Task Management & Time Blocking Podcast

Ep 36 - Managing the Invisible - Hidden Sub-Tasks in Your Time Blocking

You are someone who does a great deal of time blocking in your calendar. You follow the best practice and don’t try to schedule big complex tasks - instead, you schedule their sub-tasks.
But how do you deal with tasks whose complexity is hidden? In other words, it contains far more sub-tasks than you imagined. When you come upon them, a 4-hour task can take 20 hours!
Is there anything you can do?
Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Trevor Lohrbeer, we tackle this wicked productivity problem together.

Ep 35 - Productive Surgery: Cutting Out Bad Moments from Meetings

Once again, you find yourself caught in a bad meeting. As you glance at your watch, you are hoping it will end quickly, and put you out of your misery. Why? Little of value is being accomplished.
But how can you make sure this problem goes away? If you’re in an organization, ”Saying No” may give you some relief, but it does not solve the underlying issue. In fact, you are not sure anything will!
Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Ben Kirk, we solve this wicked problem together.
 

Ep 34 - Initial Capture of Tasks - Why is Capacity a Problem? w Brad Aeon

You are someone who is well acquainted with the skill of capturing. In other words, you know that it’s important to write everything down that’s important. You know better than to keep it all in your head - that’s a basic productivity lesson.
But lately, you have noticed that the number of things you need to write own, or capture, has exploded. It seems like just the other day when a Post-it note was enough. Now, you are writing everything down in something like a notebook and you feel as if you still can’t catch up.
What’s wrong? What else should you be doing?
Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Brad Aeon, as we solve this wicked task management problem together.

Ep. 33 - How to Find Time to Plan a Business Strategy

You are in charge of implementing your company’s new strategic plan. It includes some brilliant new ideas which should shake up your industry, and even introduce the world to a new category of products and services.
But you are a bit wary because prior strategic plans barely made it off the PowerPoint pages. They weren’t implemented due to a common complaint - no-one had the time.
You have every reason to be worried, but what should you do about the problem?
Tune into this episode to join me in tackling this wicked problem from two perspectives at once…task management and strategic planning.
Show Notes
Perfect Time-Based Productivity https://perfect.mytimedesign.com
How CEOs Manage Time (hbr.org) (Nohria/Porter)
Meetingless Meetings Link
How to Deal with Other People’s Weak Time Management Skills – Perfect Time-Based Productivity (mytimedesign.com)
 
 
 

Ep 32 How Do I Measure My Success as a Business-Person?

You’re someone who launches personal projects to improve your task management. You have made a number of changes in the past, but you haven’t seen the impact you wanted from each effort.
Is there something going on that you cannot see? Are some changes more fruitful than others?
After all, you know a thing or two about systemic change: that seemingly small improvements can yield disproportionate, breakthrough results. It applies to other areas of life…but how about your task management?
Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Danielle Baily, as we tackle this challenging problem together.

Ep 31.5 - Season Two Opener: Why Focus on Self-Diagnosis?

You are a productivity enthusiast who has been around task management for a while. Over the years, you have made lots of useful improvements and can say that you have made tangible progress.
 
However, it’s been some time since you felt that *before* and *after* feeling… where you had a productivity problem, found a solution, implemented it and saw positive outcomes. 
 
Getting that feeling of making progress is much more difficult. You just can’t find the improvements you want by following anyone’s one-size-fits-all approach.
Somehow, you must find your own way.  If this is your first time listening to this podcast, you may not know that there are many others just like you. 
But they don’t just listen to this podcast to hear from experts. They attend my conference on Task Management & Time Blocking, read my book, join the Mighty taskers community and enjoy the training I offer.
And they find other thought leaders in the vast world beyond one-size-fits-all solutions which help them continue their improvement journey.
Not that this is the easy path to follow. It definitely is not. But it’s the one that bears the greatest fruit in the long run. It requires fresh skills in self-diagnosis in your task management and time blocking.
If this engages you in any way, welcome to Season 2 of the Task Management & Time Blocking Podcast.

Ep 31 - What I learned in Season One of the Podcast

You have been listening to this podcast for a few episodes. You have taken note of the format, which is different. We don’t do traditional interviews, but instead we do problem solving sessions inviting some of the brightest minds in the world to tackle emerging issues.
But what is it like to host such a series? Have I learned anything from being the host and what can I share after 32 episodes?
In this solo episode, I’ll be sharing my experience and what you can take away from the lineup of guests I have had on the show.
 

Ep 30 - When You Need to Share Your Task Management Software

Your company has come up with a bright idea. From now on, the announcement states, everyone will share the same task management software. It’s sold as a win-win for everyone.
But you quickly realize that this is a problem. Your favorite task management software will now be a side-show as you are forced to change your practices.
Gone are some things you like to do using your software’s new features. Also, there will be some shared tasks that everyone can see.
You’re not sure if this is a good thing or bad, or what you should do about it.
Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Renee Clair, as we solve this wicked problem together.

Ep 29 - Auto-scheduler Overview 2022

Almost everyone who time-blocks manually for enough time, starts to wonder what it would be like to automate some of the overheard. Wouldn’t it be nice to click a button and see everything instantly assigned to an optimal time slot in their calendar?
But does such software even exist? The good news is that it does and in this conversation with Dr Melanie Wilson, we update our prior 2018 recording comparing 6 auto-schedulers.
Should you be using one of these AI-infused apps? Tune in to find out what we discovered and you could save some time, stress and even money.

Ep 28 - Can working less mean working better?

Are you someone who works really long hours, not because you are forced to maybe…you could really love what you’re doing! But you have an inkling that maybe if you put those hard work hours elsewhere, perhaps it could actually benefit your entire life…including the quality of work you’re doing.
If this resonates with you at all, join me and Jason VanDevere as we tackle this challenging issue.