The last several years have seen the rise of a sort of anti-productivity movement. Knowledge workers who feel burned out and that work is pointless, meaningless, and grinding, have been talking more about opting out, “quiet quitting,” and doing nothing.My guest would argue that, in fact, productivity itself isn’t the problem and that most people actually want to do good work. Instead, he says, it’s our whole approach to productivity that’s broken and needs to be transformed.Cal Newport is a professor of computer science and the author of books like Deep Work and Digital Minimalism. His latest book is Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. Today on the show, Cal explains what’s led to the rise of what he calls “pseudo-productivity” and the fallout when we apply the structures of the industrial revolution to modern work. He then unpacks the tenets and tactics of the “slow productivity” approach to work, and how to implement them whether you work for yourself or for a boss. We discuss why you need to do fewer things in the short-term to do more things in the long term, the artificiality of working at the same intensity every day and how to inject more seasonality in your work, the role quiet quitting can play in achieving greater balance, and many other ideas on how to make modern work more sustainable, humane, and fruitful.Resources Related to the PodcastCal‘s previous appearances on the AoM Podcast:Episode #78: The Myth of Following Your PassionEpisode #168: The Value of Deep Work in the Age of DistractionEpisode #479: Becoming a Digital MinimalistEpisode #689: Email Is Making Us Miserable — Here’s What to Do About ItAoM Article: A Counterintuitive Cure for BurnoutAoM article on the importance of location in productivity Ira Glass’ past comments on the gap between taste and quality and more recent comments on Michael Lewis’ podcast.Connect With CalNewportCal‘s website

Down With Pseudo-Productivity: Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or entrepreneur, you want to be able to persuade your students, children, and customers with your messages. That’s a tall task in the modern age, when people are bombarded with 13 hours of media a day. How do you cut through all that noise to make sure you’re heard? My guest would say it’s all about keeping things simple.Ben Guttmann is a marketing educator and consultant who’s helped promote everything from the NFL to New York Times-bestselling authors. He is himself the author of Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win—and How to Design Them. Today on the show, Ben explains the gap between how people like to receive messages and the self-sabotaging, complication-introducing ways people tend to send them. We then talk about the five factors of effective marketing that anyone can use to close this gap and craft simple, effective, influential messages. We discuss why you should highlight something’s benefits rather than its features, the question to ask to figure out what those benefits are, how to replace “and” with “so” to create more focused messages, how the fad of using the F-word in book titles shows the transience of salience, how to make your message minimal by imagining it as a Jenga tower and how minimal isn’t the same thing as short, and much more, including Ben’s most immediately actionable tip for crafting better, simpler messages.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Podcast #666: The Power of Brevity in a Noisy WorldAoM Podcast #580: Why People Do (Or Don’t) Listen to YouSunday Firesides:  Don’t Confuse Niceness With KindnessThing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall MunroeConnect With Ben GuttmannBen’s websiteBen on LinkedIn

The 5 Factors for Crafting Simple (Read: Effective!) Messages

You've probably heard of HIIT — high intensity interval training. In fact, you may feel so familiar with the idea that you think you understand it. But do you?People often hold some popular misconceptions about HIIT, and today we'll unpack what some of those are with Dr. Martin Gibala, a foremost researcher of this fitness modality and the author of The One-Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That's Smarter, Faster, Shorter. Martin explains the main, underappreciated advantage of HIIT, which revolves around the "intensity-duration trade-off": the higher intensity you make exercise, the shorter your workouts can be while still triggering improvements in metabolism, cardiovascular health, and mitochondrial capacity. We get into the fact that the intensity of HIIT needn't be as high as you might think and that, contrary to popular belief, sprinting at intervals is actually a predominantly aerobic rather than anaerobic workout. Martin answers questions like whether Zone 2 cardio has an advantage over HIIT, if the so-called "afterburn effect" of HIIT is real, if you can do HIIT if you're older or have heart problems, and whether you should worry about the way HIIT can raise cortisol in the body. He also shares specific HIIT workouts you can do, including a walking interval workout and one of the best higher-intensity protocols to try.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Article: Conditioning — What It Is and How to Develop ItAoM Article: You Only Have 15 Minutes to Work Out. What Should You Do?AoM Article: How to Use an Assault Bike to Improve Your All-Around ConditioningWingate Anaerobic TestJapanese 3X3 Interval Walking TrainingNorwegian 4X4 IntervalTraining10X1 Interval WorkoutTabata TrainingVILPA — One-minute bursts of activity during daily tasks could prolong your lifeConnect With Martin GibalaMartin's websiteMartin on XMartin's faculty page

