100. 100 Tips to Learn and Work Smarter (Celebrating 100 Episodes!)
Episode 100
It’s our 100th episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast! To celebrate this awesome milestone (and to celebrate YOU for coming on this journey with me), I've gone back into every single episode and extracted one key tip to re-share with you.
Grab your pen and paper and get ready to be inspired by the rapid-fire productivity advice coming your way.
How I set up the episode: I read each episode number, the episode title, and the key takeaway. If you hear something you want to learn more about, take note of the episode number so you can dive into the full episode afterward.
Thank you for your support from the beginning! I can't wait to do another 100.
What You Learn:
100 tips for learning and working smarter, spanning the following topics:
organization
studying
executive functions
ADHD
focus
time management
task management
career advice
college advice
motivation
productivity
note-taking
mindset
self-advocacy
🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:
⭐SchoolHabits University (Parents, go here)
⭐SchoolHabits University (Students, go here)
⭐The College Note-Taking Power System (Brand New Program!)
⭐Assignment Management Power System (Brand New Program!)
Never stop learning.
❤️ Connect:
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
100 Tips to Learn and Work Smarter
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[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is gonna be a really cool show. It is episode 100 and I cannot believe that we have done 100 weekly episodes without skipping any since launching this podcast on January 4th, 2024. Today's episode is something a little different and I can't wait to get into it.
I'm gonna be sharing one tip from the last 100 episodes, including this one in a list format. So it's gonna go pretty quickly in the sense that I'm not gonna have a lot of filler. Of course, I've done a lot of work preparing this list ahead of time. So if you see me glancing down at anything, it is because I have none of this memorized.
Here's how it's gonna be set up. I'm gonna read the episode number, the episode title and then a key takeaway from that episode. You're gonna want paper and pen for this. I'm also hoping that in doing this, not only are we celebrating all of the material that we've covered since the beginning, but I'm hoping to let you know of some of the topics that we've covered on the show that maybe you haven't watched or listened to before.
If you hear a [00:01:00] tip from an episode that you haven't heard yet, then take note of the episode number and plan some time to dive into the full episode at some point after this. All right, we have a hundred tips to get through, so we're gonna begin.
But remember, you can find the full transcript at Learn and work smarter.com/podcast/ 100. Let's get into it.
All right, episode one. This was the intro. Welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is when I share that the podcast is for students and professionals who are sick of winging it and are looking for simple, repeatable systems to manage their time, tasks, and focus.
Episode two. Everything you need to know about learning [00:02:00] and working styles, there is no evidence at all that learning or working styles exist.
Instead, we should view them as preferences. Figure out what kind of learning and working preferences you have, and then design your systems around that.
Episode three was what's an admin block and why you need one for productivity. The tip was to set aside a block of time once a week. Or even once a day to handle all the small admin tasks that consume our time, but that we always forget to account for like emails and paperwork and calendar management.
Doing them all at once makes you more productive and less overwhelmed at the end of the day.
Episode four, what to do when You're Overwhelmed, practical Strategies you can use Now. So overwhelm and anxiety are usually related to having too much to do and feeling like there is not enough time to do it all.
And a core strategy from managing this is getting total clarity on what you have to do and when you're gonna do it, and facing the reality that you may in fact, you know, be dealing with what's impossible to deal with in the amount of time that you have.
Episode Five. Secrets of a Good [00:03:00] Task Management System. The Best Task Management system isn't the fanciest app or you know, some complicated thing. It's just the thing that you actually use. So keep all your tasks in one place, review them daily, and separate your task list from your calendar. Simplicity always wins
Episode six, focus Tips and Job Skills. This was a q and a. You don't owe everyone constant access to your time. Protect your focus by setting office hours, which are clear windows when people can reach you, and times when you are off limits for deep work. You wanna model this boundary consistently, and it's eventually gonna become part of your team culture.
Episode seven. How to learn things. So real learning happens when you interact with the material, not when you passively read or listen. So you ask questions, take notes in your own words, test yourself and try explaining the concept out loud. Active recall and space repetition are the only way that information gets turned into knowledge.
