Undo – How history's outliers got stuff done
An investigation into how history’s oddballs, outliers, and overachievers built systems to help them do their best work. Each episode unearths a so-called productivity hack from history to help you separate the brilliant from the bullshit, so you can build a methodology that works for you. Productivity isn’t about getting more done to feed a money-seeking monster with an ever-growing appetite. It’s about clearing the clutter so you can focus on what you do best. Because if Edison can invent the lightbulb without Inbox Zero, you can probably survive without 10x-ing your toothbrush routine.
Episodes
Modern work pressures call for some radical resistance, and we’re going to look for it where resistance is needed most: the frontline battle against oppression.
Check out our guest's podcast, You Are Not a Frog.
Am I Stressed, Overwhelmed... or Burning Out?
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Is there anything this 94 year-old business mogul can teach us about our attitude towards work and busyness?
Check out our guest's podcast, You Are Not a Frog.
Am I Stressed, Overwhelmed... or Burning Out?
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Highlights from Mark's podcast dedicated to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which covers – if not skewers – the subject of productivity in the loving image of Douglas Adams.
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We need a system to keep our brain clear of all those nagging little tasks and bits of info we arry with us, so it can focus on having better ideas.
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We can learn a lot from the world of manufacture and bring it into the work that we do.
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The whip-cracking "give it all you got" business bro bullshit isn’t just insensitive – it’s actually wrong.
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Modern work needs a more modern approach than Taylorism's simple "one right way". Enter systems theory, and one of its greatest proponents.
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He’s the world’s first and only consulting detective, and his mind has fascinated us for over a hundred and thirty years. His methods are mysterious and complex, but goddammit he gets results.
So what can Baker Street’s most famous resident teach us about how we do our most important work?
Special thanks to this week's guest, Matthew Bellringer.
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Could there be more to habit building than “just showing up”? On those days when you can’t find the inspiration, is there anything you can do to help keep you on track?
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While we might not come up with a paradigm-shifting idea, we are capable of putting a dent in the universe, and putting something on the permanent record of the Internet.
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How you can use this law of nature, work, productivity and creativity to focus on the stuff that will have the biggest impact, and eventually ditch the rest.
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Being a creative person in this most digital of decades means needing to be good at more than one form of creative expression. That means thinking like a polymath, and luckily we have history’s greatest multi-hyphenate to learn from.
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Let’s spend a bit of time today with some of the women of productivity history, some of whom you know, some we’ll meet for the first time.
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If you have to meet any kind of regular publishing schedule, you’ll know how time can stretch out into infinity until the night before you have to hit Publish, when suddenly it feels like you have to cram 8 hours of work into 30 minutes.
But Benjamin Franklin had a neat little system that helped him keep on top of his commitments, and all it takes is a pen, some paper, and a watch.
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Inbox Zero is a pretty good way of organising your email, but behind the system is a dude who stepped off the hamster wheel of productivity, got some perspective, and became one of the Internet’s true treasures.
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Simple mistakes are more common than it’s comfortable to admit. But there’s a dirt-simple technique that has dramatically reduced the number of preventable deaths, and it’s stuff we can use to make our own lives run more smoothly.
Thanks to Ayesha Khan of Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever* for lending her voice to Mark's silly opening sketch.
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When things look bleak, either in your head or out in the world, being “productive” is probably the furthest thing from your mind. We live in difficult times, no doubt, but two outliers a hundred years apart, fought oppression, propaganda, and dehumanisation all while under their own personal dark clouds.
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Can this analogue system for a digital age really help us get more done? Has it strayed from its roots and become synonymous with people who call things “super aesthetic”? And, if we can learn what we need to about the system in 3 minutes, why does it cost three and a half grand to learn to teach it?
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Time stands still and you’re in that sweet-spot where the work you're doing is challenging enough to hold your attention, but not so difficult that it causes you stress.
This is flow, and it might just prove itself to be one of the keys that unlocks long-term happiness.
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It’s four o’clock in the afternoon, and you’re thinking over your day. Did you actually get anything done, or were you just reacting to a bunch of distractions?
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