The Misconceptions of HIIT (And the Role It Can Play in Your Fitness Routine)

Perhaps you've read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, a book many turn to to learn and internalize the teachings of Stoic philosophy. But what do you know of the man who penned that seminal text?Here to help us get to know the philosopher and ruler is Donald Robertson, a cognitive-behavior psychotherapist and the author of Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor. Drawing on the Meditations, three ancient histories about Marcus' life and character, and a cache of private letters between him and his rhetoric tutor, Donald unpacks how Marcus' life shaped his approach to Stoicism, and how Stoicism shaped him. We discuss Marcus' childhood and influences, his idea of manliness, the surprising significance of who he does and doesn't mention in the Meditations, and how he used that journal as a kind of father figure. We also discuss how Marcus may have undergone training modeled on the Spartan agoge, how he came to attention as a successor to the emperorship, how he got turned on to Stoicism as medicine for the soul, and how he used the philosophy to deal with his tumultuous rule.Resources Related to the PodcastDonald's previous appearance on the AoM Podcast: Episode #537 — How to Think Like a Roman EmperorAoM Article: Meditations on a First Reading of MeditationsAoM Article: 5 Ancient Stoic Tactics for Modern LifeAoM Podcast #316: An Introduction to StoicismAoM article on the Spartan agogeMeditations by Marcus AureliusEpictetus' "show me your shoulders" discourseConnect With Donald RobertsonDonald's SubstackModern StoicismPlato's Academy Centre

The Making of a Stoic Emperor

Have you ever known one of those people who seemed to be able to connect with anyone? The kind of person who had the ability to make others feel understood and smoothly navigate even the trickiest of conversations?Charles Duhigg calls these folks "supercommunicators," and he's the author of a new book by the same name. Today on the show, Charles explains that what underlies supercommunicators' skill in connection is something called the matching principle, and he unpacks how it works and how you can put it to use in your own conversations. We discuss several techniques for how to figure out what kind of conversation you're having, so you can align your language and energy with the other person. And because emotional conversations can be particularly difficult, we dig into tactics for successfully navigating them, even when they contain a high degree of conflict. We also get into how to carry the skills of connection into your digital conversations.Resources Related to the PodcastCharles' previous appearances on the AoM podcastEpisode #61: The Power of HabitEpisode #196: The Science of Self-Motivation & ProductivityAoM Podcast #559: How to Handle Difficult ConversationsConnect With Charles DuhiggCharles' website

The Secrets of Supercommunicators

In my twenties and early thirties, I was a regular journaler. Several years ago, however, I stopped journaling almost entirely because I wasn’t getting anything out of it anymore. But my guest has helped me see that my problem wasn’t with journaling itself, but that I had gotten into a journaling rut, and he’s introduced me to some new ways to journal that have inspired me to get back into the practice. Campbell Walker is an illustrator, animator, podcaster, and YouTuber, as well as the author of Your Head is a Houseboat: A Chaotic Guide to Mental Clarity. Today on the show, Cam shares how journaling transformed his life and what it can do for yours. We discuss why it’s helpful to do a journaling brain dump and how to then move beyond that to incorporate different techniques that will help you get greater insight into the problems you’re facing and how to solve them. We unpack those techniques, which include how to journal to break mindset, conduct a lifestyle and habits audit, and quell anxiety. We also talk about an experiment Cam did where he only used the social media apps on his phone when he was posting something, and every time he got the itch to check social media for fun, he engaged in something he calls “microjournaling” instead. We end our conversation with how Cam’s journaling changed after he became a dad and his tips on making journaling a consistent habit in your life.Resources Related to the EpisodeCampbell’s Video: The Journaling Techniques That Changed My LifeCampbell’s Video: I Replaced Social Media With Micro-Journaling for 1 YearAoM Article: The Right and Wrong Way to JournalAoM Article: Why I Stopped JournalingAoM Article: 30 Days to a Better Man Day 8 — Start a JournalAoM Article: Jumpstart Your Journaling — A 31-Day ChallengeAoM Article: 31 Journaling Prompts for Building Greater Self-RelianceAoM Article: Quit Catastrophizing AoM Podcast #387: Think Like a Poker Player to Make Better Decisions (With Annie Duke)Connect With Campbell Walker (AKA “Struthless”)Cam on YouTubeCam on IGThe Struthless Shop WebsiteThe Struthless Animation Studio Website

