August 16, 2024 • 33 mins
#74 — How we feel about completing certain tasks and the people they involve have a massive impact on whether or not we do those tasks or how quickly and carefully we get them done.
You know—when a job involves dealing with that person, sending that email, or dealing with that instrument. Or when your stress levels build up so much that you lay out a heap of things you want done and tell everyone involved in an ill-tempered way.
And we all respond differently to people who nag, condescend, and micromanage—and most of us will put off situations that risk showing gaps in our abilities, even if it's to our detriment. The combination of these ultimately dictates what makes it onto our to-do list.
But should they?
What would happen if you could become aware of these often rational but unhelpful emotional responses?
Could it make you more productive, more dependable, and more influential? Would it give you the experience and confidence to handle uncomfortable situations?
In this episode of The Happy Scientist, we examine how our feelings about completing certain tasks impact our planning process and to-do list and explore the helpful traits we can gain by moving past these feelings.
Watch or Listen to all episodes of The Happy Scientist podcast here: https://thehappyscientist.bitesizebio.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro/Outro (00:30):
This is the Happy Scientist podcast. Each episode
is designed to make you morefocused, more productive, and
more satisfied in the lab. Youcan find us online at
bitesizebio.com/happy scientist.Your hosts are Kenneth Vogt,
founder of the executivecoaching firm, Vera Claritas,
and doctor Nick Oswald, PhD,bioscientist, and founder of
(00:53):
Bite Size Bio.
Nick Oswald (00:59):
Hello. This is Nick Oswald welcoming you to this
Bite Size Bio webinar whichtoday is a live episode of the
Happy Scientist podcast. If youwould like to become a happier,
healthier, and more productivescientist, you are in the right
place. With me as always is theBite Size Bio Team's mister
Miyagi. His name is misterKenneth Vogt.
(01:20):
In these sessions, we hear fromKen mostly on principles that
will help shape you for ahappier and more successful
career. And all along the way,I'll pitch in with points from
my personal experience as ascientist and from working with
Ken myself. If you have anyquestions along the way, put
them into the questions box onthe side of your screen and I'll
put them to Ken, and today wewill be discussing what makes it
(01:42):
onto your to do list and why.Over to you Ken. Alright.
Kenneth Vogt (01:48):
You know, in the past, we have talked about
having a a not to do list, butsooner or later, I knew I needed
to get around to talking aboutthat common thing that that
everybody has to have. You gottahave some way of organizing the
stuff you need to get done anygiven day. And, typically, we
call it a to do go to do list.Here's the thing about this,
(02:11):
though. There there's 2 parts tothis this question that is what
and why.
So, you know, first, we have tolook at what is even getting on
to our to do list. It stufffloats out there, and it doesn't
get examined. It's just you getconfronted with a task, and, you
(02:31):
know, you dutifully add it toyour list. And that's not a
terrible thing to do. Sometimesyou you don't wanna second guess
everything that comes your wayand just get it down there and,
you know, we'll we'll deal withit.
Now there are some things thatsome red flags do pop up when
when a task is presented to you,and that's when you start
(02:55):
getting into the why. You know?Why why would I wanna put this
on my to do list? And it couldbe because you feel compelled to
do it. It could be becausesomebody else feels compelled
for you to do it.
It could be because somebodyelse has authority to tell you
to do it. I mean, there's thereare various possibilities, but
(03:16):
you just need to be aware ofwhat's happening. Why why this
thing? Why should this make itonto my list? Because I'm sure
we've all had that situationwhere we decide to get back into
really using a to do list.
Because, you know, we we wereusing it for a while, and then
we sort of stopped, and then werealized why we used to have a
(03:38):
to do list. Then we end up witha list that every day we get
down the line and there's 10things on it, and we crossed off
2 of them. And they weren't eventhe first 2 or the most
important 2. They were just 2.And then we take those other 8,
and we just move forward totomorrow where we're as likely
(03:59):
to finish 2 of them, you know,as a and not likely to finish 8
of them.
So it's like, that's not afunctional functional way to to
handle your to do list. Andwe're gonna talk about why that
happens today. It's not so muchabout the the mechanics of using
a to do list because chances areyou're familiar with that. And
(04:21):
in fact, we've talked about itelsewhere, and others have
talked about it in their wholebooks about it. But I wanna talk
about what is happeningunderneath, not just the facts
and figures of what's in it onyour to do list, but the other
factors.
So another factor that pops upis who. Who set the priority
(04:46):
here? Who is making me put thison my to do list? You know,
there's there's all kinds ofpossibilities there. And it
could be did it to yourself.
It could be that it's your boss.And, you know, when your boss
assigned you tasks, that kindamatters. Right? You don't leave
something off the to do listbecause who do they think they
(05:08):
are? Well, they're the guy thatsigns my check.
I guess that does kinda matter.But other cases, it's
colleagues. You know, you'reworking in a collaborative
environment in the lab, andother people need you to do
things. And if you don't do yourpart, they can't do their part,
and and they won't do the thingsyou want them to do that would
(05:30):
help you. So, you know, there'sthere's that give and take of of
the social part of the job.
But mostly, the things that geton your to do list are things
that you assign to yourself. Andhow many of those things show up
there for purely emotionalreasons? Now you may look at
(05:51):
that and say, listen. I'm I'm aprofessional. You know?
I'm I'm a cold logician. I'm notbeing controlled by my emotions.
I'm not so much saying thatyou're being controlled by your
emotions, but the fact isemotions do play a part. And how
you feel about certain taskswill influence what you do. And
(06:15):
then and then not just how youhandle the task, but whether or
not that task even makes it ontoyour list.
Whether or not that task floatsup to the top of the list or
falls down to the bottom andkeeps getting passed over to the
next day and the next day andthe next day. So when we think
(06:35):
about the who of this, you know,there are there are people that
are getting things on our listbecause they're a nag. Right?
There are people that get on ourlist because they're a harpy.
They just make a lot of noise.
There are people that get thingsonto our list by being
condescending. Well, youwouldn't fail to do this, would
you? And then there are thosethat get things on your list
(06:58):
just by being control freaks.They might be your boss, but
they might not be. They might bethey might be a Cali or there
was somebody even outside ofyour normal process, but you
just you can't avoid theirefforts to control you.
And then finally, all of thesethings, the nag, the heartbeat,
the condescender, the controlfreak, they all likely are
(07:22):
aspects of yourself. Now nowsome of those things you might
take umbrage at. Right? Some ofthose things you might be
offended of. Don't you can callme you can call me a harpy, but
don't you dare call me a controlfreak.
Well, if you're having anemotional response to any of
these labels being attached toyou, that is something you
(07:45):
really need to look at becausechances are there's some truth
in it. And, you know, it's it'san interesting thing how
emotions will guide us back tofacts. You know what? If it's
just if it's just the cold hardnumbers, like, look. This has to
be done by Friday.
