Best Larry Tribble, Ph.D Podcasts (2025)

1
Operating system for attention, tasks, information (and time) - DBR 067 54:04

3d ago54:04

54:04

We need a new operating system. We need one that is specifically dedicated to knowledge work. So I'm going to point you to one that already exists. When we start talking about ways to manage our information, the tech is really important, and I'll explain why. But the tech is dealt with and managed through some sort of overall plan, and some tech is…

1
Top 10 Productivity Tips? NOT - DBR 066 41:22

11d ago41:22

41:22

This episode is about what it is I'm trying to do with attention compass. And why I hate current productivity “help”. I developed this AC stuff. I didn't discover it. I didn't invent it. These are the principles, and they produce specific results. I make no bones about the fact that a lot of people went before me did a lot of really good thinking a…

1
Knowledge Work Careers via Resistance and Linchpin - DBR 065 48:29

18d ago48:29

48:29

I rarely talk about what we need to do to have a meaningful, successful career. So I gathered some sources... The first I'll bring up is Seth Godin, the author. The book that we'll look at today is called Linchpin. He’s got some things to say about being successful in the modern era. On this podcast, we're looking at knowledge work, at improving it…

1
Invest in Technique to Get Better at Knowledge work - DBR 064 55:53

25d ago55:53

55:53

If you've listened to this podcast for very long, you know that I'm fascinated with human performance. Particularly when it comes down to work, how do we do work? How do we get better at work? I don't think there's a ton of knowledge out there, so I'm trying to move the needle a little bit here, and get us some more information about this thing. We…

1
What does proactive have to do with busy and productive - DBR 063 46:10

1M ago46:10

46:10

I'm interested in this difference between busy and productive, if there is one. It’s hard to tell the difference, even from the inside. I think this has something to do with the relationship between the terms. Busy is a state that we are in intermittently, occasionally, as circumstances drive us. We mean that our time is fully or somewhat over comm…

1
Don't Like Work? Why? - DBR 062 50:36

1M ago50:36

50:36

I want to explore what we mean when we say we don't like to work, or we don't like our work, or we don't like a task. A buddy of mine, Justin Janowski, captured this recently saying about a task, “It didn’t feel like work, it felt like hanging out with friends and having discussions.” Punchline: I think he was referring to recording marketing video…

1
Humans Monotask; Computers Task-switch; Nothing Multitasks - DBR 061 57:26

2M ago57:26

57:26

I was having a sales conversation, discussing several ideas around managing tasks and attention. I happened to mention the background of the term multitasking and his eyes got really big and he started asking questions. I realized that he was not familiar with the story of how we arrived at the term “multitasking” and so I told it to him. He was fa…

1
Do I Have a Context Problem? - DBR 060 48:51

2M ago48:51

48:51

Anytime you talk about task management, you talk about actually doing things. It's one thing to know you have something to do. It's another thing to prioritize well and what I have to say will have something to do with prioritization. But actually doing things has a lot to do with the third thing which is, given a prioritized task, will you do it? …

1
Smart Glasses, Book Notes, and a Memex - DBR059 54:44

2M ago54:44

54:44

I got this question from one of the participants in the current Attention Compass group training – “What should I be recording/capturing?” I had mentioned that I kept Book Notes. There was some debate on the usefulness of capturing Book Notes, around the usefulness/efficiency/etc. of broad capture of information. For about 75 years now, people have…

1
No 60-0-60 Thanksgiving - DBR 058 8:23

3M ago8:23

8:23

The 0 - 60 - 0 model of vacation and time off It's pervasive in the Knowledge Work culture. I haven't decided what to advise for this. This is less than 10 minutes. I've given you 40+ minutes of your life back. Take the time you would have given listening to me and give it to someone else. Spend time over Thanksgiving and Christmas (in the US) with…

1
Protecting Ourselves with a Model of Attention - DBR 057 53:25

3M ago53:25

53:25

Our attention is our primary productive asset. Therefore, we need to protect it. Today, we’ll talk about how to do that in the face of modern technology. I’ll describe the neuropsychological model of attention, how it gets abused by modern technology and what we can do about it. This is critical understanding – your productive asset is being hijack…

1
Say "No" List - DBR 056 52:40

3M ago52:40

52:40

We're looking at burnout, overwork, these kinds of things. They are a clear indication that we’re doing busy wrong and I don’t like that. I’m going to talk about one way to combat the problem. How to decline work assignments. But we talk about burnout, we talk about work life balance, we talk about all these challenges that we face around our level…

1
Interruption, office hours, and tech-driven chatter - DBR 055 47:24

3M ago47:24

47:24

We had group class yesterday. It was our second of eight group meetings to implement attention compass. Nick is in the class, and he was talking about communication and interruption. Nick's the one that has the office job with teammates and folks that that can reach out to him anytime. He has very little control over who can hit him up. So we were …