Episode eight, motivation Verse Discipline. Which one matters more? [00:04:00] Motivation is a temporary emotion, and we rely on it too much. So build systems that make the disciplined choice easier than the unproductive one because that's what carries you on the days when there's no, no motivation, and that's gonna be most of the days.
Episode nine. The three most important areas to organize. If you only organize three things, making 'em your time, your task, and your space. Those are the anchors of your entire day.
Episode 10 Tips for better task management and focus. This was a q and a episode. We can't look at task management in isolation.
We have to look at it as it relates to time management. And if you have more tasks than time, your math doesn't math and something has to change.
Episode 11, the six most valuable skills for school and work. Now, if you wanna get better at school or work, stop looking for random hacks you find online. It's not about that. It's about skills. things like time management, task initiation, emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resourcefulness. Those are what move the needle, not weird apps [00:05:00] and shortcuts and hacks.
Episode 12, are your productivity systems broken? So systems are supposed to support you, not control you. And the key to developing systems that support you is knowing how to honestly evaluate what you're doing as working or not working. And this is the episode where I give you a self-evaluation checklist to figure out like which systems of yours are working and which ones aren't, and then how to keep what works and tweak what doesn't.
Episode 13, home Productivity and Work Overload. This was another q and a episode. So working from home blurs every boundary you have, which means that you need to build boundaries with intention. It's also important to make sure that the things you're claiming you want to do and be productive on are the things that really are worth doing in the first place. Sometimes we fool ourselves.
Episode 14. How to use the Pomodoro technique for School and Work. So the Pomodoro technique is not just about a cute little, you know, 25 minute timer. It's about cognitive science. The timer gives your brain a clear stopping and starting point, which makes [00:06:00] focus easier to maintain. So you're working for 25 minutes, breaking for five, working for 25, breaking for five, rinse and repeat.
Episode 15, email management tips, three best practices for handling your inbox. So the core of an email management strategy is to extract information from your emails and then put them in the right spot. So you extract tasks and you put 'em in your task management system, and you extract time sensitive information, deadlines, things like that, and you put them on your calendar.
Episode 16, how to Set up Your Ideal Work or Study Space. A good workspace makes work easier because it removes friction and distraction. You don't need it to be pretty, you need it to be functional, so keep only what you use and store things I say no more than two touch points away.
Episode 17 Tips for project management and planning Study sessions. I think this one was a q and A episode as well. We can approach projects and planning study sessions the same way. Starting with the end date, we break everything into smaller steps. We work backwards, reverse reverse engineering, and we build in the micro deadlines [00:07:00] for those smaller steps, and we put those on the calendar. Success usually depends on seeing the steps clearly before we begin.
Episode 18, how to Use the Batching Strategy to Work Smarter. Batching is a productivity strategy where you group similar tasks with other similar tasks, so your brain doesn't have to keep switching gears between like a computer task and an errand, and then an email, and then a phone call, and then a report, right? When you batch similar tasks, you're protecting your focus and you finish more things in less time because you're not. Switching back and forth. There's a huge cognitive cost to that.
Episode 19. What to do when your job is too hard. So the first strategy for dealing with a hard job is to try to identify if it's a feeling or if it's a fact.
Does your job feel harder or is it actually hard? There's a difference. Things that feel hard are still within our zone of ability, but a job that is legitimately too hard is beyond our zone of ability. And once you know this, then you can use the right strategies.
Episode 20, what is active recall and how to use it to study? The tip here is [00:08:00] that you don't learn by rereading notes. You learn by repetitively retrieving information from memory. Active recall feels hard, but that's exactly why it works. So studying feels easy. You're probably wasting your time.
Episode 21, how to Plan Your Ideal Week. This is weekly Planning Tips. So weekly planning is about making time visible so you can see what's real and what's imaginary. When you map out your upcoming week, you're getting an honest picture of what time you actually have and what's already spoken for. You have to stop guessing what your week might look like because that's not how real time management works.
Episode 22, tips for Student Internships and Working with A DHD. This was another q and a episode. So when you're looking for internships, focus on either the industry you want or the skills that you're looking to develop. Both paths build experience that counts. and once you're in, treat it like an audition for the real job that you want. You show up prepared. You say yes to opportunities like more so than you think is reasonable and make [00:09:00] yourself easy to recommend. Who knows, maybe it'll turn into a job.
