Love Your Work

David Kadavy (that's me) being interviewed by Almog from the Unstagnate podcast. He did such a great job of researching, and teasing out the things I've been thinking about a lot lately that I just had to share it with you, which he was kind enough to let me do.

In this discussion, I'll share the rituals and thought frameworks I used to write my first book, Design for Hackers, in half the time of most books like it. Bear in mind that's total time from book deal to book release. It actually was 12 hours a day of agony, but I'll tell you about the cohesive personal productivity system I've devised to make my flow states happen at the right times.

You'll also hear the story behind how that first book even happened – how I had set up my entire life so that when something like that opportunity came along – I would be ready for it.

Also, how did I get the opportunity to work with behavioral scientist Dan Ariely, on features that are now being integrated into Google Calendar, such as "Goals" and "Reminders."

Find out why you might want to grab a pen BEFORE you grab your morning coffee. How to create a virtuous cycle of productivity to train yourself to focus more deeply. Why is it so important to develop a well-defined worldview? How do I weigh the pros and cons of various ways of naming things, such as my book Design for Hackers, and this podcast, Love Your Work? How does the name of this podcast tie into landing big guests like Steve Case and Jason Fried, and how do I convince such busy people to be so generous with their time?

Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/david-kadavy-podcast-interview/

Do you have a big daunting project that you just can't seem to get started on? Try the "First-Hour" rule. This article originally appeared on Medium.

Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/first-hour-rule/

Dr. Terry Wahls (@terrywahls) is an inspiring example of turning a struggle into an opportunity, but I was more interested in her area of expertise. You may have already seen the inspiring TEDx talk of Dr. Terry Wahl's. She has MS, and was confined to a wheelchair for 4 years. But, using her knowledge of biology, Dr. Terry engineered a diet based upon paleo and ketogenic principles to feed the power centers of her cells. Now, she rides her bike to work, and is out of the wheelchair. Dr. Terry is now running clinical trials based upon her diet protocol, and has written a book. I recently picked up, The Wahl's Protocol to seek relief from chronic inflammation, and I've implemented her diet with great results. I have less pain, more energy, and I've also noticed my mental performance improve. You can pick up the book at http://kadavy.net/wahls In this interview, we cover some of the building blocks of Dr. Terry's diet: What really does "paleo" mean? How does this "ketosis" thing you've heard about so much lately really work, and what does it mean for your health – especially for epilepsy and cancer? What does someone really mean when they say a diet is "detoxifying," and how does detoxification work? What are the challenges in proving and implementing dietary treatments, and how do you evaluate the potential upsides or downsides of experimental approaches in general. We'll even talk about stem cell transplants, fecal transplants, and the microbiome. If you or anyone close to you is battling an illness, you may find something useful in this interview, and even if you are healthy, you'll hear interesting and exciting things on the frontiers of health. Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/terry-wahls-interview/

This is an article that originally appeared on Medium. It was later picked up by The Atlantic's Quartz.

Give yourself permission to do nothing once in awhile. You may be surprised how productive it makes you.

Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-34-productivity-hack-do-nothing/

Elise Bauer's SimplyRecipes (@simplyrecipes) is where I go when I'm searching for a recipe. I always find something healthy and delicious, with clear instructions and beautiful photos, all posted by Elise herself.

Honestly, I probably don't have to type in the "simplyrecipes" part because the site is extremely popular. It's been featured in Time Magazine and was named the #1 food blog by the Daily Meal 4 years in a row.

Whatever I'm looking for, I find it, because Elise has posted about 1,600 recipes over the past 15 years. She started SimplyRecipes when she was so sick, she had to move back in with her parents at the age of 40. At first, she was hand-coding her recipes in static HTML and just posting them to her personal site, Elise.com.

Now the site has grown so massive, she recently sold it to Fexy Media, but still handles all of the cooking and writing and posting of recipes.

I wanted to bring Elise's story to you not only because I love SimplyRecipes, but also because she has such a great story. As you'll hear in the interview, during a difficult time, she took the little things that were good in her life and expanded on them. She doubled down on love and built something great.

Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/elise-bauer-interview/

A/B testing is a really hot topic in entrepreneurship. Fortunately, I think people have started to come to their senses with it. It's not that it doesn't work if you really know what you're doing, but it can really lead you astray when you are early on in a project. I've heard Ramit Sethi mention recently that he wasn't really A/B testing until he was at about $1 million revenue. I recently heard Noah Kagan say "almost nobody should be A/B testing." In this article, I share my experiment with A/A testing, and some of the misleading "results" I discovered. Sponsors http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-32-stop-ab-testing/

How can your ego hold you back in your aspirations, your successes, and in your failures? Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday) covers it all in his new book, "Ego is the Enemy." You can buy it at kadavy.net/ego As Ryan talks about in the discussion, he sort of wrote this book for himself. Ryan had an unusual amount of success very early in life. He dropped out of college at 19 to apprentice under author Robert Greene. He worked for a Beverly Hills talent agency, advising multiplatinum musicians, and he was the head of marketing at American Apparel by the time he was about 21. In addition to writing books, Ryan helps other authors market their books. He's worked with authors like Tucker Max, (who we spoke with on episode 29), Tim Ferriss, and James Altucher. In this discussion we talk about how to recognize how ego holds you back in all aspects of life and work, and what to do about it. There are lots of helpful thoughts about how to balance your passion projects with your day job, and we also talk about so-called "pageview economics," something Ryan has a lot of insight into. If you want to know how media works, you should also read his first book, "Trust me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator." You can find it at kadavy.net/trustme Sponsors: http://wpengine.com/loveyourwork http://activecampaign.com/loveyourwork http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-31-ryan-holiday-tame-the-enemy-inside/

The places you invest your money, and the objects you surround yourself with both have a huge influence on how you spend your time and energy, and buying this $600 lamp helped me read more books.

This article is available on Medium. You can just google $600 lamp, or go to http://kadavy.net/medium

Sponsors http://kadavy.net/treehousehttp://kadavy.net/audible

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-30-buy-a-600-lamp-read-more-books/

Tucker Max (@tuckermax) is best known as a self-proclaimed "asshole." He has written three NUMBER ONE New York Times best-sellers, including "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell." He is only the third writer EVER to have three books on the nonfiction best-seller list at the same time.

Tucker is a book marketing GENIUS, and it shows in this interview. Since I've been trying the crack the positioning code for a new book lately, it was such a privilege to get Tuckers insights on what makes a book successful.

As Tucker will dissect for us, there's a big difference, psychologically, between an article someone will click on and read on the web, and a book that they will dig into their pockets to pay for. It's absolutely essential to understand this if you plan on writing a book.

By the way, this psychology is relevant to the conversation I had on episode 21 with Nir Eyal: just think of how differently Facebook would be designed if you were PAYING for it!

Anyway, Tucker is using his book marketing Jedi-mind tricks to run a really exciting new business called Book in a Box. They help you take your knowledge, and turn it into a book. It's not ghost writing, which we'll get to in the interview.

Amongst many things, Tucker will dissect for us the difference between a good click bait title, and a good book title, how to feel fulfilled in your life to break free of social media, and how Hillary and Trump brilliantly "flip the frame" on each other.

In case you couldn't tell by now, this episode is more NSFW than usual. Enjoy it with your headphones on.

Sponsors Treehouse: http://kadavy.net/treehouseAudible: http://kadavy.net/audibleActive Campaign: http://kadavy.net/activecampaign

Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/tucker-max-podcast-interview/

Tuesday was the 12-year anniversary of my very first blog post. On this week's show, I'm bringing you the top lesson that I've learned from 12 years of blogging. That blog post could easily be the worst blog post I've ever written, but it's actually the best blog post I've ever written. I'll explain why in this short article. You can find this article on my Medium profile at http://kadavy.net/medium Sponsors Treehouse: http://kadavy.net/treehouse Audible: http://kadavy.net/audible Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-episode-28-start-where-you-are/