Learn and Work Smarter

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Frustration tolerance is one's ability to sustain attention, endurance and emotional composure during frustrating tasks.

While we all get frustrated from time to time, having a low frustration tolerance can have a serious impact on our work, school and personal lives.

In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I dive deep into frustration tolerance, its connection to ADHD, and how to improve your own frustration tolerance level so you can achieve your goals with less drama.

What You Learn:

• What frustration tolerance is and why it matters a ton
• The connection between frustration tolerance and ADHD (we get a little science-y here)
• The roles that emotional regulation, past experiences and personal narrative play in our ability to handle hard tasks
• How to make tasks less frustrating in the first place (so you don't hit your max capacity so soon)
• What to do when you do hit your maximum frustration tolerance and you still have work to do
• The ultimate mega strategy for improving your frustration tolerance so you can learn and work more peacefully and with way less drama

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• ⭐SchoolHabits University (SchoolHabitsUniversity.com)
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System (NoteTakingSystem.com)
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System (AssignmentManagementSystem.com)
• ⭐FREE Parent Training: How to Help Your Teen Handle School Like a Pro
• Episode website (https://www.learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/121)
• Episode 38: How to Be Resourceful
• Episode 55: How to Use Body Doubling to Improve Your Focus
• Episode 64: How to Do Hard Things
• Episode 84: How to Fail Smarter
• Episode 118: The Real Reason You Have Test Anxiety

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

In this Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer three questions submitted by listeners of the show.

Question 1: How to take notes during phone calls.

Question 2: How to support a struggling college student

Question 3: How to ask for ADHD accommodations (in graduate school and work)

What You Learn:

• Why capturing notes is only half the job, and what the more important second step actually is
• A simple pre-call habit that makes note-taking significantly easier (and less stressful)
• What parents of struggling college students usually get wrong about why their kid is falling behind
• The legal protections available to students with ADHD or disabilities in grad school, and how to actually use them
• Why people with ADHD sometimes feel totally fine, then suddenly overwhelmed again, and what to do when it happens

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• ⭐Free Parent Training
• ⭐SchoolHabits University (SchoolHabitsUniversity.com)
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System (NoteTakingSystem.com)
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System (AssignmentManagementSystem.com)
• Episode website (https://www.learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/120)
• ADHD accommodations https://askjan.org/disabilities/Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder-AD-HD.cfm

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

The work we do is more important than the tools we use. But that said, having the right tools can make a difference in how productive and organized we are.

In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I’m sharing with you my 10 favorite tools that I use nearly every single day to manage a busy business, family and life. 

No affiliate links or promotions here … just an honest peek behind the curtain of what’s on my desk and on my computer (oh, and on my nightstand!).

What You Learn:

• The most critical web-based tools that I depend on for managing time and tasks
• What I keep on my nightstand that makes my mornings smoother
• My favorite tool that goes beep
• A tool I made for myself that improves my productivity just as much as any other tool
• My favorite productivity/tool of all that’s…well…not really a tool

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 52 - How to Make and Use SOPs for Better Productivity
• Episode 76 - Google Calendar Power Moves
• Episode 101 - Digital Declutter Strategies
• Episode 117 - How to Create a Personal Operating System

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

Sweaty palms. Racing breath. A pit in your stomach. And the worst one of all, a blank mind.

Test anxiety does not feel good, and it most certainly doesn’t help your grades. But in this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I make the (controversial?) case that test anxiety is the result of something you have complete control over.

What You Learn:

• The most common misunderstandings about test anxiety
• What people THINK causes test anxiety
• Why there’s no such thing as a bad test taker
• The REAL cause of test anxiety (you might not like hearing this)
• How to prevent test anxiety on your very next exam
• How to decrease the physiological symptoms of test anxiety when it’s too late to prevent it

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 20 - What is Active Recall and How to Use It
• Episode 104 - Why Your Study Systems Stopped Working
• Episode website with transcript

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

The way I teach it, a personal operating system is a set of systems and routines we use to manage the information that comes at us all day long.

Whether we're students or professionals, we're constantly bombarded with information we can ignore, information about tasks we need to act on, and information we might need in the future.

And if we don't have a way to capture, track, and manage these bits of info during the day, we become overwhelmed, stressed out, and forgetful.

That's why we need a personal operating system. In this episode, I teach you the four simple components of a good personal operating system and exactly how to set yours up today.

What You Learn:

• The negative impact of being bombarded all day long with information you don’t want to forget, but always do
• What a personal operating system is and why exactly you need one
• The negative impact of NOT having a personal operating system
• The 4 components of a solid personal operating system
• 2 real-life scenarios of personal operating systems in action (student and professional examples)
• Exactly how to set up your personal operating system and what step to begin with if you’re overwhelmed with the process

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 5- How to Create a Task Management System
• Episode 31 - How to Take Notes at Meetings
• Episode 28 - Tips for Organizing Papers
• Episode 94 - How to Simplify Your Task Management System
• Episode 102 - The Friday Review: A Weekly Habit for Calm Productivity

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

You're putting in the work. You're doing the readings. You're showing up. So why does it still feel like you're missing the mark?

In this month's Q&A episode, I'm answering two listener questions that are completely different on the surface, but have the same root issue.

