Author: Ray Sidney-Smith

In this episode, we’re discussing how to use AI to automate "shadow work", the boring, repetitive tasks like data entry and invoicing that drain our energy. By viewing AI as a "million interns" that need clear instructions and human supervision, the hosts share how to streamline everything from professional billing to personal life choices like cooking and movies. While AI can sometimes make mistakes or "hallucinate," the episode explains that investing time in training your AI assistant can remove administrative friction and help you focus on the work that actually matters. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/147 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing The AI Assistant: Automating Administrative Friction and "Shadow Work" from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | The AI Assistant: Automating Administrative Friction and "Shadow Work" Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | The AI Assistant: Automating Administrative Friction and "Shadow Work" Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. "Deep Work" and "Shallow Work" by Cal Newport Flow Theory by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Personal Productivity Club Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist | 00:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a more fulfilling, productive life? Then you've come to the right place. Welcome to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. Here are your hosts, Ray Sidney Smith and Augusto Pinault with Frances Wade and Art Gelwix. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:18 Welcome everybody to productivity cast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Francis Wade | 00:25 And I'm Francis Wade. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:28 Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome, everyone. To ProductivityCast this week. We're diving into the world of artificial intelligence and its growing role in our personal productivity. This is going to be a part of an ongoing series we're calling the AI-powered professional. And in today's episode, we'll be exploring how AI tools are moving beyond simple task management to tackle tedious shadow work, things like administrative friction, small repetitive tasks, and context switching overhead that drains our time and energy. And so we're going to talk about how to approach shadow work with AI, how to overcome the problem, and we can talk about some of the solutions that we have utilized throughout the So let's get into this. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 01:13 Episode. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 01:16 And first, let's spend a little bit of time talking about what exactly is administrative friction and shadow work. Does anybody want to kind how they... Raymond Sidney-Smith | 01:26 Of tackle. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 01:28 Perceive what shadow work or administrative friction is. Francis Wade | 01:32 Sure, it's the stuff that I have to do to Execute the day. So it tends to be repetitive stuff. I don't have a choice. I must do it. No one else can do it. Typically, or I could train someone to do some of it, but most of it It's not worth training someone else to do it because there's probably some nuance that only I know. I see these things as a bit of a tax in the sense that In order to achieve your overall objectives, you have to do them. And yes, if you can get them automated, "Polite you, but point is that they're mandatory, they're required, and you don't have a choice.  So I know how I feel when I'm doing them because my heart sinks and my energy drops and I go through a whole metamorphosis into someone who wishes he were doing something else. So that's an emotional Sugar for me. Or a Marco. Augusto Pinaud | 02:34 You know, for me, the shadow work is all that work that is required to do to really be able to focus on being productive. And I'm dead. And the reason is, as Francis was saying, it's normally it's not the fun work. Okay. But it's the fun, it's the work that you need to do. To be able to get to that fun work to get to that. Work in which you can really focus and you can shine. And Us bored. As tedious That's it is. It's critical to be able to get a good session of productivity. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 03:13 Yeah. Cal Newport defines his concept of Shallow work. As I think what we think of as what we call shadow work. And so there's this concept of often performed while you're doing other things and doesn't create a lot of value. And I've always had a problem with the concept of shallow work and deep work. I think that those definitions, deep work being high value, items that you're highly focused on just really sounds like flow work to me. And so, but I define flow work, of course, the way that Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about it. And The goal here is to really look at this from a lens of if we're doing all of this administrative work, I think that there is some great value to some of it. As I typically use the example that you could have a five minute phone call and have a client say, let's sign the million dollar contract. Right. Was the five minute phone call worth it? Absolutely. And some people would consider that an administrative issue. Burden, right? That would be administrative friction having to take and have that five minute phone call.  So we have to kind of parse apart those things that are high value and don't take a lot of time. Those things that are low value and take little bits of time or lots of time, each of which are kind of problematic in their own way.  And then being able to overcome those through various mechanisms. Artificial intelligence is just one of them.  