How I Work

By Amantha Imber

You know those annoyingly successful people who seem to have it all figured out? Time to steal their playbook. Organisational psychologist Dr Amantha Imber gets world‑class achievers to spill their

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The podcast currently has 750 episodes available.

Best of How I Work

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Why planning 60% of your day is the most productive thing you can do, with Cyril Peupion
There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes not from working hard, but from never quite feeling like you've worked on the right things. You finish a full day, maybe a long one, and yet the projects that actually matter haven't moved. The inbox is cleaner, the meetings are done, but the needle hasn't shifted. Cyril Peupion has spent two decades coaching executives on exactly this problem, and his diagnosis is consistent: the issue is the gap between where leaders want to go and what they actually spend their time on. In this episode, I sit down with Cyril, author of Work Smarter, Live Better and his latest book Less Achieves More, to work through his practical framework for closing that gap. He has trained more than 5,000 people across 19 countries. Cyril and I discuss: Why high performers prioritise by impact rather than by deadline, and how to train yourself to do the same The quarterly big rocks process: how to choose two or three genuine priorities and find the courage to subtract everything else The weekly planning ritual Cyril recommends, including why you should look at your big rocks before you ever open your calendar The ideal week exercise that helps leaders reclaim 40% of their time without guilt How to plan for the unplanned by deliberately blocking reactive time in your day The four Ds (delete, decrease, defer, delegate) for handling the urgent stuff without sacrificing what matters most Key quotes "If you work 10 hours a day, you cannot plan 10 hours per day. It's a recipe for disaster." "I'd rather start my planning from the ideal and then adapt it than start my planning from an open sheet and let everything take control." Connect with Cyril Peupion on LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Less Achieves More. If this episode resonated, I also recommend my conversation with Sabri Suby on the subtraction method, where he shares how he ruthlessly outsources anything that isn't his highest value work. You can listen here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
September 09, 202630min
Number 2: Quick Win: How to rebuild trust at work when its broken
Trust doesn’t rebuild with one big apology. It grows back quietly - through small, consistent moments that prove you mean what you say. In this Quick Win episode, my teammate Aly Solly and I share how we rebuilt trust after one of Inventium’s toughest years. Together, we discovered that trust isn’t restored overnight - it’s rebuilt in small, deliberate ways that show care, honesty, and vulnerability. Aly and I discuss: The moment a leadership wellbeing survey sparked real vulnerability Why openness - when it feels uncomfortable - can transform a relationship How showing up consistently matters more than grand gestures The “ugly cry” call that turned a breaking point into a rebuild What to do when you’re trying to repair trust at work KEY QUOTES “Trust doesn’t hinge on one big apology or grand gesture. It’s built through the small stuff - the check-ins, the honesty, the willingness to be vulnerable.” “You don’t wait for the perfect moment. You just start showing up consistently and with care.” Connect with Aly Solly on LinkedIn. Listen to the full conversation with Aly here. My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ Connect with me on the socials: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
August 30, 20268min
Number 3: The prompting mistake almost everyone makes
How much of your week goes into fixing what AI just handed you? Not writing from scratch, just cleaning up, correcting, and nudging a draft that looked fine for about ten seconds before you actually needed it to work. That endless back and forth has a name. We call it slop fixing, and there is research suggesting it is quietly eating close to a full day of our working week. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I get into why this happens and the two very different ways of working with AI that decide whether it does. You will hear the difference between gunslinging and architecting, what a proper brief actually sounds like, and how to have a conversation with AI before you ask it to build anything. By the end, you will be getting version one at 90 percent instead of 20. What you'll learn: What actually separates AI slop from work that lands The difference between gunslinging and architecting with AI What a proper brief for AI actually sounds like How to have a real conversation with AI before asking it to build anything Why version one can land at 90 percent instead of 20 Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
August 16, 202612min
Number 4: The 3 questions that reveal whether someone is actually motivated, with Dr Justin Coulson
Every manager and every parent has met the same wall. Someone who won't engage, won't budge, won't do the thing, no matter how hard you push or how much you offer. Dr Justin Coulson has spent two decades inside the research explaining why pushing and bribing rarely work, and what actually does. Justin is a psychologist, bestselling author, host of the TV show Parental Guidance, and father of six daughters, and his work sits inside self-determination theory, one of the most evidence-based bodies of research in psychology. In this episode, I sit down with Justin to unpack the three basic psychological needs that shift someone from doing something because they have to, to doing it because they're genuinely on board. We also get into his early morning breathwork practice, why he believes boys are the solution rather than the problem, and a story involving his wife, a health retreat and a news website that will make you want to throw your phone into a river. If you've ever managed someone who just won't engage, or parented a kid who won't do anything without a fight, this conversation will change how you think about motivation altogether. Justin and I discuss: The four levels of motivation, from extrinsic to intrinsic, and why chasing intrinsic motivation in a team or a family is setting the bar too high The three basic psychological needs, relatedness, competence and autonomy, and why autonomy is often the linchpin Why "autonomy" doesn't mean freedom, and what it actually means in practice The three simple questions Justin uses with his own kids and with employees to work out where someone sits on the motivation continuum How he uses breathwork and carbon dioxide tolerance as a daily practice in building resilience What's really going on with boys today, and why Justin believes a healthy model of masculinity is the answer Key quotes "When people understand the value in the activity, when people buy the why, they will choose to do it autonomously, which means that you don't have motivation problems." "Most motivation problems aren't motivation problems at all. They're rationale problems." Connect with Justin Coulson on Instagram, LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Boys, and listen to his podcast Happy Families. If this conversation got you thinking about motivation, I'd also recommend my episode with Dan Pink, where we dig further into the science of what drives us. Listen here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
August 12, 202637min
Number 5: Do these 2 things if you're worried about AI and the environment
There is a quiet guilt a lot of people carry every time they open ChatGPT. Somewhere between the headlines about data centres and the vague sense that AI is somehow worse for the planet than everything else we do without a second thought, it becomes easier to just feel bad than to actually work out whether that guilt is warranted. Nobody hands you the comparison points. Is a heavy day of prompting worse than a night of Netflix? Worse than a round of golf? Nobody says. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I go looking for the real figures. You will hear how an hour of heavy AI use stacks up against an hour of Netflix, why American golf courses use far more water than AI data centres, and the two things you can personally do that make a genuine difference, including one that has nothing to do with AI at all. What you'll learn: How an hour of heavy AI use actually compares to an hour of Netflix Why golf courses use more water than AI data centres, and why nobody is calling to ban golf What separates the environmental cost of training AI from simply using it What governments, companies and individuals can each actually do about AI's environmental impact The one everyday habit that beats cutting your AI use altogether Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
August 09, 202617min