How I Work

Today's episode is a blast from the past (and by that, we mean one from a few months ago because Amantha is on holidays right now!).

This episode features Matt Mullenweg. Matt is kind of like internet royalty because he is a founding developer of WordPress, which is the Open Source software used by over 31% of the web. He also founded Automattic which now employs around 700 people. Matt has been named one of PC World's Top 50 People on the Web and Business Week's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

In this conversation, we cover a whole bunch of topics such as:

• Matt's innovative approach to consuming books
• How Matt stays focused on important tasks
• Matt's approach to meetings
• Techniques to create healthier habits
• What's on Matt's smart phone home screen
• Matt's favourite productivity apps
• Why Matt still uses a paper notebook
• The podcasts Matt is listening to and books he is reading

And a whole lot more.

You can find out more about Matt via his blog https://ma.tt/ or via https://automattic.com/

For comprehensive show notes on this episode, go to: www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that 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 howiwork.co

Want to get in touch? Reach out at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Email gets a bad rap. People complain that email is the biggest drain on their productivity. But it’s only bad because of the mindless way most people approach their inbox. Instead of checking email willy-nilly throughout the day, there is actually an optimal time of the day to be dipping into your inbox.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode is a blast from the past (and by that, we mean one from a few months ago because Amantha is on holidays right now!).

Amanda Palmer is a singer-songwriter, rule-breaker, disruptor, and all round rockstar.

You might know Amanda from being one half of the Dresden Dolls. Or you might know her, as I did, through her TED talk "The art of asking" which has been viewed by over 10 million people. Amanda is a total innovator in the world of music, and raised $1.2 million on a kickstarter campaign several years ago to be able to produce her own solo album, independent from a record label.

One of the things I loved most about this chat with Amanda is hearing her very intensive step by step process for creating and delivering her amazing TED talk.

In this conversation, we cover topics such as:

• How Amanda writes songs
• Why she insists on staying in a separate hotel room to her husband when on tour
• The enormous amount of work that went into her TED talk
• The signals she uses in her life to work out whether she is on or off balance
• The podcasts Amanda is listening to and books she is reading

And a whole lot more.

You can find Amanda on all the usual social channels at @amandapalmer, via her website amandapalmer.net, and find out more about her my Patreon community right here: www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

For comprehensive show notes on this episode, go to: www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that 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 howiwork.co

Want to get in touch? Reach out at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How much time did you spend this morning making decisions about what to eat, what to wear and how to get to work? While these may seem like small and inconsequential decisions, it turns out they could be doing damage to the rest of your day.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Natasha Pincus. Natasha is a Writer and Director who is probably most well known for her very distinctive music videos that she has created for artists including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, and Powderfinger. Where you are probably most familiar with her work though is through her video for Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”, which has been viewed over 1 billion times on YouTube and was awarded the first of Natasha’s back-to-back ARIAs for Best Music Video, and nominated for the MTV award for Best Music Video.

We delve into how the Gotye video clip came to be, including:

• How Natasha came up with the idea for the clip
• Why the final video idea was actually her Plan B
• How you “train” for a 26 hour shoot
• The record label’s initial reaction to the clip

And a whole lot more.

And we also explore the many quirks about the way Natasha works, including:

• How Natasha uses the setting of daily goals to maintain motivation
• How she comes up with her best ideas
• The part of projects that she finds the most terrifying
• Her strategy for gaining momentum at the very beginning of projects
• When and where she comes up with her best ideas
• The times of day she reserves for creative work versus meetings
• How Natasha manages to keep the first three hours of her day distraction free.
• The critical role that Voice Memos play in her work
• How she uses wardrobe changes to partition her day
• How she uses repetitive tasks to overcome writer’s block
• How she builds exercise into her work

You can find Natasha on Twitter @natashapincus, via her website Stark Raving Productions (http://starkravingproductions.com.au/), and on her Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/starkravingproductions).

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us don’t think very much about how we end our workday. We simply close our laptop, run to catch our train, go home and have some dinner, and often, re-open our laptop again while watching Netflix. By not having a proper “end” to our day, we are missing out on a big opportunity to boost our happiness and engagement in our work. This mini-episode describes four quick tasks that you can do to finish your workday on a high.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Scott D Anthony. Scott is global authority on innovation and the former managing partner of Innosight, the innovation and strategy consulting firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen. Scott has written several bestselling books and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review. Last year, Scott was awarded the Thinkers50 Innovation Award, which recognises the world’s leading thinkers on innovation.

I’ve known Scott for a little while now because our innovation consultancies are starting to partner up on some projects, but up until now, I’d never had the chance to quiz Scott about how he works. We cover lots of different topics including:

• The places Scott goes to get his most focused work done
• How Scott makes the most out of time spent on airplanes
• How he breaks his day up into three shifts
• Why Scott finds his office the worst place to do creative work
• How Scott manages his energy when doing long focused blocks of work
• Scott’s process for coming up with his best ideas
• What Zombie projects are - and what to do about them
• How Scott removed 70% of his regular meetings from his diary
• Scott’s strategies for dealing with rejection
• When co-authoring works well - and when it doesn’t
• The advice that Clayton Christensen gave Scott that helped him become a better writer
• How Scott tests his new ideas

You can find Scott on Twitter, on LinkedIn, at innovation and strategy consultancy Innosight, and you can drop him a note at [email protected]

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am yet to meet a person who loves attending meetings. Most people hate them, yet they are seen as a necessarily evil of corporate life. But while meetings may often be dull and sometimes yield few tangible results, they may be causing more harm than you think.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Dom Price. Dom is the Head of Research & Development and also the resident Work Futurist at Atlassian, one of the world’s biggest and fastest growing tech companies. Dom has responsibilities spanning 5 global R&D centres, and is the in house “Team Doctor” who helps Atlassian scale by being ruthlessly effective, all while keeping one eye on the future.

I’ve known Dom for a few years now and one of the things I like most about Dom is that he is so contrarian in his views and he is not afraid to share them. We cover a lot of different topics in this chat ranging from:

• Dom's four L strategy to help make decisions on which projects to take on and when to say no
• Dom’s rhythm for goal-setting and staying focused on what matters
• The three questions Dom uses to find great stories
• How Dom removes his own personal bias when trying to solve customer problems
• Dom’s “deep work” ritual around disconnecting from digital distractions.
• Why music helps Dom do better creative and focused work
• How Dom uses his mood to decide which task to focus on
• Dom’s method for building a great presentation
• The two questions Dom asks when he is booked to deliver a presentation
• Dom’s favourite question to ask in an interview
• Why Dom prefers negative feedback to positive feedback.
• What happened when Dom deleted every single meeting from his diary.

You can find Dom on Twitter @domprice, on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-price-0892243/), and you can discover Atlassian's team playbook right here (https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook).

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected] 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you take notes in meetings and presentations on your laptop or in a notepad? I definitely fell into the former category until I discovered research that made me want to go out and buy a Moleskin. This mini-episode might convince you to do the same thing.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.