1
Where Should I Keep My Stuff? - DBR 054 50:09

4M ago50:09

50:09

I talk about the tool set for the kind of information and attention management that Attention Compass provides. I get a lot of questions about: I use tool X. What about tool Y? What tools should I use? Most of this revolves around “where should I keep my stuff?” And we'll talk about that today. When I say tool, I mean online service, system, databa…

1
Fable: Your Tasks Are Easy to List - DBR 053 59:30

4M ago59:30

59:30

Fable: It's quick and easy to figure out what I should do, or I just know what I should do. It shouldn’t take much effort. Corollary: I’m wasting time managing my stuff when I need to do things. Spoiler alert, it's not that easy, and I’ll talk about the reasons. For now, if we have this mindset it leads to poor management: I'll just get to the offi…

1
Principles, Philosophy, and Mindset - DBR 052 56:34

4M ago56:34

56:34

Do Busy Right – philosophy and some basic mindsets I'll start out with a client story. Her name's Kelly, and we were talking about attention compass. “Well”, she said, “I don't know anything about all that. But I admire the Larry Zen”. I loved it. But, I didn’t know what “Larry Zen” meant. So, I asked. And she said, “nothing seems to bother you, no…

1
What Do You Mean? I'm Not Doing Busy Wrong - DBR 051 50:27

4M ago50:27

50:27

What do you mean? I don't think I'm doing busy wrong. I don't really get this one directly, but it's a consistent subtext when I talk to folks, and it's not that I misunderstand. For years, I thought I wasn’t swinging a golf club wrong, but I think maybe people take it a little bit too personally, let’s think about why this might be so. The cultura…

1
Managing Oneself (part 2) - Identify and manage your maintenance roles - DBR 050 46:53

5M ago46:53

46:53

I've talked previously about managing oneself, and that was about Peter Drucker and Knowledge Work. That podcast is very popular, and it probably resonated with you. It’s one of my biggest downloads. There’s another aspect to Managing Oneself. I get a lot of questions like this: You might say “I’m pretty good at my Work, when I can find time to do …

1
Learning to Learn - DBR 049 57:07

5M ago57:07

57:07

Learning how to learn If we’re going to be more productive, we have to learn new skills and get better at the skills we have. Knowledge is important, but we get paid for producing results. This requires skills. I see people with limited desire to learn. And when learning does happen, it is usually more about knowledge than skill. I decided to think…

1
Build Confidence to Deliver Faster – DBR 048 52:46

5M ago52:46

52:46

Today, let’s talk about confidence. In my season of life right now, my daughter is entering the career world. She’s finished college and now has to find a job/career. She needs to enter conversations and situations that she’s never experienced before. Naturally, her confidence is not very high. This plays out in two ways: she tries to avoid certain…

1
Parkinson's Law and Quality - DBR 047 55:06

5M ago55:06

55:06

Ever feel like you didn’t get much done? Like you were kind of stuck in the mud most of the day? Ever said: “The work just wouldn’t get done”? I ran across Parkinson’s Law on a podcast from Cal Newport and Adam Grant. You may not know it by that name, but you probably heard the Law. Parkinson's Law: the work expands to fill the time available. Cal …

1
"Let Me Think About It" - Thought Tools - DBR 046 52:20

6M ago52:20

52:20

“Let me think about it” – Thought tools This episode is about the need for, nature of, and development of thought tools. I was having a conversation with my daughter. If you've listened to the podcast, you know my daughter is 23 and she's beginning her career, just having graduated college She's trying to figure some things out. She's confronted wi…

1
The Role of Paper as a Modern Productivity Tool - DBR 045 52:55

6M ago52:55

52:55

What is the role of paper as a modern productivity tool? Is our use of paper just a habit we need to get rid of is it something more? Is it still a useful tool, or should we be trying to break some sort of addiction to it. This is inspired by a LinkedIn post by Chris Mullen. He’s talking about the glories of paper with respect to it's limited abili…

1
Multitask? Why do you think you can? - DBR 044 47:22

6M ago47:22

47:22

I talk about the three big enemies of focus and productivity. They are interruption, multitasking, and distraction. They are in order from easiest to deal with to hardest. (But I’m faking that a little.) The biggest pushback I get is around multitasking – people defend their ability to do it. Let’s deal with that here. What's our drive to attempt m…

1
Your Brain on To-do List - DBR 043 56:54

6M ago56:54

56:54

What to do if our primary tool is not really helping us? I argue that this is the case with our to-do lists. I’ll talk about why and what you can do about it. To Do Busy Right, we are fighting three enemies: interruption, multitasking, and distraction. Distraction is the most difficult to defeat. To-do list is another tactic to deploy in that fight…

