How I Work

Latest Episodes:

Four surprising science-backed ways to access your creative genius. Nov 11, 2018

Show notes

If you need to get your creative juices flowing this week, I cover four incredibly simple-to-apply tips to instantly boost your creativity on today's show. All backed by science.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Five ways to make time for what matters Nov 07, 2018

Show notes

I thought I’d try something different this week and share some cool stuff I learnt from a book I just read this weekend. It’s called "Make Time” (https://maketimebook.com/) by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. These are the guys that wrote Spring and used to work at Google Ventures.

The book was awesome and has inspired me to try a bunch of experiments to improve my own working days. I outline five of those experiments in this episode.

One of those experiments involves Freedom - so here is the link if you are curious: https://freedom.to

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How Adam Grant, Mia Freedman, Rachel Botsman, and others decide what to say no to. Oct 31, 2018

Show notes

How do you decide what to say "yes" to and what to say “no" to? And how do you say “no" in a way that doesn’t offend?

Guests on the How I Work podcast struggle with like the rest of us. They literally get hundreds of requests on their time and can’t possibly say yes to everyone. So they develop methods to make the decision-making process easier, and have specific strategies for saying no nicely.

This episode covers the following:

Adam Grant’s strategy for prioritising requests
The two types of requests Adam Grant loves receiving
How Mia Freedman learnt to become great at saying no
Mia Freedman’s rules for saying no
Why Mia Freedman tries to say no quickly
Rachel Botsman and the “clean” no
How Sarah Green Carmichael frames her “no’s” when rejecting submissions to HBR
How Nancy Duarte uses her assistant to say no.
And much, much more!

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why splitting your to-do list into four separate lists will turbo charge productivity Oct 28, 2018

Show notes

I love to-do lists. But the problem with most to-do lists is that they don’t discriminate between the type of thinking different tasks require and the fact that our brain is suited to different types of thinking depending on the time of day. This episode will teach you how to re-think your to-do list.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST OF: WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg On How Small Changes To Behaviour Can Create Big Differences Oct 24, 2018

Show notes

Today's episode is a blast from the past (and by that, we mean one from a few months ago because Amantha is on holidays right now!).

This episode features Matt Mullenweg. Matt is kind of like internet royalty because he is a founding developer of WordPress, which is the Open Source software used by over 31% of the web. He also founded Automattic which now employs around 700 people. Matt has been named one of PC World's Top 50 People on the Web and Business Week's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

In this conversation, we cover a whole bunch of topics such as:

Matt's innovative approach to consuming books
How Matt stays focused on important tasks
Matt's approach to meetings
Techniques to create healthier habits
What's on Matt's smart phone home screen
Matt's favourite productivity apps
Why Matt still uses a paper notebook
The podcasts Matt is listening to and books he is reading

And a whole lot more.

You can find out more about Matt via his blog https://ma.tt/ or via https://automattic.com/

For comprehensive show notes on this episode, go to: www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at howiwork.co

Want to get in touch? Reach out at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The best time of day to check your email Oct 21, 2018

Show notes

Email gets a bad rap. People complain that email is the biggest drain on their productivity. But it’s only bad because of the mindless way most people approach their inbox. Instead of checking email willy-nilly throughout the day, there is actually an optimal time of the day to be dipping into your inbox.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST OF: Amanda Palmer On How She Writes Songs, Created Her World-Famous TED Talk, And More. Oct 17, 2018

Show notes

Today's episode is a blast from the past (and by that, we mean one from a few months ago because Amantha is on holidays right now!).

Amanda Palmer is a singer-songwriter, rule-breaker, disruptor, and all round rockstar.

You might know Amanda from being one half of the Dresden Dolls. Or you might know her, as I did, through her TED talk "The art of asking" which has been viewed by over 10 million people. Amanda is a total innovator in the world of music, and raised $1.2 million on a kickstarter campaign several years ago to be able to produce her own solo album, independent from a record label.

One of the things I loved most about this chat with Amanda is hearing her very intensive step by step process for creating and delivering her amazing TED talk.

In this conversation, we cover topics such as:

How Amanda writes songs
Why she insists on staying in a separate hotel room to her husband when on tour
The enormous amount of work that went into her TED talk
The signals she uses in her life to work out whether she is on or off balance
The podcasts Amanda is listening to and books she is reading

And a whole lot more.

You can find Amanda on all the usual social channels at @amandapalmer, via her website amandapalmer.net, and find out more about her my Patreon community right here: www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

For comprehensive show notes on this episode, go to: www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

Want to get in touch? Reach out at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why eating the same thing for breakfast everyday will help you make better decisions. Oct 14, 2018

Show notes

How much time did you spend this morning making decisions about what to eat, what to wear and how to get to work? While these may seem like small and inconsequential decisions, it turns out they could be doing damage to the rest of your day.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Natasha Pincus on how she created Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know video clip Oct 10, 2018

Show notes

My guest today is Natasha Pincus. Natasha is a Writer and Director who is probably most well known for her very distinctive music videos that she has created for artists including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, and Powderfinger. Where you are probably most familiar with her work though is through her video for Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”, which has been viewed over 1 billion times on YouTube and was awarded the first of Natasha’s back-to-back ARIAs for Best Music Video, and nominated for the MTV award for Best Music Video.

We delve into how the Gotye video clip came to be, including:

How Natasha came up with the idea for the clip
Why the final video idea was actually her Plan B
How you “train” for a 26 hour shoot
The record label’s initial reaction to the clip

And a whole lot more.

And we also explore the many quirks about the way Natasha works, including:

How Natasha uses the setting of daily goals to maintain motivation
How she comes up with her best ideas
The part of projects that she finds the most terrifying
Her strategy for gaining momentum at the very beginning of projects
When and where she comes up with her best ideas
The times of day she reserves for creative work versus meetings
How Natasha manages to keep the first three hours of her day distraction free.
The critical role that Voice Memos play in her work
How she uses wardrobe changes to partition her day
How she uses repetitive tasks to overcome writer’s block
How she builds exercise into her work

You can find Natasha on Twitter @natashapincus, via her website Stark Raving Productions (http://starkravingproductions.com.au/), and on her Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/starkravingproductions).

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The four tasks you need to do to create the perfect end to your workday Oct 07, 2018

Show notes

Most of us don’t think very much about how we end our workday. We simply close our laptop, run to catch our train, go home and have some dinner, and often, re-open our laptop again while watching Netflix. By not having a proper “end” to our day, we are missing out on a big opportunity to boost our happiness and engagement in our work. This mini-episode describes four quick tasks that you can do to finish your workday on a high.

Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.