Speaker 1: You're listening to I'm Ama Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to Biz Your Work Life Sorted. I'm
Speaker 2: m Vernon and today we're diving into something that could
Speaker 2: completely transform how you work. The world's best work hacks
Speaker 2: from the most brilliant minds in the business. Today's episode
Speaker 2: is your Lifeline. We've gathered game changing shortcuts from global experts,
Speaker 2: including professors from Yale and NYU, tech founders and productivity gurus.
Speaker 2: Our career coaches Michelle Badisbye and Sohurst are breaking down
Speaker 2: their all time favorite work hacks. Plus, we have a
Speaker 2: special guest on who has interviewed literally every major work
Speaker 2: expert on the planet, and she is sharing her top
Speaker 2: eight genius shortcuts, from redesigning your physical environment to boosting
Speaker 2: productivity to the science behind making networking actually enjoyable. This
Speaker 2: episode is basically your cheat sheet to working smarter, not harder.
Speaker 2: The best part is is that these hacks are ridiculously
Speaker 2: simple to implement, so you can start using them today.
Speaker 3: So Michelle out Loud did an episode called Fuck First
Speaker 3: and Other Cheat CODs for Life, and it was my
Speaker 3: favorite episode they've ever done. So I've always wanted to
Speaker 3: do a work edition of that where it is you
Speaker 3: and I share our favorite shortcuts, hacks, and cheat codes
Speaker 3: for work and life. So that is what we're giving
Speaker 3: you in this episode today, as well as eight of
Speaker 3: the best hacks that we've curated from the best global podcasters,
Speaker 3: authors and experts in the world.
Speaker 4: I am so excited for this episode, and it feels
Speaker 4: fitting because this will be sop and my last episode
Speaker 4: on the Bierz Pod. So we want to leave you
Speaker 4: with our all time greatest hacks.
Speaker 3: Wrapping the season up with our favorite work tips, and
Speaker 3: we hope this is something that you can bookmark and
Speaker 3: keep coming back to.
Speaker 5: Okay, so hit us with the first one.
Speaker 3: Number one is to put expiry dates on work stuff.
Speaker 3: So what I mean by that is, so you meet
Speaker 3: someone and you're like, hey, let's start doing a weekly
Speaker 3: that'd be cool if we do like a weekly catch up.
Speaker 3: Say to them, let's do six sessions and then see
Speaker 3: how it goes. And when you set that reoccurring meeting
Speaker 3: in your calendar, do not send it to reoccur indefinitely.
Speaker 3: Set it for six sessions, and then if you want
Speaker 3: to keep doing it, you can, but there is nothing
Speaker 3: worth then each person taking turns to awkwardly cancel the
Speaker 3: meeting and the vibe just getting weird. So set it
Speaker 3: for a specific amount of sessions.
Speaker 4: Oh so if you literally just change my life, like,
Speaker 4: I will be in my calendar straight after this setting.
Speaker 5: Expirer is exacly.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 5: My hack is a networking one.
Speaker 4: So if you're meeting people for the first time, you've
Speaker 4: had a great conversation, or just honestly a way to
Speaker 4: maintain your network in general, send yourself an email after
Speaker 4: the conversation, put their name as the subject, and write
Speaker 4: down in dot points the key things that you spoke about,
Speaker 4: like if it was personal stuff going on in their life,
Speaker 4: if it was something profound that they shared with you,
Speaker 4: if it was an insight. So the next time that
Speaker 4: you hit them up or you meet them, you can
Speaker 4: go back into your emails, look up their name, and
Speaker 4: you've kind of got this running list of the things
Speaker 4: you've spoken about with that person over and over.
Speaker 3: Instantly doing that that it sounds so easy. Okay. Number three,
Speaker 3: If you elevate your status at work and make people
Speaker 3: think that you're important, start using the word time more so.
