The Productivity Show

Heck Yeah or No: How to Say No, Even to Your Boss

Did you say yes to something recently and regret it before the calendar invite even arrived? Thanh once turned down an opportunity he was excited about, and it was tied t

The Productivity Rules We Stopped Following (and What We Do Instead) (TPS630)

A lot of popular productivity advice sounds smart until you actually try to live by it. In this episode, Thanh and Brooks share the rules they’ve stopped following, from

Stop Consuming Productivity Tips and Start Using Them

If you’ve ever spent an afternoon reading productivity articles instead of doing actual work, this episode is for you. Thanh breaks down the four signs you’ve fallen into

The Music That Rewires Your Focus w/ Dan Clark from Brain.fm (TPS629)

How would you know if you’d never actually experienced deep focus? Dan Clark, CEO of Brain.fm, says that’s the most common thing people write in to tell him — they though

The Workflow Friction Audit: Find and Remove the Hidden Drains in Your Day (TPS628)

You’re busy all day but still feel like you’re not getting enough done. The culprit isn’t your to-do list — it’s hidden workflow friction. In this episode, Thanh and Broo

Why Your Calendar Breaks by 10 AM (And What to Do Instead)

Rigid time-blocking sounds great in theory, but it falls apart the moment real life shows up. In this episode, Thanh shares five adaptive planning methods that preserve y

The Productivity Content Trap: When Optimizing Becomes Procrastination (TPS627)

You’ve read the books, watched the videos, and tried the apps — but your output hasn’t changed. In this episode, Thanh and Brooks break down why consuming productivity co

The Knowledge Worker’s AI Operating System: From Inbox to Deep Work to Done

Your AI tools keep promising to save you time — so why do you feel more buried than ever? We have a blunt answer: the tools were never the problem. You’ve been bolting AI

Why Productivity Systems Don’t Work for You (And How to Build One That Fits) (TPS626)

Most productivity systems fail not because you lack discipline — but because you borrowed someone else’s constraints. In this episode, we break down why copying another p

AI Fluency Is the Real Advantage

Why do 65% of employees say AI makes them more productive, but only one in ten say it actually changed how they work? That gap comes down to a single skill—and the people

Time-Blocking Is Broken: 5 Adaptive Planning Methods That Work Better (TPS625)

Rigid time-blocking sounds great in theory—until your 10 AM deep work block gets hijacked by an urgent meeting and you feel behind before lunch. In this episode, Thanh an

The Goal Was Never the Point

What are you actually building when you chase a goal that takes years to reach? Most of us measure progress by whether we got the thing — the promotion, the number, the c

The Knowledge Worker’s AI Operating System: From Inbox to Deep Work to Done (TPS624)

Inbox zero is not the win. You can hit inbox zero every single day and still feel like you’re drowning—because the real problem isn’t the inbox. It’s that most people are

Your 10-Minute Habit That Ends the Chaos

Does your to-do list go off the rails before lunch? For fast-moving professionals in high-growth environments, the plan you make at 8am can be obsolete by 9. New clients,

AI Is Boosting Productivity, But Only for the Fluent (TPS623)

Most people think the gap is between those who use AI and those who don’t. It’s not. The real gap is between people who are AI-curious and people who are AI-fluent. In th

You Are Drowning in Micro-Decisions

Decision fatigue is not about mental collapse. It is about subtle quality decay. The more choices your day demands, the more likely you are to procrastinate, default, or

Break These Productivity Rules (If They’re Not Working) (TPS622)

Should you really eat that frog first thing every morning? We aren’t so sure, and in this encore episode, we’re throwing out four pieces of productivity advice so widely

AI Meeting Assistants: Stop Transcribing and Start Saving Time

Most AI meeting assistants create transcripts, but few actually save time. We rank the top tools like Otter, Fireflies, and Fathom based on ruthless practicality. Learn h

Rethinking Email, Focus & Doing Less w/ Ari Meisel (TPS621)

How many good decisions do you actually have in you each day? Ari Meisel says the answer is about two dozen — which means your inbox, with its thousands of tiny choices,

Focus Isn’t the Problem You Think It Is

Why did reading twenty books a year suddenly become impossible? Thanh used to fly through books and podcasts without a second thought — until his ability to concentrate q