Episode 23 10. Productive Things to do when you Don't feel like being productive. I could have picked any from the list of 10, but this is one I'm going with. When you hit a low motivation day, shift into micro tasks that keep your momentum going, so things like cleaning your workspace, filing something, sending an email, because productivity doesn't always have to be intense.
Episode 24, how to Focus Better Tips for School and Work. Focus problems usually come down to two things, not knowing what to focus on or not being able to focus long enough. And the key is to figure out which one you're dealing with and then fix it at the root, either by getting clarity on your next step or by training your focus. Endurance in short timed bursts until your brain can eventually handle longer sessions.
And this is the episode where I walk you step by step through that. Focus training, exercise
episode 25. So we're 25% of the way there. Five time management mistakes you're making and what to do instead. So [00:10:00] a top time management mistake people make is not accounting for invisible overhead that's connected to all the tasks that we do. So this is all the, you know, commuting time and the setting up time and the breakdown time and the processing time after the thing is over. And recognizing this invisible overhead and actually adding it to our calendar is a cornerstone of good time management.
Episode 26, maintaining work, motivation and double majoring in college.
This was a QA q and a. The tip that I extracted from this episode is about double majoring, so double majoring in college, it can be a good option for some people, but it's not necessary. If you do intend to double major in college, you're gonna need to dial in your courses, meet regularly with your advisor, and perhaps even take one or two courses over the summer to guarantee that you have time to earn enough credits by graduation.
Episode 27, how to get things done with a Power Hour? A power Hour is a focus sprint for clearing out nagging unfinished tasks. You can set a timer for one hour. Like you cannot do this [00:11:00] strategy without a timer. Then you work through a single intense task, or you could even do a series of smaller ones and you don't stop until the timer beeps. This isn't a strategy you use all the time 'cause it's exhausting.
Episode 28, 6, tips for organizing papers. Make your paper system frictionless with a simple two touch rule. Every paper you keep should reach its final destination in two touches or fewer. So like open the drawer and like drop it in the folder, right? If it takes more touches than that. Reduce friction, clear overstuffed papers, maybe move trays within arm's, reach or rethink where that file lives, or my favorite rethink, whether you need to keep the paper at all.
Episode 29, how to take useful notes from books. Before you start taking notes from a book, you have to stop and ask yourself, what are you actually trying to get out of it? Are you trying to understand a concept? Are you trying to collect evidence for a paper you're gonna write? Are you trying to remember key points maybe for a presentation or a test later? When you define your purpose first, your notes naturally take on [00:12:00] structure in meaning. Otherwise you just copying words and probably way too many, you are not gonna have any direction.
Episode 30 tips for your first job and saying No to clients. So the tip I extracted from this episode is about saying no to clients. Learning to say no is a professional skill, all right? And, and I think that boundaries, they don't make us difficult, they make us dependable, and they make us more professional.
The key is to say no early, clearly and kindly,
episode 31, how to take notes in meetings so you work smarter. Taking notes in meetings is easier if you prepare ahead of time, ideally by using the meeting agenda, um, to plan and prepare and also as a note catcher at the meeting itself. At the very least, make sure that you identify the action items and time sensitive information in your notes using something like a star or some other obvious symbol that you were can, can return to after the meeting. So during the meeting when you're taking notes, if an action item comes up, make sure you identify that as an action item. Using like a star,
episode 32, pre vacation [00:13:00] prep. Three strategies to Return to Work stress Free. I remember I wrote this episode before I personally was headed on a vacation and I was like, oh, maybe I should just turn this into an episode. So I did, returning from a vacation is so much less stressful when you prepared for your return before you left. A key tip is to write yourself status notes about all your open projects so that when you return, you know exactly what you're working on, what step you're on, and what you're waiting for.
Episode 33, resume tips for Students. So a student resume needs a clear objective statement at the top designed to fit the purpose of that resume. Okay. And you can change your objective statement depending on what you're gonna use your resume for, as well as sections for education, work experience, activities, athletics, volunteering experience. Okay. And then some bonus sections which you can opt to include. I would are skills, interests, language and recommendations or referrals.