(08:06):
It's gonna take me 3 days. I'dbetter get it on my list today
and give myself a little wiggleroom. Okay. That's reasonable.
And that's not a particularlyemotional thing to say.
But if it's, oh my god. It's dueon Friday. I I I I haven't even
started yet. What am I gonna do?I mean, we know when we're
having that kind of response tostuff, and we do need to take
(08:29):
note of it.
And we're we're costingourselves additional stress
because, you know, it's Monday.A task that will take me 3 days
will easily be done by Friday aslong as other things aren't
getting in the way. I don't needto be emotional about that. I
don't need to I don't need tohave my emotions control me
about that. Let's put it thatway.
Because I never wanna say thatyou're being wrong because you
(08:50):
have a feeling about something.Because, you know, emotions are
part of the human experience,and we are surrounded by other
people that are emotional too.And it's one of the reasons why
they're trying to get thingsunder our to do list. So if we
just we just accept thatemotions occur. I I remember.
(09:12):
You you know you know the, youknow you know the popular
saying, and I I won't repeat ithere, Joel. We're we're gonna
keep it very family friendlyhere even though we're talking
to all adults here. And I saw at shirt once that distract me.
It said, doo doo occurs. Andthat that that is just a nice
(09:33):
polite way to say what happens.
And that that doo doo isemotions. Yeah. Our our
emotional response to task willimpact how we decide to do them,
when we decide to do them, howwill we execute them. And if you
don't process that stuff, itwill have impacts on you. It
(09:54):
will it will affect yourprofessionalism.
It'll affect your productivity.It'll impact how dependable you
are, how responsible you are areconsidered to be. You know, all
that stuff matters. And on onthe on the plus side of it,
though, on on the good side isthere's nothing wrong with
(10:16):
having emotions about stuff,about tasks you need to do,
about things that that areassociated with your job. It's
just a matter of recognizing itand realizing it's part of part
of what happens and giving otherpeople room for it too, because
they're gonna have passionsabout things, and they're gonna
have opinions about things.
(10:37):
And, and that may be why they'repushing you to do certain
things, which then, of course,make it to your to do list. So
I'm gonna pause for a secondhere and take a breath, and
we'll see if Nick wants to addanything up to now.
Nick Oswald (10:56):
I'm trying to figure out what this all this
has to do with chocolate icecream, but anyway.
Kenneth Vogt (11:03):
Yeah. It was the friendliest picture I could
find.
Nick Oswald (11:07):
With chocolate buttons. Okay. The yeah. I don't
know. To to do list is myAchilles' heel as a or an
Achilles' heel of mine and but II do know this I do know some
good systems, for controllingit.
And but I but the emotionalresponse is what scuppers it.
And it's quite interesting. Idon't think I've ever heard you
(11:28):
talk about it from this angle.It just make you you put things
off. It's probably resonateswith a lot of people.
You put things off because youthink it's gonna be difficult or
it's gonna take too long orsomething. And
Kenneth Vogt (11:43):
Or all kinds of things that where you've
attached a reason.
Nick Oswald (11:46):
Yeah. And then
Kenneth Vogt (11:48):
Well, this is my reasonable response when it's
actually your emotionalresponse.
Nick Oswald (11:52):
Yeah. And then you, and then they stay on the list
for ages and they that causesmore emotions, and then you just
feel crowded, then you stopusing the to do list. And before
you know it, you're you'reliving out of emails as your to
do list and and then you'rechocolate chocolate ice cream
creak.
Kenneth Vogt (12:09):
Exactly. And and and, you know, we don't want.
Nobody wants that. Nobody wantsto be living as a pinata that's
just being smacked around byanybody and everybody. So let me
move on to this this notionhere.
The idea of bad associationsspoil useful habits. It's a
(12:30):
great phrase. Comes comes from alawyer, but it's a great phrase.
And how you feel aboutcompleting certain tasks and how
you feel about the peopleinvolved can have a huge impact
on what you do, when you do it,how well you do it, and whether
it gets the priority it should.And we all know those the we
(12:53):
have those those button pushingissues.
You know? There's a job thatneeds to be done, but it
involves that person. I don'tlike dealing with that person. I
don't like working with them. Idon't like responding to them.
And even though the task itselfmay not be a problem, the
association with that personbecomes a problem for us. It
(13:14):
could be something as simple aslike, oh, there's that email
I've been putting off respondingto and putting off, and I just
don't wanna have to deal withit. And it's just it's just an
email. And there are otheremails. We're we're firing off
replies, all kinds of otherstuff, but there's that one.
Well, we don't wanna deal withthat. And, again, it's the
association with something aboutit that that bothers us. Or, you
(13:39):
know, in the lab, you're dealingwith with some pretty high-tech
instruments, and some of themtake take skill and training and
and, I say some of them. All ofthem do, but some of them take
more skill and training thanothers. And maybe you're
intimidated by that instrument,and that's enough to slow you
down on a particular task.
(14:00):
And it's just a matter of, well,I either have to get better at
this or I've gotta take theextra time to get more skilled
or I've gotta ask for help. Youknow, whatever it is, there's
the association with the taskthat is what's the actual
problem. So we because we lookat the task, say, well, I'm not
avoiding the task. I'm avoidingwhat's associated with the task.
(14:25):
And when you uncover that, itmay make you realize, I see a
pattern here.
I see what's happened to me. Andwe may then too realize that,
well, there's a way out of this.I need to I need to bury the
hatchet with that person. Youknow, we've had some bad blood.
I gotta gotta work that out.
Or we've had somemiscommunication. I I need to
(14:46):
unravel that. Or maybe it's Ineed to get more skilled. Maybe
I need to ask for training.Maybe I need to ask for
mentorship.
So start looking for whatassociations are causing you
trepidation or are pushing youaway. Because sometimes the task
itself, it doesn't appear clear.Like, why wouldn't I do this?
(15:09):
It's just it's just the task.It's just respond to the email.
It's just run this test. Whatwhy would I avoid that? Well,
the reason why is for some ofthese other factors. So look for
them. And, you know, you do haveto you have to engage yourself
on this because this is this ishappening within you.
(15:31):
Your emotions are very personal.And I don't mean to say that
they can't be shared with othersor that you're embarrassed about
them or anything like that. It'sjust nobody else really knows
what's going on inside of you.You though know what's going on
inside of you. And it'simportant for you to to keep
(15:51):
strengthening how well you knowwhat's happening inside of
yourself.
Now when we when we look to theexterior, the the fact is you
are dealing with other peopleand you have people that have
authority and power over you.So, you know, are other people
pulling your strings in such away that's causing you problems?
