More Zest

Feeling foggy or pulled in ten directions? This quick reset will calm your mind, release tension, and help you pick the one task that matters most for the rest of your day.

Draw a line under the day and rest properly. Capture what’s on your mind, celebrate a win, and set tomorrow’s first step so you can switch off with ease.

Start your day with clarity, not chaos. In just a few minutes, breathe, reset, and choose your Top 3 priorities so you can finish tonight feeling proud, not frazzled.

Are You Climbing the Wrong Mountain?

Welcome back to More Zest, the private podcast for Productivity Gym members. In this episode, Jasmine explores one of the most important foundations of productivity fitness: goal clarity and alignment.

It’s easy to set goals. The real challenge? Making sure your daily actions actually lead you towards the life you want, rather than keeping you stuck in endless busyness.

Using the mountain metaphor, Jasmine digs into:

• Why urgent tasks trick our brains into feeling productive (hello, dopamine hits from clearing emails 📧).
• The sunk cost fallacy and why stubbornly sticking with the wrong goal isn’t progress.
• The psychology of motivation (self-determination theory) and why aligned goals energise you while misaligned ones drain you.
• The signals that you’ve drifted out of alignment, from procrastination to resentment of your to-do list.
• Practical ways to realign: weekly mountain view check-ins, using a word of the year as a compass, and retesting your Productivity Fitness score.

Jasmine also shares honestly from behind the scenes of her own Productivity Gym launch and how she’s learning to pivot away from hustle-driven strategies to methods that feel aligned with her values.

💡 Your takeaway: Don’t just ask “am I moving forward?” Ask “am I moving in the right direction?” Productivity isn’t about climbing faster it’s about climbing the right mountain for you.

👉 Download the Zest in Action Self-Coaching Kit in The Productivity Gym to dive deeper and apply today’s insights to your own goals.

🎧 Want to explore further? Listen back to these Productivity with Zest episodes:

• Episode 2 – Scaling Your Business Mountain – connect your daily steps to your long-term vision.
• Episode 10 – Crafting Your Path with a Year-Defining Word – use a theme to anchor your decisions and keep you aligned.

Ever feel like you’re working hard but not moving forward? Or worse, that you’re pouring energy into something that doesn’t actually serve you anymore?

In this short episode of More Zest, we’re holding up The Productivity Mirror. You’ll learn why pausing to reflect is the secret to true resilience - not pushing through at all costs. I’ll share:

• Why adaptability is your real productivity superpower
• How to spot the sunk cost trap (and stop throwing good energy after bad)
• A simple way to use reflection as a weekly “temperature check”

Plus, I’ll show you why this is exactly why we created the Zest in Action kits inside The Productivity Gym® - practical tools to help you pause, reflect, and adapt without the overwhelm.

Link - listen to episode 8 of Productivity with Zest for more on the sunk cost fallacy and the power of pivoting! 

✨ Your action this week: Pick one area of your work or life and ask yourself, Is this still working for me? If the answer’s no, what small shift could you make to realign?

Download the Zest in Action kit in The Productivity Gym to reflect and action this episode.

Procrastination gets a bad rap. We call it laziness or lack of willpower, but the truth? It’s not a time problem - it’s an emotion regulation problem.

In this episode of More Zest, I invite you to change how you speak to yourself about procrastination. Instead of shaming yourself for procrastinating, let’s decode the signal behind it.

You’ll discover:

• Why procrastination is your brain managing feelings, not your calendar.
• The 4 big signals hiding inside procrastination: fear, misalignment, lack of clarity, and low energy.
• How to “read the signal” so you know whether to lower the stakes, break it down, delegate, or simply rest.
• The difference between helpful procrastination (incubation) vs harmful procrastination (avoidance + guilt).

💡 Pair this episode with Productivity with Zest Episode 5 (Procrastination Unpacked) for the ultimate toolkit + mindset shift combo.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• Productivity With Zest Episode 5: Procrastination Unpacked
• Zest in Action kit for this episode including the Procrastination Buster Flow chart

Episode 9 | Focus & Distraction Management | Protecting Your Attention in a Distracted World

Your goals and plans don’t mean much if you can’t protect your attention. In this episode, I’m diving deep into why focus matters, how distractions hijack your brain, and what you can do to reclaim control.