Speaker 3: You want to cate the vibe that you respect your
Speaker 3: own time and that you respect other people's time, so
Speaker 3: you want to use phrases like I've blocked time to
Speaker 3: look at this on Friday, or let me look at
Speaker 3: my time plan for the week before you actually say
Speaker 3: yes to task. You want to be loud about giving
Speaker 3: people time back, so you use phrases like giving you
Speaker 3: your time back, so I've dropped my questions in this
Speaker 3: doc instead of us having a meeting. And also, don't
Speaker 3: be late for meetings. Don't rush around the office. Make
Speaker 3: sure that you are getting to meetings on time and
Speaker 3: not running in between things. Be someone who talks about
Speaker 3: time a lot.
Speaker 5: Oh I love that.
Speaker 4: Okay, this segue is nicely off the back of time.
Speaker 4: If you want to manage your time more effectively and
Speaker 4: protect your time eroplane mode I always have my phone
Speaker 4: on aeroplane mode or do not disturb. And this also
Speaker 4: applies to email notifications and Slack. I haven't had email
Speaker 4: notifications on my phone since twenty sixteen. I have never
Speaker 4: turned on Slack notifications. It is such a distraction when
Speaker 4: you see that stuff popping up, so just disable them
Speaker 4: and check Slack and check your email intermittently, or create
Speaker 4: time blocking moments for you to get back to slacks
Speaker 4: or get back to email, and if anyone ever needs
Speaker 4: you urgently, let people know this is what you do,
Speaker 4: and come up with a way for them to contact
Speaker 4: you if they need you urgently.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you want to aim for about ninety
Speaker 3: minutes to t hours of that type of airplane mode
Speaker 3: a day. Ideally if you can, that would be number
Speaker 3: one for me, Michelle, I love that hack.
Speaker 1: If you've got people.
Speaker 3: In your life that you communicate with regularly, like daily, weekly,
Speaker 3: at some point you want to ask them this question,
Speaker 3: what do other people do in communication that you find
Speaker 3: annoying or makes it hard for you? And they might
Speaker 3: say why do you want to know? And you say,
Speaker 3: because I want to make sure that I never do
Speaker 3: those things. Honestly, this question is game changing. It opens
Speaker 3: people up to actually tell you the things that you
Speaker 3: might be doing to them in a way that doesn't
Speaker 3: feel like they're criticizing you. So at some point with
Speaker 3: people ask them that question.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I love that. I'm going to start
Speaker 4: doing that one immediately.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 4: My last hack again kind of comes back to time.
Speaker 4: So there was a period in my life where I
Speaker 4: felt like I just wasn't getting those moments to sit
Speaker 4: in my own thoughts and to really pro sess things
Speaker 4: or digest.
Speaker 5: What was going on in my business.
Speaker 4: And I didn't feel like there was time in the
Speaker 4: day for me to fit that in anywhere. So I
Speaker 4: spoke to my career coach about this, and she told
Speaker 4: me to come up with think time. And she was like,
Speaker 4: what do you do every single day at the same time?
Speaker 4: And I was like, okay, well, I go to the
Speaker 4: gym every day. And she was like, all right, how
Speaker 4: much think time do you need? And I was like, honestly,
Speaker 4: about ten minutes. And so she was like, Okay, leave
Speaker 4: for the gym five to ten minutes earlier. Put in
Speaker 4: your calendar like six point fifty am every day, blocked
Speaker 4: think time, and just rewire your brain to Okay, I'm
Speaker 4: in the car, I'm driving to the gym, and I'm
Speaker 4: just going to start letting my mind run and think.
Speaker 4: And then when i'd get to the car park, I'd
Speaker 4: just sit there for an extra five or so minutes
Speaker 4: and I would just write things in my notes and
Speaker 4: kind of use it as this moment fresh in the
Speaker 4: morning to actually like process or give myself time and
Speaker 4: permission to just think about other things relating to work.