(16:11):
You know? We mentioned somebodymight be nagging. Somebody might
be condescending, or maybesomebody who's micromanaging.
And, you know, if you're puttingoff things because you're trying
to avoid that entanglement withthe task, well, you need to be
aware of that, especially ifit's gonna be detrimental to
you. If you're avoidingsomething because you're bugged
(16:34):
about the micromanagement. Butif you don't do the task, it's
gonna hurt you. You know? So youyou wanna be aware of that.
And there's there's combinationsof this stuff going on at any
given moment. I'm being naggedabout this task. I'm being
micromanaged about this task.I'm being both nagged and
(16:54):
micromanaged about this othertask. You know, it's good to
know the mix and just just getsome clarity about that.
And remember, these are justfacts. You where where you're
likely reacting is youremotional response to the facts.
I've gotten 3 emails and a phonecall from my boss. Those are
(17:16):
just facts. If that stressesyou, that's that is a totally
different factor.
If if it's just, you know,somebody I don't care that
they're calling, I don't care ifthey're emailing, well, there's
not not a huge emotional factorthere. But, you you know, you
need to to look at yourself andsay, what is what is the
(17:38):
environment that this task on myto do list lives in or this
potential task for my to dolist? And then and then you go
from there. So the bottom lineis it all comes down to
awareness, and I'm talking aboutself awareness. We've talked
about this before.
(17:59):
Awareness has actually becomequite a hotbed topic in the
scientific world. It used to bethought of as kind of this woo
woo thing that was that was outthere on the fringes. It's like,
it's not. It's now been studiedquite extensively, actually, and
and it has been well establishedthat maintaining awareness,
(18:22):
situational awareness,interpersonal awareness,
personal awareness, all of thosethings will have a huge impact
on your productivity, how wellyou accomplish tasks, how
successful you are in overall,it's absolutely a career
building thing to hone your ownawareness. It can make you more
(18:45):
productive.
It can make you more dependable.As a result, that can make you
more influential. I mean, all ofthese things are huge upside.
And then, of course, as youaccomplish more tasks, you get
more experience. And when youget more experience, you get
more confidence.
And that allows you to handlethings easier and harder. And
(19:10):
things things that used to beuncomfortable become
comfortable. And now people arewilling to say, hey. Bob is the
guy to handle this this thisscary new thing. And when you're
Bob, you know, that's that's nota bad thing.
Now, I mean, if you'reconstantly being being assigned
as firefighter, you know, maybethat's not the best of
(19:33):
environments. But if you'reaware of that and if you if
you're okay with it, great. Ifyou're not okay with it, being
aware of it, it will allow youto put a stop to it. All these
things are the benefits ofstaying aware and being aware of
your own your own emotionalreactions is useful even if
(19:54):
they're just kind of low burningbehind the scenes. Nobody else
knows about it, but this thingannoys you a bit.
This thing scares you a littlebit. This thing tires you a
little bit. If you're aware ofthat, great. But you may also
find too that this excites you.This piques your curiosity, this
(20:19):
feels well within yourwheelhouse and, like, you're
super confident about it.
Those are all aspects ofawareness too. It's not all
about looking for problems. Youknow, sometimes you wanna look
for things that are making youfeel good and feel confident and
make you want to go to workevery day and make you want to
do the job. So I will pauseagain for you, Nick.
Nick Oswald (20:40):
Well, I think that this is this is this is another
one of these episodes where Iwonder whether you made it for
me because I'm I'm right here atthe moment and I've been trying
to figure out that I I thoughtyou were gonna talk about a
system today, the to do listsystem. I think we should
actually do a presentation onthat at some point soon, because
(21:00):
there's well documented systemsfor managing to do list and so
on, and I know them inside outand but I'm not doing it and I
haven't done it for a long timeand and I and I've been trying
to figure out why And it's ayou've just brought me to the
the the awareness that thereason is so there's a straight
(21:21):
and narrow path of operatingthat system, and it means you
diligently do what you need todo. You organize your you know,
what comes in, you triage, youdo what's needed Mhmm. And you
keep tracking on and thingsdon't build up. Okay?
You don't you don't build up,you don't carry tasks on and on
and on. You you you you you workthe system again. We can talk
(21:44):
about it in another episode. Andand then, it works for you. The
reason it stops working is whenyou get into a cycle where
instead of on that straight andnarrow path where you just do
everything regardless of what itis, you know, when it needs to
be done, You get passed intoeither doing what you the bits
of it that you enjoy most orthat you like the most or into
(22:08):
the ones that panic you themost.
Right? Because you need to getit done today or because someone
is breathing down your neck orbecause, oh my god, I've left
this has been on the the the todo list for weeks and it hasn't
been done, you know. And, and soyou end up into the cycle that
what's driving you is, for me,it's that. It's the second one
(22:28):
of those. It's not doing whatare the best that I like the
most all the time.
There's a little bit of that,but it's mostly the avoiding
doing that straight and narrowpath and getting passed on to
doing, you know, things thatjust needs to be done.
Everything's last minute. And
Kenneth Vogt (22:45):
Right.
Nick Oswald (22:46):
Then that just creates its own stress, and that
stress then just, you know, goesup in a spiral where it ends up
that all you have time to do isthe things that are the last
minute.
Kenneth Vogt (22:57):
Right.
Nick Oswald (22:57):
And and then and and one other aspect, that might
just be me. Right? I don't knowif that's everyone. If it is,
then put tell me in the answersin the questions and or or or
what what is what is yourversion of this? But that's my
version of this.
One other other thing thatstruck me is that one thing that
people leave off their to dolist, a lot and then that's and
(23:20):
are the first things that falloff that straight and narrow
path are time for creativity andtime for rest. And and so then
that's what happens. You get youcan get sucked so much into that
one side of what you have to door or, you know, which is the
stuff that really needs to bedone now that you forget all of
this other stuff and it justcreates this ball of, oh my god.
(23:41):
I'm never getting out of this,and, all I'm doing is things
that needed to be done 3 daysago. You know?
Kenneth Vogt (23:47):
Yeah. Yeah. There's there's another pattern
that some folks fall into isthey look at their list and go,
what's the easiest thing to do?And that's what they do. And
then it's like, oh, what's thenext easiest thing to do?
What they end up doing then isonly the easy stuff. They never
do the hard stuff. So, you know,I will make a suggestion there.
When you look at your list likethat, you know, first, there are
(24:12):
time relevant tasks. Well, thismeeting happens at this time, so
that's when I got it's at 9 AM.
That's when I gotta do it. Butthere are other things that are
just that that don't have thetime constriction. At the start
of your day, when you'refreshest or whatever you're
freshest, you you know your ownpattern. Although I think it is
typical people to be fresherfirst thing for the day, do the
(24:36):
hardest thing on your listfirst. Do the thing you least
wanna do first.