1
Why Do I Feel Like I Don't Get Anything Done - DBR 042 58:29

6M ago58:29

58:29

Today, I’m going to talk about a pretty common feeling around our work and productivity… Why do I feel like I didn’t get anything done? I think we’ve all experienced this feeling. We get home (or whatever we do in the WFH culture) and our significant other asks some form of “How was your day?” Sometimes we just say “Fine” and move on. But once in a…

1
Work From Home? Think About the Business Model - DBR 041 53:24

7M ago53:24

53:24

I'm going to talk about remote work, and this is a topic that continues to be a source of significant debate among folks out there. It’s fueled, in part, by people who are employees, who are arguing in favor of remote work. There are various arguments, and we'll dig into it. The point I want to make is to analyze the business model of the organizat…

1
What Does Our IT Really Do For Us - DBR 040 59:10

7M ago59:10

59:10

This episode is about the productivity paradox. The Productivity paradox has been around for a while, and it's the economist's way of saying “we don't see the productivity value from our investment in IT”. So the question is, companies and people have invested a ton of cash in, I'll say, desktop IT. Over the 40 years we've been doing this, we're no…

1
Don't Confuse Efficiency with Convenience or Hurry - DBR 039 47:45

7M ago47:45

47:45

I think we get confused about efficiency, and I think this leads us away from actually becoming efficient. There are two concepts that can confuse us. They disguise the challenge that we really actually face around efficiency. And I'll talk about what all those things are, but if we've got the wrong mindset, it leads us to wrong action. The notion …

1
Initial Coaching Call / Interview with Chris Craft - DBR 038 50:42

7M ago50:42

50:42

This is the 'set up' meeting in a typical AC coaching engagement - the first of eight weekly meetings. As a coach, I'm still motivating the work that my client will have to do. I'm also explaining mindset kinds of things. There should be a lot of knowledge you can take away. Chris's approach - Chris is an accomplished coach. He works with people on…

1
The Downside of Organizational Flexibility - DBR 037 58:34

8M ago58:34

58:34

We all try to help our organization be flexible. We hear about the benefits of flexibility, responsiveness, and flat organizational structure. In addition, we all hear about the power and benefits of teams. We feel that fast communication is good (fast information exchange). So, we avoid structure in the belief that this benefits our organization a…

1
Do We Define Productivity Correctly? - DBR 036 53:34

8M ago53:34

53:34

In this episode, I’m going to refine our definition of productivity in knowledge work. If you think you know the definition, there’s a good chance you’ll be surprised. I have my customers tell me their definition of productivity; I believe that the typical definition is broken. I’ve seen it lead people to over-think, hesitate, or even procrastinate…

1
Book Review - Cal Newport's Slow Productivity - DBR 035 58:34

8M ago58:34

58:34

This will be a review of Cal Newport's book, Slow Productivity. By the way of introduction, if you've listened to much of my podcast, you know that I pay a fair amount of attention to Cal and what he's doing, because I think he's really bright, really focused on the idea of productivity. If you don't know who he is, you should take a look. He's wri…

1
Deep Dive on Dealing with Distraction - DBR 034 55:48

8M ago55:48

55:48

When I talk about task and attention management, I usually talk about wastes of attention. And there are three primary wastes of attention that I've been able to identify with my clients. They are, in order of easiest to deal with to hardest to deal with: The first is interruption - external things in the world that attempt to catch our attention. …

1
Email - Synchronous or Asynchronous Communication? - DBR 033 53:09

9M ago53:09

53:09

Let’s talk about email, and communication metaphors. You’re not going to be shocked when I tell you that we don't handle email well. It's not that we don't know how to use the app that produces email; that's pretty straightforward. And I'm not arguing that we don't know how to deal with emails as items of information, although I believe that's ofte…

1
Are You Wasting Attention (and Time) on Goal-setting? - DBR 032 59:57

9M ago59:57

59:57

I try to help you think about how you’re using your attention and, thus, how to manage yourself. What you need to manage is your attention. So, when I see systemic waste of attention or weak self management practices, I try to call them out for you so you can begin to think “do I really need to do this?” If you’re spending a lot of attention and ti…

1
Drucker's Six Ideas about Knowledge Work Environments - DBR 031 58:35

9M ago58:35

58:35

In the podcast, we study knowledge work and how to get better at it. This touches on a lot of different disciplines, notably management. Typically, I discuss management as how we should manage ourselves. So, when I talk about managing knowledge work, I usually mean how do we manage ourselves as knowledge workers. I believe that we are increasingly …

1
Information Channels and Filters: Tools to Protect Our Attention - DBR 030 54:38

9M ago54:38

54:38

David Allen on Information Overload - if it were real, then when you walked into a library, your head would explode. Let's consider that idea in the context of Attention Overload. When we feel overloaded and overwhelmed, we can't just blame that on the increasing amount of information. It's true that the amount of information has been increasing fo…