Question One is from a grad student who's annotating and highlighting every reading but still feels lost in class discussions

Question Two is from someone two years into their first corporate job who keeps getting decent reviews but can't shake the feeling they're underperforming.

Different situations. Same root problem. And today I'm giving you the strategies to solve it.

What You Learn:

• The 3 levels of reading comprehension and why most students are stuck at level one
• Why annotation only works when it has a specific purpose (and how to set one)
• The two self-check questions to ask after every chunk of reading that will tell you exactly where your comprehension stands
• Why "priming your mental schema" before you read dramatically improves how much you understand
• Why the transition from school to work is harder than people give it credit for — and the cognitive distortion that makes it worse
• The 4-question audit for collecting real data about your actual performance
• How to reverse-engineer the rubric your workplace will never hand you
• What a personal performance dashboard is and how to build one that  helps you self-evaluate over time

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 71 - Grad School Overload
• Episode 37 - How to Accept Feedback (and What to Do With It)

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Subscribe on YouTube

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

The most dangerous people in school and work aren't always the smartest in the room or the ones grinding the hardest. They're the ones who are steady, focused, and nearly impossible to knock off course.

In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I'm sharing 10 characteristics of people who are hard to overwhelm — and spoiler: underneath all 10 of them are really just four foundational concepts: how we manage our attention, whether we finish what we start, keeping our word, and acting from our values instead of our moods.

This is a really important one. Grab your pens.

What You Learn:

• Why dangerous people aren't the most talented, motivated, or hardest working
• 4 foundational concepts underneath all 10 traits
• How dangerous people engineer focus 
• Why clarity is the byproduct of action 
• Why a packed calendar is not a sign of success
• What real resilience looks like
• Why waiting to feel motivated is holding you back

🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 5 - Task Management
• Episode 12 - How to Know If Your Systems Are Broken
• Episode 15 - Email Management
• Episode 55 - Body Doubling
• Episode 64 - How to Do Hard Things
• Episode 72 - How to Finish Unfinished Projects
• Episode 80 - Work Sprints
• Episode 89 - Task Completion Strategies
• Episode 104 - Why Your Study Systems Don't Work

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

It's 5 PM, everyone is leaving the office, but you’re staring at your to-do list thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to be here all night.”

When we regularly can’t get our work done within typical office hours, we’re quick to think it’s because we have too much work. And while that might sometimes be the case, usually there’s another reason (or 5) at play.

In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I share the top 5 reasons you can never leave the office on time and what to do about it. Believe it or not, none of them have to do with work overload.

What You Learn:

• Why staying late usually isn't about workload
• The 5 hidden operational mistakes adding hours to your day
• How poor task clarification costs you time and sanity
• The real reason deep work doesn't happen until 6 PM
• How to figure out if you genuinely have too much work
• Six strategies to fix your workflow and leave on time

🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 3 - Admin Block System
• Episode 18 - Batching Strategy
• Episode 38 - How to Be a Resourceful Person Who Can Figure Things Out
• Episode 45 - Are You Doing Too Much?

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

Struggling to perform in school or work is rarely the result of just one missing skill. Sure, your procrastination tendencies might have to do with poor time management skills, but that's not the full picture. 

Academic and professional success is the result of having a functioning ECOSYSTEM of skills that not only work by themselves but also interlock together.

In other words, if even just one skill is weak or missing, the whole ecosystem collapses in on itself.

There are 6 core systems to a healthy productivity ecosystem, and we break them all down in this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast.

What You Learn:

• Why fixing just one productivity problem rarely leads to lasting improvement
• The 6 interconnected systems that separate high performers from chronic strugglers
• How weak skills create cascading failures across your entire workflow
• Which system breakdowns cause the most common academic and professional struggles

🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 92 - Your Kid Needs THESE Skills
• Episode 104 - 3 Reasons Your Study Methods Stopped Working

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.

Send me a message!🤓

In this monthly Q&A episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I answer two questions submitted by listeners of the show.

Question 1: A working professional asks for tips as he transitions back to in-person office work after years of working from home.

Question 2: A student asks about the benefits of using color (specifically colored index cards) in his study methods.

What You Learn:

• The reality of returning to office work, and why trying to recreate your home setup is setting yourself up for frustration
• The simple boundary-setting script that trains colleagues to respect your focus time without you having to explain yourself or seem difficult
• Why you should bring a desk lamp to the office (yes, really)... plus other unexpected items that can transform a sterile workspace
• The truth about colored flashcards: when color theory actually helps memory and when you're just adding cognitive load for no reason
• Why your study method isn't working (hint: the structure isn't the strategy, and most students confuse the two)

🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode website with transcript
• ⭐SchoolHabits University 
• ⭐Note-Taking Power System
• ⭐Assignment Management Power System 
• ⭐Free Training for Parents of Teens and Young Adult Students
• Episode 94 - Simplifying Task Management and Staying Focused despite Distractions
• Episode 03 - How to Use an Admin Block for Increased Productivity

❤️ Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

Got your own burning question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? AWESOME! You can submit your questions via the form on my homepage right here.

Please follow the show and leave a review if what you hear is helpful. Doing so helps me more than you'll ever know. Thank you!!

LET'S CONNECT

Sign up for my (pretty darn good) newsletter that I very craftily named ReportCard.

For hundreds of tutorials featuring tips on studying, productivity, organization, learning, time management and more, head to my blog: SchoolHabits.com.