Podcast
Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast
Hosted by Larry Tribble, Ph.D. · EN
If you're like most people, there's lots of stress in your life around your level of "busy". Funny thing: we're never taught how to manage the 'stuff' that delivers that stress. The key is to set up tools and workflows that allow you to better manage your tasks and your attention. That's what Do Busy Right means - manage your tasks and attention in such a way that you get things done with less stress. We are learning that here. Happy to have you.
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Top 10 Productivity Tips? NOT - DBR 066
Feb 7, 202500:41:22Tap to summarizeThis episode is about what it is I'm trying to do with attention compass. And why I hate current productivity “help”. I developed this AC stuff. I didn't discover it. I didn't invent it. These are the principles, and they produce specific results. I make no bones about the fact that a lot of people went before me did a lot of really good thinking about productivity. AC is derived from Stephen Covey, from David Allen and from a lot of different folks who thought a lot about this and who are well regarded in what's going on. This ain't magic. I'm not some genius, brilliant dude. I just got tired of being told mindset things. “You're just thinking about it the wrong way”, and “change the way you think about it” I love Covey. I love the seven habits, but you gotta take what he says and then figure out how to implement against that. It's not magic, it's not secret sauce. That's one of the great things about David Allen - he's not playing around. He says, “Look, you got a piece of paper in your hand, do this with it.” The principles are important. I'm an academic and a scientist, and so I want them to be true, but at the same time, it's got to be actionable advice. The headline here is stop wasting time and causing yourself a whole bunch of anxiety by listening to people who are giving you less than helpful input. If you want different results, then you have to DO differently, behave differently. Some stuff I tried that didn’t work – day-timer and GTD. These were my first attempt at having my stuff where I needed my stuff to be, but continued to thrash so I kept trying. I still want to keep up and I get intrigued. Here’s what I see when I look out into Productivity Advice land. The pinnacle of productivity advice c. 2025 "Top 10 productivity tips" - anonymous. work from rest, not for rest take regular breaks daily tackle the biggest tasks first designate time daily for emails. keep the main thing, the main thing keep your energy level high. Prepare the night before win the first hour, win the day protect your margins. engage in activity stacking Problem: Everybody's heard that, and apparently most people are still not able to do it. Three problems with the productivity industry One - people say all the same things over and over Two - it's not actionable, it's not doable Three - most of the advice is about mindset Attention compass is really fundamentally different. There's a workflow that will get you on top of this stuff, I want to educate you a little bit on how your brain works with information tasks. I'm going to bring you Information Systems level understanding of information storage, information use, and the value of information in your work and life. What do we do about and with information? I’m going to bring you a software developer’s knowledge about your information tools. If you don't buy what I’m saying, do an experiment. The rules of productivity are pretty simple Reuse everything you can. Don't reinvent the wheel. Focus, don't thrash simple. The problem is the interference that we get from our culture's (incorrect) view of dealing with information and communications and the existing tools. Athleticism as a metaphor for attention Tennis metaphor Physician metaphor Excel metaphor That's what AC does with attention. It gets your attention where it needs to be, so you're not thrashing around daydreaming Other good habits flow out of that ability. All these tips are great – do you have the ‘athleticism’ to address them? I think a lot of people are worn out by all this information. Don't give up. Hit me up on LinkedIn or at larry@dobusyright.com.
