Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast
If you're like most people, there's lots of stress in your life around your level of "busy". Funny thing: we're never taught how to manage the 'stuff' that delivers that stress. The key is to set up tools and workflows that allow you to better manage your tasks and your attention. That's what Do Busy Right means - manage your tasks and attention in such a way that you get things done with less stress. We are learning that here. Happy to have you.
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Why Self-Improvement Should Be a Group Activity - DBR 100
10/03/2025
Why Self-Improvement Should Be a Group Activity - DBR 100
Change is hard because we are habitual creatures. This episode explores how to leverage our powerful social nature to overcome the difficulty of self-improvement and achieve mastery. Getting better allows us to experience greater joy, agency, and efficiency, leading to less stress. Learn how to overcome cultural hurdles and utilize group dynamics for strong accountability, effective feedback, and deliberate practice. Overcoming Cultural Hurdles The Cultural Fallacy: Our culture often worships "talent" and creates an illogical fallacy that admitting the need for improvement means admitting you are not very good. This prevents us from openly seeking to get better at externally important and visible activities. Leveraging Social Nature: We must utilize our strong social instinct—a powerful force—to aid improvement. This means finding a group that is also committed to improving, making them less likely to use our efforts against us. Leveraging Social Accountability and Community Accountability: Strong accountability is derived from our social nature, acting as motivation based on our instinct for approval, especially from those on the journey with us. Self-accountability is extremely difficult. Seek and Accept Feedback: Establish people who will give you empirical feedback—an informal 360-degree review. We must learn not just how to give feedback, but how to receive it, giving others permission to observe and comment on our work. Find Others on a Similar Journey: Create a community where people agree to be open and honest about new habits or skills they are trying to install. This honesty helps our brains become less defensive and provides tactical tips (e.g., using a kitchen timer instead of a phone for a workout). Improving Visibility and Observation The Challenge of Self-Evaluation: It is very difficult to perform and evaluate your performance simultaneously. In the heat of the moment, the majority of your cognitive energy is focused on the content of the performance, leaving little room to observe mistakes or improper form. Create "Game Film": Technology allows us to create our own "game film" (e.g., recording work or typing to count backspace usage). Enlist Intentional Observation: Ask other people to be intentional observers. Group members can agree to watch each other, perhaps tracking a specific behavior like filler words during a presentation. Creating and Utilizing a Laboratory (Practice Environment) The Need for a Lab: It’s hard to get better when every activity is a "live fire exercise," as we push back to what was previously successful and are less likely to innovate due to fear. A laboratory is an environment intentionally set up for experiments. Key Aspects of the Practice Facility: Realism: The lab must resemble the actual performance environment. Remove Barriers: Practice less when the environment is hard to set up. Configure gear so that only one button push is needed to start, or remove psychological barriers like using a headset so you don't annoy others. Accountability for Utilization: External accountability is necessary for actually using the practice environment. Utilize Coaching: Coaches are an efficiency tool that provides accountability, tips, shortcuts, and a curriculum. Always seek a coach who can articulate a plan for what you will learn. Paying for coaching turns improvement into an investment. Conclusion Because we are habitual creatures and change is hard, we must lean into external, social structures. The social instinct is key, providing the strong accountability and observation necessary for growth. By creating a dedicated, realistic practice "laboratory" and utilizing coaching, we can effectively engage in group self-improvement. All these things work together—the accountability, the observation, the dedicated environment, and the social nuance of shared effort. ;
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Cognitive Ergonomics for the Pain of Productivity Anxiety - DBR 099
09/27/2025
Cognitive Ergonomics for the Pain of Productivity Anxiety - DBR 099
Are you struggling with productivity anxiety—that feeling of drowning or running on a treadmill? You are not alone; 80% of workers report this struggle. This episode shifts the rhetoric away from self-blame, analyzing the underlying causes and symptoms of this pervasive problem. The solution is not treatment, but technique: a concept called Cognitive Ergonomics, which builds systems to support your attention and strengthen your cognition. The Pervasive Problem: Productivity Anxiety Symptoms and Impact: Productivity anxiety often feels like drowning, being on a hamster wheel, or a treadmill where you are constantly speeding but not feeling like you are speeding up. The root word for anxiety means "choking". Under stress, we often respond emotionally rather than thinking things through rationally. Cognitive Strain: Stress causes a lack of nuanced thought, leading to problems like all-or-nothing thinking, self-judgment, and catastrophizing. Self-Perception: The strain leads to chronic dissatisfaction and feelings of inadequacy. This robs us of our agency because we feel incapable of dealing with the volume of information. This feeling is compounded when we perceive that other people do not appear to be suffering to the same degree, leading to guilt, shame, and comparison. This is not a personal failure, but an environmentally caused problem. The Causes: Technology and Culture Collision Environmental Problem: The situation is a natural outgrowth of the technologies we have developed, married with the prevalent workplace culture. This is a collision of "convenience" technology and the prevailing "hustle culture". Technology Misalignment: Almost all modern technology is concerned with convenience and speed, not supporting strong cognition. Faster communication is not equivalent to better quality or better volume. Our tools may, frankly, be making us "stupid". Non-Actionable Information Load: The same cognitive asset we use for productive output is necessary to deal with all information. We are inundated with information that is not actionable for us, leading to claims on our attention that are simply beyond our mental ability to react effectively. Workplace Culture: The culture presumes that environmental stress makes us more productive, which is the opposite of the reality. There is a cultural phenomenon that discourages contentment. The Solution: Techniques for Cognitive Ergonomics The Need for Technique: The fundamental problem is that nobody is teaching us how to manage in this new environment. The solution lies in finding and implementing good techniques. Applying Ergonomics to the Mind:Cognitive Ergonomics (or attention ergonomics) is about identifying and managing environmental factors that cause stress and inhibit our cognition. We should treat the constant, repetitive mental stress as similar to a physical Repetitive Stress Injury. Benefits of Attention Management: Good attention management supports and prevents the hampering of cognitive work. It sharpens both fluid intelligence (imagination, rapid thinking) and crystallized intelligence (experience, wisdom, slower thinking). Conclusion We must stop ignoring the mental repetitive stress injury that the modern workplace imposes. The crucial element we are missing is technique. By employing the principles of attention ergonomics or mental ergonomics, we can manage this new environment and build systems that work for us, rather than constantly struggling to cope. This approach is the foundation upon which strong cognition—and therefore high performance in work and life—is built. The pursuit of cognitive ergonomics is the way to Do Busy Right.
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The Art and Science of Focus for Knowledge Workers - DBR 098
09/20/2025
The Art and Science of Focus for Knowledge Workers - DBR 098
In a world of constant distractions, our ability to focus is a skill under threat. This episode explores why mastering focus is not just about productivity but about doing our best work and leading a more thoughtful life. We'll delve into the modern crisis of attention, understand why our brains resist deep work, and learn actionable strategies to train your focus like a muscle. The Foundational Importance of Mental Clarity Half the battle in focusing is clearing your mind. This involves getting information out of your head and into a system where you can manage it. A practical tactic is "parking downhill": when pausing a task, leave yourself a quick note about "what was next" to make it easy to restart. The Modern Crisis of Focus The Reverse Flynn Effect suggests a reversal in the long-standing rise of IQ scores over the last 12 years, a period that correlates with the widespread use of mobile devices. This leads to the hypothesis that we are losing our ability to focus. Evidence from math skills tests shows a high correlation between students who thoroughly complete demographic information and those who achieve higher test scores, suggesting that even basic math skills are a function of focus and persistence. Our media consumption is trending toward shorter and shorter segments and rapid "cutscenes," which may hinder our ability to train for sustained focus. We are becoming a "soundbite culture". Our brains are naturally wired to seek novelty, making sustained focus an uphill battle that must be trained. Practical Strategies for Cultivating Focus Mindfulness: Even short periods (8-10 minutes) can be beneficial for building focus. Reading: Reading is an excellent training ground for focus. Savoring: Practice experiencing everyday tasks and enjoyable activities more deeply. Managing Distractions: Actively work to prevent external interruptions and externalize internal thoughts so they don't clamor for attention. Avoid Multitasking: Constantly switching your attention, like checking your phone during a movie, actively works against training focus. Be Intentional: Make conscious choices about how you engage with information. Question whether your short-term curiosity is leading to the collection of trivial knowledge rather than deeper inquiry. Recognize that much of the information we consume is "junk food". Conclusion Just as we exercise our bodies, we must train our minds. Our modern information environment denies us the mental exercise necessary for sustained focus. By choosing to be intentional, savoring experiences, and pushing back against the constant pull of novelty, we can rebuild our capacity for focus and lead a richer, more productive life. ; I'd enjoy hearing from you.
