Since the early 00s boom in productivity optimization, today’s guest John Zeratsky has seen how much our relationship with time has evolved. As a writer and speaker, John is on a mission to help people make time for what matters.

How do you manage your time? There’s no one-size-fits-all tactic, but John Zeratsky‘s latest book ‘Make Time’ runs through tried and tested approaches for us to cherry-pick, so I was super excited to catch up with him and run through some of these exercises. Tune in as we discuss reflection time, the power of default settings and breaking bad habits with friction.

John’s quest for mastering time management was born from his career in design, web development and copywriting. He’s worked with numerous startups including Netflix, Slack, Airbnb, Uber, 23andMe and Medium, and his writing has appeared in publications like Wall Street Journal, Wired and Fast Company. 

Talking Points

How he formed his partnership with Jake Knapp and where their fascination of time came from

Making everything in the book simple and doable

Approaching work as a designer

Distinction between simple and easy

The role of friction and how it breaks habits

What ground hogging means to John

What is a time crater and what are the time craters John struggles with?

Taking caffeine naps to boost energy

The first productivity app John ever used

Quote

“When it comes to our own time, this finite precious resource that we have, we don’t often look back and say, what did I really do today?“

Helpful Links

Make Time | Amazon

Jake Knapp

Time Dorks

Google Ventures

Design Sprint Process

Design Sprint | Amazon

Getting Things Done | Amazon

Episode 203: The Evolution of Getting Things Done with David Allen

Episode 229: Exploring Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport

Sleep Cycle

43 Folders

Indistractable | Amazon

Philips Wake Up Alarm Clock

Austin Kleon’s caffeine nap

Mori App

TeuxDeux

MakeTime.blog

Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.

If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page.

And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices