September 24, 2025 • 26 mins
**Record a question for Amantha’s next Ask Me Anything here: https://www.speakpipe.com/howiwork **
What do you do when procrastination takes over? How can AI actually change your workflows? And what are the best systems to manage tasks?
In this AMA episode, I answer listener questions on procrastination, the Right to Disconnect laws, process bottlenecks, and how I use AI tools in my everyday work. These are the challenges so many of us wrestle with - and I share my practical strategies, missteps, and experiments.
In this episode, I share:
- How I break down overwhelming tasks (including writing my fifth book) and strategies I use to beat procrastination.
- Why the Right to Disconnect laws may not fit modern, flexible workplaces - and what managers need to rethink.
- Where to start when fixing a bottleneck in your processes, and how AI can help.
- My system for keeping notes, tasks, and reminders organised.
- The GPTs, prompt libraries, and tools I rely on daily - from proposal writing to creating Instagram reels.
Amantha recommends:
- Notion: My digital command centre for projects, tasks, and notes
- Granola: My go-to meeting notes app that combines live transcripts with my human notes to capture every detail
- Tella: A simple tool I use for recording and sharing video proposals to add a personal touch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've ever found yourself staring down a big task,
feeling that mix of dread, self doubt, and the urge
to do li truly anything else, you are not alone.
In today's Ask Me Anything episode, where I answer your
listener questions, I am diving into the stuff that we
all wrestle with, procrastination when the stakes are high. How
(00:25):
Australia's Right to Disconnect laws might or might not reshape
our working lives, and the practical ways I use AI,
and also some simple systems to stop my days spiraling
into utter chaos. By the end of this episode, you
will walk away with concrete strategies for getting unstuck on
(00:46):
complex projects, a fresh perspective on flexible work culture, and
some real workflows you can steal right from my playbook.
And if you have a question that you would like
to ask me, drop me a note on I'm very
easy to find. Just search for Amatha Imba or share
a voice note with me via the link in the
(01:06):
show notes. Because I'm recording these Ask Me Anything episodes
about once a quarter, so let's get on with today's show.
Welcome to How I Work, a show about habits, rituals,
and strategies for optimizing your date. I'm your host, doctor
(01:27):
Amantha Imba. The first question that we have is from Louise,
and she asks what are your top three remedies for procrastination?
Specifically when the procrastination is a result of anxiety about
a complex task that you do not know how long
it will take, may not know where to start, and
perhaps doubt your expertise to complete the task. I know,
(01:50):
once I have completed a big task, I am ecstatic,
but this is short lived and forgotten the next time
I face the same scenario.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh, I love this question, Louise is Oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I think about this a lot, and I feel like
there are a lot of listeners that will be able
to relate. So let me break this down in terms
of something that I have been struggling with at.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Work for the last few months.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So as if you are a regular listener of how
I work, you will know that I am in the
middle of writing my fifth book, and you would think.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
By book five that I would have the process.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Down pat I would be feeling confident I would know
exactly how to get this done. And I have found
this the hardest book that I have ever written, so
let me tell you my process.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Firstly, what I.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Have done this has become a monthly ritual is that
I will break down where I am in the process
and where I need to be at the end of
the month. So when you are writing a book and
you have signed up contract with a major publisher so
my books are published through Penguin Random House, there is
(03:06):
a deadline. And I hear that very few writers meet deadlines,
but I always meet my deadline because it kind of
has a domino effect if you don't. So the stakes
are really high. So I think about month to month,
what do I need to achieve and then what I do.
I open up a notes page and I literally break
it down into tasks. So, for example, in this past month,
(03:30):
I knew that I needed to create an energy type assessment.
I knew that I had to finalize the gameplay mechanics,
which won't mean anything right now, but it will if
you hopefully purchase the book next year.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Midnext year, it's out.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I knew that I had to polish and restructure part
one of the book, and so on and so forth.
I could go on and I could list the tasks
then to make it less overwhelming, what I did is
I estimated how many hours each task would take, and
by doing that it made me sort of it made
(04:06):
my logical brain take over from my emotional brain in
terms of going, oh, okay, I can actually fit this
into the month ahead, keeping in mind I've still got
all the work that I do as head of Inventium
and what that involves, which is in itself a full
time role, and yeah, I'll be able to fit the
(04:26):
book writing tasks around this.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Then what I.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Will do is I, after I've listed it all out,
I will actually timebox it in my diary. Now, I
could go and timebox the whole month, but I actually
tend to timebox about a week in advance. So I'll
sit down at the beginning of the week or the
end of the week prior, and I will block out
meetings with myself to achieve the tasks that I have
(04:51):
listed out.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And then the final thing.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Which is I don't know if this is to do
with procrastination, but it is part of my process. I
will seek feedback earlier rather than later. I remember when
I interviewed Dan Heath, who was one of my favorite
business book writers, on the show several years ago. He
talked about getting feedback at the sixty percent mark. So
(05:15):
you don't want to get feedback on your work too
late in the process, because then you're just going to
get defensive, and it's going to be annoying. Because if
you're ninety percent there and someone says this all's ups
or this needs a major rewrite, you're just going to
feel pretty ordinary and probably dismiss the feedback.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
But if you get feedback at about that sixty.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Percent mark, you've got enough done that there's something to
give feedback on and you'll actually feel less defensive. So
I have been getting feedback relatively early on, or probably
at about that fifty to sixty percent mark with what
I've called my Energy Army, which was a group of
(05:52):
about thirteen hundred people that were doing a bunch of
energy experiments as I was writing and creating the book,
and even in the last couple of weeks sending out
the energy Types assessment that I've been working on and
getting feedback on that. So that's also been part of
my process, just to force myself to ship something and
get the feedback. Yeah, and look, I find nothing beats
(06:15):
procrastination like a deadline.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So that is what i'd have to say, I hope
that's helpful, Luise. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The next question is from Bev and she has said,
I'm really curious how you think about the new right
to disconnect laws will fit into our working culture. Do
you predict it will lead to more paid hours or
just less worked hours? Okay, so for context, if you
have no idea what Bev is talking about, but you
probably do because they're pretty well publicized. The Right to
(06:43):
Disconnect laws basically give employees the right to refuse to monitor, read,
or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working
hours unless that refusal is unreasonable. So that came into
effect in August twenty twenty four for all businesses except
(07:04):
for small businesses, and then as of August twenty twenty five,
now small businesses defined as a business employing less than
fifteen people.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Are also also under the Right to Connect laws.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So so I guess to start with to frame up
my answer, who I help and who I think about?
Most knowledge workers so people that are paid for the
value of their thinking. They're typically people that work at
a desk, and they typically don't have rostered hours like
you would find in other industries like healthcare or hospitality.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So that's just my first frame for this answer.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
What I think is that the right to disconnect laws
are kind of interesting because they assume that employees are
meant to be working nine to five Monday to Friday.
That is the traditional hours and days for knowledge workers.
And I actually think that workplaces that are you know,
(08:07):
a bit more modern, bit more contemporary, are a little
bit more flexible with hours. So at Inventium, for example,
for I think for over a decade, we've encouraged people
to work to their chronotype, so you know, if they're
a morning type or a night type, unless there's client
work to deliver, where we're you know, delivering a workshop
or a keynote or whatever that might be at a
(08:27):
client for a client at a predetermined time. I love
it when my team work really flexibly, and I certainly
do you know there are some days where I would
start work at seven am, but I would finish in
the middle of the afternoon. Or today, for example, I
went to the gym pretty early at about six thirty.
(08:48):
I then was at my computer starting work at eight am,
and my plan is to be off for a couple
of hours between three to five pm. For catching up
with a friend, and then I'll probably do an hour
or so more work when I'm back at my computer.
So you know, I kind of think that flexibility and
(09:13):
flexible hours doesn't really match with the right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
To disconnect laws.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And I also think that for businesses that are a
bit more traditional, and specifically managers that are a bit
more traditional, it's really hard for legislation to change old
school views. So sure you can, you can still message
people outside of hours, but I think we all know
if we're working for a manager that actually unconsciously or
(09:42):
consciously responds really positively when we do respond at seven
or eight at night, and that manager thinks, wow, they're
really dedicated, they're definitely going to be up for a
promotion because they've got amazing work ethic and so while
legally you don't have to respond, I think with some managers,
to be honest, that can be a career limiting move
(10:02):
and that really sucks. And you know, if you are
a manager that can relate to that, I would challenge
you to change your views, because it doesn't mean someone dedicated,
It just means they happen to have notifications switched on
and maybe feel pressure to respond.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But if you work for.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
A manager like that, I think that's really hard. And
you know, maybe hopefully in your next job you can
find someone who is a little bit more contemporary in
their thinking. So I hopev that gives you some food
for thought. Or Right now we have Jeff and Jeff
the legend that he is, has recorded a message for
(10:45):
the podcast. I'm going to play that for you now,
and by the way, I will put a link in
the show notes because I'm doing these ask Me Anything
episodes about once a quarter now and I love it
when I hear your voice listeners, So please be like
Jeff and send through little voice memos to me.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I love them. So let's hear from Jeff a method.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
We have a problem in our office and it seems
to be a bottleneck. I'm a financial planner and we
seem to have a delay in processing documents and not
being able to produce a statement of advice in under
six weeks. It could be a staffing problem, but it's
(11:28):
more likely an operational problem. Where do we start in
trying to work out how to best solve the answer
to this?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Okay, Jeff, Oh, I love your question. Here, what a
great thing to be thinking about. So a few thoughts
from me. Firstly, I think when you're trying to re
engineer a process, the first thing is to visually map
out the process. And even when you visually map out
a process, just the act of doing that can often
just reveal some some massive inefficiencies that you just wouldn't
(12:00):
have seen that I'd be asking yourself, where does most
of the time currently get spent? Is it in gathering data?
Is it in compliance? Is it in writing? Is it
in the approval process or decision making process? So really
breakdown where does most of the time currently get spent?
Because it seems like quite a lengthy period of time
(12:23):
to do something that I think could be done in
a lot shorter. Then I would be asking where are
the biggest points of friction? And I would actually be
doing this collaboratively with your team, with all the people
that are involved in this process right now, because presumably
you don't have insight into all of it. So get
everyone in a room and you know, be asking these questions,
(12:45):
So where are the biggest points of friction, Like, you know,
are there you know, delays from manual data entry, is
their duplicated effort anywhere in the process. Is there a
lot of rework going on thinking about the decision making
O their bottlenecks in approval process, for approval processes for
certain parts of this document. How about document formatting? Are
(13:09):
there parts of that couse that could be automated or templated?
So they're the things that I would be asking as
a group and getting the team's perspective on that. And
then of course you know, again you will know how
you know pro gen AI I am, so I would
be looking for. You know, certainly I don't know where
(13:30):
your team's at in terms of AI fluency. You know,
obviously reach out to us that Inventium if you want
to up the skill set there, because man, you know,
jen I is brilliant for making processes quicker. But you know,
there's some relatively simple things that you might be able
to do, like, for example, producing a prompt library where
(13:54):
you you know, refine and document certain prompts that can
live a certain components that right now are being done manually.
That's you know, that's that's a pretty well, I won't
say straightforward because there's you know, certainly a science to
writing good prompts, but I guess you know it requires
a lower level of AI expertise, and then through to
(14:17):
if he's kind of up the AI fluency game with
your team again, no idea where it's at right now,
through to creating agents and automations using software like ZAPR
or nh N or you know, there are a few
other ones out there that I recommend to automate certain
parts of the process.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
So there's some thoughts. I hope that that's helpful.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
For anyone that is, you know, maybe thinking about process
re engineering and they are there are a few steps
that you can go through. Okay, so far we've talked
about procrastination and flexible work. But stay with me because
in the second half I get very very practical. I'm
(15:01):
going to share some of my exact workflows and the
software that I use, and also how I use AI
every single day and.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What those workflows look like.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So if you've ever wondered how to actually make AI
work for you in a busy job, I think you
will find the second half very valuable. Okay, we have
another question from a listener who has been an absolute
legend and recorded a.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Message, Himantha.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So my question is really basic and it feels a
bit silly to ask, but it's something I struggle with
on a day to day. I work in HI and
I have a team of people who report into me.
One of the things I do struggle with, though, is
my own organization skills. So I find that, you know,
my day to day, my to do list is some
(15:57):
most of the time, it's in my head, and it
feels really unreliable. So I'll drop things down on a
piece of paper, but they're not being meetings and I'm
taking notes on a Google sheet or I'm taking notes
in a Google doc or whatever. I'm keen to sort
of understand from your perspective, what tools or strategies do
you use to keep your workflow organized and your notes together.
(16:19):
I would just love to hear from you a bit
more about the practical application of those sorts of tools,
and then maybe even how you use AI to in
your day to day workflow, and really the practical application
of how is that actually impacting on creating efficiencies in
your work?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Thank you, I love that question. That is an awesome line. Okay,
so you have to do your listers in your head,
everything's all over the place, and yeah, how I use
AI and my day to day workflate, all right, So
I will start by saying I've experimented with so many
different workflows, so let me tell you what my current
one is, because it works pretty well, but it's still
(17:01):
got some areas that I'm trying to find tune. So
in terms of where I keep my keep all my
notes and my tasks is in Notion. So I several
years ago I was using Notion as the main way
that my main digital notebook, if you like, but I
(17:23):
didn't double down on really understanding all the features in Notion,
and I think this is I mean, this is this
the same with any software, whether a little bit of
a learning curve. I didn't take that learning curve, and
so I ended up moving out of Notion and moved
into Apple Notes. And that's then what I've been using
for the last few years. But I recently spent some
(17:44):
time a few hours on doing a course that helped
me set up a really great system in Notion. Shout
out to Jeff Sue, who is an awesome productivity YouTuber
and did a really great course on how to get
the most out of Notion.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So I did that course.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was brilliant, and now I feel like notion is,
to use Jeff's words, my command system, my commands center rather,
so this is where everything lives, all my projects, both
work and personal, Everything is organized, everything has a place,
(18:26):
everything is filed somewhere that makes sense to me. And
it's also where I have all of the different tasks
that I need to get done, whether they're deep work
or shallow work tasks. Now where where the system is
slightly falling down for me is I will often think
of things that I have to do when I'm on.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
The go, and I will ask.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Siri and I'm hoping that Siri doesn't get activated now
while I'm saying it's name, no, it's okay, And I
will say, hey, set a reminder to do blah at
this particular time on this particular.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Date.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And that is how I offload tasks that are in
my head and get them on paper, because that's really important.
So you need some sort of a workflow for that.
But the challenge that I've got is how do I
get Siri creating a task in notion for me? Which
(19:28):
I have been mucking around with shortcuts on my iPhone
and I can't figure it out. So if there's someone
listening that can help me with this, I would really
love your help. But anyway, what that means is that
there's just there's a manual transfer of tasks that pop
into my reminders app on Apple because that's the easiest
thing for Siri to connect to, and then moving that
(19:50):
into Notion or into my calendar.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And then sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
What I do is I also have post it notes
a deck of post it notes on my desk, and
often when like something comes up in a meeting and
I just want to write it down manually or just
pops into my head and I just think I just
need to quickly do that today, I'll sometimes just put
it on a post It note. And there's something just
(20:17):
really nice about scrunching up a post It note when
the task is done. So that's just a little aside.
I also use time boxing a lot, where I book
meetings with myself to do the things that I need
to do on the days I.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Need to do them.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And that is really critical now in terms of how
I use AI in my day to day workflow. Oh,
I've got I've got quite a few, So let me
talk about some of these. Something I have invested quite
a bit of time in doing is firstly creating a
prompt library slash database which lives in Notion, where I've
(20:52):
got prompts either that I want to test that you know,
maybe I found in a newsletter I subscribe to or
online that I want to tinker with, see how they work,
do my own editing of them, and.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I sort of I keep those in Notion in a database.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And I have also got quite a lot of GPTs
that I've created in Chat GPT, as well as projects
that I've created in chat GPT, and also projects that
I've created in Claude and.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
There for very specific purposes.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So for example, I have I've just been deciding that
I am going to do some experimenting with doing some
reels on Instagram and YouTube shorts, and so I've created,
with the help of shout out to Neo Applan, who
is Inventium's GENAI lead, with his immense help, have created
(21:49):
a pretty cool GPT that helps me refine concepts that
I have that maybe I've written about in my newsletter
or and my books into scripts that I can use
and edit for recording reels. So that is one specific
GPT that I have. I have another GPT that I
(22:10):
have prompted to be a senior editor at Penguin. And
this is really helpful because when I want either a
like a structural view and say like a book chapter
I'm writing, or if I want a copy edit, which
is more about grammar and you know, typos and sort
of like the nitty gritty like that, which are two
(22:33):
different GPTs, I should add I can paste in a
chapter into that GPT and get some feedback, and it
means that I don't have to be copying and pasting
or creating a prompt from scratch. So I should also
say that because I create a lot of content in
my in my roles that I have, I always always
(22:56):
make sure that a real human that is me, does
a lot last pass on any content, regardless of how
much or how little I'm using the AI. I just
think that's critical. I'll share one other workflow that I
have that I do use every day. So a lot
of my work involves sales at Inventium, So you know,
we get a lot of inquiries for the programs that
(23:18):
we run around AI, productivity, innovation well being. You know,
literally get emails every single day from companies that want
to work with us, which is brilliant. And so then
a lot of my time, or let's say, you know,
a couple of hours a day, is spent in sales meetings.
So in those sales meetings, because I always like to
(23:38):
turn around sales proposals really quickly, I have a workflow
that makes that process produce quick results, but I think
high quality results.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So this is my workflow here.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
What I do is I typically use Granola to record
my meetings. It doesn't record audio or video. It's simply
a transcript that's running in the background. But it also
combines that with my human notes that I'm making in
the Granola app. I just I just think it's one
of the most brilliant apps out there. But it doesn't
(24:13):
play with I think it only plays with.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Mac.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Is it a Mac only app? I think it is,
and it also plays with Google. Doesn't play as well
with Outlook, but anyway, that's by the bye.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then what I do.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I get my notes from Granola, and I have a
sales or proposal writing GPT, and I feed in some
of the notes that I think are relevant and my
human notes into that GPT, and then I work with
it through asking questions and getting it to ask me
questions to create a proposal. It means that I can,
(24:52):
you know, create a pretty decent proposal for a project
that is not soon for complex, you know, within about
sort of fifteen to twenty minutes. And then what I
do is I use software called Teller, which is kind
of like Loom if you're familiar with Loom, but it's
(25:14):
it's slightly different in terms of its features. So I
use Teller to then record me explaining the proposal, so
talking it through.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
So that is what.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
That like.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
There's some of my workflows.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I've got quite a few, but they're just you know,
a few that come to mind that are ones that
I use certainly weekly and sometimes daily. That is it
for part one of this Ask Me Anything. But I'm
going to be back next week with part two because
I wanted to try and cover all the brilliant questions
(25:50):
I received.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So in part two next week.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
We're going to be covering how to differentiate yourself in
the job market, my best tips for developing high performing teams,
and my top pieces of advice for leaders who want
to have a big impact and especially for those that
are new to leadership roles. So please hit follow or
subscribe to How I Work so you don't miss next
week's EPP. And if you know someone who's drowning in
(26:15):
procrastination or could use a few workflow hacks, please share this.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Episode with them. Thank you so much for listening, and
I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
If you like today's show, make sure you hit follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the warrangery people, part of the Cooler Nation. A big
thank you to Martin Nimber for doing the sound mix.
If you've ever found yourself staring down a big task,
feeling that mix of dread, self doubt, and the urge
to do li truly anything else, you are not alone.
In today's Ask Me Anything episode, where I answer your
listener questions, I am diving into the stuff that we
all wrestle with, procrastination when the stakes are high. How
(00:25):
Australia's Right to Disconnect laws might or might not reshape
our working lives, and the practical ways I use AI,
and also some simple systems to stop my days spiraling
into utter chaos. By the end of this episode, you
will walk away with concrete strategies for getting unstuck on
(00:46):
complex projects, a fresh perspective on flexible work culture, and
some real workflows you can steal right from my playbook.
And if you have a question that you would like
to ask me, drop me a note on I'm very
easy to find. Just search for Amatha Imba or share
a voice note with me via the link in the
(01:06):
show notes. Because I'm recording these Ask Me Anything episodes
about once a quarter, so let's get on with today's show.
Welcome to How I Work, a show about habits, rituals,
and strategies for optimizing your date. I'm your host, doctor
(01:27):
Amantha Imba. The first question that we have is from Louise,
and she asks what are your top three remedies for procrastination?
Specifically when the procrastination is a result of anxiety about
a complex task that you do not know how long
it will take, may not know where to start, and
perhaps doubt your expertise to complete the task. I know,
(01:50):
once I have completed a big task, I am ecstatic,
but this is short lived and forgotten the next time
I face the same scenario.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh, I love this question, Louise is Oh gosh.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I think about this a lot, and I feel like
there are a lot of listeners that will be able
to relate. So let me break this down in terms
of something that I have been struggling with at.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Work for the last few months.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So as if you are a regular listener of how
I work, you will know that I am in the
middle of writing my fifth book, and you would think.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
By book five that I would have the process.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Down pat I would be feeling confident I would know
exactly how to get this done. And I have found
this the hardest book that I have ever written, so
let me tell you my process.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Firstly, what I.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Have done this has become a monthly ritual is that
I will break down where I am in the process
and where I need to be at the end of
the month. So when you are writing a book and
you have signed up contract with a major publisher so
my books are published through Penguin Random House, there is
(03:06):
a deadline. And I hear that very few writers meet deadlines,
but I always meet my deadline because it kind of
has a domino effect if you don't. So the stakes
are really high. So I think about month to month,
what do I need to achieve and then what I do.
I open up a notes page and I literally break
it down into tasks. So, for example, in this past month,
(03:30):
I knew that I needed to create an energy type assessment.
I knew that I had to finalize the gameplay mechanics,
which won't mean anything right now, but it will if
you hopefully purchase the book next year.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Midnext year, it's out.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I knew that I had to polish and restructure part
one of the book, and so on and so forth.
I could go on and I could list the tasks
then to make it less overwhelming, what I did is
I estimated how many hours each task would take, and
by doing that it made me sort of it made
(04:06):
my logical brain take over from my emotional brain in
terms of going, oh, okay, I can actually fit this
into the month ahead, keeping in mind I've still got
all the work that I do as head of Inventium
and what that involves, which is in itself a full
time role, and yeah, I'll be able to fit the
(04:26):
book writing tasks around this.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Then what I.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Will do is I, after I've listed it all out,
I will actually timebox it in my diary. Now, I
could go and timebox the whole month, but I actually
tend to timebox about a week in advance. So I'll
sit down at the beginning of the week or the
end of the week prior, and I will block out
meetings with myself to achieve the tasks that I have
(04:51):
listed out.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And then the final thing.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Which is I don't know if this is to do
with procrastination, but it is part of my process. I
will seek feedback earlier rather than later. I remember when
I interviewed Dan Heath, who was one of my favorite
business book writers, on the show several years ago. He
talked about getting feedback at the sixty percent mark. So
(05:15):
you don't want to get feedback on your work too
late in the process, because then you're just going to
get defensive, and it's going to be annoying. Because if
you're ninety percent there and someone says this all's ups
or this needs a major rewrite, you're just going to
feel pretty ordinary and probably dismiss the feedback.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
But if you get feedback at about that sixty.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Percent mark, you've got enough done that there's something to
give feedback on and you'll actually feel less defensive. So
I have been getting feedback relatively early on, or probably
at about that fifty to sixty percent mark with what
I've called my Energy Army, which was a group of
(05:52):
about thirteen hundred people that were doing a bunch of
energy experiments as I was writing and creating the book,
and even in the last couple of weeks sending out
the energy Types assessment that I've been working on and
getting feedback on that. So that's also been part of
my process, just to force myself to ship something and
get the feedback. Yeah, and look, I find nothing beats
(06:15):
procrastination like a deadline.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So that is what i'd have to say, I hope
that's helpful, Luise. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The next question is from Bev and she has said,
I'm really curious how you think about the new right
to disconnect laws will fit into our working culture. Do
you predict it will lead to more paid hours or
just less worked hours? Okay, so for context, if you
have no idea what Bev is talking about, but you
probably do because they're pretty well publicized. The Right to
(06:43):
Disconnect laws basically give employees the right to refuse to monitor, read,
or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working
hours unless that refusal is unreasonable. So that came into
effect in August twenty twenty four for all businesses except
(07:04):
for small businesses, and then as of August twenty twenty five,
now small businesses defined as a business employing less than
fifteen people.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Are also also under the Right to Connect laws.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So so I guess to start with to frame up
my answer, who I help and who I think about?
Most knowledge workers so people that are paid for the
value of their thinking. They're typically people that work at
a desk, and they typically don't have rostered hours like
you would find in other industries like healthcare or hospitality.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So that's just my first frame for this answer.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
What I think is that the right to disconnect laws
are kind of interesting because they assume that employees are
meant to be working nine to five Monday to Friday.
That is the traditional hours and days for knowledge workers.
And I actually think that workplaces that are you know,
(08:07):
a bit more modern, bit more contemporary, are a little
bit more flexible with hours. So at Inventium, for example,
for I think for over a decade, we've encouraged people
to work to their chronotype, so you know, if they're
a morning type or a night type, unless there's client
work to deliver, where we're you know, delivering a workshop
or a keynote or whatever that might be at a
(08:27):
client for a client at a predetermined time. I love
it when my team work really flexibly, and I certainly
do you know there are some days where I would
start work at seven am, but I would finish in
the middle of the afternoon. Or today, for example, I
went to the gym pretty early at about six thirty.
(08:48):
I then was at my computer starting work at eight am,
and my plan is to be off for a couple
of hours between three to five pm. For catching up
with a friend, and then I'll probably do an hour
or so more work when I'm back at my computer.
So you know, I kind of think that flexibility and
(09:13):
flexible hours doesn't really match with the right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
To disconnect laws.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And I also think that for businesses that are a
bit more traditional, and specifically managers that are a bit
more traditional, it's really hard for legislation to change old
school views. So sure you can, you can still message
people outside of hours, but I think we all know
if we're working for a manager that actually unconsciously or
(09:42):
consciously responds really positively when we do respond at seven
or eight at night, and that manager thinks, wow, they're
really dedicated, they're definitely going to be up for a
promotion because they've got amazing work ethic and so while
legally you don't have to respond, I think with some managers,
to be honest, that can be a career limiting move
(10:02):
and that really sucks. And you know, if you are
a manager that can relate to that, I would challenge
you to change your views, because it doesn't mean someone dedicated,
It just means they happen to have notifications switched on
and maybe feel pressure to respond.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But if you work for.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
A manager like that, I think that's really hard. And
you know, maybe hopefully in your next job you can
find someone who is a little bit more contemporary in
their thinking. So I hopev that gives you some food
for thought. Or Right now we have Jeff and Jeff
the legend that he is, has recorded a message for
(10:45):
the podcast. I'm going to play that for you now,
and by the way, I will put a link in
the show notes because I'm doing these ask Me Anything
episodes about once a quarter now and I love it
when I hear your voice listeners, So please be like
Jeff and send through little voice memos to me.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I love them. So let's hear from Jeff a method.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
We have a problem in our office and it seems
to be a bottleneck. I'm a financial planner and we
seem to have a delay in processing documents and not
being able to produce a statement of advice in under
six weeks. It could be a staffing problem, but it's
(11:28):
more likely an operational problem. Where do we start in
trying to work out how to best solve the answer
to this?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Okay, Jeff, Oh, I love your question. Here, what a
great thing to be thinking about. So a few thoughts
from me. Firstly, I think when you're trying to re
engineer a process, the first thing is to visually map
out the process. And even when you visually map out
a process, just the act of doing that can often
just reveal some some massive inefficiencies that you just wouldn't
(12:00):
have seen that I'd be asking yourself, where does most
of the time currently get spent? Is it in gathering data?
Is it in compliance? Is it in writing? Is it
in the approval process or decision making process? So really
breakdown where does most of the time currently get spent?
Because it seems like quite a lengthy period of time
(12:23):
to do something that I think could be done in
a lot shorter. Then I would be asking where are
the biggest points of friction? And I would actually be
doing this collaboratively with your team, with all the people
that are involved in this process right now, because presumably
you don't have insight into all of it. So get
everyone in a room and you know, be asking these questions,
(12:45):
So where are the biggest points of friction, Like, you know,
are there you know, delays from manual data entry, is
their duplicated effort anywhere in the process. Is there a
lot of rework going on thinking about the decision making
O their bottlenecks in approval process, for approval processes for
certain parts of this document. How about document formatting? Are
(13:09):
there parts of that couse that could be automated or templated?
So they're the things that I would be asking as
a group and getting the team's perspective on that. And
then of course you know, again you will know how
you know pro gen AI I am, so I would
be looking for. You know, certainly I don't know where
(13:30):
your team's at in terms of AI fluency. You know,
obviously reach out to us that Inventium if you want
to up the skill set there, because man, you know,
jen I is brilliant for making processes quicker. But you know,
there's some relatively simple things that you might be able
to do, like, for example, producing a prompt library where
(13:54):
you you know, refine and document certain prompts that can
live a certain components that right now are being done manually.
That's you know, that's that's a pretty well, I won't
say straightforward because there's you know, certainly a science to
writing good prompts, but I guess you know it requires
a lower level of AI expertise, and then through to
(14:17):
if he's kind of up the AI fluency game with
your team again, no idea where it's at right now,
through to creating agents and automations using software like ZAPR
or nh N or you know, there are a few
other ones out there that I recommend to automate certain
parts of the process.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
So there's some thoughts. I hope that that's helpful.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
For anyone that is, you know, maybe thinking about process
re engineering and they are there are a few steps
that you can go through. Okay, so far we've talked
about procrastination and flexible work. But stay with me because
in the second half I get very very practical. I'm
(15:01):
going to share some of my exact workflows and the
software that I use, and also how I use AI
every single day and.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
What those workflows look like.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So if you've ever wondered how to actually make AI
work for you in a busy job, I think you
will find the second half very valuable. Okay, we have
another question from a listener who has been an absolute
legend and recorded a.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Message, Himantha.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So my question is really basic and it feels a
bit silly to ask, but it's something I struggle with
on a day to day. I work in HI and
I have a team of people who report into me.
One of the things I do struggle with, though, is
my own organization skills. So I find that, you know,
my day to day, my to do list is some
(15:57):
most of the time, it's in my head, and it
feels really unreliable. So I'll drop things down on a
piece of paper, but they're not being meetings and I'm
taking notes on a Google sheet or I'm taking notes
in a Google doc or whatever. I'm keen to sort
of understand from your perspective, what tools or strategies do
you use to keep your workflow organized and your notes together.
(16:19):
I would just love to hear from you a bit
more about the practical application of those sorts of tools,
and then maybe even how you use AI to in
your day to day workflow, and really the practical application
of how is that actually impacting on creating efficiencies in
your work?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Thank you, I love that question. That is an awesome line. Okay,
so you have to do your listers in your head,
everything's all over the place, and yeah, how I use
AI and my day to day workflate, all right, So
I will start by saying I've experimented with so many
different workflows, so let me tell you what my current
one is, because it works pretty well, but it's still
(17:01):
got some areas that I'm trying to find tune. So
in terms of where I keep my keep all my
notes and my tasks is in Notion. So I several
years ago I was using Notion as the main way
that my main digital notebook, if you like, but I
(17:23):
didn't double down on really understanding all the features in Notion,
and I think this is I mean, this is this
the same with any software, whether a little bit of
a learning curve. I didn't take that learning curve, and
so I ended up moving out of Notion and moved
into Apple Notes. And that's then what I've been using
for the last few years. But I recently spent some
(17:44):
time a few hours on doing a course that helped
me set up a really great system in Notion. Shout
out to Jeff Sue, who is an awesome productivity YouTuber
and did a really great course on how to get
the most out of Notion.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So I did that course.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was brilliant, and now I feel like notion is,
to use Jeff's words, my command system, my commands center rather,
so this is where everything lives, all my projects, both
work and personal, Everything is organized, everything has a place,
(18:26):
everything is filed somewhere that makes sense to me. And
it's also where I have all of the different tasks
that I need to get done, whether they're deep work
or shallow work tasks. Now where where the system is
slightly falling down for me is I will often think
of things that I have to do when I'm on.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
The go, and I will ask.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Siri and I'm hoping that Siri doesn't get activated now
while I'm saying it's name, no, it's okay, And I
will say, hey, set a reminder to do blah at
this particular time on this particular.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Date.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And that is how I offload tasks that are in
my head and get them on paper, because that's really important.
So you need some sort of a workflow for that.
But the challenge that I've got is how do I
get Siri creating a task in notion for me? Which
(19:28):
I have been mucking around with shortcuts on my iPhone
and I can't figure it out. So if there's someone
listening that can help me with this, I would really
love your help. But anyway, what that means is that
there's just there's a manual transfer of tasks that pop
into my reminders app on Apple because that's the easiest
thing for Siri to connect to, and then moving that
(19:50):
into Notion or into my calendar.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And then sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
What I do is I also have post it notes
a deck of post it notes on my desk, and
often when like something comes up in a meeting and
I just want to write it down manually or just
pops into my head and I just think I just
need to quickly do that today, I'll sometimes just put
it on a post It note. And there's something just
(20:17):
really nice about scrunching up a post It note when
the task is done. So that's just a little aside.
I also use time boxing a lot, where I book
meetings with myself to do the things that I need
to do on the days I.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Need to do them.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And that is really critical now in terms of how
I use AI in my day to day workflow. Oh,
I've got I've got quite a few, So let me
talk about some of these. Something I have invested quite
a bit of time in doing is firstly creating a
prompt library slash database which lives in Notion, where I've
(20:52):
got prompts either that I want to test that you know,
maybe I found in a newsletter I subscribe to or
online that I want to tinker with, see how they work,
do my own editing of them, and.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I sort of I keep those in Notion in a database.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And I have also got quite a lot of GPTs
that I've created in Chat GPT, as well as projects
that I've created in chat GPT, and also projects that
I've created in Claude and.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
There for very specific purposes.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So for example, I have I've just been deciding that
I am going to do some experimenting with doing some
reels on Instagram and YouTube shorts, and so I've created,
with the help of shout out to Neo Applan, who
is Inventium's GENAI lead, with his immense help, have created
(21:49):
a pretty cool GPT that helps me refine concepts that
I have that maybe I've written about in my newsletter
or and my books into scripts that I can use
and edit for recording reels. So that is one specific
GPT that I have. I have another GPT that I
(22:10):
have prompted to be a senior editor at Penguin. And
this is really helpful because when I want either a
like a structural view and say like a book chapter
I'm writing, or if I want a copy edit, which
is more about grammar and you know, typos and sort
of like the nitty gritty like that, which are two
(22:33):
different GPTs, I should add I can paste in a
chapter into that GPT and get some feedback, and it
means that I don't have to be copying and pasting
or creating a prompt from scratch. So I should also
say that because I create a lot of content in
my in my roles that I have, I always always
(22:56):
make sure that a real human that is me, does
a lot last pass on any content, regardless of how
much or how little I'm using the AI. I just
think that's critical. I'll share one other workflow that I
have that I do use every day. So a lot
of my work involves sales at Inventium, So you know,
we get a lot of inquiries for the programs that
(23:18):
we run around AI, productivity, innovation well being. You know,
literally get emails every single day from companies that want
to work with us, which is brilliant. And so then
a lot of my time, or let's say, you know,
a couple of hours a day, is spent in sales meetings.
So in those sales meetings, because I always like to
(23:38):
turn around sales proposals really quickly, I have a workflow
that makes that process produce quick results, but I think
high quality results.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So this is my workflow here.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
What I do is I typically use Granola to record
my meetings. It doesn't record audio or video. It's simply
a transcript that's running in the background. But it also
combines that with my human notes that I'm making in
the Granola app. I just I just think it's one
of the most brilliant apps out there. But it doesn't
(24:13):
play with I think it only plays with.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Mac.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Is it a Mac only app? I think it is,
and it also plays with Google. Doesn't play as well
with Outlook, but anyway, that's by the bye.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then what I do.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I get my notes from Granola, and I have a
sales or proposal writing GPT, and I feed in some
of the notes that I think are relevant and my
human notes into that GPT, and then I work with
it through asking questions and getting it to ask me
questions to create a proposal. It means that I can,
(24:52):
you know, create a pretty decent proposal for a project
that is not soon for complex, you know, within about
sort of fifteen to twenty minutes. And then what I
do is I use software called Teller, which is kind
of like Loom if you're familiar with Loom, but it's
(25:14):
it's slightly different in terms of its features. So I
use Teller to then record me explaining the proposal, so
talking it through.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
So that is what.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
That like.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
There's some of my workflows.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I've got quite a few, but they're just you know,
a few that come to mind that are ones that
I use certainly weekly and sometimes daily. That is it
for part one of this Ask Me Anything. But I'm
going to be back next week with part two because
I wanted to try and cover all the brilliant questions
(25:50):
I received.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So in part two next week.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
We're going to be covering how to differentiate yourself in
the job market, my best tips for developing high performing teams,
and my top pieces of advice for leaders who want
to have a big impact and especially for those that
are new to leadership roles. So please hit follow or
subscribe to How I Work so you don't miss next
week's EPP. And if you know someone who's drowning in
(26:15):
procrastination or could use a few workflow hacks, please share this.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Episode with them. Thank you so much for listening, and
I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
If you like today's show, make sure you hit follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the warrangery people, part of the Cooler Nation. A big
thank you to Martin Nimber for doing the sound mix.
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