Speaker 3: For all the moms out there, I think that one
Speaker 3: is really important, all right. The next one, getting better
Speaker 3: at speaking is one of the biggest shortcuts that you
Speaker 3: can make to be seen as more senior, and it's
Speaker 3: also one of the most shore fire things that you
Speaker 3: can get better at. So here is my very quick
Speaker 3: hacks for getting better at it. Is to record yourself speaking, literally,
Speaker 3: record yourself video camera, and you have to force yourself
Speaker 3: to watch it back. I promise you that's the fastest way.
Speaker 3: If you can't bring yourself to do that, start sending
Speaker 3: a lot of voice notes to friends, and then listen
Speaker 3: back to your voice notes so you can pick up
Speaker 3: on things that you might want to change in your communication.
Speaker 3: And then the other one is to move before public speaking.
Speaker 3: So if you've got a presentation or some kind of talk,
Speaker 3: you have to give it work. You've got a lot
Speaker 3: of adrenaline that's going on in your body. You have
Speaker 3: to move your body to get that out, and that's
Speaker 3: going to help you feel more calm when you're actually speaking.
Speaker 5: Oh that's so good.
Speaker 4: So because in media training, this is actually what they
Speaker 4: do to you, so like they will put you in
Speaker 4: front of a camera and start interviewing you, and then
Speaker 4: you will be forced to watch yourself back on camera
Speaker 4: and you'll realize, like, oh, when I'm nervous, I lick
Speaker 4: my lips or or you know, I sound hesitant around
Speaker 4: that topic, and it is a very good way to
Speaker 4: build confidence.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to leave you with three really short ones.
Speaker 3: If people ask to have a coffee or a chat
Speaker 3: with you, ask them to send you a couple of
Speaker 3: bullet points on what they want to chat about. First,
Speaker 3: you will be so surprised how many people never send
Speaker 3: them to you. And then you don't have to do
Speaker 3: that chat. If you don't want to start your day
Speaker 3: with anything except checking your emails, anything else, just do
Speaker 3: not start your day checking your emails. I promise you
Speaker 3: that will help a lot. And then the last one,
Speaker 3: don't ask people how are you at work? You will
Speaker 3: only get boring answers. Ask people forward looking questions. So
Speaker 3: what's big this week? Or what are you excited about?
Speaker 3: Is there anything you're looking forward to that will help
Speaker 3: you get information that they actually want to talk about,
Speaker 3: and then you can chat about with them next time. Okay,
Speaker 3: so coming out next you're going to hear from someone
Speaker 3: who has interviewed all of the biggest experts in the world,
Speaker 3: and she has curated her all time eight favorite work
Speaker 3: life hacks. Cannot wait for you to hear these. We're
Speaker 3: here with Amantha who has interviewed every single world class
Speaker 3: work expert in the world, and she is giving us
Speaker 3: eight of the greatest things she has ever heard. These
Speaker 3: experts tell her that are going to make not just
Speaker 3: your work, but your life better. So hit us, Amantha.
Speaker 3: Let's go with number one.
Speaker 6: Okay, my first one comes from Professor Adam Altat, who's
Speaker 6: a professor over at the Stone School of Business in NYU,
Speaker 6: and he talks about why goal setting is broken. So
Speaker 6: so many of us set goals, and we're told that
Speaker 6: setting goals is a really good thing. But goal setting
Speaker 6: is broken for this reason. Whenever we set a goal,
Speaker 6: and let's take a very common goal that a lot
Speaker 6: of people have set in their personal lives at some
Speaker 6: stage is to lose weight. Let's just say my goal
Speaker 6: is I want to lose five kill Now until our
Speaker 6: scale is saying in negative five on its little display,
Speaker 6: we are in a state of failure, which is obviously
Speaker 6: very demotivating. As humans, we want to succeed. We don't
Speaker 6: want to fail. And so what Adam shared with me
Speaker 6: on how I work is he said, sure, I've got
Speaker 6: an end state that I'm heading to, but instead of
Speaker 6: having a goal and being in a constant state of failure,
Speaker 6: I set daily systems that if I can do that
Speaker 6: system every day, I know that I'm going to reach
Speaker 6: that end point. For example, how I'm applying it Right now,
Speaker 6: I am on deadline for my fifth book, and I
Speaker 6: quld set myself the goal of going, okay, I need
Speaker 6: to produce a sixty thousand word manuscript, which is quite overwhelming.