7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life

The marriage rate has come down 65% since 1970. There are multiple factors behind this decrease, but one of them is what we might call the poor branding that surrounds marriage in the modern day. From all corners of our culture and from both ends of the ideological spectrum come messages that marriage is an outdated institution, that it hinders financial success and personal fulfillment, and that it's even unimportant when it comes to raising kids.My guest would say that these ideas about marriage are very wrong, and he doesn't come at it from an emotionally-driven perspective, but from what's born out by the data. Dr. Brad Wilcox is a sociologist who heads the nonpartisan National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, which studies marriage and family life. He's also the author of Get Married. Today on the show, Brad discusses the latest research on marriage and how it belies the common narratives around the institution. We dig into the popular myths around marriage, and how it not only boosts your finances, but predicts happiness in life better than any other factor. Brad also shares the five pillars of marriage that happy couples embrace.Resources Related to the PodcastBrad's previous appearance on the AoM Podcast: Episode #278 — The Surprising Benefits of Marriage for MenThe National Marriage Project at UVAAoM Article: The Case for MarriagePiece in the NYT by Brad: "To Be Happy, Marriage Matters More Than Career"Piece in the Atlantic co-authored by Brad: "Now Political Polarization Comes for Marriage Prospects"Brad's articles at the Institute for Family Studies AoM Podcast #946: Counterintuitive Ideas About Marriage, Family, and KidsConnect With Brad WilcoxBrad's faculty pageBrad on XBrad on LinkedIn 

Busting the Myths of Marriage — Why Getting Hitched Still Matters

If you’ve ever read the classic book Endurance, you probably shivered and shuddered as you wondered what it would have been like to have undertaken Ernest Shackleton’s famously arduous Antarctic rescue mission.The adventurer Tim Jarvis did more than wonder. When Alexandra Shackleton challenged him to re-create her grandfather’s epic journey, he jumped at the chance to follow in the legendary explorer’s footsteps.Today on the show, Tim, the author of Chasing Shackleton: Re-creating the World’s Greatest Journey of Survival, first shares the story of Shackleton’s heroic effort to save the crew of his failed Antarctic expedition. Tim then tells us how he and his own crew replicated Shackleton’s journey over land and sea, from taking the same kind of rowboat to eating the same kind of rations — and the lessons in resilience and leadership he learned along the way.Resources Related to the PodcastEndurance by Alfred LansingShackleton’s apocryphal recruiting advertisement AoM Article: Leadership Lessons from Ernest ShackletonAoM Article: What They Left and What They Kept — What an Antarctic Expedition Can Teach You About What’s Truly ValuableAoM Article: Alone — Lessons on Solitude From an Antarctic ExplorerAoM Article: The Libraries of Famous Men — Ernest ShackletonConnect With Tim JarivsTim’s websiteTim on IGTim on LinkedIn 

Chasing Shackleton — Re-creating the World’s Greatest Journey of Survival

When you really stop to think about it, it’s an astonishing fact that we spend a third of our lives asleep. And part of that time, we’re dreaming. What goes on during this unconscious state that consumes so much of our lives, and how can we use our dreams to improve our waking hours?Here to unpack the mysterious world of dreams is Alice Robb, the author of Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey. Today on the show, Alice first shares some background on the nature of dreams, why their content is often stress-inducing, and how they can influence our waking hours, from impacting our emotional health to helping us be more creative. We then turn to how to get more out of our dreams, including the benefits of keeping a dream journal and talking about your dreams with others. We also get into the world of lucid dreaming and some tips for how you can start controlling your dreams.Resources Related to the PodcastInterpretation of Dreams by Sigmund FreudExploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBergeAoM Article: Nap Like Salvador Dali — Get Creative Insights on the Boundary Between Sleep and WakefulnessConnect With Alice RobbAlice’s website 