Get it over with. Because ifthat's on your list and you
every time you look at your listagain, it's like, there's that
ugly thing. I'm gonna dosomething else. The The next
time you look at your list, thatugly thing is still there. You
know?
And that'll keep happening overand over again, and you're
(24:57):
giving yourself a bad experienceover and over again even as
you're accomplishing things, andit doesn't feel like
accomplishment. Whereas if youget that one ugly thing done
first, great. You know, rip theband aid off, get it over with.
And often, as you get intothings, you find they're not as
hard as you thought. And or youfind at least you're up to it.
(25:20):
You can handle it. So thatthat's just another pattern that
people fall into. But, yes,Nick, we can have an episode
talking about these systems thatyou know well, and you could
take the lead on that one.
Nick Oswald (25:34):
Yeah. I'll tell you what the systems I know very
well, and I teach other peopleand so on and don't do myself
because I do exactly what youjust said, which I didn't
realize was a was another layer.But, yeah, that's interesting.
You you're always every day is aschool day.
Kenneth Vogt (25:50):
Well, you know, I I I wanted to cover the
emotional side of this becauseso many people that are engaged
in this level of science, youknow, they're all about the
facts and figures. They're allabout the data. They'll they
live in that world constantly.That isn't necessarily your most
(26:13):
natural spot. And sometimes weforget how human we really are.
And we think, well, that's beingchildish. That's being immature.
But, no, it's not. It's beinghuman. There's nothing wrong
with emotion.
Emotion is a very useful tool.It has kept the human race alive
for, you know, all thesegenerations. We're still here.
(26:37):
You'll notice that emotions havenever been evolved out of us.
They're important.
They play a role, and we wannamake positive use of them. We
wanna make effective use ofthem. And when it comes to a
practical thing like a to dolist, this is this is a great
way to show an example of here'show to use your emotion to steer
(26:58):
things in a proper direction.Well, that was pretty much what
I wanted to talk about today. Isthere anything else you wanted
to add, Nick?
Nick Oswald (27:12):
Well, no. Apart from well, maybe we could talk
about I I think I was expectingso I don't always know what you
were going you're gonna say inthese, these things. And in this
case, I thought you were gonnatalk about the practicality
rather than the emotion. I Ithink it'd be really great to
maybe next time, for us to to dothat one about the, about to do
(27:36):
list systems and then refer backto this, this emotional side of
how it can get sidetracked.There's a couple of questions
come in about, you know, how doyou, tackle things on your to do
list, when the how do I don'tknow.
How do you how do you meanmotivation and focus, and how do
(27:58):
you tackle things that ariseunexpectedly on your, to do list
or unexpected priorities arrive?Those are the practicality side.
There there is emotion involvedthere actually as well. Sure.
The the system so what we talkedabout today was the system, the
emotion rather, the emotionalside handling the emotional side
that that will derail any systemyou put in place if you let it
(28:21):
and
Kenneth Vogt (28:21):
next Exactly. That that that's why I think it's
important that we cover thisfirst.
Nick Oswald (28:25):
Okay.
Kenneth Vogt (28:26):
Because it won't no system will work for you if
you allow you, if your emotionsend up just taking control of it
all. And Right. If you'reunaware of that, that's that's
the worst case scenario.
Nick Oswald (28:37):
I really think this is worth diving into. So, again,
next time we'll look at asystem, but I think it might
also be we have a discussion andwe'll talk, talk about how to
approach it. But after the nextafter we talk about the system,
we'll do another episode thatkind of pulls us all together
and talks about how do youhandle those emotions to stop
yourself being, sidetracked andderailing any to do process.
(29:00):
Because really those threethings together explain the
emotions, explain the practicalsystem, and then put them
together. If you can get thatright, if we can get that right,
that's gonna help a lot ofpeople to to stay productive,
and reduce stress in their lifea lot, in the professional life
especially.
And I'm taking notes already, sothis is gonna be great.
Kenneth Vogt (29:23):
Well and and folks you're seeing here live on live
and on on camera, Nick isputting things on my to do list.
And you'll notice too I pushedback a little bit. I said, no. I
think we needed to do this partfirst. But I didn't say, okay.
Now you can't put that on thelist. I was like, no. He's
right. He's right. And and Ineed to sway to that.
(29:46):
You know? I need to say, okay. Ieven though I wanted to talk
about emotion, the the the factsand figures part of this is also
an important part of theconversation. And I love the tie
up of okay. Now now that we'velearned both sides of this,
let's let's look at the outcomeand see see how people actually
implement.
So
Nick Oswald (30:05):
Cool. So next time, look out for, the invitation to
the to the next Happy Sciencewebinar. We will I will explain
a system that pulls together afew different methodologies that
helps you to, to maintain a zeroinbox, to maintain, you don't
have to hold things in your headanymore, and you, you have
(30:26):
always have, an ordered set of,priorities that that you can
work to on a day to day basis.So a little day to day system
you can use to keep this allunder control. Yes.
This this, just a question justcame in. This has been recorded.
You'll be able to find it on,on, Bite Size Bio afterwards.
(30:49):
Look out for the invitation.I'll talk about that system, and
then we'll, then we'll delveinto it in a in a subsequent
episode.
But this is quite transformativebecause it's a really important
topic, and, yeah, what Ken'sjust talked about today is the
missing piece for me in thatjigsaw. So it's gonna be quite
interesting. So Cool. Thank youvery much.
Kenneth Vogt (31:10):
I wanna comment on the practical out Sure. Part of
this.
Nick Oswald (31:13):
Go ahead.
Kenneth Vogt (31:14):
It probably won't be the next episode you see
because other other episodeshave already been advertised,
but it'll be soon. We it it willhappen.
Nick Oswald (31:24):
We'll see. We'll have a discussion. Anyway, okay.
Thank you very much, Ken, forthe very Alright. Thanks.
Insightful, as usual, insightfulepisode. And thanks everyone for
listening in and putting yourquestions in, whether, whether
that be live or on demand. Ifyou're listening on demand and
(31:44):
you want to put your questionsin, you can do that on our
Facebook page at facebook.com,the happy scientist podcast, or
using the contact form on BiteSize Bio. You can get to us
there. Remember, if this is yourfirst episode, go back to the
beginning of this podcast and,and listen to the foundational
(32:04):
episodes.
The first is it the first six orso Ken? I really go down and
they and and talk aboutfundamental mindsets that we
refer to back and forward inthese, these episodes. Is it the
first 6?
Kenneth Vogt (32:18):
Yep.
Nick Oswald (32:18):
Yeah. Okay. You're now I have to look. Yeah. I
think it's 6.
