of the podcast. Judy is known as the “Productivity Goddess” and is a fellow Canadian so we had plenty to talk about during our time together, including her planner the Life Purpose Playbook. While we focus a lot on the playbook she’s created, we also dive into her productivity processes and practices that go outside and beyond the planner. It’s a fun conversation that I struggled to keep at our usual podcast time limit. Relevant Links Productivity Goddess Life Purpose Playbook Judy Machado-Duque | Instagram I hope you liked this episode of the podcast. If you did, make sure you don’t miss another episode by subscribing in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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 sponso

On this episode of the show, I speak with Mike Williams. Mike is the co-author of the book Getting Things Done for Teens and the former CEO of The David Allen Company. I actually had my teenage daughter help me out with this episode, so if you’ve got a teenager that want to get things done then this show is one that you both should listen to! During the show I asked questions that came up during my daughter Grace’s reading of the book, why this book was needed now more than ever, and what Mike wants to accomplish with this book. Relevant Links Buy Getting Things Done for Teens | Amazon Mike Williams | Twitter I hope you enjoyed this episode. If so, tell your friends by sharing it. You could also subscribe to the podcast as well and never miss another 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

David Allen joins me on this episode of the podcast to dive deeper into the Getting Things Done methodology. The meat of our conversation gets into how it has evolved over the years since it first was introduced in 2001. There’s a bit of noise at parts during our discussion, but even still this episode is a winner. Some of the highlights of this episode include: How much of a role he had in writing the new book, Getting Things Done for Teens Why he believes teens need GTD more now than ever before A discussion about the reframing of GTD that needed to happen when adapting the methodology for teens How he has changed his approach when teaching GTD over the years David reveals his thoughts on the most challenging aspect of GTD (Hint: It hasn’t changed since the introduction of GTD) A conversation surrounding the renaissance of analog tools and his thoughts on why they’ve made a comeback Relevant Links Getting Things Done with David Allen | The Productivityist Podcast Getting Things Done for Teens |

This week on The Productivityist Podcast, I am joined by speaker and author Laura Vanderkam. Her latest book is Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Things Done. Laura’s work has appeared in various publications and media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show and Fox & Friends among many others. She co-hosts the Best of Both Worlds podcast and has delivered a TED talk with more than 5 million views. Tune in as we discuss why we always feel there’s not enough time and some mindset shifts we need to break that. We talk about people’s different perception of time, prioritizing, setting the right habits and managing your energy among other things. If you are always stressed out and can’t seem to accomplish your goals, then this episode is for you. Relevant Links Laura Vanderkam’s website Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Things Done | Amazon How to Gain Control of Your Free Time | TED Best of Both Worlds Podcast Laura Vanderkam (@lvander