Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life

Most deep work doesn't fail at your desk. It fails in the team around you, which is what leadership researcher Shawn Vanderhoven spent three years studying.Shawn is a partner at The Wiseman Group, where he works alongside Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers. With his wife and co-author, Anne Vanderhoven, he wrote Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy World, built on interviews with more than 400 people about the leaders who made focus possible for them, and the ones who made it impossible. Partway through the research, his own team told him which kind he was.In this conversation, we cover:The table slam: the workshop moment that started the research, and why Shawn says personal productivity advice aims too low when one ping from a manager can undo the whole system.Permission vs. sponsorship: why "feel free to focus" crumbles under pressure, and what changes when a leader puts their own reputation behind protected time.Pausing up: a managing-up move anyone can make, asking your boss for advice on your priority list instead of quietly trying to do all fifteen things.Majors and minors: how to give important work you can't drop a smaller, fixed share of your time so it stops crowding out what matters most.Clearing your desk: how leaders lose good people first to distraction, then to departure, and what one act of full attention did for Shawn.If you've ever built a system that worked right up until the first message from your boss, this one's for you. You don't need a title to start: Shawn's first step is to write down everything you're carrying, put rough percentages beside it, and talk it through with one other person. Less of your attention goes to work you never chose, and more is left for the rest of your life. Find Pause and the free resources at pausebook.co.Connect with Shawn:Pause: How to Lead Brilliant Work in a Busy WorldLinkedInThe Wiseman GroupConnect with Erik:LinkedInThreadsFacebookBlueskyThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist:http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Focus, sleep, and stress all run on the same 90-minute cycle — and Dr. Christian Poensgen argues that's where productivity that lasts actually begins. He's a scientist turned executive coach whose doctoral work was on the relationship between stress and performance, and co-author, with Eric Partaker, of Ultraproductive: The 90-Minute Method to Optimize Focus, Sleep, and Stress.Christian's own wake-up call was the quiet kind. No ambulance, no emergency — just an 80-hour week, seven hours in bed, and the feeling every morning that a truck had hit him. He had the PhD in stress and performance and still walked into near-burnout. What he found on the way out is the spine of this conversation: three levers that carry most of the weight, and a body clock that was running underneath all of it the whole time.In this conversation, we cover:Pseudo-productive busyness: Why long hours and a cleared inbox can leave the things that matter untouched — and why an inbox is really a to-do list other people built for you.Working the edges of the day: Deep focus is hardest between nine and five, so Christian makes the case for claiming 15 or 30 minutes before or after, and the 3-3-11 rule for finding your own best windows.The fight phase: Why the first five to ten minutes of focused work always feel lousy, for everyone, and why that resistance is a sign you're about to do something good rather than a sign to stop.Junk sleep: Seven hours in bed is a quantity. Deep and REM sleep are the nutrition — and Christian found he was getting under 30 minutes of deep sleep a night while doing everything "right."Stress as a signal, not an enemy: Nearly everything worth having arrives with some stress attached. The line that matters is duration — and the exhale is the fastest way back down.If you've been doing all the right things and still feel like you're running on empty, this one will make sense of why. Christian's practical takeaways are small enough to start today: a full exhale when stress hits, and ten minutes of bright light in the morning. The deeper framework is in the book.Connect with Christian:Ultraproductive.comChristian's writing at IMDConnect with Erik:LinkedInThreadsFacebookThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist:http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marriage communication looks different when both partners are neurodivergent — so Jackie Kelley and her husband built their own rules from scratch.Jackie Kelley is a neurodivergent storyteller, illustrator, wife, and mother based in Gilbert, Arizona. Through her social media content and viral "Marriage Rules" videos, she helps couples build communication rhythms that actually fit their lives. Her book is So You Married a Human: The Totally Doable, Unconventional Guide to a Thriving Partnership(Zondervan, 