6 or 8 anyway. And, of course,tell please tell your
colleagues, any colleagues thatyou think would, benefit from
this, please tell them about theHappy Scientist so that we can,
get this great stuff out to themand help more people. Until
then, good luck in your researchand goodbye from all of us at
(32:41):
Bite Size Bio, including misterMiyagi.
Kenneth Vogt (32:45):
Bye
Intro/Outro (32:50):
The happy scientist is brought to you by Bite Size
Bio, your mentor in the lab.Bite Size Bio features thousands
of articles and webinarscontributed by hundreds of PhD
scientists and scientificcompanies who freely offer their
hard won wisdom and solutions tothe bite sized bio
Kenneth Vogt (33:10):
community.
This is the Happy Scientist podcast. Each episode
is designed to make you morefocused, more productive, and
more satisfied in the lab. Youcan find us online at
bitesizebio.com/happy scientist.Your hosts are Kenneth Vogt,
founder of the executivecoaching firm, Vera Claritas,
and doctor Nick Oswald, PhD,bioscientist, and founder of
(00:53):
Bite Size Bio.
Nick Oswald (00:59):
Hello. This is Nick Oswald welcoming you to this
Bite Size Bio webinar whichtoday is a live episode of the
Happy Scientist podcast. If youwould like to become a happier,
healthier, and more productivescientist, you are in the right
place. With me as always is theBite Size Bio Team's mister
Miyagi. His name is misterKenneth Vogt.
(01:20):
In these sessions, we hear fromKen mostly on principles that
will help shape you for ahappier and more successful
career. And all along the way,I'll pitch in with points from
my personal experience as ascientist and from working with
Ken myself. If you have anyquestions along the way, put
them into the questions box onthe side of your screen and I'll
put them to Ken, and today wewill be discussing what makes it
(01:42):
onto your to do list and why.Over to you Ken. Alright.
Kenneth Vogt (01:48):
You know, in the past, we have talked about
having a a not to do list, butsooner or later, I knew I needed
to get around to talking aboutthat common thing that that
everybody has to have. You gottahave some way of organizing the
stuff you need to get done anygiven day. And, typically, we
call it a to do go to do list.Here's the thing about this,
(02:11):
though. There there's 2 parts tothis this question that is what
and why.
So, you know, first, we have tolook at what is even getting on
to our to do list. It stufffloats out there, and it doesn't
get examined. It's just you getconfronted with a task, and, you
(02:31):
know, you dutifully add it toyour list. And that's not a
terrible thing to do. Sometimesyou you don't wanna second guess
everything that comes your wayand just get it down there and,
you know, we'll we'll deal withit.
Now there are some things thatsome red flags do pop up when
when a task is presented to you,and that's when you start
(02:55):
getting into the why. You know?Why why would I wanna put this
on my to do list? And it couldbe because you feel compelled to
do it. It could be becausesomebody else feels compelled
for you to do it.
It could be because somebodyelse has authority to tell you
to do it. I mean, there's thereare various possibilities, but
(03:16):
you just need to be aware ofwhat's happening. Why why this
thing? Why should this make itonto my list? Because I'm sure
we've all had that situationwhere we decide to get back into
really using a to do list.
Because, you know, we we wereusing it for a while, and then
we sort of stopped, and then werealized why we used to have a
(03:38):
to do list. Then we end up witha list that every day we get
down the line and there's 10things on it, and we crossed off
2 of them. And they weren't eventhe first 2 or the most
important 2. They were just 2.And then we take those other 8,
and we just move forward totomorrow where we're as likely
(03:59):
to finish 2 of them, you know,as a and not likely to finish 8
of them.
So it's like, that's not afunctional functional way to to
handle your to do list. Andwe're gonna talk about why that
happens today. It's not so muchabout the the mechanics of using
a to do list because chances areyou're familiar with that. And
(04:21):
in fact, we've talked about itelsewhere, and others have
talked about it in their wholebooks about it. But I wanna talk
about what is happeningunderneath, not just the facts
and figures of what's in it onyour to do list, but the other
factors.
So another factor that pops upis who. Who set the priority
(04:46):
here? Who is making me put thison my to do list? You know,
there's there's all kinds ofpossibilities there. And it
could be did it to yourself.
It could be that it's your boss.And, you know, when your boss
assigned you tasks, that kindamatters. Right? You don't leave
something off the to do listbecause who do they think they
(05:08):
are? Well, they're the guy thatsigns my check.
I guess that does kinda matter.But other cases, it's
colleagues. You know, you'reworking in a collaborative
environment in the lab, andother people need you to do
things. And if you don't do yourpart, they can't do their part,
and and they won't do the thingsyou want them to do that would
(05:30):
help you. So, you know, there'sthere's that give and take of of
the social part of the job.
But mostly, the things that geton your to do list are things
that you assign to yourself. Andhow many of those things show up
there for purely emotionalreasons? Now you may look at
(05:51):
that and say, listen. I'm I'm aprofessional. You know?
I'm I'm a cold logician. I'm notbeing controlled by my emotions.
I'm not so much saying thatyou're being controlled by your
emotions, but the fact isemotions do play a part. And how
you feel about certain taskswill influence what you do. And
(06:15):
then and then not just how youhandle the task, but whether or
not that task even makes it ontoyour list.
Whether or not that task floatsup to the top of the list or
falls down to the bottom andkeeps getting passed over to the
next day and the next day andthe next day. So when we think
(06:35):
about the who of this, you know,there are there are people that
are getting things on our listbecause they're a nag. Right?
There are people that get on ourlist because they're a harpy.
They just make a lot of noise.
There are people that get thingsonto our list by being
condescending. Well, youwouldn't fail to do this, would
you? And then there are thosethat get things on your list
(06:58):
just by being control freaks.They might be your boss, but
they might not be. They might bethey might be a Cali or there
was somebody even outside ofyour normal process, but you
just you can't avoid theirefforts to control you.
And then finally, all of thesethings, the nag, the heartbeat,
the condescender, the controlfreak, they all likely are
(07:22):
aspects of yourself. Now nowsome of those things you might
take umbrage at. Right? Some ofthose things you might be
offended of. Don't you can callme you can call me a harpy, but
don't you dare call me a controlfreak.
Well, if you're having anemotional response to any of
these labels being attached toyou, that is something you
(07:45):
really need to look at becausechances are there's some truth
in it. And, you know, it's it'san interesting thing how
emotions will guide us back tofacts. You know what? If it's
just if it's just the cold hardnumbers, like, look. This has to
be done by Friday.
(08:06):
It's gonna take me 3 days. I'dbetter get it on my list today
and give myself a little wiggleroom. Okay. That's reasonable.
And that's not a particularlyemotional thing to say.
But if it's, oh my god. It's dueon Friday. I I I I haven't even
started yet. What am I gonna do?I mean, we know when we're
having that kind of response tostuff, and we do need to take
(08:29):
note of it.
