The Podcast

122: Deep Pre-Decision

29 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Optimizing your day for Deep Work. Or, what to do to make highly productive, deeply focused work possible (and likely).

121: Scanning & Planning

22 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More mobile life & iOS automation talk: 1. Using Scanbot (and not Evernote) for document safekeeping 2. Optimizing Magic Spreadsheet for iPhone, ...

120: Spanglish

15 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Part 2 of our discussion on: - How to develop a better accent in a foreign language - Michael’s story of learning Spanish - Duolingo and computer-ai...

119: The Polyglots

09 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The story of how Michael and Radek learned English, German, and other languages. Michael's way was to watch lots of movies and sing lots of songs. Mea...

118: More Than Good Enough

03 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

After a few months of heavy iPad use, Radek admits: despite its (obvious) flaws and limitations, iPad Pro is a surprisingly good computer. There's ...

117: Notch of the Future

25 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the iPhone X. Also: Wireless charging everywhere, ARM on the Mac, iPhone multitasking.

116: App of the Reunion

18 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Like every half a year, we reunite in one physical location, this time: Wrocław. We talk about learning languages, beers, Taiwan, and the low-carb di...

115: Triathlons

14 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael celebrates his tenth triathlon, explains how he got into it and tries to persuade Radek to compete as well.

114: Panamá

04 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

About Radek's trip to Panama, along with a bunch of traveling pro tips. The art of packing – how to pack for 13 days in a regular backpack. Modern m...

113: Don’t be creepy

26 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

If you're a doctor or a lawyer, you have an ethical obligation to do the right thing for your patient or client. Why aren't software developers held t...

112: Pursuit of Essentialism

18 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we discuss the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown. The goal: designing a simpler, more focused life. Doing less, but better. Cutting down on wh...

111: Death to Paper

12 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael explains how he uses Evernote. This was going to be a boring episode about note taking. Turns out, this is a powerful system that completely r...

110: Non-Violent Communication

07 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we discuss Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg: Resolving conflicts with other people, taking responsibility for your own life, fi...

109: Workflow to the rescue

16 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Taking iOS automation up to eleven. Featuring: making Magic Spreadsheet work on iPhone using Workflow, smart checklists in Nozbe, journaling Workflo...

108: iPad Consultations

08 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael teaches Radek how to be more productive on an iPad. Featuring: using Evernote (or Notes) as a temporary files storage, solving drag&drop ...

107: Simplify everything

01 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Habits, systems, and reminders are crucial, but it is possible to go too far and end up hoarding them. Every now and then, it's worth questioning whic...

106: Combined Twitter&Instagram Moment

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Part 2 of our discussion on reducing the cognitive load of notifications, and loosening the grip of social media addiction. We've made some changes a...

105: Twitter detox

19 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Discussion on distractions and addiction, and how that relates to software we use. We forgot how to be bored for even 30 seconds, and we fill even the...

104: A Guide to the Good Life

12 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Part 2 of our discussion of Stoicism and the book "A Guide to the Good Life". Be sure to check out Part 1 first.

103: Stoicism

02 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss "A Guide to the Good Life", a modern, approachable introduction to Stoicism. A philosophy of life easy to dismiss as a boring piece of hist...

102: iPad Only

26 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael tries to sell Radek on the idea of using an iPad as your main (or only) computer. Radek remains skeptical, but buys the new iPad Pro anyway.

101: WWDC 2017

20 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Radek and Michael comment on Apple's announcements on Worldwide Developers Conference this year. (This is our take on what's significant, and what's ...

100: Two years

13 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're celebrating our one hundredth episode of The Podcast. Sharing the story of how this show came to be, how it evolved with us over time...

99: Bring magic back

29 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our thoughts and wishes for Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) next week.

98: Stop Stealing Dreams

23 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing from last week, this is part two of our rant on the education system. We argue that it was fundamentally designed for a different era, desi...

97: Schooling

18 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Part one of our rant on the education system. Our experiences are quite different: Michael had a great time in his 5 years of university; Radek never ...

96: Working while traveling

11 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

At Nozbe, everyone works remotely. Usually that means, from home. But sometimes, we work even more remotely — while traveling. We share tips on ho...

95: Living in the future

04 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed. It's fun, if sometimes frustrating, to live in the future — use the hardware, work, learn,...

94: Insanely Simple

25 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing simplicity, Steve Jobs, communication styles, empathy, and other thoughts from the book "Insanely Simple".

93: Dare to try

19 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Why is studying productivity a worthwhile pursuit? Many people assume it's all useless — and much of it is! Like with dieting, it's a field filled w...

92: Fooled by Randomness

12 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

A random, rambly discussion about a rambly book on randomness.

91: Best city

05 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Live from the twice-a-year Nozbe Reunion in Toruń!

90: Too risky

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Feel free to skip this one, because this week we're breaking all the rules about not getting in trouble on the internet… to talk about politics. Ye...