2026).In this conversation, we cover:Self-regulation before communication: Why you can't talk through a fried nervous system — and what "getting yourself right" actually looks like before a hard conversation happens.The email rule: How writing instead of talking transformed the worst season of Jackie and her husband's marriage, and why the format matters as much as the content.Microwave vs. crockpot: What happens when two people process emotions at completely different speeds — and how to stop mistaking slow processing for passive aggression.Tell me more: The practical shift from "why are you being so difficult" to getting curious, and why it works especially when neither person is actually wrong.Marriage on autopilot: How couples quietly lose the fact that they like each other, and what scheduling intentional fun actually gives back.If the standard marriage advice has ever felt like it was written for someone else's brain — or someone else's relationship — this conversation is worth your time. Jackie makes a genuine case that building structure into a marriage isn't the opposite of romance. It's what makes room for it. Grab So You Married a Human wherever books are sold.Connect with Jackie:soyoumarriedahuman.com@stayathomejackie on InstagramConnect with ErikLinkedInThreadsFacebookBlueskyThis Podcast is Powered ByBrain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist: http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Goal setting, intentional living, and following through are at the center of this conversation with Chris Bailey, productivity author and co-host of the Intentional AI podcast.Chris Bailey's work traces a decade-long arc — from The Productivity Project to Hyperfocus to How to Calm Your Mind. His new book, Intentional: How to Finish What You Start, pulls that thread together, arguing that following through has less to do with discipline than with knowing what you actually value. He returns to the show for the seventh time, going all the way back to 2014.In this conversation, we cover:Values as the real engine of follow-through: why a scientifically validated values test (Schwartz's 12 values) predicts what you finish better than any goal hack.The CP-atone trap: how the idea of a goal — waking up at 5 a.m. — seduces us more than the daily reality of living it, and how to catch yourself doing it.Editing vs. dropping goals: treating a goal like a draft you revise, and why quitting can close the loop rather than mark a failure.Why SMART goals don't hold up: the research Chris expected to endorse and ended up taking apart.Islands of intention and the rule of three: small daily practices for stepping off autopilot and lining up your actions with what matters.If you've ever pushed through a goal you no longer wanted — or quit one and felt guilty about it — this conversation reframes both. You'll leave with a way to check your goals against what you actually value, plus a couple of small practices to make tomorrow more deliberate than today. Start with the book, Intentional: How to Finish What You Start, and Chris's free 12-values overview at chrisbailey.com.Also on the show: Laura Vanderkam on time scarcity, and Chris's Intentional AI co-host David Sparks.Connect with Chris:Chris Bailey — chrisbailey.comIntentional: How to Finish What You Start (swap in your retail/affiliate link)Intentional AI podcast, with David Sparks (confirm show URL)Connect with Erik:LinkedInThreadsFacebookBlueskyThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist: http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Self-awareness, mindset, and personal productivity are at the center of this conversation with Lisa Marker-Robbins, a Master Certified Birkman Method coach — one of the roughly 3% of consultants at that level.Lisa has taken more than 4,000 people through the Birkman assessment over 30-plus years. She runs an executive coaching practice for adults and founded Flourish Coaching, where she helps 15–25-year-olds find career clarity before they spend years and tuition on the wrong path. She started out as a teacher, and the through-line — helping people understand how they're built — never left.In this conversation, we cover:What Birkman measures that most assessments miss: Not just how you behave, but what you need from other people, and how you react when those needs go unmet.The four colors and nine components: Why your "usual," your "needs," and your "stress" scores tell three different stories about the same person.Working with your wiring instead of against it: Why, as Lisa puts it, you shouldn't "should" on yourself — and what to build instead.Introversion, assertiveness, and restlessness: Erik's own scores become the worked example, and what they explain about energy, recharging, and a renewed ADHD diagnosis.Career clarity as a productivity tool: How knowing your wiring narrows an overwhelming field of options down to a first step that actually fits.This one's