Transcribe →Knowledge Work Careers via Resistance and Linchpin - DBR 065
Jan 31, 202500:48:29Tap to summarizeI rarely talk about what we need to do to have a meaningful, successful career. So I gathered some sources... The first I'll bring up is Seth Godin, the author. The book that we'll look at today is called Linchpin. He’s got some things to say about being successful in the modern era. On this podcast, we're looking at knowledge work, at improving it and getting better at it. We also look at the productivity of knowledge workers. That's what Godin's book is about. I'm normally about the micro level, the very base. I'm about helping you fix the wastes of attention, and to a lesser degree time, that you face as a knowledge worker. This is that next level: strategically speaking, how should we position ourselves such that we can have impact? How can we arrange our work so that we create value in the world, and thus be able to take a share of that value for ourselves and be economically successful. I’ll add in some thinking from Steven Pressfield and his book The War of Art. Pressfield is all about motivation and, having chosen what we’ll do to create value, how do we continually convince ourselves to do it? Godin wants us to do some pretty dramatic things. Pressfield will help us not be derailed by the fear of those dramatic things. Your takeaway: career growth opportunities and encouragement and tactics to avoid fear-based procrastination when confronted with those opportunities. Our concern is: How do you deliver profitable value in such a way that it's meaningful to you as the creator of that value? Linchpin and the changing work world Work is changing - 20th Century work is now a race to the bottom. If your business plan to be unusually good at well-known things, you've got to be better than 7 billion people. You don't have to have a Nobel Laureate IQ, just be willing to be curious and investigate and solve problems. Pressfield and the Resistance The resistance is this set of forces acting to prevent us from producing our value. The muse, the "inspiration model" of great work, is really not a thing. If you're gonna be a linchpin, then you're gonna face this resistance. The problems with being a Linchpin There aren't mile markers along the way, so we're robbed of the way we usually get reassurance. The (actual) course of invention You're not going to get a lot of support if you're in this space, because people don't understand your thing. We have to get comfortable with the notion that there is no previously trod path. The risks of being a Linchpin You spend a whole bunch of time and effort and then quit before you're done. Ignoring and/or dismissing feedback out of fear. Why you’ll face the Resistance You have to look to people who who don't love your stuff so that they'll be willing to tell you what's going on. Your buddies are too worried about hurting your feelings. Whether or not people crack open their wallet because they're serious about how valuable it is It's a skill just to have the guts to pitch your thing. Prepare yourself Develop feedback mechanisms in your world. Learn to use feedback in school Don't expect a textbook. You're writing the textbook. You're inventing this as you go, experimentally. Get good at doing things in the face of the Resistance. Find a place to put the "lizard brain". Your work is different than your parent's work. Don't learn to do the wrong things in the wrong way.
Transcribe →Invest in Technique to Get Better at Knowledge work - DBR 064
Jan 24, 202500:55:53Tap to summarizeIf you've listened to this podcast for very long, you know that I'm fascinated with human performance. Particularly when it comes down to work, how do we do work? How do we get better at work? I don't think there's a ton of knowledge out there, so I'm trying to move the needle a little bit here, and get us some more information about this thing. We know that our work is stressful. We know there's a problem. We know that work life balance is an issue. We know that we have individual/personal issues around our work. We also know economically that we need to improve productivity. Labor productivity has been flat for a while. According to Peter Drucker, if productivity is flat, then we cannot expect to enhance our standard of living in the long term. And so that's what we're all about. Add to that the fact that in our modern world, business is the way we create, generate, and distribute value in the world. We need to get better at our work. The approach and why I chose it Remember: knowledge work What is the data / experiment Our question: how do we get better at what we do? Focus on tools and techniques to get better? We’ve tried formal education Tools are a typical approach, particularly in our Knowledge Work Are tools as good as they’re going to get? My personal history with this question We’ll look at sports (and games), music, and knowledge work Categorizing sports and games Endurance / athletic sports What’s the theme Mental game? Skip the defense? Levels of defense Heavy on technique I never really paid for coaching. Learning & getting better as an adult Here’s my story about learning as an adult – the bass I got a coach