1
Organizing Principles in a Media-less World; Why and How - DBR 029 58:53

9M ago58:53

58:53

I talk about how information storage and access is changing. Note that it is changing in ways that mean our old metaphors (and their associated 'affordances') are now inaccurate in a couple of meaningful ways. We don't want our metaphors to constrain our organizational thinking, particularly if they're inaccurate or push us toward the wrong afforda…

1
Two ideas of Work Management Systems - DBR 028 54:14

10M ago54:14

54:14

I was talking to a prospect about Attention Compass. Her primary objection seemed to be a misunderstanding of the role of formal planning in our work management system needs. She had tried to implement bits and pieces of legend and lore. Nothing had worked. She felt that work wasted and had given up to some degree. I think that we’ve seen and heard…

1
Managing the Operational Aspects of Your Life - DBR 027 56:47

10M ago56:47

56:47

Systems and creativity – managing the Operational Aspects of your life I talk about Attention Compass as a system and a set of workflows. A lot of people say, hey, look, I want to be creative, I want to be spontaneous. I don't want to be rigorously structured. I don't want to, you know, feel regimented, right, all these kinds of ideas come up. So w…

1
What is 'Calm Productivity'? - DBR 026 54:56

10M ago54:56

54:56

What is "Calm Productivity"? I’ve spent a few episodes letting you know how to implement Attention Compass, but why would you WANT TO do that? I'm constantly talking to people about this idea of calm productivity, because that's the payoff for Attention Compass. But, in lots of episodes I find myself getting into the technical details of how Attent…

1
Don't overuse Alarms, do this instead - DBR 025 58:11

10M ago58:11

58:11

Today I'm going to talk about our need for more reminders and fewer alarms in our lives. This is critical for two reasons: one – we use the wrong tool for the wrong job, with predictable results; two – once you understand, you’ll see the value of the tool that I’ll offer to you. I’ll start by talking about two types of tasks. Then we’ll look at rem…

1
What is Attention Compass - Workflows 3 & 4 - DBR 024 1:00:03

11M ago1:00:03

1:00:03

This finishes the series on Attention Compass nuts and bolts. This is my coaching in a three-part, three-hour presentation. I want you to have this so you can start implementing. Why should you implement Attention Compass? I think the modern work-style, the modern technology, and modern communications all work together to make us anxious/stressed a…

1
What is Attention Compass - Workflows 1 & 2 - DBR 023 57:28

11M ago57:28

57:28

What is Attention Compass - Workflows 1 & 2 I want you to have information that will allow you to implement your own Attention Compass, if you want to do that. Attention compass needs some support and some explanation. Episode 22 discusses the big picture and how the tool works. I want you to have some guidance towards doing an implementation so yo…

1
What is Attention Compass and How will it help me? - DBR 022 57:41

11M ago57:41

57:41

What is Attention Compass and How will it help me? This is one of a series of posts that are going to discuss Attention Compass in detail. Attention Compass is my proprietary tool and workflow to put you in control of your information and attention - making you a better more confident knowledge worker and reducing your stress over your productivity…

1
Formal Education and Getting Better, what are some options? - DBR 021 59:24

12M ago59:24

59:24

Is more education the only way to get better? The thing I want to get to is this notion of getting better and improving what you do and, and really drill down on that because I think most of my listeners are interested in that right. I mean, it's not just a question of being able to handle your stuff. It's a question of getting better at work. It's…

1
Procrastination vs. Postponement and Tracking Our To-Dos - DBR 020 56:36

12M ago56:36

56:36

I wanted to talk about procrastination... I think that we have a fair amount of confusion about procrastination. One of the clear points I want to make is that procrastination is not some moral failing. It's not some example of 'lack of discipline'. I believe, in almost all cases, it's actually a problem with our systems and I'll talk about what I …

1
How Do We Avoid Perfectionism and Still Manage Quality? - DBR 019 54:10

12M ago54:10

54:10

How Do We Avoid Perfectionism and still Manage Quality? I did an episode on perfectionism recently. I argued that it is wasteful and thus should be eliminated. But, in some cases, it seems to be our only way to control quality. That is, our only quality target is perfection. If we eliminate it as a goal, then are we simply left with accepting slopp…

1
Lies - perfection should be the target of your work - DBR 018 56:07

1y ago56:07

56:07

The lie: Perfection should be the underlying goal of your work Or (rephrased) you should pursue ‘excellence’ in everything you do. The truth is that technical perfection is both unrealistic and unnecessary. Excellent is an undefined word. Intro to perfectionism: I've seen a lot lately on perfectionism. Kevin Miller, on his Self Helpful podcast, did…

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Larry Tribble, Ph.D Podcasts

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