Better Humans Podcast

“I’m a writer. And so when I’m on the go, I’m always texting people, communicating, asking things and so on. But I noticed at some point that just because I was using my phone more, it didn’t always mean I was more productive.”

Niklas Göke thinks your toothbrush is the greatest tool of all time.

Why? Because you never forget its purpose and you only use it when you’re supposed to, not a moment longer.

Our phones, however, are an entirely different story.

In this episode, Matt East and Niklas walk through his article “A Phone Setup That Will Make…

The past few years of extreme wildfires have left many of us increasingly anxious as we come to recognize that this will be part of our new normal.

What’s become clear, however, is that we don’t need to “prep” for escaping a firestorm as much as we need to prepare for living with the broader effects of ongoing fires—sometimes fires that are quite distant from our homes. Though we count ourselves lucky in those situations, it helps to be prepared for things like power shutoffs, hot weather (which corresponds to our greatest fire risk days), and terrible air quality.

This…

I spent every weekday afternoon for the last three weeks in the neighborhood park. As a mother with young children, I blended in well. My primary goal, however, was not to watch my children play on the playground. It was to watch other parents interact with their children.

This was far from a scientific study, but I learned a heck of a lot.

Parenting in a Tech-Driven World

If you are a parent and you know other parents, the topic of children and screen time will come up. It’s both universal and inevitable.

In the past, when this topic came up, I had always felt…

One of the things we’re always asking on the Better Humans and its parent Coach.me team is “To what end?” That is, we’re always questioning the pursuit of concepts like personal growth, self-development, and productivity.

It troubles us when we notice people working so hard on these goals that they lose sight of what really matters to them. For example, if you’re a famous business success but you can’t find any happiness in your personal relationships, that’s a big problem. We don’t want any part of it. Why do people try so hard to emulate that?

Happiness in your work…

There’s one thing I’ve done in leading tech teams that’s improved our performance more than anything else.

It’s been important when I’ve led teams in large companies, but it’s been crucial when leading teams in the more uncertain and unstructured environment of a startup.

I’ve worked on making smarter decisions.

I have to admit that early in my career I bumbled along making decisions quite unconsciously. Bad results often followed. Worse still, I thought that speed was the only metric that mattered in a startup — so everything was a snap decision.

Luckily, I stumbled across the academic work on…

Anne Helen Petersen, Against “Feel Free To Take Some Time If You Need It”:

“That’s the backdrop against which we normalize the maintenance of productivity during a pandemic, a mass…

Like most freelancers, I have approximately 792 disparate tasks to accomplish throughout my maddeningly short days. Unluckily for me, I’m also epically terrible at focusing. Like, the worst. So, when I remember something more time-sensitive than what I am currently doing, I immediately start doing the new thing. Ooh! Shiny!

The combination of hundreds of tasks and my focusing capacity of a meerkat results in a never-ending pile of stressful and unproductive days for writer/entrepreneur/educator Michelle. And the more stressed I am, the less likely I am to hit that elusive flow state, and the less stuff I get done.

…

For some people, the concept of mindfulness is filed as “hippy-dippy nonsense” in their minds. As in, a ridiculous waste of time that serves no real purpose in everyday life. They may assume self-awareness is a natural part of being human, and therefore, there's no need to give it any thought. At least, that’s how I used to think.

Tips like, “focus on your breathing,” and, “find a quiet place to sit and observe your thoughts,” sounded like a bunch of baloney to me. At least until I actually learned what it means to be mindful. …