Episode 34, college freshman Advice, annotating used books, and staying relevant at work. [00:14:00] This was a q and a episode. I covered a lot in this episode. So the tip I'm gonna share is about just one of those questions, which is about staying relevant at work. Oftentimes, what makes us feel irrelevant is a lack of a skill that's required to engage with a new kind of technology. And so a key strategy for feeling relevant at work is to make sure that you're doing what you can to keep your skills up to date, even if that means finding some time on your own to develop this skill.
Episode 35, executive Function Coaching. What is it and is it for you? Executive function coaching helps you build the skills school never taught you. So planning, time management, task initiation, follow through, emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, things like that. It's not tutoring. It's learning how to learn how to operate your best and how to design systems that support you and your unique brain.
Episode 36 is how to stop procrastinating Tips that actually Work. So the key to stop procrastinating is to understand why you're doing it in the first place. And there are six main kinds or reasons for procrastination.
And once you figure out [00:15:00] your particular reason, you can use the correct strategies to to beat your form of procrastination. Because using the wrong strategies can actually just frustrate you more.
Episode 37, how to accept feedback at Work and School. Nine tips. When you get feedback, your first job is to listen and not to become defensive. Consider who's giving the feedback. Look for the truth in what they're saying, and that set your ego aside long enough to implement their suggestions like that's how we grow. Sometimes it hurts, but that's what we need.
Episode 38, and how to be a resourceful person who can figure things out. This one was one of my favorite episodes. Resourceful people don't always know the answer. They just believe that they can find it. They believe that the answer exists out there somewhere. So when you hit a wall, before you run to somebody saying, help me with this thing, pause. Define the problem clearly, and just start somewhere. The path usually reveals itself as long as you take some kind of action in some direction.
Episode 39. How to ask for help when being resourceful [00:16:00] isn't enough. Asking for help is a skill. It is not a weakness, but you wanna be specific about what you've already tried and what you still need because that shows initiative and gets you better help faster than just showing up and being like, I need help. It's like on what? Make sure identify that beforehand.
Episode 40, so 40% there. Taking notes from textbooks and increasing study motivation. This was a q and a episode, so taking notes from textbooks should not feel like writing the entire textbook, like that's what the textbook is for, right? You can always return to the textbook if you need more, but one strategy is to use the original textbook structure to guide your notes using headings from the textbook as headings in your own outline notes, and then key information from each from the paragraphs under the heading As bullet points under your outline notes heading, right. I teach you all about how to take notes from textbooks inside School Habits University, as well as how to take notes from videos, slides, novels, and basically every kind of media possible.
[00:17:00] Episode 41 100 Organization Tips for School and Work Part One. This was TIPS one through 50. Again, I could pick any of these 50, but the one I chose to go with is to store books vertically. Instead of horizontally, books are easy to access and they look neater when you store them upright with the spines facing out. You can use simple bookends to keep your books from tipping over, or you can just use your desk lamp like I do.
Episode 42 is the second part of that, so it's a hundred organization tips for school and work part two numbers 51 through 100. This one was just for students: clip units together. So once a unit in school ends, clip all the materials with a binder clip and label it with the unit name. This keeps your notes organized and makes it easier to review for exams and midterms and big tests.
Episode 43. How to focus when you're working from home. So working from home only works when you build structure into your day. So I want you to define your work hours, protect your work hours, and create very clear start and stop rituals so that you [00:18:00] can over time develop the habit of focusing during particular hours when you're intending to focus.
Episode 44, managing burnout, office Disruptions and Task Management. This was a q and a. So in that episode I say that stress is more short term, and then burnout is a result of a cumulative buildup of short-term stress that just never seems to end. But at its core, burnout stems from feeling like there is just no end in sight to the onslaught of things that we have to do and how little time we have to complete them. So the tip here is to take a holistic look at how you're spending your time. Even outside of school and work, because how we spend our personal time and how those activities can make us feel, can impact how we feel about our work and our studies.
Episode 45, are you doing too much? So, time management is an actual math problem and sometimes when we feel like, you know, we're overwhelmed or we're doing too much, just because one side of our math equation is off. So inventory your time using a time blocking strategy religiously for one to two [00:19:00] weeks to get the answer to are you doing too much or are you not managing your time well enough?