pretty quickly “You’ll just hear it” – the issue of ‘innate’ talent Coach = technique BOSS What does technique do for a bassist/musician We may be missing technique in the modern computer-mediated world Musical parallels to talent and athleticism Where does athleticism matter Talent might interfere with learning technique Tools might interfere with motivation to learn technique Tool-mania in certain sports and games Tools won’t save bad technique Application to knowledge work Knowledge work is not well-understood Tools and knowledge work Education and knowledge work Coaching and knowledge work Technique and knowledge work Talent and knowledge work Athleticism – is there a parallel in knowledge work? Athleticism as a substitute for technique in sports So lack of athleticism in Knowledge Work indicates that we should have other ways to work on technique Focus our attention – parallel to “being where you need to be” Information and attention athleticism? Good technique may be the key to information and attention athleticism, thus improvement Technique with coaching needs a serious try in improving knowledge work productivity Bottom line / recap Think about technique Have a coach Focus on attention – get it where it needs to be when it needs to be there Try to worry less about tools
Transcribe →What does proactive have to do with busy and productive - DBR 063
Jan 19, 202500:46:10Tap to summarizeI'm interested in this difference between busy and productive, if there is one. It’s hard to tell the difference, even from the inside. I think this has something to do with the relationship between the terms. Busy is a state that we are in intermittently, occasionally, as circumstances drive us. We mean that our time is fully or somewhat over committed. It is a term of reaction. We would like to say “No” to some work, but we (for whatever reason) don’t feel that we can. Busy is more of a feeling/emotion, a response to the environment. Productive is a more long-term, personal trait. We mean that results are produced. We sometimes also add in the idea of ‘efficient’. I think this is where the overlap with Busy comes in. Is busy something we can avoid? This is going to take us on a deep dive into the first of Covey’s 7 habits – Be Proactive Expectations and consequences We do many things because we want the results of the doing - we do others because of the consequences Recently, we defined some kinds of work/effort. The first two: 1) work proper, which is work for money and 2) chore, which is maintenance work to meet some standard, often external. We defined hobby, as well. Here we do things because we enjoy doing them, and the doing is its own reward. Consequences are powerful behavioral controls. And these are "police" in our world, bosses. Other people closer to us, we more experience consequences with them than they're the deliverer. The sphere of influence and the sphere of concern ideally, I think our sphere of influence and our sphere of concern would coincide, and we control both of these things. One we control in the long term, the other we control in the short term. We can control the sphere of concern in the short term, and most of us need to shrink it. Busy/productive – how does Covey address this Habit one is be proactive. This is neither busy nor productive, but precedes both. Covey defines being proactive is to subordinate an impulse to a value – I don’t love this I think most of us hear proactive and we think pre active (contrast to reactive) Proactive, in some ways, is response to a lack of stimulus, or the ability to create our own stimulus. In order to act, we look at values and our own desires and we initiate action, rather than constantly being at the mercy of external stimuli. Back to spheres Technology allows us to expand our sphere of concern (and our number of stimuli) beyond any reasonable scope relative to our sphere of influence. A lot of people waste significant time and emotional energy on areas of the sphere of concern that don't overlap with the sphere of influence If we're in the sphere of concern and not in the sphere of influence, then the only action we can really take is to worry, and that takes our attention and drains our mental energy. Modern communication technology tempts us to expand our circle of concern so we can, you know, investigate what's going on in areas of the universe that really just have nothing for us Moving to commitments and action – delivering influence The very heart of our circle of influence is our ability to make and keep commitments Commitments are promises to ourselves and to others about what we will do and how we will behave. But the commitment is always first and foremost to ourselves, because we're the ones who are going to have to act. If we commit to others, then that commitment is to act and to act in ways that that other person's environment changes to some degree because of our result. Production is the result and the delivery of the artifact that satisfies the need. When we say we want to be productive, that means that we want to produce results so that we can meet commitments that we've made Productivity and production capacity Productivity is about the quantity of result