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Fables of Work: Hard Work #2 - Beyond the "Brute Force" Model - DBR 097
09/13/2025
Fables of Work: Hard Work #2 - Beyond the "Brute Force" Model - DBR 097
"Work hard" is common advice, but what does it really mean? This episode challenges the one-dimensional view of success and "hustle culture." It explores the limitations of the "brute force method" and deconstructs "hard work" into four distinct "flavors." By understanding these different kinds of challenges, you can critically evaluate your own career path, define your version of success, and choose the "pain" you are best suited to deal with. Challenging the "Brute Force" Model of Success We often see narratives of seemingly successful people who advocate for the "brute force method," which involves sacrificing life for intense, long hours. The entrepreneur Emil Barr, for example, is presented as someone who works 12.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, with little sleep, to become a billionaire by age 30. However, there are multiple valid paths to success. Many people define success as a "quiet life" with financial comfort rather than immense wealth, a philosophy akin to the "millionaire next door." Impatience, not virtue, often determines the difference between these models. Deconstructing "Hard Work": Four Distinct "Flavors" "Hard work" is an ambiguous term that lumps different types of challenges together. It’s important to recognize that useful and valuable work is challenging, but it doesn't always have to be a "white-knuckle" grind. Physically Demanding and Dangerous Work: This involves direct physical exertion and personal risk. Examples include military service, SEAL training, or being a firefighter or professional athlete. It requires overcoming fear, the use of physical skills, and the energy of the body. Long Hours / Brute Force: The work itself may not be dangerous, but the sheer volume and duration of effort make it hard. The "Elon Musk model" of 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week, is a prime example. This is the "brute force" model of success, probably derived from #1 above. Cognitively Hard Work: This involves creating new knowledge, solving complex problems with no clear answers, and pushing intellectual boundaries. Examples include computer programming, thought leadership, or inventing new concepts. This type of work is draining, but for some, it is not particularly painful. Emotionally Hard Work: This involves navigating emotionally charged situations, often in leadership roles or careers such as therapy or pastoral work. It requires patience, strong communication, and the ability to endure frustration, such as a doctor facing grieving families. This work is emotionally draining, but perhaps less so for some than for others. These four types are all underpinned by the underlying qualities of grit and persistence. Success and flourishing requires these qualities. Maybe best to think of them as Choosing Your Own Challenge What is "painful" for one person might not be for another, highlighting the individual nature of hard work. Some might, indeed, find the brute force method to be the right one for them. What is most important to note is that the brute force method is not the only path. It is not even required, but is most likely simply a sign of impatience. From the four types above, and perhaps others, we should choose the "flavor of pain" or struggle that we are best adapted to dealing with or find most acceptable. Instead of searching for an elusive "passion," a more productive approach is to understand what challenges or flavors you are willing and able to embrace to a greater degree than others. This understanding can help you navigate your career and life choices with greater clarity and purpose, moving beyond a simplistic and potentially damaging narrative of sacrificing everything for success. This is a core principle in enabling us to Do Busy Right.
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What is Attention Compass and how will it help me? (Classic Episode) - DBR 096
09/06/2025
What is Attention Compass and how will it help me? (Classic Episode) - DBR 096
What is Attention Compass and How will it help me? (Classic Episode) This is one of a series of posts that are going to discuss Attention Compass in detail. Attention Compass is my proprietary tool and workflow to put you in control of your information and attention - making you a better more confident knowledge worker and reducing your stress over your productivity. I think many people are struggling with the problem(s) that Attention Compass solves – overwhelm, associated stress, and fear that things are falling through the cracks. If that’s you, I want to serve you as best I can. So, I’ll tell you how to implement your own Attention Compass. If you try to do it and struggle, give me a call and I’ll help you get it fixed. We’ll start with some assumptions that explain why Attention Compass is built the way it is. This will help you make decisions about how you want to use your Attention Compass. It should also help you figure out more about why you want to have an Attention Compass. Underlying assumptions There are more than we could ever… There are more things to do than we could ever get done There are more things to know than we could ever learn This makes us fear forgetting/losing/missing something This fear is low-level, continually stressful for us Our memories are unreliable as to time, particularly in the future We know this so we create artifacts and systems, but our brains don’t trust them Misusing the ‘workbench’, the productive asset, our mind/brain That means we need to get things off our mind Implications More than we can look at and more than we can get done = a ton of stuff This means that we have to store it in a system Task management We get paid on delivering artifacts and we call the work to do so ‘tasks’; tasks need to be first-class citizens in our information management system; a task is just a specific kind of information Managing 'time' vs. managing 'attention' Properties of the system Electronic is best, mostly because it'll be a lot of stuff And we need to use a backlog (metaphor) to store it What a backlog is Backlog justification (vs. PMI ‘calendar’ and WBS) And we have to make and track postponement decisions When we say we’re ‘not doing’ something, we’re usually postponing; these decisions need to be tracked About Attention Compass So, these things mean that you need a personal Information Management System; Attention Compass is precisely that The four workflows (most frequent to least) Capture Observing the internal and external worlds Capture is semi-continuous, event-driven Processing Turn it in to want it is and put it where it belongs Daily review Don’t have to make a to-do list, just pull from the backlog Validate against other commitments Weekly Review – the bigger picture Maximum clarity and control So what? Now you understand some of the ideas of Attention Compass. Pick one and work to implement it in your life - tracking your postponement decisions is a good example. You can go to my website for instructions on how to make a physical system (called a "tickler file") that will put you in complete control of your postponements. As you create this habit, you will begin to see a new clarity and confidence about your tasks and attention management. This should encourage you to continue your efforts to improve in this critical area of your knowledge work life. or
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From Sirens to Tags: Categorizing Information for Executive Function - DBR 095
08/29/2025
From Sirens to Tags: Categorizing Information for Executive Function - DBR 095
We are constantly bombarded with information, and the challenge is to make that flow work for us, not against us. This episode explores how our brains instinctively make meaning and categorize information. It defines an organizational scheme that supports your attention, not interrupts it, by fostering an emergent, personal approach to managing information. Discover how to develop a system that feels natural and fluid, making it easier to maintain focus. The Instinctive Process of Meaning-Making Our brains make an immediate and "blindingly quick" decision about incoming information: "keep it versus ignore it". This immediate sense-making process is similar to hearing a siren. You instinctively categorize whether it's important to you (e.g., in your lane of traffic) or "nothing to do with me". This process applies to all environmental signals and information we encounter, including emails and social media notifications. Refining Categories: Actionable vs. Reference Information If information is a "keep," the next step is a processing loop to make "more detailed meaning" and put it into "more specific categories". The first major refinement is distinguishing between actionable information (things you need to do) and reference information (things you need to see again later). Actionable information is categorized by questions like, "When do I need to act on it?" and "What level of priority does it have?". A simple scheme could be "One Now, Two Next, Three Soon, Four Later, Five Someday". Reference information requires more nuanced categorization to ensure you can find it again when you need to. The categories must "make sense to us" individually. The Emergent Nature of Personal Categorization An effective organizational scheme must be emergent and deeply personal to you. Trying to force your information into someone else's imposed categories creates friction, slows you down, and often leads to losing the information because your brain doesn't naturally respond to them. Creating your own schema is "fluid and natural". While your system should be personal, some generic categories are widely useful, such as: Action Tags: Used to prioritize actionable information (e.g., "One Now," "Two Next"). People Tags: For important individuals when they are the source of information or need to be informed. Project Tags: To group all related information for a specific project. Historical/Reference Tags: For areas of knowledge or work specialties. Conclusion An effective organizational scheme isn't about rigid, imposed rules; it's about supporting your natural ability to make meaning and categorize information. Don't fight your brain; design a system that works with it by creating categories that make sense to you. ; www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble
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The Hidden Personal Secret to Group Information Management - DBR 094
08/23/2025
The Hidden Personal Secret to Group Information Management - DBR 094
Is your team's knowledge siloed and difficult to find? We often focus on personal organization, but effective group information management is the key to a cohesive and successful team. This episode challenges traditional, top-down approaches and presents a more effective, individual-centric solution. Discover how empowering every team member to manage their own information can transform your group's ability to share knowledge, find what they need, and collaborate more effectively. The Problem with Traditional Approaches The "Best Practice" Trap: Many teams use shared document repositories with a centralized schema, often created by a single "librarian" or manager. A Mismatch with Mental Models: This one-size-fits-all schema forces team members to think in a way that doesn't align with how their own brains naturally work, which is inefficient and difficult. The Challenge of Finding Information: When information is misfiled in large digital repositories, it's often as good as lost. Global search is not an ideal "finding mechanism" for re-locating specific documents you've seen before, leading to significant user frustration. The Solution: Building from the Individual Up Leverage Personal Information Management (PIM): The key is to ensure every team member is a good manager of their own information. The Card Catalog Analogy: Like a public library's card catalog, which helps users find books without needing to learn the complex library schema, every team member should build their own personal "card catalog" of links to shared information. How it Works: Individuals find a document in the shared repository and capture a link to it in their own private system. This personal system is organized according to their own mental schema, making it easy for them to find the information again later. Team members share links to documents instead of sending attachments. The Benefit: Once individuals are proficient at managing their own information, the group's ability to access and build on collective knowledge transforms. The structure of the central repository becomes far less critical, and the complex challenge of group information management becomes more straightforward. Conclusion Traditional, centralized information systems are often suboptimal, leading to frustration and inefficiency. The most effective way to foster shared knowledge is to invest in and enhance every individual's personal information management skills. When people become better managers of their own information, they also become better managers of their own tasks and attention—skills that benefit the entire organization. This shift from a top-down to an individual-up approach is the key to a more effective and collaborative future for your team.
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The Strategic "No" - the Master Skill of Attention Management - DBR 093
08/16/2025
The Strategic "No" - the Master Skill of Attention Management - DBR 093
Your attention is your most valuable asset, but it's constantly under assault from an "infinite" number of tasks and requests. This episode provides the understanding and practical tactics to confidently say "no," reclaim your productive potential, reduce overwhelm, and intentionally direct your life and work. Learn to master this crucial skill and manage the things you're not doing. Key Takeaways: The Challenge of Saying "No" We tend to be people-pleasers and our default is to say "yes," even when we don't want to. However, every time you say "yes" to something, you are inherently saying "no" to something else. Your attention is a finite resource, similar to having a limited amount of money or a lifespan of "4,000 weeks." It's critical to learn how to say "no" and condition your brain to get comfortable with the idea. Tactic 1: The Strategic "No" Through a Prioritized, Exhaustive List Your brain's mental list of tasks is often inaccurate and incomplete, making it difficult to confidently decline new requests. The solution is to maintain a complete, prioritized list of all your potential tasks. With a clear, written list, you can quickly compare a new request against your highest priorities and confidently say "no" or "not yet." This approach can be used to gain agreement from "powerful people" like your boss or spouse. Tactic 2: The Strategic "No" Through Clear Shared Expectations Another critical component is establishing a shared set of expectations about the roles you play in each other's lives. Managing expectations upfront allows the other person to seek a solution elsewhere if you cannot help. The goal is to "unsubscribe" from requests entirely, not just to delete or delay them. This means making it clear, "please don't ask me again for this specific thing." When saying "no," it can be helpful to offer an alternative supply, such as finding someone else who can fulfill their need. Conclusion: Mastering the art of the strategic "no" is not a convenience; it's an absolute necessity for effective task and attention management. By using a prioritized list and setting clear expectations, you build the confidence to say "no." It is better to disappoint someone once by clearly stating your boundaries than to repeatedly let them down by implicitly agreeing to something you can't deliver. This clarity fosters trust and allows others to plan effectively. Don't just delay or delete; unsubscribe.
