How I Work

My guest today is Sarah Green Carmichael. Sarah is an executive editor at Harvard Business Review where she works out what to publish on the site and edits the articles that you may have read there. Sarah is also the host of HBR’s IdeaCast podcast which gets over one million downloads every month.

I was very excited to speak to Sarah as I am a voracious HBR reader and given the amount of ideas and tips she is exposed to on a daily basis given her role, I was very keen to explore what she had applied in her own life. We cover a heap of ground in this interview, including:

• The best pieces of advice Sarah has learnt from editing HBR articles and books for six years
• Her approach to managing emails
• Sarah’s strategy for making work days easier to start
• The classic productivity tips that failed for Sarah
• Her approach to decision-making, and where she has got it wrong
• How she prepares for her interviews on the HBR IdeaCast podcast
• How to read a business book in under 30 minutes
• When "winging it" can be a great productivity strategy
• How she deals with interviewing people she doesn’t like or agree with
• Sarah’s top tips for being a better writer and editor
• How she wards off distractions to get focused work done
• How to write a great rejection letter

And much, much more.

Find Sarah on Twitter, or check out her interviews on the HBR IdeaCast podcast, and HBR’s Women at Work podcast.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

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Are you addicted to email? Are you guilty of doing a “just check” of your inbox every 10-15 minutes? Is checking email getting in the way of you doing deep, focused work? This mini-episode gives you three research-backed strategies for kicking your email habit for good.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

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My guest today is Carolyn Creswell. As Australian listeners probably know, Carolyn is the founder of Carman’s muesli, which is in pretty much every supermarket in Australia and is exported to 32 countries around the world. Over the last 25 years, Carolyn has built Carman’s into a $100 million dollar business.

But there is so much more to Carolyn that just delicious tasting muesli. She has given so much thought to the way she works and this interview is full of really practical gems. We talk about:

• Her morning routine
• Why she doesn’t do coffee meetings - and what she does instead
• Her trick to making new year’s resolutions stick
• Her annual self-reflection ritual
• The role self-discipline plays in her life
• Why Carolyn doesn’t listen to the news
• Carolyn’s happy place
• How she plans her year in advance
• Why she books all her hair appointments for the whole year in January
• How she protects family time
• Why Carolyn never eats lunch at her desk
• Her favourite productivity apps
• Carolyn’s novel way of using to-do list software
• Why you will never catch Carolyn in a lie
• Carolyn’s approach to giving feedback

You can find more about Carolyn and Carman’s at https://www.carmanskitchen.com.au/

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

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Do you work in an open plan office? It turns out they are not all fun and games and collaboration. This episode reveals research into the dark side of the open plan office and why it might be killing your productivity.

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My guest today is Baratunde Thurston. Baratunde is a particularly hilarious comedian, he wrote the bestselling book How to be Black as well as many feature articles for places like Fast Company and Medium. He helped to re-launch the Daily Show with Trevor Noah through building the digital expansion team. And he used to write for the Onion and has been nominated for an Emmy award.

This conversation is a little different in that we deep dive into a very specific work project of Baratunde’s and it was one that I witnessed a few months ago. It was the closing keynote of the TED 2018 conference. While the footage is not yet live, you can get a feel for what this looked like when he did the same thing at TED2015.

To set the scene, the 2000 TED delegates had just experienced around 100 talks over the course of five days. Imagine the impact of watching just one TED talk and multiply that by 100. It’s an amazing and immersive experience and feels like you have been blasted by a fire hose with ideas. And the very last talk was Baratunde Thurston who summed up the entire conference experience - from the 100 or so talks to the snack foods to the parties - in 20 hilarious minutes.