And we're we're costingourselves additional stress
because, you know, it's Monday.A task that will take me 3 days
will easily be done by Friday aslong as other things aren't
getting in the way. I don't needto be emotional about that. I
don't need to I don't need tohave my emotions control me
about that. Let's put it thatway.
Because I never wanna say thatyou're being wrong because you
(08:50):
have a feeling about something.Because, you know, emotions are
part of the human experience,and we are surrounded by other
people that are emotional too.And it's one of the reasons why
they're trying to get thingsunder our to do list. So if we
just we just accept thatemotions occur. I I remember.
(09:12):
You you know you know the, youknow you know the popular
saying, and I I won't repeat ithere, Joel. We're we're gonna
keep it very family friendlyhere even though we're talking
to all adults here. And I saw at shirt once that distract me.
It said, doo doo occurs. Andthat that that is just a nice
(09:33):
polite way to say what happens.
And that that doo doo isemotions. Yeah. Our our
emotional response to task willimpact how we decide to do them,
when we decide to do them, howwill we execute them. And if you
don't process that stuff, itwill have impacts on you. It
(09:54):
will it will affect yourprofessionalism.
It'll affect your productivity.It'll impact how dependable you
are, how responsible you are areconsidered to be. You know, all
that stuff matters. And on onthe on the plus side of it,
though, on on the good side isthere's nothing wrong with
(10:16):
having emotions about stuff,about tasks you need to do,
about things that that areassociated with your job. It's
just a matter of recognizing itand realizing it's part of part
of what happens and giving otherpeople room for it too, because
they're gonna have passionsabout things, and they're gonna
have opinions about things.
(10:37):
And, and that may be why they'repushing you to do certain
things, which then, of course,make it to your to do list. So
I'm gonna pause for a secondhere and take a breath, and
we'll see if Nick wants to addanything up to now.
Nick Oswald (10:56):
I'm trying to figure out what this all this
has to do with chocolate icecream, but anyway.
Kenneth Vogt (11:03):
Yeah. It was the friendliest picture I could
find.
Nick Oswald (11:07):
With chocolate buttons. Okay. The yeah. I don't
know. To to do list is myAchilles' heel as a or an
Achilles' heel of mine and but II do know this I do know some
good systems, for controllingit.
And but I but the emotionalresponse is what scuppers it.
And it's quite interesting. Idon't think I've ever heard you
(11:28):
talk about it from this angle.It just make you you put things
off. It's probably resonateswith a lot of people.
You put things off because youthink it's gonna be difficult or
it's gonna take too long orsomething. And
Kenneth Vogt (11:43):
Or all kinds of things that where you've
attached a reason.
Nick Oswald (11:46):
Yeah. And then
Kenneth Vogt (11:48):
Well, this is my reasonable response when it's
actually your emotionalresponse.
Nick Oswald (11:52):
Yeah. And then you, and then they stay on the list
for ages and they that causesmore emotions, and then you just
feel crowded, then you stopusing the to do list. And before
you know it, you're you'reliving out of emails as your to
do list and and then you'rechocolate chocolate ice cream
creak.
Kenneth Vogt (12:09):
Exactly. And and and, you know, we don't want.
Nobody wants that. Nobody wantsto be living as a pinata that's
just being smacked around byanybody and everybody. So let me
move on to this this notionhere.
The idea of bad associationsspoil useful habits. It's a
(12:30):
great phrase. Comes comes from alawyer, but it's a great phrase.
And how you feel aboutcompleting certain tasks and how
you feel about the peopleinvolved can have a huge impact
on what you do, when you do it,how well you do it, and whether
it gets the priority it should.And we all know those the we
(12:53):
have those those button pushingissues.
You know? There's a job thatneeds to be done, but it
involves that person. I don'tlike dealing with that person. I
don't like working with them. Idon't like responding to them.
And even though the task itselfmay not be a problem, the
association with that personbecomes a problem for us. It
(13:14):
could be something as simple aslike, oh, there's that email
I've been putting off respondingto and putting off, and I just
don't wanna have to deal withit. And it's just it's just an
email. And there are otheremails. We're we're firing off
replies, all kinds of otherstuff, but there's that one.
Well, we don't wanna deal withthat. And, again, it's the
association with something aboutit that that bothers us. Or, you
(13:39):
know, in the lab, you're dealingwith with some pretty high-tech
instruments, and some of themtake take skill and training and
and, I say some of them. All ofthem do, but some of them take
more skill and training thanothers. And maybe you're
intimidated by that instrument,and that's enough to slow you
down on a particular task.
(14:00):
And it's just a matter of, well,I either have to get better at
this or I've gotta take theextra time to get more skilled
or I've gotta ask for help. Youknow, whatever it is, there's
the association with the taskthat is what's the actual
problem. So we because we lookat the task, say, well, I'm not
avoiding the task. I'm avoidingwhat's associated with the task.
(14:25):
And when you uncover that, itmay make you realize, I see a
pattern here.
I see what's happened to me. Andwe may then too realize that,
well, there's a way out of this.I need to I need to bury the
hatchet with that person. Youknow, we've had some bad blood.
I gotta gotta work that out.
Or we've had somemiscommunication. I I need to
(14:46):
unravel that. Or maybe it's Ineed to get more skilled. Maybe
I need to ask for training.Maybe I need to ask for
mentorship.
So start looking for whatassociations are causing you
trepidation or are pushing youaway. Because sometimes the task
itself, it doesn't appear clear.Like, why wouldn't I do this?
(15:09):
It's just it's just the task.It's just respond to the email.
It's just run this test. Whatwhy would I avoid that? Well,
the reason why is for some ofthese other factors. So look for
them. And, you know, you do haveto you have to engage yourself
on this because this is this ishappening within you.
(15:31):
Your emotions are very personal.And I don't mean to say that
they can't be shared with othersor that you're embarrassed about
them or anything like that. It'sjust nobody else really knows
what's going on inside of you.You though know what's going on
inside of you. And it'simportant for you to to keep
(15:51):
strengthening how well you knowwhat's happening inside of
yourself.
Now when we when we look to theexterior, the the fact is you
are dealing with other peopleand you have people that have
authority and power over you.So, you know, are other people
pulling your strings in such away that's causing you problems?
(16:11):
You know? We mentioned somebodymight be nagging. Somebody might
be condescending, or maybesomebody who's micromanaging.
And, you know, if you're puttingoff things because you're trying
to avoid that entanglement withthe task, well, you need to be
aware of that, especially ifit's gonna be detrimental to
you. If you're avoidingsomething because you're bugged
(16:34):
about the micromanagement. Butif you don't do the task, it's
gonna hurt you. You know? So youyou wanna be aware of that.