89: Shutdown ritual

22 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Idleness is good for the brain. After a day of hard, deep work, you ought to disconnect from work completely, shut it down, and recharge for the next ...

88: Solitude

14 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Technology grab bag: Bose QC35 review, some thoughts on new iPad and iPhone rumors, and an update to Radek's MacBook Pro review

87: Sleep Smarter

08 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone knows that sleep is important (or so we hope), but it isn't just the quantity of sleep that matters, it's the quality of sleep as well. ...

86: Perfect week

01 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Sliwinski shares a pro tip he learned from Michael Hyatt: how to design a template for your ideal week. A good routine is helpful for producti...

85: Magic Spreadsheet

21 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Rapid improvement (at anything!) requires a tight feedback loop. And for a feedback loop, you need… well, feedback — data. Radek had been tracki...

84: From reading to doing

15 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

How do you turn reading into action? It's good to read lots of books, but if you're neglecting to actually apply the things you've learned to your lif...

83: 10 years of Nozbe special

07 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This one's different. We're celebrating Nozbe's 10th birthday!

82: Planning 2017

31 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

A year of your life is precious. Instead of just going with the flow (and often, ending up nowhere), it's worth taking a deliberate approach to planni...

81: Deliberate Practice

25 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Real world examples of how we applied ideas from "Peak" in our lives to learn faster and better.

80: Peak

17 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

We're back from our winter break, and this week we're discussing the book Peak. We want to understand, on a deeper level, how people become good at w...

79: Inevitable transition

28 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing our conversation from last week, we share some more thoughts about the future of Mac. (Hint: it's switching to the ARM architecture). This...

78: Underwhelming Performance

20 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek reviews the new MacBook Pro (with Touch Bar).

77: Ego is the enemy

13 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

At every stage of our lives, when we aspire, succeed, or fail, our ego is the enemy. It's too easy to fall into the trap of ego and start believing yo...

76: Management by walking around

06 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing more unorthodox ideas about running a business from Under New Management. Trying to figure out why so many companies believe that open-spac...

75: Under New Management

29 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The way today's companies are ran closely mimics the management methods of the industrial revolution era firms. But the realities of modern organizati...

74: Disrupted

22 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Briefly reviewing Disrupted by Dan Lyons, and more generally discussing and criticizing the startup culture. A cautionary tale.

73: Quarterly Offsite

15 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Personal Quarterly Offsite (or just "quarterly review") is your feedback loop for life. Every three months, you give a day to yourself to review your ...

72: Accept your weakness

09 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing our discussion about morning routines, we talk about how we design our week to make productivity easy. Pro-Tip: Productivity becomes much ...

71: Friction Management

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek shares some pro-tips and brain hacks he used to regain control over his morning routine. The first step is to wake up early and consistently, a...

70: People want to work

25 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

​Live from this week's Nozbe Reunion, we review how the TGIF policy has been working for us in the past 10 weeks. Turns out, it's not so easy to mak...

69: Sharing

18 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing our conversation last week, we're discussing how sharing, cooperation, and remixing are slowly changing our lifes and businesses.

68: The Inevitable

11 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing ideas from "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future".

67: David and Goliath

04 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We're continuing last week's discussion, and sharing ideas about how to thrive when your competition is bigger and stronger. As a small company, a tin...

66: Guerrilla Development

27 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

One does not win a war against a vastly stronger enemy by going head to head against it. No, to have a chance of winning, you need to play a different...

65: Request for comments

22 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

At every company, communication overhead becomes a real sink for time and energy. And the larger you get, the greater the overhead. It's prudent to op...

64: Garbage collection

13 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There's no speed limit to how fast you can learn. But you can't just upload information into your brain either. To learn faster, it's important to und...

63: Show me

06 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Discussing insights from How to Fly a Horse. Everybody can be creative, but creative thinking doesn't exist. Creation is not inspiration, but iteratio...

62: Path to the end

30 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing our conversation about ideas and insights from Smarter Faster Better: discussing how team norms shape the way we work together, empathy, ch...

61: Take the blame

23 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Book corner! This week, we discuss ideas we learned from Charles Duhigg's newest book, Smarter Faster Better. Among others, we discuss why employers ...

60: TGIF

17 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Michael wants his employees to work less and still pay them the same. He might be crazy. We're implementing a new, experimental policy at Nozbe, wher...

59: Abolishing hierarchies

10 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Thoughts on software design. What we do with user feedback, how we prioritize new features, teach users good habits through interface design, and try ...

58: Peer Mentoring

03 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Michael explains what it means to him to mentor and be mentored. It's not what you might expect — not a master-student relationship, rather, it's ab...

57: Discomfort routine

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek started waking up so early, no one can believe this is even possible. (Isn't this weird that when we hit the snooze button, procrastination is ...

56: Thought leadering

20 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Michael rethinks his strategy for blogging and spreading the word about #NoOffice. The plan: one solid blog post a week to blog his way to writing the...

55: Ten years from now

14 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Answering common questions and criticisms about high book consumption. Why it doesn't matter how many books you read will you remember 10 years from n...