Episode 46, how to be Professional. Professionalism isn't about, you know, fancy suits or like the, you know, technical jargon or like optics, right? It's about reliability. Do what you say you're gonna do by the time you say you're gonna do it, meet the deadlines. Show respect for other people's time. That's what's gonna earn you trust. That and pay attention to your body language at all times.
Episode 47, how to really change a habit. So habits don't change through motivation. They don't, and they change through repetition and friction control.
Episode 48, task Management Tips and the number one Skill for Career Success. This was a q and a, and the tip that I extracted is that part of learning and working smarter involves experimenting with different systems, making tweaks here and there, and then reevaluating the efficacy of those tweaks and then tweaking again if needed. It is a constant process.
Episode 49, how to make decisions better, faster, and more confidently. [00:20:00] Don't decisions that are really just preferences. Okay? Knowing the difference between a true high consequence decision and a simple preference choice can save you so much time and headache.
Episode 50. So we're 50% of the way there, halfway through. Why you're bad at taking tests and what to do about it. So test taking is a skill. It's not a measure of your intelligence, okay? Most people struggle 'cause they study for memorization instead of retrieval, which means that they're using ineffective study techniques that fool you in the thinking you know the material, when in reality you only just recognize the material when you looked at it during your study sessions.
Number 51. How to rest and still get things done. A holiday survival guide. So a great strategy during the holidays if you're choosing to still work or if you still have to work, is to take advantage of a slower workplace culture when other people aren't at the office. So maybe this is actually a time to get into the office where you're gonna experience less distractions.
.52 SOPs and workflows, how to create and [00:21:00] use them to improve productivity. Consider making yourself some SOPs or standard operating procedures for tasks that you do semi-regularly, but not frequently enough that you've memorized the steps perfectly. Just simply document yourself going through the task one time and store that document in a file called SOPs.
Number 53, facing Time Management Reality and Setting Work Boundaries. This was a q and a. Now, a key strategy from this episode was to track your time and tasks for one to two weeks to see where your hours actually go. By making time visible in your calendar and comparing it to your task list, you can tell whether you're truly overbooked or struggling with focus and task initiation, because knowing this helps you fix the real problem instead of just assuming you need more time.
54. The secret strategy behind every accomplishment ever, and the tip here is that the only way to do something is to do something. The only way to get something done is if you do it. So the secret strategy behind every accomplishment ever is [00:22:00] taking action no matter how you feel about it, there is literally no other way.
Episode 55, how to use body doubling to boost focus with or without a DHD. Now, body doubling is a terrific strategy to use, especially if you have a DHD. It is when you work alongside somebody else who's doing a similar task independently, perhaps a computer-based task, if that's what you're doing. This strategy activates mirror neurons in our brain, which can increase our focus and decrease our distractibility.
Episode 56, choosing a College major, what every student and parent should know with Lisa Marker Robbins. Reverse engineering from the career you want to have, and working backwards from there into choosing the right major and backwards from there into choosing the right high school courses starts as early as sophomore year of high school.
Episode 57, 20 Tips for Balancing School and a part-time job. I could have picked any of the 20 tips here, but here's the one I've extracted. If you wanna have a part-time job while being a student, you must have clear boundaries about your work [00:23:00] hours. Before you commit to any job, you've got to figure out how many hours you can realistically handle each week without compromising your schoolwork.
Number 58 in-person versus online classes and jobs. First, internships, this was a q and a. If you're debating between an online program or an in-person program for school, remember that many online programs are still synchronous, which means that you still need to log in and show up on a certain time, certain day. You need to make sure that you have a quiet place to work and also that you have time in your schedule to show up to these classes whenever they are.
Episode 59 7 A DHD organization tips for Students and Professionals. So disorganization often stems from having your things in too many places, so aim for one location to store your things. Having one singular place for each category of items at school or work or home can simplify your things and help you stay organized. For example, instead of having multiple binders and notebooks for different subjects, try using a single three ring binder with dividers. Or single five [00:24:00] subject notebook with sections for all of your notes.
Number 60, how to handle workplace conflict Tips from an HR expert with Jessica Alvarez. In this interview with HR expert Jessica Alvarez, Jessica shares her industry insights that almost all workplace conflict stems from misunderstanding someone's intentions. Using empathy and compassion and listening while resolving workplace conflict is critical, and that starts with really trying to understand the other person's intentions and not making quick judgements.