for anyone tired of trying to fix themselves into someone they're not — and curious how they're actually wired, so they can work, lead, and live more like themselves. Self-awareness isn't the finish line here; it's the thing that makes the rest of your life work better. Find Lisa's work below.Connect with Lisa:Executive Coaching — LisaMarkerRobbins.comFlourish Coaching — Career Clarity for 15–25-year-oldsLinkedInConnect with Erik:LinkedInThreadsFacebookThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist:http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Burnout, energy management, and decision fatigue are at the center of this conversation with Liane Davey, organizational psychologist and the "teamwork doctor."Liane Davey is a New York Times bestselling author and CEO advisor with 25+ years researching what makes teams work. Her latest book, Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and Free Your Team to Do Great Work, argues the number we've been tracking wrong all along isn't workload — it's the mental and emotional weight underneath it. She previously joined the show to talk conflict; this time she's back with the framework underneath the exhaustion itself.In this conversation, we cover:The Thought Load Equation: cognitive demands plus emotional burden, divided by your energy reserves — and why managers can see your workload but not this.AI and the Hidden Cost: why offloading tasks to AI hasn't lightened the load — it's shifted the hard part to judgment and discernment, and added new anxieties of its own.Output vs. Outcomes: the trap of chasing productivity (did I produce?) instead of effectiveness (did I move the needle?) — and why AI makes this trap worse, not better.Three To-Do Lists, Not One: Liane's system for separating your quest, helping others, and side quests — and matching each to the right hours of your day.Emotions Aren't the Problem, the Story Is: the "dragon and treasure" framework for catching an emotional spiral before it becomes a 2 a.m. spiral, plus why rest alone doesn't cure burnout.This one's for anyone who's done everything the productivity playbook told them to do and still feels like they're drowning. Liane's central point lands right at this show's: winning back your thinking time and energy isn't the finish line — it's what lets you show up for the rest of your life. Get the book and take the free thought load assessment at thoughtload.com.Related episode: Ep 261 — Conflict: Productive Conflict and How to Make Disagreement Work for You — Liane's first appearance on the show, on fighting well at work.Connect with Liane Davey:LinkedInWebsiteThoughtload AssessmentThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Energy management, decision making, and knowing when to walk away are at the center of this conversation with Mark Malkoff, author of Love Johnny Carson.Mark Malkoff is a comedian, filmmaker, and interviewer who spent eight years and nearly 400 interviews building The Carson Podcast. That work became his first book, Love Johnny Carson, written with biographer David Ritz and a USA Today bestseller. He's back on the show fourteen years after his first appearance — back when he was the guy making viral creative stunt videos.In this conversation, we cover:Guarding your energy: Why Carson stayed alone all day and showed up minutes before showtime — treating energy as the one thing worth protecting — and what that means for anyone who has to perform without burning out.Saying no to protect the work: He turned down film roles and refused to chase trends, because staying number one meant declining almost everything that wasn't the show.Making other people look good: Carson's rule was that the guest gets the laugh, and the same instinct drove how fiercely he protected and publicly thanked his staff.The cost nobody edits out: An honest look at the reviews he couldn't let go of, the drinking, and four marriages — and why Mark won't hold Carson up as a life to copy wholesale.Walking away, and the power of asking: Why Carson left at the top to go actually live, plus Mark's own craft — the long game, the homework, and the curiosity behind nearly 400 impossible interviews.If you make things — if you write, record, build, or perform — this one's for you. Carson is that rare figure who's both a model and a cautionary tale, and the line Mark keeps returning to is the one worth carrying out the door: follow the curiosity, and don't mistake the work for the point of the work. Grab Love Johnny Carson wherever you buy books, and start on The Carson Podcast for the interviews underneath it.Connect with Mark:WebsiteThe Carson PodcastConnect with Erik:LinkedInThreadsFacebookBlueskyThis Podcast is Powered By:Brain.fm - 20% off your first monthDescriptDescript 101CastmagicEcammPodpageRodecaster ProGrab Shortcasts from Beyond The To-Do List by Blinkist:http://beyondthetodolist.com/blinkistSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.