Category: Episodes

Wouldn’t it be nice if our inbox magically managed itself?

Let’s go a step further.

What if we could live in a world without email?

Email overload takes a real toll on us – on our workflow, and on our brains. A study conducted by RescueTime found that most workers can’t go six minutes without checking email. That, combined with how inefficient we become when switching tasks, creates a gigantic loss of productivity during our workday.

Joke’s on you! I don’t use email. I use Slack instead. Ha!

Slack isn’t any better than email. Any platform that allows for endless back-and-forth communication will cause your productivity to plummet. How are you supposed to get any work done outside of Slack or email if you’re busy checking in every six minutes? Those constant notifications can keep you engaged with unstructured conversation to the point where the day ends and you’ve had no time to get actual work done.

Hmm, those days do suck. But how else am I supposed to communicate with my teammates when something needs to be done?

There are plenty of alternatives that don’t involve back-and-forth messaging. Cal Newport, third-time guest of the show, joins us to talk about these alternatives. His new book, A World Without Email, explores the pitfalls of the “hyperactive hive mind workflow” and the structures and systems workplaces have adopted to cut down on noise and increase productivity.

Cal gives us a brief history lesson on how email came to dominate the workplace, explains the inefficiencies and limitations with email, and tells us which mindset shifts to make in how we manage our time, energy, and attention at work.

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What comes to mind when you think about optimism?

Yeah right, how can anyone be optimistic at a time like this?

*eye roll* What fluff.

Uh…does being optimistic about my chances of eating cake count?

Given our current circumstances, optimism might feel worthless, useless, or both. But optimism doesn’t have to be this mythical, unobtainable pie-in-the-sky concept, especially when considered from this lens:

the expectation of good things to happen and the belief that our behavior matters.

Why? Because we have control of our expectations and our beliefs. We can choose to alter our expectations, and we can choose to believe that our behavior matters.

That’s what Michelle Gielan, Positive Psychologist and bestselling author of Broadcasting Happiness, is here to explain. In this episode, she offers research-based tactics that you can use today to gradually strengthen your resolve, transform your relationship with stress, and shift towards optimism.

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