Episode 61, how to prepare for meetings so you'll look good to your boss. The key to proper meeting preparation is knowing your specific role before you walk into the meeting. Once you know your specific role, you can use the right preparation strategies.
Episode 62, managing email inbox chaos and email paralysis. This was a q and a episode inbox. Chaos is usually a system problem. All right, so set rules for when and how you're gonna process email and move tasks and dates out of your inbox into the right system where they belong. Either your [00:25:00] task management or your calendar.
63, how to have a productive day. This is my personal three bucket system for getting it done and staying balanced. I suggest dividing your day into three buckets and trying to accomplish at least one task from each bucket. Work you have to do, like job obligation tasks, work you should do, which are important tasks related to a future goal that's not the same level of urgency as your, you know, work obligations and then work you wanna do, which is anything that brings you a joy and only you can be the judge of that.
Episode 64, how to do hard things, seven Strategies to move you forward. Now, the first strategy for how to do hard things is to name a duck, A duck. When you face the reality that something you're about to do will be hard, you enter this situation from a space of preparedness and mental availability to seek out strategies to make it easier. If you deny a task is gonna be hard. You don't give yourself the opportunity to find ways to make it easier.
Episode 65, the Sunday reset The Secret to a Less Stressful Week. I suggest taking anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour on Sundays to check your calendar for the upcoming [00:26:00] week. Plan for the first few tasks of Monday morning. This can improve the start of your week significantly.
Episode 66, and how to stop wasting time at work and between college classes. This was a Q and a. You have more time than you think you do. Especially if you get strategic about using your time between your college classes during the day to complete light, low effort tasks that keep your list moving. This approach to time management can literally free up most of your college nights from doing homework. Yep. I stick by that claim.
Episode 67, why Critical Thinking Matters for Work and School with Professor Mark Massaro. This was a great interview with a college professor who shared an awesome strategy for developing critical thinking skills, which, yes, I'm gonna say it, aI is robbing us of, and that is to practice looking at situations by imagining you're putting on a new pair of glasses from somebody else each time. This can broaden our perspective and develop our critical thinking skills, which we're all losing.
Episode 68, the Time Management Trap no one talks about. Too many people [00:27:00] ignore tasks, invisible overhead. I've talked about this I think on a previous tip because it's like that important. Every task that we say yes to has a hidden set up cost, context, follow through times, like the emails we have to send after the event is over, right? When we ignore that invisible overhead, our calendar is always gonna lie to us.
Episode 69, top 10 Executive functions you need in the Real World. So success in the real world comes down to 10 mental skills like task initiation, flexibility, emotional regulation. You can't buy these skills, but you can build them through self-awareness and deliberate practice.
Episode 70, managing People in Projects, real World Leadership Lessons with Richard Regitano. So leading people well means managing both systems and emotions. And Rich says that clear expectations, real accountability, and genuine respect are what make teams trust you enough to follow your lead.
Episode 71, task Management Gaps and Grad School Overload. This is a q and a. The tip I extract is about grad [00:28:00] school. Keeping up in grad school doesn't mean doing all of your readings, which in some cases is nearly impossible if you're managing work and a family too. So the real strategy is extracting what you need when you need it, only from the most important readings. In this episode, I share my three layered approach to reading just enough of the right material and how to know which material is the most important.
Episode 72, how to finish unfinished projects or let them go without any guilt. It's okay to let go of unfinished projects, even if you've already invested a significant amount of time, energy, or money into starting them. This is called the sunk cost fallacy, and it's the false belief that we can't let something go just because we've already invested in it. The investment's already gone, so the trick is to stop the bleeding while you can.
73, how to get better at something. I teach a two-pronged approach to getting better at literally anything. First you learn the concepts of it. And second, you do it in unreasonable amount of times and you repeat that two part cycle over and over and over again, upleveling every time.[00:29:00]
Episode 74, should you change jobs or change companies and then protecting your time at work. This was a q and a. A key to protecting your time at work is to be consistent with what days and times you're available to talk or meet with other people and to communicate these openings as frequently as you can. And you'll find that almost nobody is gonna have a problem with it. Like nobody cares. We think they will, but they won't.
