Thoughts

  In Tim Ferris’ latest podcast episode, he interviews bestselling author and journalist A.J. Jacobs, who’s just published a book about the history of puzzles. I heard A.J. share this offhand idea that a good puzzle can be described in three stages: the question, the journey and the exclamation.   The question: What’s the answer? […]

I moved to New Zealand almost 15 years ago. I found myself in a new country, with no track record, no real understanding of the business or cultural landscape, and no real idea of where to begin. I was starting afresh. It was a little lonely, and more than a little scary.   Back then, […]

“The prize doesn’t go to the fastest guy. It goes to the guy who slows down the least.”  – Rich Roll   I heard this quote from ultramarathon runner and podcaster Rich Roll the other day. It stopped me in my tracks because I’d never thought about it in quite that way before. The idea that in a […]

  As I write this, I’m entering the third week of my Unhurried Productivity experiment. In case you missed it, here’s what I’m doing and what I hope to learn from it.  I’ve also been posting daily updates on Youtube. If you’ve been following those daily clips, you’ll know that I’ve been angsting about not being as […]

Do you feel like you’re cramming too much in? Yep, me too. Last Friday I had a client coaching session. We booked out a couple of hours, and we used 90 minutes. Then we felt that we were done. We’d done good work. We didn’t rush it. I think what helped was a feeling that […]

OK. So the other night I had a very strange dream. It was my birthday, and I was in the middle of hosting a big party. In the middle of it all, I got a message saying I had to go and see my new GP. So I dutifully left my own party and tootled […]

If you’re anything like me, you’ll often feel like there’s never enough time in the day to get done what you want to get done. I reckon there are three ‘isms’ that lead us to feel more hurried than we’d like: Short-term-ism If the story we tell ourselves is that how much we get done […]

There’s a saying: “you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I really like that as an idea. Yet I think it can go further. What if those five people were all of the same type? Wouldn’t that just be just one person multiplied by five? How useful would that […]

How can we be more ‘unhurriedly productive?’ That’s a question I’ve been exploring for a couple of years now. Here’s why I think it’s so important: Burnout levels are high, and on the rise. Here in New Zealand, workers work longer hours and for less reward than workers in most other OECD countries. We work harder rather than smarter. […]

Lately, I’ve been writing about creating space. I’ve realised that there are two forms of this practice that we need to master: ME space: Getting away. Taking time out. Retreating. Escaping. WE space: Creating space for others to pause, reflect, make sense and decide. Here’s another way of thinking about it: ME space = ‘leaving’, […]