Night Visions — Understand and Get More Out of Your Dreams

When people think of the plays of Shakespeare, they tend to think of his comedies and tragedies that spotlight interpersonal dynamics like love and jealousy, pretense and reality. But my guest would say that many of Shakepeare's plays, especially his sometimes overlooked histories, are also unmatchable in revealing the dynamics of power.Eliot Cohen is a military historian, political scientist, professor of international studies, and former State Department counselor, as well as the author of The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall. Today on the show Eliot takes us through what Shakepeare's plays can teach us about navigating the three-part arc of power: acquiring power, exercising power, and losing power. Along the way, we discuss how these lessons in leadership played out in the lives of real-life historical figures as well.Resources Related to the PodcastPlays discussed:Richard IIHenry IV, Part 1Henry IV, Part 2Henry VRichard IIIJulius CaesarCoriolanusKing LearMacbethThe TempestAoM Podcast #853: The Real Rules of PowerAoM Podcast #792: How Power CorruptsAoM Article: A Lesson From TR & Taft on Pursuing a Life You LikeAoM Article: There Is No Indispensable ManRobert Caro's biographical series on LBJAll the King's Men by Robert Penn WarrenSupreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot CohenConnect With Elliot CohenEliot's faculty page

Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall

Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur but don’t have an idea for a business? Or have you been sitting on a business idea for years but have never gotten going with it?Well, after listening to this podcast and by the end of this weekend, you can have a business started that could ultimately make you a million bucks.Here to walk you through the process of becoming a near-overnight entrepreneur is Noah Kagan. Kagan is the founder of AppSumo, a software deals site, and half a dozen other multi-million-dollar businesses, as well as the author of Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours. Today on the show, Noah and I first discuss the two biggest obstacles that hold people back from starting a business and how to overcome them. We then turn to the practicalities of coming up with and vetting a business idea, how to find your first customers, and how to keep growing from there. Along the way, Noah and I share insights into how we turned AppSumo and Art of Manliness, respectively, from side hustles into rewarding careers.Resources Related to the PodcastNoah’s previous appearance on the AoM Podcast: Episode #315 — The Power of Small Experiments to Supercharge Your SuccessAoM Article: The Company Man’s Guide to Starting a Side Hustle, Part I and Part II AoM Article: Want to Start a Business? Consider These 5 Invaluable Lessons Before Diving InAoM Article: How to Start a Business with Limited FundsAoM Podcast #344: The Art of the Side HustleAoM Article: Be Your Own Boss — 37 Side Hustle IdeasConnect With Noah KaganMillion Dollar Weekend websiteNoah’s websiteNoah on XNoah on IGNoah on LinkedInNoah on YouTube

Launch a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend

Attend the graduation of a college senior, and the commencement speech is likely to include a few themes: Do something big. Make a name for yourself. Change the world.My guest is not a fan of this advice, and says that rather than focusing on solving large-scale problems, we ought to concentrate on making things better in our own backyards.Brandon Warmke is a professor of philosophy and the co-author of Why It's OK to Mind Your Own Business. Today on the show, Brandon explains why what he calls "commencement speech morality" distorts our moral vision by emphasizing one version of the good and valuable life, at the expense of the value and good of a life marked by "ordinary morality." Brandon first unpacks the dangers of intervening in other people's business, including becoming a moralizer and a busybody. He then makes a case for the benefits of minding your own business and putting down roots, creating a good home, and living in solitude, and for how a smaller, quieter life can still be generous, important, and noble.Resources Related to the PodcastBrandon's previous appearance on the show: Episode #734 — How Moral Grandstanding Is Ruining Our Public DiscourseSunday Firesides: Blessed Are the Trail MaintainersAoM Article: How John Stuart Mill Got Over His Existential Crisis, and You Can Too!AoM Podcast #910: Thick Desires, Political Atheism, and Living an Anti-Mimetic LifeAoM #881: A Kantian Guide to LifeAoM Article: The Spiritual Disciplines — Solitude and Silence The Virtues of Limits by David McPhersonThe Need for Roots by Simone WeilConnect With Brandon WarmkeBrandon's websiteBrandon's faculty page 

