Goal Met – 50 Hours of Informational Podcasts
First off – I’m not one of those people that listens to podcasts all day so I can reference them at cocktail parties and seem enlightened (yes, I’ve met those people) plus I have a hard time maintaining focus for more than a few minutes – my mind will invariably wander and when I snap back into focus 20 minutes of the podcast will have gone by and I didn’t hear any of it (this is also the reason I struggle with audio books)
However – I knew I had two captive hours every day during my commute to work that I could leverage. I usually just listened to sports radio or Apple music but I started thinking that’s probably not the greatest use of that captured time. So I decided to lean into informational podcasts so I can use that time to learn and broaden my mind (not that sports radio doesn’t do that…)
Since I started a new job as a people manager it’s a bit heavy in the beginning on management tools and strategies since I was trying to build a management style but as the work picked up I started leaning into productivity podcasts to help balance work, life, and this 50for50 goals.
It was a bit of a struggle to maintain focus in the beginning since my mind tended to wander often but I think the meditation I was trying was helping me focus and be present and a few months in I found I could focus on most of the episodes without having to rewind
Since I was doing it so often it became a bit of a habit and now whenever I drive somewhere I’m usually trying to listen to something interesting but sometimes my brain just doesn’t want to work that hard and that’s when I crank the tunes and just enjoy the drive. In fact for a few months I split it up mornings for podcasts, afternoons for listening to the ‘Top 50 albums of all time’ maximizing that captive time to achieve my goals!
Here’s the list of the podcasts I’ve listened to while achieving this goal. There’s a few I listen to often because they’re consistently interesting enough that I didn’t feel the need to go and find new podcasts to listen to as I only had two hours a day
| Manager Tools | How to set annual goals |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Your hidden personality |
| Hidden Brain | Making the most of your mistakes |
| Hidden Brain | How to Believe in yourself |
| Beyond the to-do list | Self-Awareness |
| Manager tools | One on Ones Part 1 |
| Manager Tools | Giving Effective Feedback |
| Hidden Brain | Finding Focus |
| Manager Tools | Giving Effective Feedback Part 2 |
| A Bit of Optimism w/Simon Sinek | Atomic Habits with James Clear |
| Manager Tools | Giving Effecive Feedback Part 3 |
| A Bit of Optimism w/Simon Sinek | Theory of everyone |
| Manager Tools | Effective Meetings 1/4 |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Your Brain on Art |
| Beyond the to-do list | Harnessing Creativity at Work |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | The Problem with Optimizing our Lives |
| Beyond the to-do list | Super power of clear communicators |
| Beyond the to-do list | Repurpose your content |
| Manager Tools | Culture: Core Behaviors |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Daniel Kahneman: Don’t trust your instinct |
| The Next Big Idea | MIDLIFE: Once a crisis, now an opportunity |
| A Bit of Optimism w/Simon Sinek | Sweting the small stuff with Steven Bartlett |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | How to be productive w/o burning out |
| Beyond the to-do list | Myths Surrounding Memory |
| Hidden Brain | Escape the Matrix |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | AI and the future of creativity |
| HBR on Leadership | How to be persuasive at work |
| HBR on Leadership | How the best leaders drive innovation |
| HBR on Leadership | How to lead great conversations |
| Beyond the to-do list | Finding the right productivity tools |
| HBR on Leadership | Whan you make the leap to manager |
| HBR on Leadership | How to become a better manager |
| The Next Big Idea | Look again: How to debabitualize |
| Hidden Brain | Are you listening? (The skill of active listening) |
| Manager Tools | Proactive Manager: Meetings |
| The Learning Leader | The Score that Matters – Growing Excellence in yourself |
| The Learning Leader | Adding Surplus Value (Discussion with Scott Galloway) |
| Hidden Brain | Curious Science of Cravings |
| The Next Big Idea | Slow Productivity w/Cal Newport |
| The Learning Leader | Discussion with Scott Belsky of Adobe |
| Ten Percent Happier | Ancient Strategies for managing stress |
| A Bit of Optimism w/Simon Sinek | How to eat with Jessie Inchauspe |
| Manager Tools | One on Ones (Updated for 2024) |
| Beyond the to-do list | Applying Enneagrams to Your Business |
| Beyond the to-do list | Extending your mind via better note taking |
| Manager Tools | Updated Feedback Model P1 |
| The Learning Leader | Obsessing over quality and details over amount of work done |
| The Next Big Idea | Why the Civil War Matters Today |
| The Learning Leader | Growing without goals (talk with Jason Fried) |
| Ten Percent Happier | The Science of Getting out of your head |
| Hidden Brain | Parents Keep Out! Benefit of free / unsupervised play |
| The Next Big Idea | Why We Remember: The Science of Memory |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | John Green – Paying attention to your attention |
| Hidden Brain | Innovation 2.0 – Do less |
| The Next Big Idea | How AI will revolutionize learning |
| The Learning Leader | Creating a flexible mind |
| Hidden Brain | Why trying to hard can backfire on you |
| HBR IdeaCast | Getting the most out of digital collaboration tools |
| Beyond the to-do list | The relationship between productivity and proper documentation |
| Ten Percent Happier | Longevity Secrets of the Blue Zones |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Re-imagining Technology |
| Ten Percent Happier | The last podcast you ever need to hear about exercise |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Richard Branson on saying yes now and figuring it out later |
| The Next Big Idea | Friction: How smart leaders make things easier |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | How to enjoy failure with Gabrielle Zevin |
| Hidden Brain | Making the world sparkle again |
| Work Life with Adam Grant | Fighting against the status quo |
| HBR: Coaching Real Leaders | Making the most of your work day |
| Ten Percent Happier | The 5 Pillars of brain health |
| Hidden Brain | Fighting Despair |
| Harvard Business Review | What it takes to be a manager |
| The Learning Leader | How to fix your craving mindset w/Michael Easter |
| The Learning Leader | Seth Godin: How to be remarkable |
| The Next Big Idea | The Anxious Generation part I |
| The Next Big Idea | The Anxious Generation part 2 |
| The Next Big Idea | Work of Art: How something comes from nothing |
| Beyond the to-do list | Dispel the Myth and Stigmas around ADHD |