Episode 75, how to Pay for College with Scholarships with Expert Dave Peterson. In my interview with Dave Peterson, a scholarship master, we learned that students can start applying for scholarships as early as high school and can continue applying for scholarship money every year that they're in college. And like literally, why would you not do that?
Episode 76, 10 Digital calendar power moves for students and professionals. So in most cases, it's best to have one digital calendar, whether it's Google or I Cal, or Outlook, but then create a few different calendars within that calendar. So that you can filter out certain kinds of events when you need to see one context at a time. For example, if you're a professional, you can have a personal [00:30:00] calendar and a work calendar inside one single calendar account, which is better than just color coding these two separate lives because then you can take advantage of the feature of like toggling off and on, right? One of the calendars to see just one kind of life at a time, so to speak. And if you're only using color coding, you can't do that.
Episode 77, how to use time blocking for better Focus and Productivity. So time blocking can be a great strategy to use on super busy days, as well as a way to get better at time, estimations for certain kinds of tasks.
78 weekend work, smart move or Bad Habit, and how to regain Weekday Focus. This was a Q and a I dispelled the stigma around taking work home with you on the weekends. Then I give you permission to do it if you wanna do it, and if it genuinely makes you feel good, right? But avoid it if it stresses you out and if it interferes with the home version of you. If you're gonna work at home on the weekends, do it intentionally at a specific time so there are clear boundaries around starting and stopping.
Episode [00:31:00] 79. I loved this one. Rejection sensitivity, and the missing piece in ADHD productivity advice with Lindsay Roberts. This really was an awesome interview with ADHD expert and ADHD professional Lindsay Roberts, who shares the insight that I talk about all the time on the show too, which is that mindset and strategy go hand in hand. People with A DHD must invest in learning executive functions and embracing their unique brains. It's kinda like a chicken and egg scenario.
Episode 80, how to do a work sprint and make massive progress. We're almost there guys. We're 80%. A work sprint is an occasional strategy, occasional 'cause it's like exhausting when you do it, that you can use to make significant progress on a single project. The key to an effective work sprint is to prepare for it ahead of time, like you gotta brace yourself, including the day, the time, the location, what exactly you're working on and your meals.
Episode 81 is grad school worth it? How to decide if it's right for you. So grad school may not be worth the time or expense. If you don't meet two of the following three [00:32:00] criteria, you want to go, you have to go and you can logistically go.
Episode 82, post grad gap years, and should you check email in the morning? This was a Q and a. The common productivity advice suggests that checking your email first thing in the morning is a bad habit, and I don't necessarily agree with that advice. But I think more important than that is the warning that's buried inside that advice, which is making sure that you're not just reacting blindly to your emails, whether it's in the morning or in the daytime, and that you're figuring out in advance what you need or want to be working on that day before you ever dive into your inbox.
Episode 83, anxiety's Hidden Cost in School and Work and What to Do about It with Dr. Jackie Parke. Now in this interview with Dr. Jackie Parke, she shares the truth that students need to get anxiety managed before they can learn something like executive functioning skills or study skills. But the reverse is also true, but learning executive functioning skills and study habits help lower anxiety.
Episode 84, how to Fail Smarter. The Secret Skill of Bouncing Back. Now, [00:33:00] when we categorically define something as a failure instead of something that we can learn from or, you know, pivot from, we immediately shut down any possibility of a rebound, a cutback, or even an alternative solution.
85. Three Hidden Blocks to motivation and success. It is impossible not to be influenced by the people we spend time with. So I suggest either limiting the amount of time spent with people who don't support your goals, or seeking out one person whom you aspire to be like and spending more time with them. If you want to be an elite student with an academic edge and a competitive profile, you're not gonna achieve any of that if you're spending the majority of your time with people who don't share these goals.
Episode 86, underrated College Resources and using Blank Planners for task management. This was a Q and A episode. An underrated college resource gem is a career services center. This is where you can get resume help, you can practice with mock interviews and find research opportunities, and my recommendation is to not wait until senior year to tap into these services.
[00:34:00] 87 should you take a gap or PG year with educational consultant, Annie Reece. In this expert interview, Annie Reece shares the advice that a gap year is only effective if you have a clear plan for using that year to build skills, connections, or experiences. Do not take a gap year without a plan.