and Covey talks about this. He calls it production capacity, defined as skills, learning, abilities and assets that allow us to produce We want greater productivity. What we mean is that we want to have greater production capacity. And by greater, we mean more results or more valuable results. And the more is shorthand for more per unit of input, where input is some resource of value: time, money, raw materials, energy, all these different sorts of things. If we have greater production capacity, then we can produce more results or better results, which are more valuable, and we can get rewarded more The relationship between commitment and stimulus Covey says we want to be the kind of people who meet commitment. Particularly, I would suggest we meet commitment even in the face of a lack of external stimulus. We learn this capacity. We grow this capacity. We learn it by, you know, looking back on yesterday and saying, Yeah, I was able to do it yesterday Internal and external stimuli Interesting to note that the thing that is your BAD HABIT typically has no means to create any stimulus. The cookies in the cabinet cannot call out to you. As we're learning to act with lack of stimulus, can we learn to not act with lack of stimulus? Productivity as compared to busy. Perhaps busy has a lot to do with others and commitments to consequence keepers. Where productive includes commitments to ourselves and thus this ability to be proactive. Takeaways Is the Sphere of Concern the right size? Are we response-able and can detect the difference between important and not important? Do we need to develop another plan for consequences
Transcribe →Don't Like Work? Why? - DBR 062
Jan 10, 202500:50:36Tap to summarizeI want to explore what we mean when we say we don't like to work, or we don't like our work, or we don't like a task. A buddy of mine, Justin Janowski, captured this recently saying about a task, “It didn’t feel like work, it felt like hanging out with friends and having discussions.” Punchline: I think he was referring to recording marketing videos in an all day session - something many people would dread. Why can't we take this view more often? I firmly believe that the evidence shows that our feelings about something have a huge impact on our experience with it. What I mean is, if we expect something to make us unhappy, it's very likely that it will. Made to work The material stuff of our universe is there for us to do things with, we can bring forth that which is not readily apparent We're drawn to work. We like making places for ourselves, and we like occupying our attention with things. Many of the things we desire to have or be require work There are some things that we do at the request of other people, in exchange for money Four categories of “work” First category: you're going to your office or your business or your job, and you're doing the work Another category that's often called work is chore. The goal is problem avoidance, maintenance. The third category is Hobby. The goal is to “keep playing/producing”, although it can be ‘hard’ work The fourth category – entertainment and amusement - pleasantly engaged with light positive emotion. Feelings about the four There are a full range of emotions across the four categories - positive and negative Dislike is a value judgement, not an emotion, although it can be spurred by negative emotion Chore vs. hobby - who has control of the standard of quality Chore and Economic work - both have an external (uncontrolled) standard Hobby - can be physically, emotionally, and mentally hard, but we don't dislike doing it Entertainment/amusement - the standard is very low. Dislike? Not owning the standard may correspond to dislike Mindset is the key to owning the standard Culture is the primary force that tells us work is "bad" - can we not adopt that trope Our minds give us what we expect Takeaways Own the standard and move chore and economic work toward hobby Refute the cultural meme about people who enjoy their (economic) work Entertainment/amusement is addictive in our culture; so is hobby (but hobby produces results) I think both economic work and chore can be elevated out of the dislike category. Own the standard and raise your skill so that your standard exceeds the external one. Entertainment/amusement is probably dangerous and should be strictly self-controlled. larry@dobusyright.com; linkedin.com/in/larrytribble
Transcribe →Humans Monotask; Computers Task-switch; Nothing Multitasks - DBR 061