Speaker 6: But instead I've set myself a daily system where every
Speaker 6: day I write one thousand words and I know that
Speaker 6: at the end of sixty days, I'm going to have
Speaker 6: a draft that I can then play with. So it's
Speaker 6: all about sticking to that daily system. And because I
Speaker 6: can do that, it's very achieved. I can feel successful
Speaker 6: every day.
Speaker 3: I love this so much because it's like you're taking
Speaker 3: the effort out of it. In a way. It's like
Speaker 3: you've already designed the system, and then when you wake
Speaker 3: up on the day, you're simply executing that system. So
Speaker 3: if you're like I've already picked the priority that I'm
Speaker 3: going to work on. I've seen the block in my calendar.
Speaker 3: I just execute that priority and do that thing, and
Speaker 3: just follow the steps that I've already designed. That's all
Speaker 3: I'm doing versus a goal, which just feels like you're
Speaker 3: already too hard and probably why so many of us failed,
Speaker 3: like being in that state of failure number two.
Speaker 6: Okay, so this is completely different. Something I think about
Speaker 6: a lot is my energy, because I think that unless
Speaker 6: we're having a high level of energy, it's really hard
Speaker 6: to be impactful, like and effective in any area of
Speaker 6: our life. So I take my energy levels very very seriously.
Speaker 6: And one of the best hacks that I've found, and
Speaker 6: I've heard this from.
Speaker 1: Several guests on the show.
Speaker 6: I also heard it when I was researching my last book,
Speaker 6: The Health Habit, is to run experiments with what is
Speaker 6: called CGM. So CGM stands for continuous glucose monitor And
Speaker 6: unless you are diabetic, you probably don't know what I'm
Speaker 6: talking about.
Speaker 1: So what it is.
Speaker 6: It's a medical device, but you can get it from
Speaker 6: a chemist, so anyone can access one. They're about ninety
Speaker 6: nine dollars I think for the device. It's about one
Speaker 6: hundred dollars and that cooks up to an app as well.
Speaker 6: What it is if you imagine a table tennis ball squashed.
Speaker 6: That's about the size of it, and you stick it
Speaker 6: on the back of your arm like on your tricep,
Speaker 6: and it's got a needle, a very fine needle that
Speaker 6: pierces through your skin, which sounds painful to apply, but
Speaker 6: trust me, it's not. And I hate needles. And what
Speaker 6: it does is while it's on you and you leave
Speaker 6: it on for about two weeks, is it takes continuous
Speaker 6: measures of your blood glucose or blood sugar levels. Now
Speaker 6: why this matters is that I'm sure so that you've
Speaker 6: had the experience where after lunch your brain feels like
Speaker 6: mush and you could have like a little lie down. Yes,
Speaker 6: I need to have that. Yes, yeah, very very common.
Speaker 6: And what is typically happening if you were to look
Speaker 6: at your blood gluecose levels is you've probably had a
Speaker 6: spike in your levels after lunch and then you've crashed
Speaker 6: and your energy will essentially match what is going on
Speaker 6: with your.
Speaker 1: Black gluecose levels.
Speaker 6: So we're wearing a CGM and doing a CGM experiment
Speaker 6: is great is you can start to experiment with different
Speaker 6: food combinations, because some types of food combinations are going
Speaker 6: to spike you and then crash you and be really
Speaker 6: bad for energy, and others are going to be really
Speaker 6: good for your energy. And the thing is, it's different
Speaker 6: for every person. The idea that we shouldn't eat white
Speaker 6: bread because that's high GI it is a myth. For
Speaker 6: some people will sustain our energy perfectly fine after having
Speaker 6: a white bread sandwich.