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The Enduring Principles of AI for Knowledge Workers - DBR 092
08/09/2025
The Enduring Principles of AI for Knowledge Workers - DBR 092
AI is changing at a breathtaking pace, but its foundational principles and impacts on knowledge work are likely to persist. This episode dives into these enduring truths, moving beyond specific features to explore how AI is transforming our productivity. We'll discuss its inherent design for engagement, the pitfalls of its chat interface, and its real-world performance on common tasks like research, brainstorming, and writing. You'll learn to approach AI with mindful engagement to harness its power without falling prey to its limitations - with greater confidence and ease. Key Takeaways: A Historical Pattern of Technology Adoption: AI is set to transform knowledge work productivity in a way similar to how scientific management transformed manual labor in the 20th century. Throughout history, new information tools like the printing press and television were met with debates about their negative effects. Society has a pattern of "swallowing the negative aspects" of new technology to gain the positive ones, often sacrificing education for entertainment or improvement for immediate gratification. With AI, we must be aware of this pattern and consciously decide how to integrate it. Principle 1: AI's Fundamental Purpose is to Get You to Interact With It. AI's primary goal is user engagement to generate revenue, not necessarily to help you. It may sacrifice accuracy to keep the conversation going. Unlike a wise counselor, AI lacks wisdom and is "too indulgent," often agreeing with the user and avoiding tough feedback. This is a "yes man" that won't argue when you're wrong and may even apologize for its mistakes, blaming itself to keep you using it. Its goal is to work "only well enough to keep you from throwing it out a window." Principle 2: The Chat Interface is Detrimental to Focus and Attention. The chat interface is designed to pull you into a continuous conversation. It operates on a "variable reward system," which behavioral science shows is the most addictive system, prone to creating "obsessive behavior." The engaging, low-risk nature of AI conversations can easily lead users "down the rabbit hole," much like social media feeds or the "random article button on Wikipedia." We must approach AI with caution and mindfulness, just as we require a license to drive a car. AI for Specific Knowledge Worker Tasks (Personal Experience): Basic Research: AI provides high-quality and sophisticated information, and can correct itself if prompted. It can be "slightly better than Wikipedia" by providing simplified explanations. It can make it easier to fall prey to "amateur mistakes" by overlooking critical counter-arguments. Brainstorming: It's a patient and tireless partner that won't get frustrated or tell you your idea is dumb. It's a prominent "yes man," often effusively overstating the quality of your ideas, making it poor for validating them. Writing/Summarizing: AI can be frustrating due to its inability to adhere to specific requests like word limits or levels of detail, often negating time savings. It will give apologies but often fails to comply with core instructions, which can be "mildly angry-inducing." Conclusion: AI is a powerful and fascinating tool that requires mindful engagement. Remember its core principles: its design for engagement over accuracy and the addictive nature of its chat interface. Use it mindfully for tasks like research and brainstorming, but be aware of its limitations, especially its "yes man" tendency and its stubbornness in writing tasks. By understanding its mechanics and commercial incentives, you can harness its power responsibly and truly augment your knowledge work, within limits.
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Architecting Your Digital Sanctuary - an application of 'monk mode' - DBR 091
08/01/2025
Architecting Your Digital Sanctuary - an application of 'monk mode' - DBR 091
Episode 91: Architecting Your Digital Sanctuary Feeling overwhelmed by distractions and struggling to find focus in your work? This episode explores the concept of "monk mode" transformed into a practical, regular practice: architecting your digital sanctuary. Learn how creating a focused work environment can dramatically increase your efficiency, improve work quality, speed up completion, and surprisingly, lower your stress. Discover easy, actionable strategies to "close your digital office door" and consistently achieve deep work. ; Key Takeaways: Understanding the "Digital Sanctuary" Concept: It's about "closing your digital office door" to achieve focus and do your best work. The goal is to make focused work easy to get into, not a heroic endeavor. Why Your Brain Resists Focus: Benefits of the Digital Sanctuary: Increased Efficiency Higher Quality Work Faster Completion Reduced Stress Tactical Implementation: How to Create Your Digital Sanctuary: Preparation is Quick: Should take only a minute or two. Optimal Duration: aim for 45 minutes to start Physical Environment: Digital Environment (Key Tactics): Eliminate Distractions: Shut down all notifications (pings, dings, bright, shiny flickering things) from computer and phone. Minimize phone presence, consider airplane mode. Background Sound Management: Avoid music with lyrics or repetitive rhythmic sounds. Use pleasant, irregularly patterned soundscapes (e.g., "yoga music"). Headphones can aid isolation. Use Virtual Desktop Software: This is a primary tactic, acting like an "easy button" to switch to a fresh, distraction-free environment, presenting only what you need. It prevents tedious window minimization. The Focus Ritual / Checklist: A ritual helps "put your brain on alert." Key Steps: Check Communications Briefly: Quickly scan emails, voicemails, chats to ensure no immediate urgency. Set Up Your Digital Environment: Open necessary software intentionally and separately from starting the work. Shut Down Notifications: Ensure all "dingers, ringers, and pingers" are off; put your phone in airplane mode. Adjust Aural Environment: Choose your preferred soundscape. Adjust Physical Comfort: Ensure your chair and other physical elements are comfortable. Practice and Recovery: Post-Focus Recovery: Immediately check all communications (emails, chats, voicemails) to reassure your brain that "nothing blew up," building the habit and proving focused work is safe. Learn to discern true urgency. Backstory: Dissertation Success: I successfully completed a 150-page dissertation, despite warnings against short increments, by blocking out 90-minute stretches of focused work in a quiet, dedicated office. This method contributed to receiving a "best dissertation award." Conclusion: Architecting your digital sanctuary is about making focused work as easy as possible. Pre-decide your environment, use tools like virtual desktops and sound management, and establish a simple focus ritual. Practice consistently, set a timer, and crucially, immediately re-engage with communications post-focus to reassure your brain. This builds a powerful habit, leading to increased efficiency, better work, less stress, and greater control over your digital life. Start simple, practice often, and build your own digital sanctuary.
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Master Your Tasks & Time with a Backlog Refinement Rhythm - DBR 090
07/26/2025
Master Your Tasks & Time with a Backlog Refinement Rhythm - DBR 090
Episode 90: Master Your Tasks & Reclaim Your Time with Backlog Refinement Description: Are you tired of daily to-do list "rigmarole" and feeling overwhelmed by your tasks? This episode introduces a powerful concept for managing your commitments and freeing up valuable time: the backlog, and the crucial "refinement rhythm" that keeps it manageable. Discover how implementing a structured backlog can help you flourish, lower stress, and prevent wasted time and attention. Key Takeaways: What is a Backlog? A backlog is a structured and highly effective way to store your actionable tasks. It's a superior alternative to simple lists, designed to keep and maintain your actionable items. Users of systems leveraging this approach report saving 15-20% of their time – that's 6-8 hours in a 40-hour work week! Eliminate the need to create a new to-do list every morning, saving 15-30 minutes daily. Characteristics of Backlog Items: More detailed and clearer than typical task names, like an index card with descriptions. Detail is added incrementally as priority increases. Crucially, each item defines the desired outcome for the task. Should contain all necessary information (or links to it) to do the task, reducing frantic searching. Have a clear, modifiable priority ranking (e.g., high/medium, 1-10). Priorities are always relative. Properties of the Backlog Itself: Must be easily accessible and visible. Action items should be stored in one dedicated place, separate from email or other clutter. The content is "absolutely sacrosanct" to you. Maintains a rough priority order at all times. Simple to add and remove items, and to reflect priority changes or completion. What is Refinement? Refinement (also called "grooming") is the active work you do to structure and improve your backlog. It's not a one-time event, but an ongoing process integrated into your workflow (capture, processing, daily/weekly review). You refine individual items, much like dusting individual items in a room. Key Actions in Refining an Item: Maintaining and improving each item in the backlog. Asking key questions: "Do I know any more?", "Do I understand enough?", "Have I learned something new about its priority?", "Is there an additional input I'll need?", "Has the desired outcome changed?". Recording new information as you learn it. Improving the priority ranking of an item relative to others. It's "not heavy lifting," just small improvements. When Refinement Happens: Consistently within your system. Often when you add a new item. Every time you interact with an item, you're improving it. As higher-priority items are completed, others naturally move up. Involves actively reviewing items, even with automatic sorting tools. Benefits: Lowers stress and prevents wasting invaluable time and attention. The best tool for managing tasks. Helps you gain control and avoid frantic stress. Implementing a backlog with regular refinement is the human race's most effective tool for managing tasks. This approach lowers stress and prevents wasted time and attention. By actively improving individual items, you gain control over your commitments and achieve a clear, manageable task list that helps you flourish. or find me on
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PIM is Critical for Knowledge Creation - DBR 089
07/19/2025
PIM is Critical for Knowledge Creation - DBR 089
I want to delve deeper into a concept that listeners found interesting in a previous discussion: Commonplace Books. My goal here is to show you how a modern toolset, specifically Attention Compass, transforms the idea of a commonplace book from an overwhelming task into a practical and incredibly powerful exercise for the modern world. This is especially valuable for those of us who are knowledge workers, constantly learning and figuring things out as we go along, and trying to manage our personal information effectively. You'll learn how implementing an Attention Compass can unlock significant benefits, solve common pain points, and truly enhance your ability to capture, leverage, and master your own unique knowledge. I'm all about human flourishing. I think a great way to flourish better is to cultivate great attention management. If you'd like some help with that or just a chat about it, let me know. or on LinkedIn. Commonplace Books: A Modern Perspective Historical Context: Traditionally, commonplace books were bound physical notebooks. Notable figures used them to capture tasks, thoughts and other information. The Challenge of Traditional (Physical)Commonplace Books: Overhead Difficulty in Access and Organization Limited Capacity Introducing Attention Compass: The Modern Enabler What is Attention Compass?: A modern personal information management system. The core technical advantage is that things can appear to be in multiple places at the same time. How it Works (Tagging and Organization): Process information by making meaning and assigning tags. Information is associated with multiple categories simultaneously. Information seamlessly accumulates, almost as if it's "magnetic". Pain Points Solved by Commonplace Books (Enabled by Attention Compass) Wasting High-Value Time and Attention Recreating Conclusions Difficulty Capturing and Leveraging Learning Beyond Formal Education Lack of "Textbooks" for Knowledge Work Improvement and Innovation Fostering a Sense of Craftsmanship and Expertise It Can Be Fun Practical Implementation Project-Based Commonplace Books Enhanced Retrieval and Accessibility You will actually access and use your data The "Powers" of Attention Compass: Integration with AI Extended Capacity Through Electronic Storage Leveraging Notebook LM (AI) Notebook LM is a learning module. You provide your own sources and then ask questions about them. Tangible Benefits of AI Integration The AI can help identify "gaps" Summarize vast amounts of content Reliant on having a previous data store - training time is expensive. Conclusion By cultivating your commonplace book with Attention Compass, you can avoid wasting valuable time and attention on redrawing conclusions, you can effectively leverage learning acquired outside of formal education, and you can coalesce and distill your unique knowledge into a reference work that is invaluable for yourself, and potentially others. Moreover, creating this "own textbook" for your knowledge work fosters a profound sense of craftsmanship, expertise, and authority in your field, and for many of us, it's genuinely fun. The critical takeaway here is that if you have implemented Attention Compass, creating commonplace books becomes easy enough that you will actually do it. And if you do it, you will undoubtedly gain these immense benefits. People are often in awe when they hear about the capabilities unlocked by this system, such as using AI to query and even generate content from their own comprehensive knowledge base. An Attention Compass implementation is more than just a tool; it's a foundational step that will give you powers you did not know you could have, or even needed, demonstrating just how effective these tools can be in elevating your personal information management and intellectual output. If you're intrigued and want to find out more about creating your own personal information store or implementing your own Attention Compass, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm not hard to find at @dobusyright.com or on LinkedIn.