But here is the thing - Baratunde wrote this phenomenal presentation during TED. So while experiencing the five day event he also wrote his talk. And then he memorised it. And then he presented it. In front of the entire TED audience. It was one of the most mind-blowing performances I have seen in my life. So I reached out to Baratunde to speak to him about how we did this. We delve into:

• Preparation - and why its almost impossible to prepare for a performance like this
• The technology he used to record and collaborate
• His physical / health routine
• The different ways to structure a joke
• Unpacking some of the jokes and how they came together
• How he memorised a 20 minute talk in the space of a few hours
• How he manages nerves

We also cover a heap of other things, including:

• Baratunde’s quirky (but effective) email autoresponder
• Baratunde’s weekly reflection ritual
• How he writes articles
• Why working on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah was the hardest job he has ever job
• The key question to ask your employer when accepting a new job
• Why he is so frustrated with the social media companies

Find more about Baratunde at www.baratunde.com, on Medium, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

SMS Baratunde at +12029027949 (and use #howiwork).

Visit www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at [email protected] 

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How would you like to leave work at 2.30pm today having achieved a full day’s output? This mini-episode explains a very simple change you can make to the way you work that will allow you to do just that.

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 Pamela Meyer. You might know Pamela from her very famous TED talk about How To Spot a Liar, which has been viewed by 20 million people. She also wrote the bestselling book Liespotting: Proven techniques to detect deception. Pamela is also the founder and CEO of Calibrate, a leading training company that teaches people how to spot lies.

Pamela is someone who thinks a lot about how to get the most out of each day, and I particularly liked hearing about her rather counter intuitive strategy for time management which I am trying to now apply in my own life.

Some of the topics we covered in this chat include:

• How Pamela structures her to-do list
• Pamela’s strategies for preparing for the day ahead
• Pamela’s counter-intuitive time management technique
• Pamela’s must-have tool for keeping focused
• Pamela’s “burst” method for getting things done
• How Pamela uses self-rewards to drive motivation
• How Pamela decides what to say yes to versus what to say no to
• Pamela’s rules for having “clean” email
• Pamela’s go-to places for creative work

And a whole lot more.

You can find more about Pamela at http://liespotting.com/ and via her company Calibrate.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode can be found at www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

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

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Almost every one of us has experienced a 10 point drop in IQ from something that happens many times a day. And if you are wondering: is 10 IQ points a lot to lose? The answer is most definitely yes - it’s the equivalent of losing a night’s sleep. This mini-episode explains how to never experience this drop in IQ again.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

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Mia Freedman is the co-founder and creative director of the Mamamia Women’s Network, Australia’s largest digital women’s media company. They reach 4 million women per month and also have the world’s largest women’s podcast network, with eight shows that reach millions of women.

As many Australian listeners would know, Mia was the youngest editor of Australian Cosmo at 24 years old back in the mid 90s. And because I was one of many loyal Cosmo readers as a teenager, I feel like I grew up with Mia. I’ve also lapped all of her books and I just love how she speaks so honestly and is such a raw way about her life.

I found it fascinating to sit down with Mia and learn more about how she structures her days and the routines that she has. I particularly loved hearing about her methods for overcoming procrastination, which I think every listener can benefit from.

We covered a whole range of topics in our chat, including:

• How Mia carves out time to write books
• Why Mia hates long deadlines
• Mia’s daily rituals to stay on top of her mental health
• Why Mia has stopped reaching for her phone first thing in the morning
• Mia’s favourite podcasts
• Why Mia’s productivity peaks after 9pm
• Why Mia is spending less time on Facebook
• How Mia is rethinking her inbox
• How Mia reduces the amount of decisions she needs to make
• Mia’s top parenting hacks
• How Mia re-energises herself during the workday

And a whole lot more.

If you want to learn more about Mia, you can find her at www.miafreedman.com or via www.ladystartup.com.au which is her brand new project that includes an Online Bootcamp will help you activate your business idea in just 6 weeks.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode can be found at www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How would you like to add 30 extra days to your year? Imagine all the things you can achieve. Today’s mini-episode shows you how to do just that. All it takes is one simple change.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.