Cognitive load will destroy your productivity. In this mini-series, we talk about ways to reduce your cognitive load. In this episode we talk about the unexpected effects of surprise on cognitive load, and what you can do about this in your work.

The systems that play a role in producing your thoughts are a huge leverage opportunity in your work and life. If you pause and examine those systems through a lens of systems-thinking, you are likely to identify opportunities for improvement, even if only as a byproduct of that investigation.

If you only look at your experience, you fall prey to anecdotal evidence and a whole host of other biases. But, we should be learning through iteration and empiricism. So how can we? Seek the outside view, without abandoning your experience.

Your organizational efficiency is directly related to how you manage information, and information is lost when your organization is chronically lacking transparency.

Once you have the right meetings with the right people, it's time to look at the content of the meeting itself. In this episode we discuss possible red flags that may show up in your meetings, and what kinds of problems these flags may signal.

Defining your audience is critical to a good meeting. If you haven't defined your audience... who is the meeting even for?

Better meetings are not a myth, but it starts with deconstructing how you got to where you are today. A hectic calendar and meetings showing up like popcorn. What can you do to improve this? Managers and individual contributors can start by focusing on what the goal of the meeting is. If the goal of the meeting is to solve a problem, that's a yellow flag.

Competency is not the only way you can grow your career. If that was the case, then every engineering manager would be technically more proficient than their reports, and I can guarantee (from many experiences) this is not only not the case - it's not even the norm.

Sometimes a small question can change the course of your career. It doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be detailed. A well placed question might unearth information you didn't realize was in you.

In today's episode, I give you one question that is considered taboo (for some unknown reason) often in the workplace: What Do You Want? Amazingly, this diverse question is at the root of some of the most important conversations you'll have in your career. You are, after all, a human working with other humans - each with their own unique desires.

Play isn't just for kids. In today's episode we'll reframe what play means, and why it's a principle for great work and lifelong learning.

When you find something that is counterintuitive, it's possible that it will create immense value to whatever problem you are trying to solve. Seek to interrogate your beliefs to build better explanations for what is true, and find those who disagree with you at an intuitive level.

Productivity is about working towards your goals, and optimization is about sharpening those efforts more directly. We talk about two forks in the road when you choose the types of optimization you'll deploy in your career and personal life.

Determining your values doesn't have to be an extremely serious or permanent exercise. Start at the simplest place you can, and iterate. Your values are as evolving and changing as you are - keep them held lightly.

If you feel like everything is spinning around you and it's difficult to remain productive, you aren't alone. In this episode we talk about core tools and activities, and why it's so important to spend the majority of your time working in your core.

Productivity measurements often show nothing of value at all. Today we'll discuss how complexity (or "story") points may actually show exactly the opposite of productivity.

Productivity is meaningless without a goal, and no activity is banned from being considered productive.

On the whole, exceptions are not exceptional. Each one may be unpredictable or rare, but they happen very regularly. How are you prepared to handle those exceptions? Make space today for the principle of headroom.

The quality of your options is determined by the quality of your inputs. If your decisions have no good options, consider what the source of those options is.

The background noise in today's episode wasn't just a mistake, it was a choice. A tradeoff. Tradeoffs represent a decision of control and energy. You will make them every day, but towards what goal? When you make a tradeoff and decide where to put your energy, you are necessarily deciding not to put it elsewhere. So, do so with purpose and intention.