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Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics

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Speaker 1: used by leading innovators to get so much out of

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Speaker 1: their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imbat. I'm an

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Speaker 1: organizational psychologist or the CEO of Inventium, and I'm obsessed

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Speaker 1: with finding ways to optimize my work day. Today's show

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Speaker 1: is part of a new format that I'm doing called

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Speaker 1: My Favorite Tip. So the title is probably pretty self explanatory.

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Speaker 1: It's about finding my favorite tip from each of the

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Speaker 1: interviews that I conduct. So the reason that I chose

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Speaker 1: this new format to experiment with is I feel like

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Speaker 1: for myself as a podcast listener, sometimes I just want

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Speaker 1: to get in, get some value from the interview, and

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Speaker 1: get out. So in this format, I'm trying to do

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Speaker 1: just that for you as quickly as possible. So I'm

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Speaker 1: going through all past episodes of How I Work and

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Speaker 1: digging up my favorite tip. On today's episode, I speak

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Speaker 1: to sing a songwriter and all round rockstar, Amanda Palmer.

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Speaker 1: You might know Amanda from being one half of the

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Speaker 1: Dressed in Dolls, or you might know as I did,

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Speaker 1: through her ted talk The Art of Asking, which has

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Speaker 1: been viewed over by ten million people. Amanda is a

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Speaker 1: total innovator in the world of music, and raised one

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Speaker 1: point two million on a Kickstarter campaign several years ago

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Speaker 1: to be able to produce her own solo album independent

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Speaker 1: from a record label. Now, my favorite tip from my

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Speaker 1: chat with Amanda was how she has three really simple

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Speaker 1: benchmarks or rituals that she uses to check in with

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Speaker 1: herself about how she is going. So here's Amanda to

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Speaker 1: explain exactly what she does.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I have a few. I have a

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Speaker 2: few rituals that I try to make daily rituals, and

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Speaker 2: actually just having them exist in my life as a

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Speaker 2: benchmark for where I'm at is almost useful enough. Because

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Speaker 2: I have never I have never really in my life,

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Speaker 2: with with exceptions of being on retreat, which I do

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Speaker 2: try to do, is kind of a binge model of discipline.

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Speaker 2: I've never had a routine. I almost have so little

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Speaker 2: routine that I'm almost attached to having no routine, and

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Speaker 2: that is my routine.

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Speaker 1: That's really interesting.

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Speaker 2: But I have different I have different kinds of lives.

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Speaker 2: I have the life I live when I'm traveling. I

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Speaker 2: have the life I live when I'm living in an airbnb.

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Speaker 2: I have the life I live when I'm living in

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Speaker 2: a hotel room with my husband and kid. I have

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Speaker 2: a life I live when I'm in a tour bus,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I've definitely hammered down some real dos

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Speaker 2: and donts, and the in the realm of the dos

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Speaker 2: and don'ts. Even if I'm not sticking to everything, which

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Speaker 2: literally never happens, I at least can use those as

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Speaker 2: a measuring stick to see how I'm doing and how

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Speaker 2: depleted I am versus how on course I am. And

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Speaker 2: a couple of those rituals are about where my phone is,

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Speaker 2: where it is first thing in the morning, and where

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Speaker 2: it is last thing at night. If I sleep with

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Speaker 2: my phone in the bed or beside my bed, I

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Speaker 2: know I'm not doing great. If I check it first

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Speaker 2: thing in the morning or I'm reading it last thing

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Speaker 2: at night, I know I'm not doing great. And then

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Speaker 2: the other the other benchmark is just around my morning ritual,

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Speaker 2: and do I take my time to ease into the

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Speaker 2: day and give myself a little bit of self care

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Speaker 2: and space, whether that means stretching or getting to a

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Speaker 2: yoga class, or even just sitting down and doing ten

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Speaker 2: minutes of meditation, or do I just allow myself to

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Speaker 2: get pulled in by the sucking tide of chaos and

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Speaker 2: to do list, and that's another benchmark that I use.

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Speaker 2: And then another one is meals. Do I actually take

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Speaker 2: time to sit down and chew my food and eat it?

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Speaker 2: Or am I stuffing a piece of something into my

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Speaker 2: face while I'm doing work? And those those are like

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Speaker 2: my three big basics and other than you know, work

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Speaker 2: practices and what I'm actually doing while I'm so cold

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Speaker 2: engaged in work. Those are really good things to look

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Speaker 2: at if I want to know where I'm at.

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Speaker 1: Hello, there, it's Amantha here again. What I really liked

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Speaker 1: about what Amanda had to say is that it's such

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Speaker 1: a simple way of checking in with yourself. I feel

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Speaker 1: like most of us doing take enough time to stop

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Speaker 1: and reflect, even though we know it's good for us.

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Speaker 1: So with what Amanda said, for me, it's about having

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Speaker 1: awareness into what my own healthy rituals are, which for

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Speaker 1: me are things like using the first hour of the

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Speaker 1: day to move, which might mean going to the gym,

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Speaker 1: a class, or a walk, and then staying out of

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Speaker 1: my inbox until lunchtime or at least until I've done

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Speaker 1: the one or two tasks on my deep work list.

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Speaker 1: So for me, if I have a few mornings in

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Speaker 1: a row where I don't get up and move or

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Speaker 1: where I'm in my inbox, first thing, I know that

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Speaker 1: I need to recalibrate. So maybe for you, take some

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Speaker 1: time right now to think about what are your rituals

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Speaker 1: that say to you that you're feeling good and healthy

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Speaker 1: and balanced and whatever. These might be keep an eye

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Speaker 1: out for when they're not really happening in your life.

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Speaker 1: So that is it for today's episode. As always, if

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Speaker 1: you found it useful and know someone else that would

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Speaker 1: find it useful, please take a moment to share it

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Speaker 1: with them. And also if you're feeling like you've got

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Speaker 1: a spare five or ten seconds, I'd love it if

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Speaker 1: you could leave a review for the podcast wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your podcast. It's awesome getting feedback from listeners

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Speaker 1: and yeah, I just love it. So that is it

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Speaker 1: for today and I will see you next time.