Dec 21, 202400:57:26Tap to summarizeI was having a sales conversation, discussing several ideas around managing tasks and attention. I happened to mention the background of the term multitasking and his eyes got really big and he started asking questions. I realized that he was not familiar with the story of how we arrived at the term “multitasking” and so I told it to him. He was fascinated and realized that there is really very little evidence that humans can multitask – it’s like we all believe some fable. This encouraged him to realize that he needed to abandon his pretext of trying to multitask and to take his attention management more seriously We don’t want to acknowledge our “weakness”, so we don’t use the tool that helps us. Fair enough, human nature and all – who wants to walk with a cane? History of the idea of multitasking shows that the term is only about 70 years old – prior to that, nobody had any concept that we could (or would want to) do it. The first known published use of the term is in 1965. For data, I consulted Google N-gram viewer The rise in use of “multitasking” The most interesting thing is that computers still can’t really do it. So, let’s look at the rise of the notion in computing The original computer was a single-task mechanical device From that, we built a machine that could have its purpose controlled on the fly. That’s what a Turing machine is – that’s the concept. so we've conceptualized this notion that the machine can do multiple things, do different things, The term multitasking came into use in the 60s, and it was engineers talking to engineers It was never a term that was really intended to apply to human people If it wasn’t intended to apply to people, why do we apply it to people? Brain as computer and computer as brain If a computer can do it, then maybe a human brain can do it, and if a human brain can do it, and maybe a computer could do it. We’re not multitasking, we're task switching and applying continuous partial attention. Fine, we’re task switching, why is that bad? Almost before we recognize it, we have switched task We lose our focus I'd better do that now. I'd better stop what I'm doing and go do that thing We're slow task switchers - neurobiology Fine, I’m reactive – isn’t that what is required? Things that make us feel the need to stop doing what we're doing and start doing another thing. A majority of people don’t know that this is a problem - that we can't multitask Our machines are much more responsive, consistent, and well-trained than we are We need to find and solve systemic problems in our processes We can only do those things through calm thoughtful work What if your reactivity is just a habit adopted from a distorted picture of “what everyone else is doing”, a symptom of a lack of understanding the real principles of producing and capturing value in the world? When you're too close to the situation, it becomes difficult to see the big picture. That's the origin of the saying "can't see the forest for the trees." When you don't know what you don't know, it's impossible to find the solution. larry@dobusyright.com; www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble
Transcribe →Do I Have a Context Problem? - DBR 060
Dec 13, 202400:48:51Tap to summarizeAnytime you talk about task management, you talk about actually doing things. It's one thing to know you have something to do. It's another thing to prioritize well and what I have to say will have something to do with prioritization. But actually doing things has a lot to do with the third thing which is, given a prioritized task, will you do it? The challenge here: What do we know about context, and how can we organize our thoughts around tasks, having context and us entering into that context before we attempt to task. So we'll explore context today, and I think it's an important concept to understand as we try to orient our lives towards actually completing tasks and delivering results. These are the foundations of creating value and getting paid. In the modern workplace, a lot of us have gotten the idea that we can work from anywhere. And there are a couple problems with that. The one we’ll deal with today is: not all work environments are created equal. What is context? One category of differences in work environments is what we’ll call ‘context’. Context examples grocery store, phone availability, etc. When we're prioritizing our tasks, I think we might overlook the notion of context. However, context is important to our productivity Context is malleable to some degree One: There is some risk in selecting context – it can change on us Two: What's the cost of that malleability? There are two associated notions: One: Knowing the context, being aware of the required context. Two: Developing/creating that context. If we're in the wrong context, we'll have subpar results from our work. “Battlefield surgery”, but that shouldn’t be the norm Five components Physical or 'hard' environment Energy level - the mental energy we bring based on circadian or other rhythmic Mental - our 'stick brain' - can we batch tasks? Quasi-physical - are your tools and information available? Social - are the right people around)? What happens if we're in the wrong context? Spectrum of effects that we could see from the wrong context (“a little bit harder” through “the power’s out”) Procrastination at the lower levels? Operationalizing context - Work blocks Scheduling work blocks with context in mind Sequencing work blocks with context in mind Some rules/parameters for batching Postponing tasks is another good time to to think about context Bring context into your planning arsenal A key point about Attention Compass: context is baked in to the Daily review workflow – we develop habits around dealing with context well. Hit me up and tell me what's on your mind: larry@DoBusyRight.com or LinkedIn (mention the pod when you connect, please).