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DBR 088: Meetings and Death By Them - Is It Inevitable?
07/12/2025
DBR 088: Meetings and Death By Them - Is It Inevitable?
Hi there. I want to talk about a common source of pain among people on teams: meetings. You simply can’t discuss productivity without addressing meetings, and my goal is to equip you with actionable ways to make meetings more productive. I’ll share tactics, discuss the realities of meeting culture, and provide desk-level actions you can implement to improve how meetings function within your organization. Why is this topic valuable to you? Because for many of us, especially if you're a boss or have a boss, you spend a significant amount of your time in meetings. While we all complain about meetings, the reality is that a pervasive lack of structure and process around them exists in business culture. This episode aims to change that. Whether you're a boss with significant control, a self-employed professional with autonomy, or an employee navigating existing structures, there's something here for everyone. For employees, especially, I want to emphasize that you shouldn't turn this off; there are specific tactics you can use to exert some control or influence, and this information will be invaluable when you become a boss. It’ll help you avoid inflicting unproductive meetings on others. Core Problems with Meetings: We often don't structure meetings. This might be due to a lack of knowledge, laziness, or a feeling of being the only one to do it differently. We don't have different kinds of meetings for different purposes, only different names for the same kind of meeting. This leads to a mismatch between meeting style and goal. Legitimate Purposes for Meetings: All participants should have something to do within the meeting structure. Example: The "Stand-Up" Meeting: Common in Agile project management methodologies. Very tight, usually 15 minutes or less. Not a status report or a time for accomplishments. One-to-many dissemination of information (semi-legitimate): Purpose: Vision casting, policy updates, informing about new initiatives. Challenges: the format is boring and only saves time for one of the meeting members. Alternative: leverage technology Exceptions: Heavy-duty compliance meetings (e.g., safety briefings, regulatory requirements) where in-person attendance is legally or ethically mandated. If this is the case, clearly state why in-person attendance is required. Brainstorming or Group Idea Sessions: Boss's Role: clear and honest about the purpose and decision-making process Primary Ineffective Meeting Type to Avoid: The Weekly Status Meeting: The least valid reason to have a meeting. Better handled through other means (e.g., individual updates, shared documents). Key Tactics for Productive Meetings (Primarily for Bosses/Meeting Holders): Always Have an Agenda: Purpose 1: Guide to keep everyone on track during the meeting. Purpose 2: Help people prepare for the meeting. If attendees don't need to prep, they might not need to be there. Purpose 3 (Crucial): Help people decide to attend. Produce Shared Notes: Notes on what happened in the meeting should be made available to everyone; a shared note is ideal Utilize a Scribe/Facilitator: Avoid "Pop Quiz" Meetings: Tactics for Employees/Attendees: Offer to be the Scribe: Offer to Prep an Agenda: Demonstrate upward leadership by helping your boss structure meetings. Stay Focused and Present During the Meeting: Engage with the material even if it feels like a lecture, it's an opportunity to train your focus and discipline. Suggest Resources to Your Boss: If your relationship with your boss allows, suggest resources like Patrick Lencioni's books (e.g., Death by Meeting, The Advantage) or even this podcast, to help them think about meeting culture. Conclusion The key to productive meetings lies in structure and purpose. We need to be honest about why we're meeting and choose the right kind of meeting for the right purpose. Always strive to have an agenda that helps people prepare and decide if their attendance is truly valuable. Make sure meetings are action-oriented, with participants taking away clear "to-dos," and document these actions in shared notes. Finally, leverage technology for information dissemination where appropriate, and always avoid multitasking during meetings to maximize your own engagement and contribute positively to the collective focus. My hope is that bosses will be open to fundamentally rethinking their meeting culture and structure, recognizing the significant impact it has on productivity. And for those of you who are employees, remember that you have opportunities to influence and lead upward. By understanding these principles and applying these tactics, you can be part of the solution, contributing to a more effective and less frustrating meeting experience for everyone involved. Let's work together to make every meeting count.
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Be Your Own Executive: Mastering Productivity Through Executive Function - DBR 087
07/07/2025
Be Your Own Executive: Mastering Productivity Through Executive Function - DBR 087
My goal today is to help you understand a few things that are true about knowledge work, specifically focusing on a concept called executive function. This term may be new to you, but I believe it perfectly describes what we're all dealing with in our daily lives and work. Ultimately, I want to describe an "operating system" that we can put in place to help us with this crucial skill. Why is this important for you? I'll show that understanding and improving your executive function is the root of productivity in the modern world. It's about your ability to plan, manage time, and problem-solve – essential skills that put you in a position to operate effectively in the world, whether at work or in your personal life. Think of it as the underlying "athleticism" for a general knowledge worker. Perhaps even more critically, it's the cure for productivity anxiety. Research shows that while 61% of us feel productive at work, a striking 80% report having productivity anxiety. This means many of us feel a constant struggle to meet expectations, feeling we’re "not productive enough". By focusing on executive function, we can address this widespread challenge head-on. We'll deal with that here. What is Executive Function? Encompasses the ability to plan, manage time, and problem-solve among other things Set of skills comparable to "athleticism" for physical workers, but applied to knowledge work A life skill that applies equally to your job and your personal life It differs from specialized skills (e.g., an electrical engineer's advanced math, which aren't typically applied at the same level in daily life. Also it is not taught in schools. Group Executive Function How teams operate: rules, procedures, information management, and communication Is dependent on the high executive function of its individual members. Executive Function as Your Personal "Operating System" Computers act as tools that support our executive function. We can conceptualize our personal executive function as an "operating system" – a set of standard procedures and guidelines that allows us to function effectively. Like an OS enables a computer to run specialized programs, our executive function allows us to perform diverse roles effectively. Improving Executive Function: A Scientific Management Approach Inspired by Frederick Taylor's scientific management A key to increased knowledge work productivity The Problem: Widespread Productivity Anxiety Our feeling of productivity often stems from our own standards, while anxiety arises from failing to meet others' expectations or from unfavorable self-comparison. This is often compounded by a "bravado" Symptoms of productivity anxiety include: feelings of inadequacy, guilt about hours worked and vacation or sick days, chronic dissatisfaction with your output. Recap We're talking about productivity anxiety and our urgent need to understand and improve our executive function. This is because executive function is the fundamental basis for the kind of productivity that truly matters – both in your professional life and in everything else you strive to accomplish. The good news is that getting better at this executive function is the cure for productivity anxiety. We have powerful tools at our disposal, like our computers and their search functions, which should support our executive function. The key is to use these tools properly and consistently, ensuring they genuinely support, rather than undermine, your executive function. This means it's time to "be your own executive". It's often up to us to figure it out. I can help. That's why we emphasize adopting new mindsets, tactics, and habits. Structures like the Attention Compass are designed precisely to provide this operating system, helping you effectively manage these underlying skills. By consciously working on your executive function – whether it's becoming a little better at problem-solving or improving your information management – you directly enhance your overall productivity and reduce anxiety. Remember, executive function is that underlying skill set that allows us to function well in the modern world, encompassing all those essential "life skills". By embracing this, by actively working to improve your personal operating system, you become more effective, more productive, and more capable of turning the world and yourself into what you want them to be.
