How I Work

How much time did you spend this morning making decisions about what to eat, what to wear and how to get to work? While these may seem like small and inconsequential decisions, it turns out they could be doing damage to the rest of your day.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Natasha Pincus. Natasha is a Writer and Director who is probably most well known for her very distinctive music videos that she has created for artists including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, and Powderfinger. Where you are probably most familiar with her work though is through her video for Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”, which has been viewed over 1 billion times on YouTube and was awarded the first of Natasha’s back-to-back ARIAs for Best Music Video, and nominated for the MTV award for Best Music Video.We delve into how the Gotye video clip came to be, including: How Natasha came up with the idea for the clip Why the final video idea was actually her Plan B How you “train” for a 26 hour shoot The record label’s initial reaction to the clip And a whole lot more.And we also explore the many quirks about the way Natasha works, including: How Natasha uses the setting of daily goals to maintain motivation How she comes up with her best ideas The part of projects that she finds the most terrifying Her strategy for gaining momentum at the very beginning of projects When and where she comes up with her best ideas The times of day she reserves for creative work versus meetings How Natasha manages to keep the first three hours of her day distraction free. The critical role that Voice Memos play in her work How she uses wardrobe changes to partition her day How she uses repetitive tasks to overcome writer’s block How she builds exercise into her work You can find Natasha on Twitter @natashapincus, via her website Stark Raving Productions (http://starkravingproductions.com.au/), and on her Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/starkravingproductions).Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us don’t think very much about how we end our workday. We simply close our laptop, run to catch our train, go home and have some dinner, and often, re-open our laptop again while watching Netflix. By not having a proper “end” to our day, we are missing out on a big opportunity to boost our happiness and engagement in our work. This mini-episode describes four quick tasks that you can do to finish your workday on a high.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Scott D Anthony. Scott is global authority on innovation and the former managing partner of Innosight, the innovation and strategy consulting firm co-founded by Clayton Christensen. Scott has written several bestselling books and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review. Last year, Scott was awarded the Thinkers50 Innovation Award, which recognises the world’s leading thinkers on innovation.I’ve known Scott for a little while now because our innovation consultancies are starting to partner up on some projects, but up until now, I’d never had the chance to quiz Scott about how he works. We cover lots of different topics including: The places Scott goes to get his most focused work done How Scott makes the most out of time spent on airplanes How he breaks his day up into three shifts Why Scott finds his office the worst place to do creative work How Scott manages his energy when doing long focused blocks of work Scott’s process for coming up with his best ideas What Zombie projects are - and what to do about them How Scott removed 70% of his regular meetings from his diary Scott’s strategies for dealing with rejection When co-authoring works well - and when it doesn’t The advice that Clayton Christensen gave Scott that helped him become a better writer How Scott tests his new ideas You can find Scott on Twitter, on LinkedIn, at innovation and strategy consultancy Innosight, and you can drop him a note at santhony@innosight.comVisit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am yet to meet a person who loves attending meetings. Most people hate them, yet they are seen as a necessarily evil of corporate life. But while meetings may often be dull and sometimes yield few tangible results, they may be causing more harm than you think.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Dom Price. Dom is the Head of Research & Development and also the resident Work Futurist at Atlassian, one of the world’s biggest and fastest growing tech companies. Dom has responsibilities spanning 5 global R&D centres, and is the in house “Team Doctor” who helps Atlassian scale by being ruthlessly effective, all while keeping one eye on the future.I’ve known Dom for a few years now and one of the things I like most about Dom is that he is so contrarian in his views and he is not afraid to share them. We cover a lot of different topics in this chat ranging from: Dom's four L strategy to help make decisions on which projects to take on and when to say no Dom’s rhythm for goal-setting and staying focused on what matters The three questions Dom uses to find great stories How Dom removes his own personal bias when trying to solve customer problems Dom’s “deep work” ritual around disconnecting from digital distractions. Why music helps Dom do better creative and focused work How Dom uses his mood to decide which task to focus on Dom’s method for building a great presentation The two questions Dom asks when he is booked to deliver a presentation Dom’s favourite question to ask in an interview Why Dom prefers negative feedback to positive feedback. What happened when Dom deleted every single meeting from his diary. You can find Dom on Twitter @domprice, on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-price-0892243/), and you can discover Atlassian's team playbook right here (https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook).Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you take notes in meetings and presentations on your laptop or in a notepad? I definitely fell into the former category until I discovered research that made me want to go out and buy a Moleskin. This mini-episode might convince you to do the same thing.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Sarah Green Carmichael. Sarah is an executive editor at Harvard Business Review where she works out what to publish on the site and edits the articles that you may have read there. Sarah is also the host of HBR’s IdeaCast podcast which gets over one million downloads every month.I was very excited to speak to Sarah as I am a voracious HBR reader and given the amount of ideas and tips she is exposed to on a daily basis given her role, I was very keen to explore what she had applied in her own life. We cover a heap of ground in this interview, including: The best pieces of advice Sarah has learnt from editing HBR articles and books for six years Her approach to managing emails Sarah’s strategy for making work days easier to start The classic productivity tips that failed for Sarah Her approach to decision-making, and where she has got it wrong How she prepares for her interviews on the HBR IdeaCast podcast How to read a business book in under 30 minutes When "winging it" can be a great productivity strategy How she deals with interviewing people she doesn’t like or agree with Sarah’s top tips for being a better writer and editor How she wards off distractions to get focused work done How to write a great rejection letter And much, much more.Find Sarah on Twitter, or check out her interviews on the HBR IdeaCast podcast, and HBR’s Women at Work podcast.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you addicted to email? Are you guilty of doing a “just check” of your inbox every 10-15 minutes? Is checking email getting in the way of you doing deep, focused work? This mini-episode gives you three research-backed strategies for kicking your email habit for good.Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Carolyn Creswell. As Australian listeners probably know, Carolyn is the founder of Carman’s muesli, which is in pretty much every supermarket in Australia and is exported to 32 countries around the world. Over the last 25 years, Carolyn has built Carman’s into a $100 million dollar business.But there is so much more to Carolyn that just delicious tasting muesli. She has given so much thought to the way she works and this interview is full of really practical gems. We talk about: Her morning routine Why she doesn’t do coffee meetings - and what she does instead Her trick to making new year’s resolutions stick Her annual self-reflection ritual The role self-discipline plays in her life Why Carolyn doesn’t listen to the news Carolyn’s happy place How she plans her year in advance Why she books all her hair appointments for the whole year in January How she protects family time Why Carolyn never eats lunch at her desk Her favourite productivity apps Carolyn’s novel way of using to-do list software Why you will never catch Carolyn in a lie Carolyn’s approach to giving feedback You can find more about Carolyn and Carman’s at https://www.carmanskitchen.com.au/Visit amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes.Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.