The Case for Minding Your Own Business

Forty years ago, now retired professor of sociology Daniel Chambliss performed a field study in which he observed an elite swim team to figure out what it was that led to excellence in any endeavor.As Chambliss shared in a paper entitled “The Mundanity of Excellence,” the secret he discovered is that there really is no secret, and that success is more ordinary than mystical.As mundane as the factors and qualities that lead to excellence really are, they can still run contrary to what we sometimes think makes for high achievement. Today on the show, I unpack the sometimes unexpected elements of excellence with Daniel. We discuss how desire is more important than discipline, the central role of one’s social group and surrounding yourself with the best of the best, the outsized importance of the small things, why you need to make being good your job, why motivation is mundane, and why you need to keep a sense of mundanity even as you become excellent.Resources Related to the PodcastChampions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers by Daniel F. Chambliss“The Mundanity of Excellence”AoM Article: Motivation Over DisciplineAoM Article: The Secret of Great Men — Deliberate PracticeAoM Podcast #887: The Golden Rules of SuccessSunday Firesides: What Looks Like Grit, Is Often Fit“Go Ahead, Drop My Course” — WSJ article by DanielMark SchubertMission Viejo NadadoresConnect With Daniel ChamblissDaniel’s faculty page

The Mundanity of Excellence

When Sam Rosenberg was 20 years old and working as a bouncer in a bar, a disgruntled patron pointed a gun directly at his chest and told him: “Now I’m going to kill you.”Sam survived the incident but it caused him to question what he thought he knew about self-defense and sent him on a decades-long quest to figure out how people can best protect themselves and others.Today on the show, I talk to Sam, an expert in personal protection and the author of Live Ready: A Guide to Protecting Yourself in an Uncertain World, about his self-defense philosophy and how you can use it in your life to stay safe from violent threats. Sam makes the case that understanding how the mind works under life-or-death stress is the foundation of protecting yourself. We unpack that idea, as well as the phases of the timeline of violence, the phase you can exercise the most control in to deter a violent encounter and how to know when you’re in that phase, how to convey you’re a hard target that predators don’t want to mess with, and much more.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Article: The Tao of Boyd — How to Master the OODA LoopAoM Article: A Crash Course in Real World Self-DefenseAoM Article: How to Treat Your Family Like VIPsAoM Podcast #85: Situational Awareness With Patrick Van HorneAoM Podcast #198: Turning Yourself Into a Human Weapon With Tony BlauerAoM Podcast #334: When Violence Is the AnswerAoM Podcast #513: Be Your Own BodyguardAoM Podcast #688: Protection for and From HumanityAoM Podcast #781: Beyond OODA — Developing the Orientation for Conflict and ViolenceConnect With Sam RosenbergLiveReady website

A Guide to Protecting Yourself Against Unexpected Violence

Reflect on something for a second: when was the last time you had fun? Are you having trouble remembering, and if you think about it, is it actually kind of hard to even describe what fun is, even?Don’t worry, if you feel like fun’s gone missing from your life, and are feeling a little dead inside as a result, Catherine Price and I are here to offer you a fun-tervention.Catherine is the author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, and today on the show we discuss the three elements of true fun and how it differs from fake fun, how to conduct a fun audit so you can identify your personal fun magnets, how to get a greater kick out of your life, and why you really need to have a Ferris Bueller day.Resources Related to the PodcastHow to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life by Catherine PriceAoM Article: The Case Against Scheduling Your FunAoM Article: A Lesson From Ernest Hemingway in Why You Should Plan Your WeekendsThe Book of Delights by Ross GayFerris Bueller’s Day OffConnect with Catherine PriceCatherine’s Substack: How to Feel AliveCatherine’s website

Come Alive Again by Having More Fun

You're probably familiar with the American mafia, at least through its portrayal in popular culture. But how did this infamous secret society come to be?Louis Ferrante traces its origins in the first volume of his slated trilogy on the subject, entitled Borgata: Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia. While there's been plenty written on the mafia, Ferrante, who was incarcerated for being a mobster himself, offers the first insider's history of this crime organization. Today on the show, he shares the surprising influences on the formation of the mafia in Sicily, why Louisiana and not New York was actually the mob's American Plymouth Rock, the unexpected collaboration between the government and the mafia during WWII, the real reason J. Edgar Hoover didn't go after the mob, why that hands-off approach changed, and much more.Connect With Louis FerranteLouis' websiteLouis' previous appearance on the AoM podcast — #551: Inside the Gangsters’ Code

An Insider's Guide to the Rise of the American Mafia

Brian Grazer is a Hollywood producer whose films and television shows have been nominated for 43 Academy Awards and 217 Emmys and grossed $15 billion worldwide. He's produced everything from my favorite TV show of all time, Friday Night Lights, to critically-acclaimed and Oscar-winning films like Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind.Grazer credits much of his success to his commitment to a practice he calls "curiosity conversations." Today on the show, I talk to Grazer, who's also the co-author of A Curious Mind Expanded Edition: The Secret to a Bigger Life, about why he considers curiosity conversations the “superpower” that fueled his rise as one of Hollywood’s leading producers. We talk about how these curiosity conversations are beneficial to have with everyone from VIPs to ordinary folks, how the ideas and connections they foster can enhance both your personal and professional life, what makes a curiosity conversation effective, and how to make them happen.