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Not As Busy As We Think (Maybe) - DBR 086
06/28/2025
Not As Busy As We Think (Maybe) - DBR 086
Productivity is hard to measure. I’ve talked about it before. The measurement problems can lead us to confusion about our productivity. I’ll talk about what this looks like in the workplace in a minute. If we think we’re more productive than we are (and there’s good reason to believe we do), we won’t be motivated to engage in making it better. We’ll be complacent, thinking that ‘we’re doing about as well as everyone else’. As Dave Ramsey says – “you do what you see everyone else doing and you’ll be as broke as they are.” I hope you walk away from this episode with clarity that motivates you to engage in further developing your own productivity. There are huge benefits to constantly improving our productivity – defined as effective use of our attention. As humans, when we can apply our attention we learn and grow. The primary benefit is that you become able to get the results you want in the world, over time. There is a class of things “poor metacognitive tasks” or “skills”. The phrase means that we have a hard time telling how good we are at them – we might be “unskilled and unaware of it”. At present, our productivity is a good example of such a task/skill. I’ll give evidence of that claim and how it manifests itself in our lives. We are not nearly as productive as we think we are. In experiments, output, surprisingly, does not go down when moving from a 5-day to a 4-day work week. Interpretation: There is significant waste in the system, 20% of hours don't produce output. Identifying the nature of wasted attention We may think we are working as hard as they can and their productivity is fine, not needing help. We may want to work less for the same pay, attributing current inefficiencies to wasted time. Often, we blame meetings, but work habits (often learned in office settings) also affect non-office workers. Specific Wastes Under Individual Control The "Big Three" Generic Wastes: Interruption Multitasking Distraction Other Specific, Tactical Wastes: Hunting for information Making a daily to-do list Inefficient communication channel handling Self-interruption / Task switching (i.e., "I'd better do it before I forget") Facets of a Solution for Personal Productivity Seamless, easy, lightweight organization of all information Task Management via 'backlog' Communication Channel Management Managing Postponed Tasks Call to Action: Focus on what you can control in your personal workflows Take ownership; decide to eliminate waste. It can be done. Redistribute saved hours over other areas of work Or become more valuable by maintaining current hours to significantly increase output and effectiveness; this is not "hustle culture" larry@dobusyright.com
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From Guild Secrets to Modern Work: Process Thinking is the Key to your Productivity - DBR 085
06/20/2025
From Guild Secrets to Modern Work: Process Thinking is the Key to your Productivity - DBR 085
Today, I'm going to outline the current progress in the pursuit of increasing knowledge work productivity. I'll have some suggestions about how you can improve your productivity. Mostly, this is encouragement and motivation to do the work required to get on top of your game and stay there. Purpose: understand that Knowledge Work Productivity is not a solved problem while recognizing good directions to go to solve it. Value for you #1: understand where we are in this work, so you'll know where to go next. Value for you #2: recognizing that knowledge work management represents a competitive advantage in the market for talent. You'll be 1) more productive, 2) less burned-out, 3) a faster learner, and 4) better at your job as you develop these skills. Knowledge Worker Productivity as an Unsolved Problem Knowledge worker productivity is not a solved problem, and individuals should avoid being complacent with existing tools or solutions. Historical Context: Scientific Management Historically, manual work processes were often guarded secrets within guilds, creating a "mystery" around how tasks were performed and hindering process improvement thinking. In the early 20th century, Taylor introduced time and motion studies to break down work into discrete steps and identify improvements. The Gap in Knowledge Work Analysis A scientific management analysis of knowledge work has not yet been performed. Individuals often believe their knowledge work is uniquely different and cannot benefit from generalized process improvements. Critique of Productivity Tools Productivity tools are often not designed for users' personal effectiveness but rather to sell better. Software development is expensive, leading companies to avoid costly new features without clear justification, which contributes to software being "relatively static". Learned Helplessness Users may experience "learned helplessness" with computer tools, leading to complacency where they assume existing tools are the best available and avoid the effort of seeking or implementing changes. Applying Process Analysis to Knowledge Work We need a scientific management approach to knowledge work, particularly focusing on personal information management, which is crucial for managing attention. This approach involves analyzing sequential steps, breaking down sub-processes, and identifying areas of waste. For knowledge workers, "attention" is the primary productive asset to optimize, not just time. Recommendations for Improving Knowledge Worker Productivity Focus first on eliminating waste, especially waste of attention based in task switching. Then (and only then) break down processes and improve sub-components. Avoid constantly switching tools, the learning curve and difficulty of effective experimentation make it too expensive and often unproductive. Instead, engage with your own processes, understand your system, and develop repeatable processes for your work.
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Digital Moderation and How To Decline a Technology - DBR 084
06/13/2025
Digital Moderation and How To Decline a Technology - DBR 084
I’m going to dive into the logic of the debate around technology. Purpose: To earn a stronger hearing for honest critiques of technology: We’ll discuss a common pattern where critics are dismissed as "anti-technology" or "Luddites". What’s in it for you: To be encouraged and equipped to question the rhetoric that faces us from a technology-forward culture. And/or answer the question: “You don’t use social media X, what’s wrong with you?” And/or generate the courage to shut something down, like Cal Newport suggests in Digital Minimalism. And/or, if you’re a boss and are wondering how to improve your organization’s productivity, consider similar arguments in Cal’s A World Without Email. My claim for the next 45 minutes… I am a critic of certain kinds of technology. I and others who do this often face a particular kind of counter argument. This typical counter-argument pattern equates general use with harmlessness. I’ll show that this general use argument is not well-supported with evidence. By highlighting how past critiques, like those of television, have been "vindicated," I’ll establish the validity and necessity of such discussions. Introduction to critiquing technology and my position My background and motivation for critique Examples of technology I think are challenging The Common Pattern of Argument Against Technology Critics Stereotype of critics: Often labeled "anti-technology" or implying a lack of understanding The counter-argument pattern Premise: A new technology (X) is critiqued (e.g., Facebook is a problem). 2. Counter-claim: People previously critiqued a di erent new technology (Y), and those past critics "were demonstrated to be wrong" because Y is now in general use and "didn't kill us". Challenge to Critic: The critic is then asked to prove why technology X is "worse than" technology Y. * The speaker notes the di iculty of comparing disparate technologies like Facebook and television (e.g., weak comparison points like "looking at screens" or "consuming attention"). Dismissal: If the critic cannot prove X is "worse," they are dismissed as a "Chicken Little" or an "old curmudgeon" interfering with enjoyment. Historical example: "Go-to statement" in early programming languages Initially debated as "useful in the hands of a knowledgeable user". Now universally agreed to be bad programming practice because it produced buggy, hard to maintain, and clumsy code.. This pattern often appears in discussions where convenience is the primary perceived benefit of a technology. Flaws in the Counter-Critique's Logic Lack of Burden of Proof on the counter-critic False Equivalence: General use does not imply harmlessness Television as a Case Study: Vindication of Early Critiques Early critics of television have been vindicated, though this isn't widely recognized. Three primary critiques of television Critique 1: Content Quality Critique 2: Waste of Time/Attention Critique 3: Advertising as Brainwashing/Propaganda Recap
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How to Process Incoming Information - DBR 083
06/06/2025
How to Process Incoming Information - DBR 083
Most people don't know how to process incoming information. This is a core part of personal information management, which (particularly for knowledge workers) is absolutely critical for modern economic life. The ways in which we receive information are continuing to change. The amount of information and level of awareness that the business and general cultures expect of us are both increasing as well. In order to be successful with those, we need to have our information processing really working well. Here’s how to process incoming information well. Lots of people are trying this on their own, but it’s hard to be successful that way. If you want to talk to me about coaching, hit me on LinkedIn or larry@dobusyright.com Let’s get into it. Incoming information and Information Channels: Definitions Information channels thought experiment: do you have a process for dealing with information channels? General ideas about channels Basic approach: open it, empty it, close it – ‘processing’ Two basic types of information All channels are bad places to store both kinds of information All channels are bad places to do work Another storage location is REQUIRED A few differences between channels Synchronous versus asynchronous Discrete versus continuous Digital versus analog Two-way versus ‘read only’ or ‘write only’ Typical level of urgency Examples Processing an e-mail channel (asynchronous, discrete, digital, two way) Processing a phone channel (synchronous) Processing a chat channel (continuous) Processing a conversation/meeting (analog) Processing a blog channel (one-way) We’ve covered how to process email across several channels and we’ve covered the differences across the four properties of channels. You should be able to construct a basic process for each of your channels.