54: Forget the fireplace

07 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There is no such thing as reading too many books. (Or if there is, it's certainly way above the 30 books per year rate both Michael and Radek find eas...

53: Originals

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take for individuals and organizations to be original and creative? Michael and Radek share their favorite bits from Originals — Adam G...

52: 6 degrees of Elon Musk

22 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek shares more of his experiences from the WWDC/San Francisco trip. More tips for attending conferences. About almost knowing Elon Musk, and why it...

51: WWDC 2016

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Live from (surprisingly cold) California, Radek joins Michael to talk about the news from Apple on the Worldwide Developers Conference and how they af...

50: Four Disciplines

08 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we discuss ideas from The 4 Disciplines of Execution — a book describing a system for achieving goals among the whirlwind of everyday life. A...

49: Zero sum game

01 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This is such an important idea. We all know this, but few of us actually internalize this truth: The competition for our time and attention is a zero ...

48: Three-point-three wave

25 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Michael reviews The Third Wave (two homonymous books by Alvin Toffler and Steve Case). And Radek is going to San Francisco for Apple's WWDC conference...

47: Quit social media

18 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Your day is 24 hours long, and there's nothing you can do to change that. Which means, competition for your time and attention is a zero sum game. Doi...

46: Deep Work

11 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We live very distracted lives and most of our working days are filled with shallow tasks and interruptions. In this age when more and more jobs are be...

45: Tree of knowledge

04 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

More discussion about books! Remember: books are not a source of raw information, they are education and persuasion devices. The most compact forms of...

44: Productivity fudges

27 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Michael and Radek have been to Warsaw on two awesome conferences last week. This episode, we're sharing some stories from that and celebrating the hum...

43: Not that smart

20 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A story about our relationship with books. Truly, reading a lot has been a great investment and made us smarter, but it wasn't always easy for us. We ...

42: Bottom line

13 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The value of focus is hard to measure. But why spend your time doing something on your own just because you can, when you can get it off the shelf and...

41: Never grow up

07 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

You don't need an office, or presence in Silicon Valley, or big VC money to start and sustain a company. To create something interesting, to make a de...

40: Overcollaboration is dangerous

30 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Being a small company is great. Everyone knows everyone, there's just one team, no secrets, and it all makes for a pleasant environment to work in. Bu...

39: Make Nozbe Great Again

23 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This one is special. We're recording live from a hotel room on the semi-annual Nozbe Reunion. With live audience, the marketing team Periscoping us, a...

38: Rules of the game

16 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Third month into the year, it's time to look back on the progress we've made on our yearly goals. Hint: only a fool keeps doing the same thing over an...

37: Batch that frog

09 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Most communication in companies should happen asynchronously. How can anyone get anything done when everyone is constantly distracted? That, and: 1) B...

36: Weekly rhythm therapy

02 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Wearing more than one hat makes planning work across the week (and from week to week) hard. Here's how we try to do it, and keep often conflicting pri...

35: You tried to be funny

24 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek made people angry on the internet and Michael tried to be funny. The insights you gain by reading lots of books. More stuff about nutrition. (W...

34: Wake up and smell the coffee

17 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

33: Monkey brain optimization

10 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Some things are bad, but provide instant gratification. Some things are good, but don't. If you want to create better habits, you have to create an en...

32: How to get fat

03 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Radek read "Why We Get Fat" and now his 20kg weight loss makes a whole lot more sense to him. Michael just nods along.

31: Topic selection problem

27 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

9th birthday of Nozbe = version 3.0 + new logo + new design + tears of joy. That topic that was going to be today? Well, it will have to wait another...

30: More research required

20 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SpaceX corner, and a bunch of follow-up on making, reviewing, and achieving goals. (And journaling, and weight loss...) Plus a sneak peak into Nozbe 3...

29: Bound to happen

13 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

2015 in review and how NOT to make New Year's resolutions.

28: Empty intellectual calories

23 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Radek signed up for a gym. And he doesn't like gifts. And USB causes radio interference. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

27: It's like flossing!

16 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Why you should be doing Weekly Review, a scheduled meeting with yourself. (It's like flossing!) Also: ergonomics follow-up, RF corner, and the first e...

26: Punishment for naming sins

09 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Micheal bought a Tesla! Well, one unit of TSLA stock. Still! Continuing our conversation on workspace ergonomics (chairs, desks, and working while sta...

25: Vote of confidence

02 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A random bag of topics: landing rockets, Black Friday, tech Thanksgiving, WiFi corner, Tokyo, ergonomic keyboards, pricing models.

24: Four-version pipeline

25 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Radek's trip to London, going #iPadOnly, navigating with an Apple Watch, internal Android—iOS competition at Nozbe, iPad Pro, Nozbe public templates...

23: Crazy times

18 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

More Apple Watch use cases, noise-cancelling headphones, Michael's new level of internet fame, Nozbe templates… Earthquakes, armed robberies, and th...