How Curiosity Conversations Can Supercharge Your Success

The social theorist Charles Taylor says that part of what characterizes a secular age is that there are multiple competing options for what constitutes the good life.The sociologist Hartmut Rosa argues that modern citizens most often locate that good in optionality, speed, and reach, which creates a phenomenon he calls “social acceleration.”Professor of theology Andrew Root explores the ideas of Taylor, Rosa, and social acceleration in his work, including in his book The Congregation in a Secular Age. While Andy largely looks at social acceleration through the lens of its effect on churches, it has implications for every aspect of our lives, from work to family. We explore those implications today on the show, unpacking the way that seeking stability through growth leads to feelings of depression, exhaustion, and discombobulation, how we collect possibilities while not knowing what we’re aiming for, and how we’ve traded the burden of shoulds for the burden of coulds. We discuss how social acceleration has shifted the horizons and significance of time, how time has to be hollowed out to be sped up, and how the solution to the ill effects of social acceleration isn’t just slowing down, but finding more resonance.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Podcast #238: Life in a Secular AgeA Secular Age by Charles TaylorSocial Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity by Hartmut RosaResonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World by Hartmut RosaThe Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age by Alain EhrenbergConnect With Andy RootAndy’s website

Feeling Depressed and Discombobulated? Social Acceleration May Be to Blame

Do you have a goal to lose weight? If so, you're probably thinking about how you need to exercise more. And that can certainly help. But what about the 23 hours a day you're not at the gym? How much you move during those hours — from walking to the mailbox to fidgeting at your desk — can be just as important in winning the battle of the bulge.Here to explain the importance of what's called non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, is Dr. James Levine, a professor, the co-director of the Mayo Clinic's Obesity Solutions Initiative, the inventor of the treadmill desk, and the author of Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It. James explains how much more sedentary we are than we used to be and what happens to your body when, as the average American does, you spend two-thirds of your day sitting. He shares how doing the lightest kinds of physical activity, even standing more, can help you lose a significant amount of weight and improve other aspects of health, from your sleep to your mood. And we talk about how to easily incorporate more NEAT into your day.Resources Related to the PodcastRole of Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis in Resistance to Fat Gain in Humans — James' overfeeding studyAoM Article: The Digestive Power of an After-Dinner WalkAoM Podcast #552: How to Optimize Your MetabolismAoM Article: The Importance of Building Your Daily Sleep Pressure

The Power of NEAT — Move a Little to Lose a Lot

When we think about getting more done, we tend to think about working harder, exerting more willpower, and buckling down; we tend to think of doing things that are unpleasant, but that we deem worth it, for the productivity boost they offer.But what if the key to greater productivity ran the other way round, and the easier and more enjoyable you made your work, the more of it you’d get done?That’s the premise of Ali Abdaal’s new book Feel-Good Productivity. In addition to being a new author, Ali is a doctor, a YouTuber, and the world’s most followed productivity expert. Today on the show, Ali unpacks the three prongs of his feel-good approach to productivity: energerize, unblock, and sustain. We talk about how to inject your work with more play, flip the confidence switch, find joy in increasing your power, harness relational energy, and use the 10-10-10 rule for overcoming hesitation in taking action. We also discuss why smart goals aren’t always effective and what’s a better alternative, why you might want to put a five-minute hourglass on your desk, the three types of burnout and how to overcome each, and much more.Resources Related to the PodcastAoM Article: Motivation Over DisciplineAoM Article: The 7 Habits — Be Proactive, Not ReactiveThe 7 Habits: Begin With the End in MindLondon Writer’s SalonThe Strenuous LifeAoM Podcast #575: Counterintuitive Advice on Making Exercise a Sustainable HabitAoM Podcast #292: The Road to CharacterAoM Podcast #716: How to Make Your Life More EffortlessConnect With Ali AbdaalFeel Good Productivity websiteAli‘s YouTube channelAli on TwitterAli on IG

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