88 background tasking. A smarter way to approach focus. So the tip here is that, you know, multitasking is a myth. We are not able to do two cognitively challenging things at once. That's fact. Background tasking is the better, smarter cousin of multitasking, and that's about pairing one cognitively demanding task with one that is more automatic or low effort. And this can be helpful with people with A DHD.
89, the four stage funnel for finishing work on time, the system for students and professionals. So you need to optimize your assignment or project funnel in order to get your work done on time without stress. Every task that you do goes through this four step funnel. I want you to picture an actual kitchen funnel. It's wide at the top. It's narrow at the bottom, like an upside down [00:35:00] cone. Assigned work goes in the top and completed work comes out the bottom. If there is a clog somewhere in the funnel, things pile up at the top and that's when we see huge to-do lists, late assignments, missed assignments, and increased stress.
90. Building a reading habit, and chronic illness work tips. This was a q and a. If you wanna read more books, you build your reading habit the same way you build any habit, by doing it at the same time each day, making it easy to win, reducing friction, and doing it, especially on the days you don't want to.
91. Why I'll remember that is a lie. Working memory strategies and tips. This was a DHD friendly. The biggest lie we te tell ourselves is I'll remember that because our working memory is just not designed to store information that's not relevant to our survival. So we have to externalize our working memory by writing things down.
92. Your kid needs these skills to be okay. Your teenager's struggles in school have nothing to do with their motivation or their intellect and have everything to do with the skill deficit. The six skills that your adolescent needs [00:36:00] to do well in school are task management, time management, note taking, annotating study skills and organization. And this is exactly what I teach in School Habits University, my signature program for high school, college, and graduate students. The link is always in the description box.
93, the 10 minute habit to make every day less stressful and more productive. Here's the tip, you can significantly decrease your stress and increase your productivity. Who doesn't wanna do that? By taking five minutes at the beginning and five minutes at the end of every day to get clarity on what you're doing. So in the morning, look at your task list and your calendar, and in the evening, take a few minutes to close any loops from the day and write down your status on unfinished projects. Almost there, guys.
94. Simplifying task management and staying productive despite disruptions. This is a q and a. If you are not ready for a complete task management system, start by using just a simple piece of paper or notebook. That's always better than nothing. This is perfectly adequate, especially as you're getting started with task management.
95. Why you always think tasks will take you [00:37:00] less time than they do. Time estimation tips. This one's A DHD, friendly. You never truly master time management without first mastering time estimation. To get better at estimating how long certain tasks take you, time yourself doing that task for a few weeks and use that data for all your future planning needs. When in doubt, give yourself time and a half. So whatever you think the task is gonna take, you give yourself time and a half.
96. Bad productivity advice, you're probably following. So here's the tip, the point of productivity is not to do more. The point of productivity, in my opinion, is to optimize our focus and our systems and our time and our tasks, so we get in, get them done, and get out. And by get out, I mean move on to the other things that we have going on in our lives.
97, how to fix a bad day. Practical strategies you can use when your day falls apart. So sometimes a day can't be fixed. So the best approach is to switch to a lighter version of the rest of your day and just start again tomorrow. No shame.
98. Secret meeting skills nobody teaches you, but everybody [00:38:00] notices. Your body language at meetings can say more about you than your words. So sit up, don't bring food or chew gum. Be aware of how much space you're taking up and read the room to know when it's appropriate to speak up.
99 traditional jobs verse entrepreneurship and preparing for what comes after college. This was a q and a. I don't think working a traditional job or doing your own entrepreneurial thing has to be mutually exclusive right outta college. The best approach is to get some work experience while simultaneously learning and building your own thing on the side without all the urgency and stress.
And episode 100, that is this episode today, right now, and the best advice that I can share from all of this, from this entire journey is to keep honestly evaluating what you're doing and assessing if what you're doing is working or not. If it's not, tweak it. Learn how to improve what you're doing. Keep prioritizing developing your skills. And never stop learning. [00:39:00]
Thank you for being with me on this amazing podcast journey and I can't wait to do another 100 episodes all in the name of learning and working smarter. Keep showing up. Keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions, and never stop learning.
