I’m amazed how successful people, well anyone really, is able to get anything done these days.
And when I say “get things done” I’m not talking about successful people who are always busy, with their overflowing inbox and jam packed schedule, usually found with their head hanging down checking their phone.
I’m talking about successful people who protect their time. Who organize their day so that they can focus on what really matters. People who consistently create and ship meaningful work that impacts others.
My Struggle
Those people amaze me because I feel like my entire professional life has been a never ending struggle, especially since I left the corporate world and started working for myself.
But if I’m really being honest, whether I’m inside a big company or alone in a home office, I struggle with work.
It’s hard for me to stay focused. I’m so easily distracted. Easily overwhelmed. I fail to prioritize, stay on task and see things through. I procrastinate, a lot. Most days I’m ashamed of how little I was able to get done.
The worst part is, it’s hard for me to keep my butt in a chair and stare at a computer screen for 8 hours a day. It’s so freakin’ hard!
I believe that, in another life, at another time, or if my life played out differently, I’d be a farmer or woodworker. I have no problem focusing and getting into flow when I’m using my hands.
The Problems with Modern Work
But, I grew up in a world of work ruled by computers and cubicles.
I embraced it, heck my entire business is teaching people how to use new apps, services, and technologies that can help them get more done in less time.
And business is booming because we, the human race, are doing more work than ever before. The promise of technology is that it would relegate to machines all of the repetitive drudgery of work, allowing us humans to pursue loftier purposes and to have more leisure time. But it hasn’t worked out that way. Instead of more time, most of us have less.
We are so accessible, we’re inaccessible.
The latest, greatest powerful technologies have contributed to our feeling increasingly powerless.
Enter, the How We Work Now Podcast
So, this podcast is my way of fighting back. Fighting back by learning from the best. By asking the most productive, successful and fulfilled people I know how they do it.
This podcast is to help me on my quest to becoming a productive, happy and creative being. To do more work that I’m proud of and that provides me with meaning and purpose.
Enter, the How We Work Now podcast, where we explore how successful people, in an age of distraction, interruption, and information overload, are able to stay focused and consistently ship meaningful work. It’s an interview podcast where I bring on successful creatives and ask them about the workflows, habits and tools they use to do their best work.
I decided to break the podcast into seasons, focusing on one creative profession at a time. In the first season of this podcast we are focusing exclusively on writers. This includes authors, journalists, copywriters, editors and bloggers. In the next 24 interviews you’ll hear from successful writers on how they get their best writing done. Get ready to dive into the mindset, workflows, habits and tools of people who think a lot. Who write a lot. Who publish a lot. And who put their ideas out into the world and embrace whatever comes back. And who keep doing it no mater what.
These are people who love writing and I can’t wait to introduce you to them.
And we have liftoff.
Oh Yah, And….
I made something for you that will help you write more and write better. It’s a curated list of the top 10 writing tools successful writers use. It’s awesome. You can download it for free here.