Speaker 1: For other people, we will crash.
Speaker 6: And So what I do I do this about one
Speaker 6: or two times a year, is I will spend two
Speaker 6: weeks wearing the CGM, tracking my blood gluecose levels and
Speaker 6: experimenting with different food combinations to see which ones sustain
Speaker 6: my energy.
Speaker 3: My god, I love this. I really like the word experimenting.
Speaker 3: I am gonna do it number three.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 6: This is something that I've had recommended to me again
Speaker 6: by a few guests, definitely Cal Newport, who's probably most
Speaker 6: well known for writing the book Deep Work, Who's amazing.
Speaker 6: I know he has recommended it, as have several others.
Speaker 6: Is when I am trying to change my habits, I
Speaker 6: try to redesign my physical environment to support the habits
Speaker 6: I'm trying to build.
Speaker 1: So, for example, I don't.
Speaker 6: Think that there's people listening that are like, I wish
Speaker 6: I was on my phone more often.
Speaker 1: I wish I would get even more distracted by my phone.
Speaker 1: No one really thinks that, right.
Speaker 6: A lot of us are trying to reduce the amount
Speaker 6: of time that we spend on our phone, the amount
Speaker 6: of time that we spend glued to TikTok or Insta
Speaker 6: or whatever. But the thing is, if you think about,
Speaker 6: like a typical twenty four hours in your li life,
Speaker 6: So how many hours do you reckon your phone is
Speaker 6: more than arms reach away?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Like zero?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Would I lose it?
Speaker 3: I don't know, Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, Like You're not alone. I think most of
Speaker 6: us are like that. And so for me, my phone
Speaker 6: it is not helping me do my work. It's certainly
Speaker 6: not helping me get to sleep or start the morning. Well,
Speaker 6: so I try to think about how many hours during
Speaker 6: that twenty four hour period can I make sure that
Speaker 6: my phone is out of arms reach away, because if
Speaker 6: it is, say in another room, it puts some friction
Speaker 6: in the way of me just doing a quick check
Speaker 6: of my phone, Like when I'm looking to procrastinate. Likewise,
Speaker 6: if I go to sleep and my phone is not
Speaker 6: charging by my bed, I'm not at all tempted to
Speaker 6: be checking social media while I try to get to
Speaker 6: sleep at night. So design the physical environment in a
Speaker 6: way that supports the habits you're trying to create.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so sure, I remember the one around like laying
Speaker 3: out your gym clothes like the night before. I heard
Speaker 3: one the other day around a lot of us get
Speaker 3: the Sunday scaries with work, and if you sort of
Speaker 3: lay out your work outfit the night before and it's
Speaker 3: kind of all ready to go, you're minimizing that friction
Speaker 3: in the morning. A physical environment is actually sort of
Speaker 3: supporting you. Then in getting out the door. Oh, there
Speaker 3: was one I saw on TikTok that was they've got
Speaker 3: a basically like grab and go draw that's right near
Speaker 3: the front door, and it's everything that they need when
Speaker 3: they walk out of the house, so like keys, lip, balm,
Speaker 3: whatever else they need, and it's just like everything's always
Speaker 3: kept there. I really like that one.
Speaker 6: Okay, next one, this comes from Rahul Vora, who is
Speaker 6: the founder of probably my favorite piece of software that
Speaker 6: I use, called Superhuman. So if you hate being in
Speaker 6: your inbox. If you hate email, I highly recommend checking
Speaker 6: out Superhuman.
Speaker 1: I've used it for years.
Speaker 6: It is the best email software out there, compatible with
Speaker 6: Microsoft and Gmail and so forth.
Speaker 1: Rahul gave me this tip.