You’ll learn:

• The neuroscience of attention residue and why task-switching drains your energy.
• How books like Digital Minimalism (Cal Newport) and The Attention Fix (Dr Anders Hansen) changed the way I think about focus.
• My own “Focus Playbook” — the habits and boundaries I’ve put in place to keep my attention sharp.
• Simple, practical strategies you can try this week to carve out islands of focus in a noisy world.

💡 Remember: you don’t need to be switched on 24/7. A few protected blocks of focus time can transform your productivity, your energy, and your peace of mind.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• Zest in Action questions for this episode
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
• The Attention Fix by Dr Anders Hansen
• Explore focus & distraction inside The Productivity Gym or search for more Podcasts on this topic here.

Ever feel like you’re not just spinning plates but running a full-on circus act and all the plates are on fire? 🔥 Not in a fun way.

In this episode of More Zest, we’re talking about prioritisation: why it’s so hard, what psychology has to say about it, and how you can finally stop juggling everything and start focusing on what really matters.

Here’s what you’ll hear:
 ✨ Why we struggle with prioritisation (hint: the urgency effect and decision fatigue are working against you)
🧠 How psychology shows we’re wired to grab for the “urgent” over the important and what to do about it
📊 Four practical steps to break the cycle: capacity audits, urgent vs. important, the “big three,” and subtraction as a strategy
📚 A personal insight from 10x is Easier than 2x and how it shifted my own business priorities
💭 Reflection questions to help you spot which plates are worth keeping in the air and which you can finally let drop

This isn’t about doing more or spinning faster. It’s about the courage to choose the plates that really matter and feel lighter in the process.

🎧 Tune in now and learn how to ditch the flaming plate act and build productivity fitness that lasts.

👉 Don’t forget: you can grab the Zest in Action reflection kit that goes with this episode inside The Productivity Gym.

💛 And if you know someone who’s drowning in their own flaming plates, gift them a free guest pass to join us in the Gym. Let’s help them out too.

Ever feel like you’re working hard but not sure if you’re actually making progress? In this episode of More Zest, we’re diving into why retaking your Productivity Fitness Test is one of the most powerful ways to see real growth (even when you don’t feel it).

Here’s what we’ll explore together:

✨ Why retesting matters – how your scores can reveal progress you didn’t even notice and why a dip isn’t failure but valuable feedback.
🧠 The psychology of seeing change – how small shifts spark motivation thanks to the Progress Principle.
🍂 The Fresh Start Effect – why moments like September (or birthdays, new terms, and new seasons) give us a natural reset, and how to use that momentum to your advantage.
🔑 Reflection prompts to guide you – questions to help you spot growth, celebrate wins, and set your next focus with clarity.

This isn’t about chasing perfect scores. It’s about awareness, celebrating progress, and using each retest as your personal launchpad. Whether your numbers go up, down, or stay steady, you’ll gain clarity and direction for your next season.

🎧 Tune in now to retest, reset, and refocus – and remember, we’re cheering you on every rep of the way.

👉 Ready to retake your Productivity Fitness Test? Click here to start
and grab your reflection guide.

💛 Want more support? Inside The Productivity Gym, you’ll find coaching, community, and step-by-step tools to build your productivity fitness with less pressure and more progress.

Productivity isn’t just about systems, tools, or to-do lists - it starts in your head. In this episode of More Zest, we dig into mindset: the inner narrative that shapes how you show up, how you recover from setbacks, and how productive you really are.

Inside this episode:

• Why your mindset can make you 20–30% more productive (and happier!)
• The difference between a growth mindset and a fixed one, and how it shows up in real life
• Everyday narratives that secretly drain your energy and motivation
• Simple reframes that strengthen your “productivity mindset muscle”
• A practical step you can take this week to catch and rewire unhelpful thoughts

This isn’t fluff. Research shows that organisations with growth mindset cultures perform better, and individuals who shift their inner stories literally solve problems more effectively.

🎯 Reflection Prompts:

• Do you tend towards a growth or a fixed mindset?
• What story do you tell yourself about productivity and worth?
• How could you reframe that narrative so it fuels, not drains, you?

👉 Head to the Zest in Action kit for this episode to apply the prompts and put your reps into practice.