Transcribe →Smart Glasses, Book Notes, and a Memex - DBR059
Dec 6, 202400:54:44Tap to summarizeI got this question from one of the participants in the current Attention Compass group training – “What should I be recording/capturing?” I had mentioned that I kept Book Notes. There was some debate on the usefulness of capturing Book Notes, around the usefulness/efficiency/etc. of broad capture of information. For about 75 years now, people have been thinking about ‘ubiquitous capture”. I’ll argue that we’ve entered phase three. It’s quite within technical reach, IMO, with Smart Glasses (although I’m not sure that’s the purpose). The question is: what evidence is there that it would be useful. The point is – how much information should we be trying to keep and how do we know when we’ve got it covered. How much technology should I be using? We’ll take that on in today’s episode. The two primary challenges of capture It’s hard to predict what will be useful It has a cost, so we want to be efficient. Cost = 1-storage, and 2-review (processing) Cost 1 is falling rapidly Cost 2 may be subject to AI intervention The history of ubiquitous capture Memex Ph.D. reading and Book Notes Google glass Now – Meta smart glasses Better/worse ways to read (from an information capture standpoint) “How To Read a Book” – use the parts of a book Example, TOC has two main purposes 1) find for second reading 2) pose questions for first reading what’s an index? Make Book Notes The notes become the index, which is stored in the book – how can I use that? challenges to making Book Notes But how DO we read Reading fiction is different than reading non fiction. We just expect to gain pleasure or alleviation of boredom from reading fiction. We don't have a habit of reading in an environment that's conducive to taking notes Why Book Notes What are ‘book notes’ – summary of takeaways Purpose: I don't have to reread the book to verify/remember the information I need. Reading apps like Kindle are not all the way there; best is to just have some copy paper in there and a pen This makes associating our thoughts with a physical book pretty straightforward How much capture is too much? Extending the book notes model Indexing information that we consume. If we’re in an information/attention economy, then how do we practice ‘economy’ in gathering information? we're utilizing our attention to create information, we need to do it well/efficiently our brains are unreliable when we consume information Back to books / Ph.D. reading Hard to manage the information when we read a lot of books Beyond books and book notes – toward ubiquitous capture One problem – how do we store our own thoughts Brains are not real reliable storage mechanisms We don't know exactly what information we'll need later Make some notes to yourself; it's a waste of time to have to re-consume all the information in order to recall the nugget that we wanted The technological road to Memex Phase 1 - virtual assistant to transcript your meetings Phase 2 - zoom avatar to attend the meeting Phase 3 – a Memex-like system via (e.g.) Meta Smart Glasses The big difference is AI, so the question comes down to How much do you trust AI?
Transcribe →No 60-0-60 Thanksgiving - DBR 058
Nov 29, 202400:08:23Tap to summarizeThe 0 - 60 - 0 model of vacation and time off It's pervasive in the Knowledge Work culture. I haven't decided what to advise for this. This is less than 10 minutes. I've given you 40+ minutes of your life back. Take the time you would have given listening to me and give it to someone else. Spend time over Thanksgiving and Christmas (in the US) with people. Give them your attention.
Transcribe →Protecting Ourselves with a Model of Attention - DBR 057
Nov 22, 202400:53:25Tap to summarizeOur attention is our primary productive asset. Therefore, we need to protect it. Today, we’ll talk about how to do that in the face of modern technology. I’ll describe the neuropsychological model of attention, how it gets abused by modern technology and what we can do about it. This is critical understanding – your productive asset is being hijacked right under your nose and used for nefarious purposes. Let’s figure out how to stop that from happening. This is based on a book called The Distracted Mind by Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen. Both are respected guys and I wanted to use the best source(s) I could find. “What does our ‘ancient brain’ do with modern technology?” Attention is your productive asset, and the information in the world is competing for time on that productive asset. So here we go. Oh, and by the way, the takeaway here is going to be recommendations for how to deal with this stuff. I think you’ll find it surprising. We have to manage our attention Attention economy Economy: how goods and services are produced and distributed (usually ‘within a culture/jurisdiction’) Attention economy: how attention is used with particular respect to production, scarcity, and alternative uses (little to no location constraints) The model of attention has to do with three ideas Idea 1: Selectivity - both inhibitory and enhancing Idea 2: working memory, Idea 3: goal management Switching costs How to manage attention from the book #1 while you're doing the task, think about the value that you're creating or gaining from having Your attention where it is and where you want it #2 put the distractions away. #3 If what you're doing is a routine task, make it slightly harder – play games to stay interested #4 remind yourself that what's out there probably doesn't have huge value. MY big takeaway from the book We can get better at this attention thing. I think a lot of people get victimized here We know how to do these things and that hasn’t changed The environment is changing, but not in particularly fundamental ways We’ve just got into a bigger library, but the skills are still the skills We have agency here – don’t be a victim - we can be more effective than we currently are
Transcribe →