Speaker 6: He said, spend time investing on learning the keyboard shortcuts
Speaker 6: for the software that you use most, which I think
Speaker 6: is such a surprising tip. Like most of us know
Speaker 6: how to you know, do like a command C for copy,
Speaker 6: command V for paste, and so forth. But Rahul said
Speaker 6: he's a computer programmer. By the way, we're so much
Speaker 6: quicker on our computers if we're sticking with the keyboard
Speaker 6: rather than going between our mouse and the keyboard. So
Speaker 6: if you want speed in what you're doing when you're
Speaker 6: using software online, whether that be word processing documents or
Speaker 6: browsing the internet or in your inbox, learn the most
Speaker 6: common keyboard shortcuts and you will work significantly faster for
Speaker 6: everyone listening.
Speaker 3: This is our PSA signal to actually do it, because
Speaker 3: I think we know how much faster it is for
Speaker 3: the couple that we know, But it just feels like
Speaker 3: the idea of spending an hour learning some of these,
Speaker 3: or like committing to five minutes a day learning a
Speaker 3: new shortcut is just like feels too hard, but it's
Speaker 3: gonna save you so much time. I'm also amount this
Speaker 3: is probably gonna make you cry. But I can't type
Speaker 3: right so I only type with three fingers, so I'm
Speaker 3: painfully slow. Thank you, thank God for voice mode now.
Speaker 3: But keyboard shortcuts I can actually do. So this is
Speaker 3: my sign I'm committing to learning keyboard shortcuts. Will actually
Speaker 3: share some of our favorite ones in the newsletter as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, number five, I think yes. Okay, we talked about
Speaker 6: favorite software. I lie this is equal favorite, so Loom
Speaker 6: dot com LOM.
Speaker 1: This is goal.
Speaker 6: So I hate meetings. So I seem you're the same.
Speaker 6: Do you hate meetings? There's too many of them, although
Speaker 6: not an inventium because we've eliminated most of them.
Speaker 1: But I love Loom.
Speaker 6: What Loom is is it software that really effortlessly records
Speaker 6: your screen and also your camera if you want to
Speaker 6: be on screen, or it can just record you on
Speaker 6: screen or just record like you know, what you're doing
Speaker 6: on your computer. And where it's really good is it's
Speaker 6: really good for so many meetings are just about information sharing,
Speaker 6: and that is such a bad use of people's time.
Speaker 6: So at Inventium. For example, the consultancy that I run,
Speaker 6: we have a rule where we just don't use meetings
Speaker 6: to do one way communication. So instead, if I've got
Speaker 6: something to share, if I've got like a big update
Speaker 6: or an announcement, I will create a LOOM video, which
Speaker 6: is kind of like a quick presentation to the team
Speaker 6: that they can watch on one point five X speed
Speaker 6: whenever they want. I also find that loom is great
Speaker 6: for delegation or explaining a process to someone. So if
Speaker 6: I am, you know, trying to go through a new
Speaker 6: project management process and I want to get another teammate
Speaker 6: across it, I will just create a LOOM of me
Speaker 6: working through it live and narrating myself and what I'm doing,
Speaker 6: and then I can just share that Loom link with
Speaker 6: my teammate and go, hey, watch this, and you'll be.
Speaker 1: Across how we do this process at Inventium.
Speaker 3: Plus one to everything you just said, that is exactly
Speaker 3: how I use it. The one point five x speed
Speaker 3: is so awesome. I also create anything that I think
Speaker 3: I'll be doing more than once. With my design agency
Speaker 3: or you know the other people that I work with,
Speaker 3: I've been creating looms, saving them in a database and
Speaker 3: it's just so much faster. I absolutely love it. It's
Speaker 3: also very user intuitive. It's such an amazing tool.