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Don't 'manage time'; time is the constraint - DBR 082
05/31/2025
Don't 'manage time'; time is the constraint - DBR 082
I was answering a question: “how do I manage my time?” and I was thinking of it in terms of scheduling. Then it occurred to me that we don't manage time. (I've said that a lot.) But, what is it then that we do with time? And it occurred to me to think: time is the constraint. Now, this is hardcore knowledge worker stuff here. Time is the primary limiting factor on throughput in our productivity system. If our productive asset is attention then the limiting factor on attention that cannot be removed is time. Now, we're into the theory of constraints and its systems and bottlenecks, these kinds of ideas. We’ll talk about where we need to be headed if we want to become outstanding managers of our own productivity. We’ll delve into systems theory to figure it out. The Theory of Constraints Overview and the notion of bottlenecks In a desktop productivity system, many of the normal limiting factors that would be present in a factory are already absent If time is the limiting factor; it's not an input and it's not an asset We look at the bottlenecks second, after we’ve done the easier work of eliminating the wastes, which happen to everybody The wastes (3 of them) The first two wastes are pretty much mindset changes – interruption and multitasking The third takes more finesse – distraction. But we know how to deal with that. Systematizing our investigations Then we can move on in a systematic fashion to identify bottlenecks in our specific process. You can’t do systems analysis until you have a repeatable system in place- deal with interruptions and stop multitasking. And deal with distractions. Three generic, common bottlenecks The fact that it's a bottleneck does not mean that it's a useless behavior One: Planning Three kinds of planning (today, foreseeable future, and intentions) Two: Maintaining awareness of our environment Covey: the circle of control and the circle of concern Are we aware of the right things (scope) What is the useful intensity of our awareness. Three: efficiency of sub processes The first: Sub processes that take our attention that probably shouldn't The second: Would it be useful for us to be more efficient in some sub-processes? I think that we make a common error in that we start working on the second process before we get phase one straight. If you aren’t dealing with interruptions, there’s no real need for you to work on your typing speed. You don’t have the attentional space to deal with that and won’t get it done. So, the search for tools and the next app that will “save my productivity” – let me save you some time; it doesn’t exist (at least not yet). Recap
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WFH: Don't Fall For The Hidden Challenge - DBR 081
05/23/2025
WFH: Don't Fall For The Hidden Challenge - DBR 081
WFH: Don't Fall For the Hidden Challenge Most everybody I hear wants to work from home. I’ve posted previously that most employees see WFH as a convenience and a perk. Is it possible that WFH is not all upside? What if WFH presents challenges to our thriving. I’m all about thriving, so I think you should know about this challenge that Gallup is reporting. And I think the challenge is one we can face with the proper ideas and techniques. So WFH can support our thriving rather than representing a challenge to it. For the record, I think WFH is generally good for people and good for companies. Situations vary, of course, but both sides save money, time, and stress, so why not? In addition, WFH forces managers to develop good managerial tactics (‘cause the bad ones don’t work as well) which is good for everyone. What’s the situation Gallup studies Engagement Definition of Engagement – similar to passion Definition of well-being Correlation between engagement and well-being Work styles (e.g. “remote capable”) History of remote work and WFH – WFH a perk? History of remote work and WFH Programming jobs were first in work from home But WFH was rare The impact of COVID - universal WFH Then leadership changed their minds (again) The debate on WFH continues, based on opinion not data Productivity Engaged = productive (most likely) The relationship between remote and knowledge work When engagement is up our work is energizing, promising, positive. Fun? Autonomy is generally considered useful to motivation Well-being should be a primary goal of productivity So why are well-being and engagement diverging The personal factor in WFH Anecdote “your best people…” About management The level of “external” management What is “external” management “Agency” and “Freedom” are good things, right? But are they the most productive for us? Hypothesis: to achieve our greatest levels of productivity we need management Why do we dislike management Intrinsic motivation as compared to extrinsic motivation. Public goals are one of several evidences of our need for external accountability the manager in the organization produces accountability It’s a good thing to have a boss To help us prioritize our work. Bad managers: poorly trained and poor promotion habits Lack of external management in WFH The challenge of self-management The well-being component is probably reflecting the challenge of self-Management. “Adulting is hard.” (Sigh) It's easier to complain about somebody else not managing you well than it is to manage yourself well. Self management similar to management of others I think the data point to this notion of self-management Good management is helpful Management is “support me as I do this work”, the “manager as coach models” Engaging life coaching is hiring a manager, hiring a coach Growth of coaching is co-incident with the increase in remote work and the increase in knowledge work That's what this podcast is about Exploring the idea of self-management A big component of that is mindset… recognizing that you do need to manage yourself The goal here is for both engagement and well-being to go up together Let's take a much closer look at our need for… management (in its most positive sense)
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Information Overload Is Simpler Than You Think - DBR 080
05/17/2025
Information Overload Is Simpler Than You Think - DBR 080
Eradicating information overload. The goal of personal information management is to put processes and tools around our information so we can “manage” it – that means control it, tame it, have fewer emergencies around it. Our fear that we don’t have it well-managed causes us stress and anxiety – we call this ‘information overload’. So, a feeling of information overload is an indication that we don’t have our information managed well. After all, if you have a feeling of “bill overload”, you would look at your finances and budget, right? But is information overload a USEFUL term? Does it help us understand and deal with the problem? Or is it just a clickbait? Here, we’ll look into the definition of information - understanding the situation is a key to success. If Information Overload and/or the associated stress is a primary concern for you, this is your episode. Definition of information We don’t really have a good one – and that’s coming from an expert We think we can dimly grasp what information is… its related to some way of conveying 'something'. We even use information to convey 'something' to ourselves with notes, etc. For more, see James Gleick's book The Information But is information an independent thing? Information and attention are symbiotic. Example – regular radio pulses from astronomy. Is that information? How does this relate to overload? Information itself is not something that impinges on us. It can’t do that. But we do feel stress – meaning we feel like there's more than we can deal with - about 'something'. Is our problem really communication overload? Communication impinges on us. Communication means information used in a way that has a message (content) and usually has a signal. (we refer to both content and signal as information) We get shouted at - communicated AT Is our problem really content overload? There's no such thing as information overload in a library - content, in itself, has no means to impinge on us If books hollered at you and they weren't well organized, the library would be a horror show. So, this is Information that's well managed and has organizational schemes. In personal information management, one of the better metaphors is to have one's own personal library Is our problem really signal overload? The amount of incoming signal has never been so high The informational content of a signal itself is pretty low. Phones ring, computers beep, screens flash. We think this the right approach. But almost every signal is under our control It's signal overload. So, we've also got to think about the signals that we allow and those that we create for ourselves Conclusion/recap larry@doubsyright.com.
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Work-life Balance Is Nothing (... but an Attention Management Problem) - DBR 079
05/10/2025
Work-life Balance Is Nothing (... but an Attention Management Problem) - DBR 079
This episode is about the outcomes you can achieve with the information and coaching I am able to give. This is important, because it's gonna be work. It's not hard work but it is work. You'll need to change a couple of thought patterns and build a new habit or two. And in order for you to do that work, you need to know what's in it for you: what's going to happen when you do it. I’ll talk about what other clients have experienced as they've adopted this attention management mindset. The goal is nothing short of making you a better worker and making your life easier. That's two things, not one that depends on the other. What I mean is not that your life's going to be easier because you're a better worker. It's two things. Work's going to be easier to deal with and life's going to be easier to deal with. Outcome: better work/life balance One of the primary pressures on productivity is the notion of work life balance We’re doers of many things in both work and life spheres So, we have two claims on our attention A third primary claim on our attention - entertainment. It's attention consuming. Attention is the primary constraint in modern life The bottleneck on on 'productivity' is our ability to pay attention to getting things done Our work is very much mental work What is it we get better at with attention management? Parallel to athleticism in sports General education - things that apply to all work Underlying even that are abilities that allow us to perform work well We need to develop skills to have our attention where it needs to be when we need for it to be there. There's simply not a word for it in the English language. Attention helps us with the "infinite number" of things that we've got to do If we don't handle that set of things very well they absorb too much of our attention We need a concept of wasted attention If we get better at both work and life (independently), then we’ve got more space to “balance” the two. We come to see that they are not automatically in competition all the time Other outcomes that we can expect You'll get better at your work, regardless of what you do. The important notion of "deliverables" and why attention is critical Better opportunities in your career Better at tasks that constitute 'life' Better at learning, the most basic knowledge work skill An aside on the stress related to competition Corporate world: competition for promotion Sales: competition with other products / solutions Our business schools are focused on models of industry competitiveness Economics teaches us scarcity and competition. If we know we're more skilled, we can face competition with less fear and stress Recap
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Watch Out For The Three 'Micro' Wastes of Productivity - DBR 078
05/03/2025
Watch Out For The Three 'Micro' Wastes of Productivity - DBR 078
I want to describe calm productivity. And I want to contrast the results of attention management to the results of efforts to do time management. I’m going to take you over to a recording of a public talk I did at a conference at UA. It’s titled: "The Three Enemies of Productivity". The actual thing that we all want is productivity or efficiency (which are probably synonyms, for the most part). Productivity and efficiency both mean outputs per unit input. When we talk about productivity, we typically think of outputs per unit time. On the other hand, when we're talking about organizational productivity we may be talking about maximizing output per dollar cost or other things. But when we talk about individual productivity, personal productivity and knowledge work, then typically we're going to wind up talking about maximizing results per unit time. And that's fine. But maximization of that is not a “flow” state. It is not calm productivity. It’s “hurry culture”. The equations come from physical product studies Physical product is not variable Delivery mechanisms are critical in knowledge work because information must be comprehensible Part of the product is this comprehensibility Less so in the physical product world Implications of the physical-product-based efficiency equations How this plays in “time” management The first thing is to get rid of waste The notion of “wasting time” is challenging - many things LOOK like waste. So, we try to shrink time. But “speeding up” is bad for us, although “less time” is often good. Poor utilization of the asset (downtime) is the first waste. We've got to understand what the asset is What's being challenged for us is not exactly our time. It's our attention. And, there's lots of ways that our attention could be wasted. There is no real way to ‘overclock’ If I can make you go faster than you're comfortable going, then you're going to start making mistakes. Trying to make somebody go faster than they can is the result of a focus on time management. In the extreme, rushing to make time efficient is cutting corners Rushing does nothing to give us a sense of of calm, and peaceful. Macro waste of attention I don't Talk about macro waste. Use the Covey quadrants. We can't be Attention intensive for 8, 10, or 12 hours a day. “Losing” our attention We don't yet know what "leaves" when we lose our focus. An example of talking about attention in the wrong way Micro wastes of attention. Task switching has an enormous cost in attention. Two reasons for focus The three primary 'micro' wastes of attention (the Keynote) Interruption Multitasking Distraction ...and how to deal with them I enjoy giving this keynote. It helps me spread the message about the core of productivity. If you know someone who needs to hear it, share or get them in touch with me for a keynote.
