The Productivity Show

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**The Productivity Show**

Asian Efficiency is the leading website on time management and productivity. Learn how to be efficient, get things done (GTD), and stay motivated.

Latest Episodes:

**Rethinking Email, Focus & Doing Less w/ Ari Meisel (TPS621)** Jul 13, 2026
Show notes

How many good decisions do you actually have in you each day? Ari Meisel says the answer is about two dozen — which means your inbox, with its thousands of tiny choices, is quietly bankrupting you before lunch. In this encore conversation, the founder of Less Doing joins us to reframe email as a decision-making problem rather than a communication one, and to explain why he’s replaced almost all of his messaging with asynchronous voice. He shares how he runs a coaching business, closes sales, and stays close with far-flung friends without a single call on his calendar — and how those constraints made him more effective, not less.

If you’re looking for genuinely unconventional ways to do less and get more done, this one’s worth your time.

Get 20% off your first order: dripdrop.com and use promo code tps.

Make the switch! MINTMOBILE.com/PRODUCTIVITY.

Get 60% off personal and family plans at Keepersecurity.com/TPS.

Listen to this episode (MP3)

Cheat Sheet

Top 3 Productivity Resources [1:43]

The diagnosis that cut an 18-hour workday down to one [4:05]

Forget “eat the frog” — the prioritization rule most people miss [6:32]

Why your inbox isn’t an email problem at all [11:11]

How he closed a $1,500 sale in 8 minutes of voice notes [19:40]

Drowning in a new inbox? The four-times-speed fix [26:10]

The hospital night that turned him into a data geek [34:59]

The one non-negotiable he wishes he’d started sooner [40:35]

Where to find Ari [44:39]

Links

DripDrop — promo code TPS for 20% off your first order

Mint Mobile

Keeper — 60% off personal and family plans

25X Productivity Coaching

Voxer

Smart Nora

Emergency by Neil Strauss

Less Doing

Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

Double Double by Cameron Herold

Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold

Oura Ring

Levels

Dexcom

Viome

If you enjoyed this episode, **follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts** or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show. You can also leave a review!

Focus Isn’t the Problem You Think It Is Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

Why did reading twenty books a year suddenly become impossible? Thanh used to fly through books and podcasts without a second thought — until his ability to concentrate quietly started slipping away, and no amount of blocking notifications or silencing his phone fixed it. The distraction wasn’t coming from his devices. It was coming from inside his own head.

In this encore episode, Thanh breaks down what actually happened, the strange mix of experiments he ran to fix it, and the concept of attention management that came out the other side — a shift in thinking that helped him concentrate for 90 minutes or more at a stretch. If you’ve noticed your own focus fading and assumed it was just a willpower problem, this episode makes the case that it isn’t.

Get 60% off personal and family plans at Keepersecurity.com/TPS.

Listen to this episode (MP3)

Links

If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show. You can also leave a review!

**The Subtraction Strategy: Why Removing Friction Beats Adding Goals Every Time (TPS620)** Jul 06, 2026
Show notes

Most productivity advice tells you to add: more goals, more apps, more habits, more trackers, more systems. But what if the fastest path to better results isn’t adding anything at all—it’s subtraction? In this episode, Thanh and Brooks explore why removing friction beats adding motivation, and how a subtraction audit can transform your productivity faster than any new resolution.

Visit www.asianefficiency.com for more productivity tips and tactics.

Shopify: Own your customer relationships. Own your revenue. Start with a free trial at shopify.com/tps.

Get 60% off personal and family plans at Keepersecurity.com/TPS.

Use promo code tps at evenrealities.com to get 10% off Even Ring 1 and/or Even Clip when you add them to your Even G2 order.

Listen to this episode (MP3)

Cheat Sheet

Top 3 Productivity Resources [1:37]

The weekly review question that uncovers hidden hours you didn’t know you had [7:24]

The one-inbox rule that made it easier to capture — and actually find — ideas later [11:24]

The new device ritual both hosts use to make every app earn its place back [21:44]

The 15-minutes-a-day method that makes decluttering actually stick [29:40]

Why “maybe” is just another way of saying no [35:45]

The AI side effect that quietly cancelled Thanh’s app subscriptions [38:50]

Links

Shopify

Keeper Security

Even Realities

25X Productivity Coaching

Obsidian Web Clipper

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds

Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

OmniFocus

Drafts

Evernote

Things

DEVONthink

Mike Vardy

OpenAI Codex

NAPO

Hell Yeah or No — Derek Sivers (article)

Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers

David Sparks / MacSparky

If you enjoyed this episode, **follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts** or your favorite podcast player. It’s easy, you’ll get new episodes automatically, and it also helps the show. You can also leave a review!

One Wish vs. a Thousand: A Lesson on Health and Happiness Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

When was the last time you actually counted how many wishes you have? In this episode, Thanh unpacks a line that’s stuck with him for years: when we’re sick, we only want one thing back, but when we’re healthy, we have a thousand wishes. That idea comes from one of the most-gifted books in his library, built on interviews with people near the end of their lives about the lessons they wanted to pass on — and it reshaped how Thanh thinks about productivity itself.

Thanh breaks down why relationships, purpose, and health are the real foundation of happiness, and why optimizing for happiness, not just output, is what actually makes us more productive. He also shares the simple gratitude practice he uses every morning to keep this front of mind. It’s a quick, honest reminder that no task on your list is worth sacrificing the people and moments that matter most.

Visit www.asianefficiency.com for more productivity tips and tactics.

For 50% less your first year, go to HomeServe.com/TPS. Void in Florida.

Listen to this episode (MP3)