Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear:

--how Maura Nevel Thomas became an expert in time-management skills

--why you need to use your to-do list differently than you think

--how to determine your priorities

--why life-hacks don’t help

--and why being productive and being busy aren’t the same thing.

Today’s book is: From To-Do to Done: How to Go From Busy to Productive by Mastering Your To-Do List, by Maura Nevel Thomas. Trying to remember a bunch of details and tasks isn't the best use of your brainpower. By collecting all of your tasks in one place, you can reserve your mental energy for work that drives significant results, both in your professional life and your personal life. Rather than just another book on time management, Thomas helps you figure out and then focus on the things that matter to you, to feel more in control, less overwhelmed, and a greater sense of accomplishment now that you're focusing on what's important to you.

Our guest is: Maura Nevel Thomas, an award-winning international speaker and trainer on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System has been embraced by the likes of the U.S. Army, L’Oreal, and Dell. She is a TEDx Speaker, founder of Regain Your Time, author of five books, and was named a Top Leadership Speaker in Inc. Magazine. Maura is frequently featured in major business outlets including Business Insider, Fast Company, and Huffington Post, and she’s also a regular contributor to both Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, with articles there viewed over a million times. Follow her on Twitter @mnthomas.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

--the links for the Brain-Dump PDF referenced in this podcast and directions for how to use it, which can be found on pages 18 and 19 in From To-Do to Done

--Atomic Habits, by James Clear

--Smart Change, by Art Markman

--Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity Every Day, by Maura Nevel Thomas

-- The Happy Inbox, by Maura Nevel Thomas

--The companion guide for From To-Do to Done: Download the guide now!

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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854: The Motive of the Monsters // Spiritual Lessons from WW1 15 (Eric Ludy)