Speaker 6: Number six, I hate networking and I feel like I'm
Speaker 6: definitely not alone. I don't meet too many people that
Speaker 6: love going to events where they don't know anyone, but
Speaker 6: they are expected to meet people. And a few years
Speaker 6: ago I interviewed professor Marissa King, and she is a
Speaker 6: professor over at Yale in organizational behavior, and she gave
Speaker 6: me the best tip that I've ever heard to take
Speaker 6: the pain out of networking. So when you walk into
Speaker 6: a room at an event, what it often feels like
Speaker 6: is this big ocean full of people, and an ocean
Speaker 6: full of strangers quite often and it feels really overwhelming,
Speaker 6: particularly if you're a bit more introverted like I am.
Speaker 6: So she said, firstly, it's not an ocean, it's islands.
Speaker 6: It's lots of little islands of clusters of people talking.
Speaker 6: And what Marissa's said to me, she said, look for
Speaker 6: groups that have an odd number in them, and ideally
Speaker 6: a group of three, because in a group of three
Speaker 6: or any odd number, there's always going to be one
Speaker 6: person that is on the outer. And she said, find
Speaker 6: that group of three, find the person that's on the outer,
Speaker 6: and then connect in with them and very soon you'll
Speaker 6: have like a little diet of a conversation going. Probably
Speaker 6: the other two people will break off separately, and all
Speaker 6: of a sudden, you've made a connection. So whenever I'm
Speaker 6: in a new group, I'm looking for a group of
Speaker 6: three and I'm identifying.
Speaker 1: Who is on the outer that I'm going to target.
Speaker 3: So I heard this on your podcast Ametha, and I
Speaker 3: started using it and I can confirm it is so good.
Speaker 3: I was like, I have to look into why this
Speaker 3: actually works. And it's like people naturally end up sort
Speaker 3: of wanting to talk in like directly with someone else,
Speaker 3: like in a pair, especially if it's a noisy room,
Speaker 3: so people will naturally sort of pair off. And if
Speaker 3: it's an odd number, then you've got someone who's sort
Speaker 3: of left find the people islands. That is absolutely gold
Speaker 3: number seven.
Speaker 6: So this comes from Nicky Sparshot, who used to head
Speaker 6: up Unilever in Australia. I love this because it's about
Speaker 6: setting boundaries, which is something that I think a lot
Speaker 6: of people struggle to do, particularly a lot of women.
Speaker 6: Nikki is someone that is asked to do so many things.
Speaker 6: I think she's now in a global role for Unilever
Speaker 6: and she likes saying yes, like she likes being helpful,
Speaker 6: but she also thinks about her own boundaries. So she
Speaker 6: taught me a strategy that she calls yes butt, So
Speaker 6: when she's got a request made of her, she will
Speaker 6: generally default to yes, but then she will give it
Speaker 6: some constraints or some boundaries. So it might be yes,
Speaker 6: I can do this presentation for you, but I can
Speaker 6: only do fifteen minutes and then I have to run.
Speaker 6: So it's thinking about how can you say yes? Because
Speaker 6: I think we all want to be helpful, But the
Speaker 6: butt is what are the boundaries or constraints that we're
Speaker 6: going to put around that.
Speaker 3: That's actually so simple and I can immediately imagine myself
Speaker 3: using that, even if the boundary is like yes, but
Speaker 3: it's going to be in three months time. Actually, I
Speaker 3: realized someone did this to me the other day. I
Speaker 3: was so smart. I asked someone for something like can
Speaker 3: I have a coffee with you? And he said yes,
Speaker 3: but can you share three bullet points around what it
Speaker 3: is that you actually want to cover? And then when
Speaker 3: I actually came to like figuring out what I wanted
Speaker 3: to ask. I was like, I don't actually need to
Speaker 3: bother this person. I was like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: It's all good.
Speaker 3: So that's a very fast bats you all right?
Speaker 1: Number eight, Amantha? Okay.