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Over-allocated Attention and the Associated Stress - DBR 077
04/26/2025
Over-allocated Attention and the Associated Stress - DBR 077
Our attention is over-allocated by a nexus of events. This episode is what to do about that. I'm gonna acknowledge something that I'm not a big fan of. Apparently April is stress awareness month. So, if you weren't aware of stress, stress is a thing. I think most of us are aware of it. I don't want to be a curmudgeon but oh my word. Yes, I'm already aware of all of the different months that have some awareness attached to that. About stress… My promise to you is: if you practice good attention management, that will lead to a new level of productivity for you. That productivity will interact with your level of stress around 1) your to-do list and 2) the information that you need to manage such that your level of stress will go down. In this episode, I'm going to try and do a couple of different things. One is I'm going to tell you a little bit about stress. I’ll give you a great resource around stress. Two is we're going to talk about a really strange notion in our modern world; it's called contentment. If you've never heard that word before I get it, and we'll talk about what that is. Stress versus contentment and achieving some sense of peace, calmness, and clarity. And dare I say it, happiness? This is all based on our attention and the fact that we're at a nexus of events. These events are colliding such that the world is putting us, more precisely our attention, under intense pressure. The intensity of pressure is something that we have not dealt with before, as a culture, as a society. There’s an attention-based stress challenge. Society and culture are placing huge demands on us. It's not a published demand; nobody notified you that this would be happening. That set of forces is the third thing that we'll talk about today. What is stress? Stress is the difference between our expectation and what we experience in reality In this sense, it is closely related to frustration. The feeling is like frustration The Myth of Stress – Andrew Bernstein The only way to deal with it is to learn new expectations (not easy) Our stated expectation – this is just a busy time (month, quarter) – is not reality Also, there seems to be an unstated assumption that we’ll just get better at this as a culture or society. Another false expectation Contentment Example of escalating expectations: the notion of a 'prom-posal' The only term I can come up with at present is: child inflation. Contentment is counter-cultural The present culture has associated contentment with inability - inability to achieve - or poverty, inability to pay for it. We don't want to be seen as incapable of living up to this cultural Norm The factors around our attention Fact 1: the level of attention getting is higher than ever. We’re all trying to get each other’s attention. The level is rising Fact 2: our levels of information and communication are continuing to rise Fact 3: more of us are using our attention as our productive asset Fact 3.5 we are the most entertained society in history And entertainment is a pleasant deployment of our attention. We feel trapped in our frustration over attention My hypothesis is that we wandered into this situation and, therefore, we don't have good tactics to deal with it. That's what I do: give you good tactics to deal with the information- and task-based claims on your attention. That will lower your stress and help you perform better in work. Email me with comments or questions: And connect with me on LinkedIn to see occasional announcements on episodes and other stuff: (please mention the podcast).
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Yes! You CAN Be Happy At Work - DBR 076
04/19/2025
Yes! You CAN Be Happy At Work - DBR 076
The happiness at work episode. Yay. I’m happy to be at work. Last time we talked about pessimism versus optimism. A closely related subject is happiness versus misery. I do think that optimism is critical. I've heard it said that your number one goal as an entrepreneur is to protect your optimism. I think it's that important. If you’re in the knowledge Work World and think you're not an entrepreneur and then you probably need to reconsider the definition of Entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody that makes their own deal, that makes their own job. And you should probably be a lot closer to doing that than maybe you think you should be. Standing around getting told what to do all the time. Is not. Fulfilling satisfying, or really very enriching. You got to bring something to the party. So figure out what your thing is and bring it because we need it. And then protect your optimism that you can make a difference in the world. As I'm recording this, it's Easter week and I'm a Christian, I'm very happy. Today is Thursday of Easter week. Which is Maundy Thursday. For those of you who aren't familiar with Christian tradition, Maundy is m-a-u-n-d-y. Traditionally, it's where we celebrate Jesus serving his disciples at the Last Supper and Loving on them in that way. Tomorrow, of course, will be Good Friday, which you may be even more familiar with. If not, Good Friday is traditionally the day that Jesus was crucified. We say good to make the point. A lot of people are particularly happy at Christmas. I like Christmas too, but Easter is nore theologically sound. So I hope you're happy this week too while we talk about happiness at work. Happiness and optimism go hand in hand. If you're optimistic about an outcome, then generally speaking that's going to correlate with some degree of happiness about where you are in the world. It's a confusing topic to some degree. I don't think it's necessary that we get into the controversy, but let's talk about what we all agree on. I think a lot of people don't like work. I think a lot of people have made up their minds that they're not gonna like work. In the minority of cases we don't like work because we work in some nasty environment, really dangerous, those kinds of things. Of interest, of course, is the fact that many of the people who do that sort of thing are really, really passionate about what they do and their unhappiness about it seems at least to be limited if not totally subsumed. People in the military, people in the medical profession, a lot of these areas. That said, if you're listening to this podcast you probably work in a nice comfy office - comfortable chair, air conditioning, you’ve got the tools that you need. You’re pretty comfortable and well-treated. Maybe there's bits and pieces around the edges that you'd prefer were different, fine. I just think we've got to recognize that as part of this happiness equation. Optimism is more productive - last podcast Happiness and optimism go hand in hand Charley Gilkey: happy = 31% greater productivity Attitude is important, particularly in service businesses – “my pleasure” Challenges to happiness at work Last podcast… the meme that realism is a sophisticated approach Desire and "wanting it." Flow state is NOT hard, grunting work I do think that the desire piece is overstated in the culture. Avoid this part of the hustle culture I don't think it has to be hard to be morally good work. Negativity and pessimism around work have two primary components Ways to be happier at work Human beings have a great capacity to enjoy the things that we do. A definition of discipline(s) Strong relationships require disciplines. We call this discipline and learn as small humans to dislike it. I’m disciplined in some areas and not in others. You're likely the same Work-life balance vs. chore-craft balance - from Cal Newport and Scott Young. Craft – doing “the thing” Chore – peripheral to “the thing” Craft transcends the work life conflict Happiness at work is certainly possible. Believing that is half the battle. How we do our work with happiness. Engage the disciplines Understand the indirect relationships Happiness is a big part of Doing Busy Right. Part of it is stress reduction. Part of it is greater throughput. Part of it is greater confidence. In addition, consider some of these other ways to be happy at work.
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Pessimism Cloaked as Realism Considered Harmful - DBR 075
04/12/2025
Pessimism Cloaked as Realism Considered Harmful - DBR 075
This one's about optimism and pessimism, and what that has to do with productivity. I and the whole thing is a productivity concern for me. We talk about confidence around these parts. That’s because I think confidence ties to productivity. The tie there is imposter syndrome. We struggle to understand what confidence is. But confidence is fundamental to what we're trying to do, particularly as knowledge workers. By the same token, optimism is fundamental to productivity. A lot of this has to do with long term career growth rather than just simple productivity. We'll leave that career growth potential aside, and just talk about productivity now. The problem The problem is that many people are pessimists If you are not confident in your ability to do something, then your ability to do that thing is going to be quite limited The invisible work that we do leads to negative mental gymnastics like writer's block and imposter syndrome. Our feelings about a thing do have a lot to do with our ability to do and thus I think we should cultivate optimism I’ll give you some tools and motivation to embrace optimism, if you’re an optimist and work to become an optimist, if you’re not Realistic positivity - optimism vs “Toxic positivity” Definition of discipline Mental landscape and productivity The science Learned helplessness Growth mindset is pretty close to a good definition of optimism Grit Counter arguments I'm not a pessimist about me. I'm a pessimist about the world. Optimism as naivete, realism is rational Limiting disappointment by managing expectations Engineering mindset Definition of work Problem solving Tenacity Recap I hope I've convinced you that optimism is the most productive, practical mindset. You should now have some tools to help you cultivate optimism in your life and work. Remember, you've solved many problems and (to date) have survived the worst news you've received. You can do it.
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How We Got Here and Where We're Going - History of Knowledge Work Productivity - DBR 074
04/05/2025
How We Got Here and Where We're Going - History of Knowledge Work Productivity - DBR 074
I want to talk about the history of knowledge work productivity. And it's going to involve a lot of different names. It's going to involve the triumvirate, well, the quadrumvirate (that’s the real word), the Mount Rushmore. Only through understanding what they were thinking about can we extend that thinking. Then we can work on knowledge work productivity. We'll go all the way back to the start of the 20th century. We have Frederick Taylor studying “Scientific Management”, which is a study of work, not ‘management’ per se. Then we've got Peter Drucker, and he's important because he was doing all the thinking around knowledge work and how that came about. Stephen Covey taught us that we have to get our mindset right in order to be effective people. David Allen taught us how to use tools and stop using our brains for task and attention management. I might bring in Cal Newport and Thomas Davenport and these different kinds of names, just because of the curiosity factor there. But anyway, Drucker, Covey, Taylor, David Allen, This episode is about: What problem do businesspeople and managers (in particular) have to deal with Why is it an important problem What ways have we tried to deal with this previously What tools are at our disposal to try to solve it now Who is currently presenting solutions and what are they The issue is that our economy, particularly our economic productivity, is changing. We have yet to fully understand how to react to that change. Some history to give us perspective and hints on what to do. 20th century productivity growth Organizational structures - sociology (business structures were not theorized/engineered) Original organizational structures (government/church/military) were monarchy/hierarchy The notion of trade, business, and getting wealthy (via the “business” way) Apprentice -> employee -> growing organization -> modern business problems (management) Used to be everybody worked for the king, who distributed wealth and work It needed to scale and be ‘optimized’, but was never engineered We don't know exactly how it works You got three blacksmiths. All of a sudden it's a managerial problem Most things cultural or sociological there isn't hard science - like business Atom bomb derived from theory and we ‘engineered’ a way to construct one. Same thing with NASA and the space program. Business really was not that way Railroad/telegraph as a management problem (distributed locations). If you need to tell somebody the train's coming, there's no faster way for that information to travel than the train itself. The history of information really correlates to the history of business and culture We can’t communicate quickly enough between different locations for ‘real-time’ management These business/communication structures grew organically, business is perhaps more Darwinian than Darwin Well, all of this was command and control. So what about leadership/governance/control of the organization Now, we have to explain leadership, and this notion of who gets to tell who what to do The ‘great man’ theory Mid 20th century, there was a cult of personality Huge corporations, like General Motors, and they're selling stock, and nobody really understands how that works Government: we've got to understand how this business thing works and explain it to people and regulate it How we began to understand and explain Frederick Taylor "scientific management" and notions of the efficiency of individual workers Peter Drucker In "The Concept of the Corporation" is trying to explain the notion of governance structures, some way to get people to work together We've got big organizations and factories. Got to produce a lot, and so we need to break this down, because nobody, no one person, can produce it all Drucker developed technique for management and the ideas of knowledge work Stephen Covey comes along. He's exploring this idea of technique for ‘effectiveness’. Covey talks effective people in terms of psychological, psychosocial properties of behavior and modes of thought. This is different from previous thought. Now, Knowledge Work improvement (and management) Drucker’s hypothesis: improve the productivity of knowledge work. How do we manage versus how do we strategize? Now, we’ve moved to KW (and management) So, how do we manage ourselves and others The goal of such management is to improve the productivity of knowledge work. David Allen started to use Taylorist thinking in improving knowledge work. My offering on how to manage Knowledge Work is the Attention Compass - a successor to Allen's methodology. Focus: What are the components of knowledge work and how can we improve them? What is the system that needs to be put in place? Our community is working on this and needs your insights and voice. Get in touch. or find me on LinkedIn.