And there's there's combinationsof this stuff going on at any
given moment. I'm being naggedabout this task. I'm being
micromanaged about this task.I'm being both nagged and
(16:54):
micromanaged about this othertask. You know, it's good to
know the mix and just just getsome clarity about that.
And remember, these are justfacts. You where where you're
likely reacting is youremotional response to the facts.
I've gotten 3 emails and a phonecall from my boss. Those are
(17:16):
just facts. If that stressesyou, that's that is a totally
different factor.
If if it's just, you know,somebody I don't care that
they're calling, I don't care ifthey're emailing, well, there's
not not a huge emotional factorthere. But, you you know, you
need to to look at yourself andsay, what is what is the
(17:38):
environment that this task on myto do list lives in or this
potential task for my to dolist? And then and then you go
from there. So the bottom lineis it all comes down to
awareness, and I'm talking aboutself awareness. We've talked
about this before.
(17:59):
Awareness has actually becomequite a hotbed topic in the
scientific world. It used to bethought of as kind of this woo
woo thing that was that was outthere on the fringes. It's like,
it's not. It's now been studiedquite extensively, actually, and
and it has been well establishedthat maintaining awareness,
(18:22):
situational awareness,interpersonal awareness,
personal awareness, all of thosethings will have a huge impact
on your productivity, how wellyou accomplish tasks, how
successful you are in overall,it's absolutely a career
building thing to hone your ownawareness. It can make you more
(18:45):
productive.
It can make you more dependable.As a result, that can make you
more influential. I mean, all ofthese things are huge upside.
And then, of course, as youaccomplish more tasks, you get
more experience. And when youget more experience, you get
more confidence.
And that allows you to handlethings easier and harder. And
(19:10):
things things that used to beuncomfortable become
comfortable. And now people arewilling to say, hey. Bob is the
guy to handle this this thisscary new thing. And when you're
Bob, you know, that's that's nota bad thing.
Now, I mean, if you'reconstantly being being assigned
as firefighter, you know, maybethat's not the best of
(19:33):
environments. But if you'reaware of that and if you if
you're okay with it, great. Ifyou're not okay with it, being
aware of it, it will allow youto put a stop to it. All these
things are the benefits ofstaying aware and being aware of
your own your own emotionalreactions is useful even if
(19:54):
they're just kind of low burningbehind the scenes. Nobody else
knows about it, but this thingannoys you a bit.
This thing scares you a littlebit. This thing tires you a
little bit. If you're aware ofthat, great. But you may also
find too that this excites you.This piques your curiosity, this
(20:19):
feels well within yourwheelhouse and, like, you're
super confident about it.
Those are all aspects ofawareness too. It's not all
about looking for problems. Youknow, sometimes you wanna look
for things that are making youfeel good and feel confident and
make you want to go to workevery day and make you want to
do the job. So I will pauseagain for you, Nick.
Nick Oswald (20:40):
Well, I think that this is this is this is another
one of these episodes where Iwonder whether you made it for
me because I'm I'm right here atthe moment and I've been trying
to figure out that I I thoughtyou were gonna talk about a
system today, the to do listsystem. I think we should
actually do a presentation onthat at some point soon, because
(21:00):
there's well documented systemsfor managing to do list and so
on, and I know them inside outand but I'm not doing it and I
haven't done it for a long timeand and I and I've been trying
to figure out why And it's ayou've just brought me to the
the the awareness that thereason is so there's a straight
(21:21):
and narrow path of operatingthat system, and it means you
diligently do what you need todo. You organize your you know,
what comes in, you triage, youdo what's needed Mhmm. And you
keep tracking on and thingsdon't build up. Okay?
You don't you don't build up,you don't carry tasks on and on
and on. You you you you you workthe system again. We can talk
(21:44):
about it in another episode. Andand then, it works for you. The
reason it stops working is whenyou get into a cycle where
instead of on that straight andnarrow path where you just do
everything regardless of what itis, you know, when it needs to
be done, You get passed intoeither doing what you the bits
of it that you enjoy most orthat you like the most or into
(22:08):
the ones that panic you themost.
Right? Because you need to getit done today or because someone
is breathing down your neck orbecause, oh my god, I've left
this has been on the the the todo list for weeks and it hasn't
been done, you know. And, and soyou end up into the cycle that
what's driving you is, for me,it's that. It's the second one
(22:28):
of those. It's not doing whatare the best that I like the
most all the time.
There's a little bit of that,but it's mostly the avoiding
doing that straight and narrowpath and getting passed on to
doing, you know, things thatjust needs to be done.
Everything's last minute. And
Kenneth Vogt (22:45):
Right.
Nick Oswald (22:46):
Then that just creates its own stress, and that
stress then just, you know, goesup in a spiral where it ends up
that all you have time to do isthe things that are the last
minute.
Kenneth Vogt (22:57):
Right.
Nick Oswald (22:57):
And and then and and one other aspect, that might
just be me. Right? I don't knowif that's everyone. If it is,
then put tell me in the answersin the questions and or or or
what what is what is yourversion of this? But that's my
version of this.
One other other thing thatstruck me is that one thing that
people leave off their to dolist, a lot and then that's and
(23:20):
are the first things that falloff that straight and narrow
path are time for creativity andtime for rest. And and so then
that's what happens. You get youcan get sucked so much into that
one side of what you have to door or, you know, which is the
stuff that really needs to bedone now that you forget all of
this other stuff and it justcreates this ball of, oh my god.
(23:41):
I'm never getting out of this,and, all I'm doing is things
that needed to be done 3 daysago. You know?
Kenneth Vogt (23:47):
Yeah. Yeah. There's there's another pattern
that some folks fall into isthey look at their list and go,
what's the easiest thing to do?And that's what they do. And
then it's like, oh, what's thenext easiest thing to do?
What they end up doing then isonly the easy stuff. They never
do the hard stuff. So, you know,I will make a suggestion there.
When you look at your list likethat, you know, first, there are
(24:12):
time relevant tasks. Well, thismeeting happens at this time, so
that's when I got it's at 9 AM.
That's when I gotta do it. Butthere are other things that are
just that that don't have thetime constriction. At the start
of your day, when you'refreshest or whatever you're
freshest, you you know your ownpattern. Although I think it is
typical people to be fresherfirst thing for the day, do the
(24:36):
hardest thing on your listfirst. Do the thing you least
wanna do first.
Get it over with. Because ifthat's on your list and you
every time you look at your listagain, it's like, there's that
ugly thing. I'm gonna dosomething else. The The next
time you look at your list, thatugly thing is still there. You
know?
And that'll keep happening overand over again, and you're
(24:57):
giving yourself a bad experienceover and over again even as
you're accomplishing things, andit doesn't feel like
accomplishment. Whereas if youget that one ugly thing done
first, great. You know, rip theband aid off, get it over with.