Speaker 6: Final one comes from Gretchen Ruben, who I love. I
Speaker 6: love her work All around Happiness. The Happiness Project is
Speaker 6: one of my favorite books of all times. Yeah, so
Speaker 6: I was very excited when I had her on how
Speaker 6: I work and she talked about a hack around gratitude
Speaker 6: because I think we all know, yeah, we should be
Speaker 6: grateful and we should maybe keep a gratitude journal or
Speaker 6: something like that, but quite frankly.
Speaker 1: It's still just too hard.
Speaker 6: So she says, how can you think about linking gratitude
Speaker 6: into daily behaviors? And the best hack I got from
Speaker 6: her was can you change your computer password so that
Speaker 6: it is a phraser of sentence that when you tie
Speaker 6: bit out, it makes you feel grateful?
Speaker 1: And obviously I can't share what mine is. That would
Speaker 1: be a bit of.
Speaker 6: A security issue, but I love that because whenever I
Speaker 6: type in my computer password, I'm like, ah, that makes
Speaker 6: me feel really good because it's reminded me one of
Speaker 6: the things that I feel grateful for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my computer passwords right now are based on books
Speaker 3: I'm reading, but I like this gratitude one. I'm going
Speaker 3: to switch that. That's good, Amantha, Thank you. That is
Speaker 3: eight amazing hacks. Michelle and I are going to add
Speaker 3: ours as well. Just a massive thank you, My.
Speaker 1: Pleasure, My pleasure.
Speaker 4: That was incredible. Sof the Islands of Three blew my mind.
Speaker 4: That is such a good networking hack that I will
Speaker 4: absolutely be implementing, and it makes so much sense. But
Speaker 4: I also loved the move away from meetings that you
Speaker 4: don't need and replacing them with loom as. It's such
Speaker 4: a great tool. Okay, So, as we mentioned at the start,
Speaker 4: this is our last episode, so we hope we've left
Speaker 4: you with some hacks that'll help you move through your career,
Speaker 4: move through your day with a little bit more ease.
Speaker 4: And we also hope that we've left you with some
Speaker 4: episodes that you can come back to in moments of
Speaker 4: need as well. I know from me it's been such
Speaker 4: a joy doing this and such a privilege. Really honored
Speaker 4: to have been in your ears every week, and also
Speaker 4: very honored to have done this with you.
Speaker 3: So don't you kind to make me cry? I feel
Speaker 3: the same. I feel so lucky to have been given
Speaker 3: this opportunity. You know, before I did this podcast, I'd
Speaker 3: never even been on a podcast before, and so to
Speaker 3: be given this opportunity to host a podcast with Mamma
Speaker 3: Maya and with someone like you, Michelle has been honestly insane.
Speaker 3: I also just really want to thank you the listeners.
Speaker 3: I have had so many dms from people telling me
Speaker 3: things that they've tried, that we've talked about, or sharing
Speaker 3: perspectives with me that I hadn't considered, and like opening
Speaker 3: my world up. I've learnt from you guys too, So
Speaker 3: I honestly feel like this was a very life changing experience. Man.
Speaker 3: I just want to thank you for letting us share
Speaker 3: this chapter together. And importantly, I wanted to thank the
Speaker 3: people behind the scenes. So Georgie, our insane producer, Sean,
Speaker 3: our incredible social media manager who's so talented, Leah who
Speaker 3: does all our audio, and Julian who does our video.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: And to the listeners, please feel free to reach out
Speaker 4: to SOF and I if you ever need. Our inboxes
Speaker 4: are open to you and yeah pumps.
Speaker 5: To end with this episode and thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm actually going to leave you with my favorite hack
Speaker 3: that I've been using throughout this whole podcast series, Michelle
Speaker 3: and the hack is to create yourself little power statements
Speaker 3: that help you. And so the power statement I've been
Speaker 3: using to keep me going is I'm scared, but I'm
Speaker 3: doing it anyway.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I love that. The best note to
Speaker 5: end on.
Speaker 3: We love you guys. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Mamma. Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on