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Fable: Productivity Rain Dances - Watch Out - DBR 073
03/29/2025
Fable: Productivity Rain Dances - Watch Out - DBR 073
I started out talking about the lies of productivity, but I’m going to change to fables because it's just things we collectively believe without much evidence. Plus, I don't think anybody's intentionally trying to mislead us. We just move without much actual data. A couple of those fables collided with a post by Cal Newport with the evocative title of “productivity rain dances”, which is a pretty humorous mental picture. Apparently, rain dances are those habits of work that we believe make us productive but actually don’t. We don’t develop evidence, so we are engaging in superstition. So, fables and rain dances probably have some overlap. Let’s explore Cal’s post and investigate some of our own practices to make sure we’re not wasting our time and energy doing things that don’t improve our productivity. What is the discussion? Cal’s post about Chris Williamson’s podcast It’s not that nothing is useful in productivity, it’s just that the field is not scientifically organized. Experiment means think, gather data, analyze situations. It does not mean “I feel like…”. Technique is a real thing and it exists – there is a better way to manage your tasks and attention. Is a new tool really that helpful? Or is AI another ‘rain dance’ Cal’s post: Examples of rain dances (or Fables) Williamson gave a few examples: Why do I sit at my desk when I'm not working? Why do I thrash around about emails? Why do I take phone calls that have no goal? My fables are more habits of thought around specific tasks “I'd better do it before I forget about it” Usually means “… forget about it again” Sometimes we do it just because its late I feel guilty because I'm not any better at my stuff In order to resolve that guilt, we pop up and go do it now Overlap with “not finished” syndrome Avoiding the knee jerk reaction Our systems don't dictate our priority; they reflect our priority. If we often say, "I better do it before I forget about it", then your system is broken. Instead, say to yourself, I'd better capture it before I forget about it. We create tasks that implicitly have the Title of "Make progress on X" “Thrashing is a rain dance.” Rapid task switching, multitasking is a rain dance When we measure time, we switch from measuring outputs to measuring inputs Faster, in and of itself, is not more efficient. Efficiency is a property of a system and only makes sense when the goal is clear. Don't maximize inputs to try to maximize outputs. Only time saved at the bottleneck step of your process improves your productivity. every process has a bottleneck, and the bottleneck governs the overall throughput of the system, Some commentary on the comments Inbox zero: rain dance, or not? Inbox Zero is not efficient behavior in and of itself “Tweaking” your system is a rain dance We spend a lot of time and a lot of stress buying tools to speed up parts of the process that are not the bottleneck, and then we don't get better productivity because of it. You don't need a system to help you handle email faster. You need a system to reduce the amount of email you have to deal with. It's an input. Increasing the inputs for the same number of outputs is the opposite of productivity - the opposite of efficiency, Where have we gotten today? Define your outputs; identify them very cleanly, and then focus on those and work backwards Identifying a bottleneck is not a trivial challenge Faster is not more productive. Faster is simply faster. Many of these things are signs that your system is broken or incomplete We do our rain dance and it doesn't rain so the process is broken Understanding which part of a process is broken is not trivial or simple. Don't deal with a system in a piecemeal fashion (See the previous episode about optimizing sub processes is not a reliable way to optimize the overall process.)
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The Modern Productivity Paradox, What Should Knowledge Workers Do? - DBR 072
03/22/2025
The Modern Productivity Paradox, What Should Knowledge Workers Do? - DBR 072
Most everybody involved in knowledge work is involved with technology. It's what we do. We deal in information, so we deal with information technology. We believe that it makes us more productive – “better” at our jobs. But what is the evidence that information technology is helping us be more productive? After all, that is its purpose in the modern workplace. I’d suggest that many people believe that the tech companies are dealing with that on our behalf. And the software companies would agree. They want to tell you that, yes, they're improving your productivity. But there's a ton of contrary evidence to that. Also, both solopreneurs and companies are just hurling themselves into AI. The argument is, as the argument has always been with IT, that AI will make us more efficient, more productive. There are good reasons to doubt that. We’ll get into them. What is the productivity paradox? The mismatch between the belief that IT spend on improved productivity and flat economic productivity The Y2K Bug and the aftermath of the Dot Com Bust The productivity paradox is making a return You need to know as you plan your own IT spending, for yourself or your team look for two problems: 1) you’re wasting money, and 2) you may not have another plan for improving productivity What is the ‘modern’ productivity paradox? process “accretion” We struggle to learn from each other Vendors are a little unreliable on this point, for obvious reasons an accumulation of point solutions doesn't make a system Challenges of managing technology 2003 Nicholas Carr , "IT Doesn't Matter" Carr’s point: technology wants to be a commodity Carr’s conclusion: you can’t gain a strategic advantage with a commodity resource Systems theory efficiency is in automating processes, not in automating tasks. the difference between automating tasks and automating processes optimize a sub process then you sub optimize the whole process Systems engineering example – The Goal, Eli Goldratt Modern productivity paradox What to do? Be aware that there is an ongoing argument about how to do this. It’s not trivial. Think about optimizing and automating Processes rather than Tasks Measure at the process level and experiment Recap I guess the primary takeaway is a reminder to not let the IT hype be a distraction from what you're trying to do. Some tools will help you and others won't. Just understand that convenience and 'time-savings' are actually pretty low on the list of useful targets for IT interventions. Stay focused on what you produce that creates the value you deliver to the world. Things that help you produce more are productive, everything else is not really.
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"Attention Crisis"? What is the Argument and the Evidence - DBR 071
03/15/2025
"Attention Crisis"? What is the Argument and the Evidence - DBR 071
There's an article in The New Yorker "What If The Attention Crisis Is All A Distraction" by Daniel Immerwahr. I think the attention problem (if there is one) is important for us to understand and resolve and, frankly, to have a debate about. I thought I'd report out on this article, and the state of play. Where are we? What's the evidence? How do we form an opinion on what's going on with society on this front? My foundation for engaging in the debate: I think attention is the fundamental productive commodity in our current economy. I think as knowledge workers, our attention is what we use to make our economic productive way through life. It's how we create value and and the means by which we we earn our food. Drucker's hypothesis: American economic growth that we experienced in the 20th century was based on huge increases in in labor productivity. Therefore if we're going to maintain our economic growth level, then we've got to do the same thing with knowledge work. We have to increase the productivity of knowledge workers So our ability to deploy and manage our attention is important, both for us as individuals and also for the economic society at large. Do we have a problem with increasingly short attention spans? Our question Work, particularly knowledge work, requires that we pay attention to it for periods of time. I'm mostly interested in the impact of attention on on work and economic productivity. I think that things that that interfere with our ability to focus for extended periods of time, hurts us. Humans have always been distractible and have needed to be taught to have an attention span of any duration What does attention span mean? (Based on: The Distracted Mind, 2016, Gazzaley & Rosen) Attention is fundamentally selective - it has an object. The persistence of this selectivity is what we mean by attention span Therefore, logically it includes the ability to to block out other things So-called “compelled attention" interferes with our ability to block out Attention Crisis? Really? There have been attention crises prior to the modern version. Plato didn't like the technology of writing "Amusing Ourselves To Death", Neil Postman, 1985. The threat of TV "The Shallows", Nicholas Carr, 2010. The threat of the internet "The Sirens Call", Chris Hayes, 2024. The threat of active technology Hayes Attention is a commodity – it gets captured and sold to people who want us to buy something We have a thing called “compelled attention” (involuntary attention) “Attention engineering” is not a new thing, but its intensity is increasing as the value of attention increases We’re “Penned into a way of paying attention that we don’t like” Immerwahr The data are equivocal and “distracted from one thing is to attend to another” Increasing length of movies, television, and video games as evidence that our attention spans are not shrinking The hand wringing comes from elite “attentionistas” who are in the old-school attention business My thoughts Sometimes we must pay attention to that which is not attention grabbing, like work Advertising is monetized attention and is growing When it comes to utilizing our brains and our attention in functional ways, I think a decrease in the ability to sustain attention is bad. My concern is whether or not we control our own attention If we're gonna think well, then we have to think in long sequences. That's challenging to us So attention span is important. The good news is that we can work on maintaining our attention and focus in the face of "Compelled Attention" and any shortening attention span. I offer coaching, Attention Compass implementation training, and this podcast as ways for you to combat the theft of your attention and the negative consequences for knowledge workers.
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