And often, as you get intothings, you find they're not as
hard as you thought. And or youfind at least you're up to it.
(25:20):
You can handle it. So thatthat's just another pattern that
people fall into. But, yes,Nick, we can have an episode
talking about these systems thatyou know well, and you could
take the lead on that one.
Nick Oswald (25:34):
Yeah. I'll tell you what the systems I know very
well, and I teach other peopleand so on and don't do myself
because I do exactly what youjust said, which I didn't
realize was a was another layer.But, yeah, that's interesting.
You you're always every day is aschool day.
Kenneth Vogt (25:50):
Well, you know, I I I wanted to cover the
emotional side of this becauseso many people that are engaged
in this level of science, youknow, they're all about the
facts and figures. They're allabout the data. They'll they
live in that world constantly.That isn't necessarily your most
(26:13):
natural spot. And sometimes weforget how human we really are.
And we think, well, that's beingchildish. That's being immature.
But, no, it's not. It's beinghuman. There's nothing wrong
with emotion.
Emotion is a very useful tool.It has kept the human race alive
for, you know, all thesegenerations. We're still here.
(26:37):
You'll notice that emotions havenever been evolved out of us.
They're important.
They play a role, and we wannamake positive use of them. We
wanna make effective use ofthem. And when it comes to a
practical thing like a to dolist, this is this is a great
way to show an example of here'show to use your emotion to steer
(26:58):
things in a proper direction.Well, that was pretty much what
I wanted to talk about today. Isthere anything else you wanted
to add, Nick?
Nick Oswald (27:12):
Well, no. Apart from well, maybe we could talk
about I I think I was expectingso I don't always know what you
were going you're gonna say inthese, these things. And in this
case, I thought you were gonnatalk about the practicality
rather than the emotion. I Ithink it'd be really great to
maybe next time, for us to to dothat one about the, about to do
(27:36):
list systems and then refer backto this, this emotional side of
how it can get sidetracked.There's a couple of questions
come in about, you know, how doyou, tackle things on your to do
list, when the how do I don'tknow.
How do you how do you meanmotivation and focus, and how do
(27:58):
you tackle things that ariseunexpectedly on your, to do list
or unexpected priorities arrive?Those are the practicality side.
There there is emotion involvedthere actually as well. Sure.
The the system so what we talkedabout today was the system, the
emotion rather, the emotionalside handling the emotional side
that that will derail any systemyou put in place if you let it
(28:21):
and
Kenneth Vogt (28:21):
next Exactly. That that that's why I think it's
important that we cover thisfirst.
Nick Oswald (28:25):
Okay.
Kenneth Vogt (28:26):
Because it won't no system will work for you if
you allow you, if your emotionsend up just taking control of it
all. And Right. If you'reunaware of that, that's that's
the worst case scenario.
Nick Oswald (28:37):
I really think this is worth diving into. So, again,
next time we'll look at asystem, but I think it might
also be we have a discussion andwe'll talk, talk about how to
approach it. But after the nextafter we talk about the system,
we'll do another episode thatkind of pulls us all together
and talks about how do youhandle those emotions to stop
yourself being, sidetracked andderailing any to do process.
(29:00):
Because really those threethings together explain the
emotions, explain the practicalsystem, and then put them
together. If you can get thatright, if we can get that right,
that's gonna help a lot ofpeople to to stay productive,
and reduce stress in their lifea lot, in the professional life
especially.
And I'm taking notes already, sothis is gonna be great.
Kenneth Vogt (29:23):
Well and and folks you're seeing here live on live
and on on camera, Nick isputting things on my to do list.
And you'll notice too I pushedback a little bit. I said, no. I
think we needed to do this partfirst. But I didn't say, okay.
Now you can't put that on thelist. I was like, no. He's
right. He's right. And and Ineed to sway to that.
(29:46):
You know? I need to say, okay. Ieven though I wanted to talk
about emotion, the the the factsand figures part of this is also
an important part of theconversation. And I love the tie
up of okay. Now now that we'velearned both sides of this,
let's let's look at the outcomeand see see how people actually
implement.
So
Nick Oswald (30:05):
Cool. So next time, look out for, the invitation to
the to the next Happy Sciencewebinar. We will I will explain
a system that pulls together afew different methodologies that
helps you to, to maintain a zeroinbox, to maintain, you don't
have to hold things in your headanymore, and you, you have
(30:26):
always have, an ordered set of,priorities that that you can
work to on a day to day basis.So a little day to day system
you can use to keep this allunder control. Yes.
This this, just a question justcame in. This has been recorded.
You'll be able to find it on,on, Bite Size Bio afterwards.
(30:49):
Look out for the invitation.I'll talk about that system, and
then we'll, then we'll delveinto it in a in a subsequent
episode.
But this is quite transformativebecause it's a really important
topic, and, yeah, what Ken'sjust talked about today is the
missing piece for me in thatjigsaw. So it's gonna be quite
interesting. So Cool. Thank youvery much.
Kenneth Vogt (31:10):
I wanna comment on the practical out Sure. Part of
this.
Nick Oswald (31:13):
Go ahead.
Kenneth Vogt (31:14):
It probably won't be the next episode you see
because other other episodeshave already been advertised,
but it'll be soon. We it it willhappen.
Nick Oswald (31:24):
We'll see. We'll have a discussion. Anyway, okay.
Thank you very much, Ken, forthe very Alright. Thanks.
Insightful, as usual, insightfulepisode. And thanks everyone for
listening in and putting yourquestions in, whether, whether
that be live or on demand. Ifyou're listening on demand and
(31:44):
you want to put your questionsin, you can do that on our
Facebook page at facebook.com,the happy scientist podcast, or
using the contact form on BiteSize Bio. You can get to us
there. Remember, if this is yourfirst episode, go back to the
beginning of this podcast and,and listen to the foundational
(32:04):
episodes.
The first is it the first six orso Ken? I really go down and
they and and talk aboutfundamental mindsets that we
refer to back and forward inthese, these episodes. Is it the
first 6?
Kenneth Vogt (32:18):
Yep.
Nick Oswald (32:18):
Yeah. Okay. You're now I have to look. Yeah. I
think it's 6.
6 or 8 anyway. And, of course,tell please tell your
colleagues, any colleagues thatyou think would, benefit from
this, please tell them about theHappy Scientist so that we can,
get this great stuff out to themand help more people. Until
then, good luck in your researchand goodbye from all of us at
(32:41):
Bite Size Bio, including misterMiyagi.
Kenneth Vogt (32:45):
Bye
Intro/Outro (32:50):
The happy scientist is brought to you by Bite Size
Bio, your mentor in the lab.Bite Size Bio features thousands
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Kenneth Vogt (33:10):
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