Takeaway: Can’t explain why you act the way you do? Your values may be at play. There are 10 human values that we hold most dear, explained below. Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 22s. When I was a teenager, I ran a marathon. Well, sort of. Following the instructions from a great book (my memory is hazy but I’m pretty sure this was the one), I trained for hours on our treadmill at home. By a certain point, I was practically running a full marathon in the basement. The book made it so that, once you got to the point where you could run the distance, the actual marathon was easy—you had alre ..read more

On this episode, we chat about whether or not you should wake up early—and how our biology and daily constraints dictate when we should rise. Topics covered include: Calculating your natural wakeup time; How our wakeup time drifts; The “sepia toned” idea we have to wake up early; Carving out time in the morning to be deliberate; How biology affects our wakeup time; How the constraints of our day affect wakeup time; Having an anchor in your morning routine; Whether waking up early makes a difference in our daily productivity. Links mentioned in this episode: Russell Foster’s great TED Talk ..read more

On this episode, we chat about how to avoid “all or nothing” thinking—also known as the “eff it” effect, or the abstinence violation effect, if you want to get technical about it. Topics covered include: Not being satisfied by partial success How the effect plays out across different time scales The idea of “sunk costs” How awareness is key to behavioral change The downfalls of black and white thinking You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below! The post Podcast: All or Something Thinking (Replay) appeared first on Chris Bailey ..read more

Takeaway: If you’re not careful, your to-do list can make your work less enjoyable, while leading you to feel less in control of your time. When finishing tasks, reflect on the next most important project to work on—and treat your to-do list as a series of suggestions, not obligations. Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes, 26s. One of the highest leverage things you can do to become more productive is simple: continually do what you consider to be the most important thing in each moment. This is way easier said than done, but isn’t as difficult as you may think. To explain, let me tell you ..read more

On this episode, we chat about how to stay productive when you don’t feel like it. Ideas covered include: How to settle into work when you just don’t feel like it; Not letting your to-do list turn into a list of expectations for how things will go; The idea of making “only progress”; Feeling your “pace of productivity” Understanding the procrastination triggers; Managing expectations downward; Connecting with how you feel to analyze how you’re stuck; Paying yourself ‘time and a half’; Accommodating your mental resistance to doing a task. Links mentioned in this episode: Ardyn’s ChatGPT pho ..read more

On this episode, we chat about our phone home screens, debate about whose is better, and talk about whether “focus modes” should drive what’s on our home screen. Chris’s home screen: Ardyn’s home screen: A few links mentioned on the episode: Locket app: iOS; Android; Pedometer++ on iOS; ChatGPT voice assistant; Kijiji wikipedia page; Withings Body Scan. You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below! The post Podcast: Our phone home screens appeared first on Chris Bailey ..read more

Takeaway: My five favorite ways to manage a busy inbox: conduct email sprints, use your email’s auto-responder feature, limit emails to five sentences, delete the email app off of your phone, and tackle email during lower energy periods. Estimated Reading Time: 2 minute, 39s. Email can feel like a weird beast to tame. Equal parts essential, helpful, and downright annoying, it can be a mixed bag for productivity. So how can you take advantage of the good parts of email while leaving the bad? Here are five of my favorite tactics, each of which can help wrangle your mess of messages: 1. Con ..read more

On this episode, we chat about how the nature of productivity is changing, and how AI is making us more productive by making our work tasks higher-leverage. Topics covered include: The most important tasks in your work; How our “productivity leverage” increases with time; How AI makes us more productive by moving us up the “layers of abstraction” in our work; How we can delegate work to AI; How AI can save us time; The most popular AI apps right now. Links mentioned in this episode: TinyWow Canva DeepL Github Copilot Hugging Face You can listen (and subscribe) to the podcast below! The po ..read more

On this episode, we chat about the perks and benefits of doing a “fake commute” each morning. Topics covered include: Chris’s experiment to do a “fake morning commute”; The benefits of morning sun; Other benefits of a fake morning commute; How commuting variables affect our happiness level; Pre- and post-work rituals. Links mentioned in this episode: Happy City, by Charles Montgomery (great book!) Research: The Positive Utility of the Commute: Modeling Ideal Commute Time and Relative Desired Commute Amount Commuting and Life Satisfaction Revisited: Evidence on a Non-linear Relationship Do ..read more

Takeaway: If you want to better transition into work mode while working from home, try a “fake commute.” Estimated Reading Time: 1 minutes, 45s. I’ve worked from home for the last decade or so. Despite all the benefits of WFH life, I do occasionally miss elements of my long-ago morning commute: the audiobook time as I rode into the office and the quiet moments of transition that bookended my workday. Luckily, I’ve found a ritual to serve these same functions. As an experiment, I’ve started a “fake active commute” each morning. To my surprise, the ritual has stuck, and gives me everything I u ..read more