So we have to be mindful that what we're talking about here today is just one of the ways in which you can overcome this. But I don't think that AI ultimately becomes the panacea. It is just one option that you have among many for being able to overcome these kinds of issues. Couple things that I wanted to kind of talk about here is that I think that Data entry generally is administrative friction and is a classic type of shadow work that you can think of. And Honestly, data entry is what computers were built for.  You know, the whole concept of being able to take data and run calculations or structure it in a way I think is the archetypal form of shallow, shadow work. Francis Wade | 05:50 The data entry I have an intern that works with me or an associate who works with me and She was doing an entry job And I thought about it for a minute, because she was not enjoying it. And I said, It's one of those, again, it's one of those taxes that at some point you've got to pay because We all have to enter data at some point. And we'll try all our best to not have to do it. But again, it's one of those sinking feelings that after you thought of everything and you realize that at the end of all your thinking, you still have to enter the data. There's no shortcut available. You got to do it. And I entered I remember. , entering data early in There's a way to it. Into data and I was trying to share this with her That's more skillful. Because you're paying attention to what you're doing. You're not checking out to the point where you're making mistakes. And at the same time, you're taking care of your well-being.  So you're not engaging in conversations that are dragging you downhill and getting you depressed. That there's a way you have to manage your mind. And manage your attention. To do good data entry so that you don't do nonsense.  So it's actually, I tried to paint this picture for her. It's actually a skill. That Once you have it, you can always Do it. Use it. But it's not a skill to... Resist in the sense that you wish it weren't there. It actually has so much, sometimes the data has so much value, that you need to bring your best skills to your data entry.  So that you don't end up resisting it. You don't end up resenting it. And you don't end up making mistakes so it's a skill in and of itself. And funnily enough, after I gave her this, very inspirational explanation. I ended up spending It must have been at least six hours entering data. There was no way. I was yeah. And I actually did some automation. I did a little lab coding to kind of speed it up. But that could only get me so far. But not go any further. And I thought, I'm eating my own dog food, taking my own medicine. But I agree. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 08:19 Yeah, I'll say this. There are so many ways to ease the burden of data entry. Again, it's about the ways in which input and output in computer communication in human-computer interaction that we just don't think about.  So, you know, Our input options for a device are typically in an input perspective. There's audio, right? You can put audio through a microphone into it, which is what we're doing right now, recording the podcast.  And then there's video, having the device take in video. Or images and then of course mouse and keyboard and if you have a touch screen or a touchpad like a Wacom board, you're capable of putting in some kind of handwriting or hand drawing some kind of, you know, stylus type input or touch inputs into the device....

In this episode, we're discussing the concept of perspective as a contrast to the GTD concept of control. We explore the "Horizons of Focus" and the different altitudes of self-management, ranging from the "runway" of daily actions to the "50,000-foot" level of life purpose. We debate whether perspective is a tactical relationship or a pseudonym for context while contrasting top-down visioning with bottom-up execution. From discussing the "elasticity" needed in planning to identifying incongruencies between our values and our careers, we explore how these various layers of focus can transform mundane tasks into meaningful progress toward a fulfilling life. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/146 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing what perspective means in the context of GTD from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | What Does Perspective Mean in GTD? Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | What Does Perspective Mean in GTD? Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Getting Things Done by David Allen The 8th Habit by Dr. Stephen Covey Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins Tony Robbins Audio Programs GTD "Horizons of Focus" Model Personal Productivity Club Raw Text Transcript | What Does Perspective Mean in GTD? Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist | 00:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a more fulfilling, productive life? Then you've come to the right place. Welcome to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. Here are your hosts, Ray Sidney Smith and Augusto Pinot with Francis Wade and Art Gelwix. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:18 Welcome back, everybody, to Productivity Cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud | 00:24 And I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade | 00:26 I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks | 00:28 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:29 Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this week's episode. Today, we are going to be talking about perspectives as a contrast to last week's episode on the GTD concept of control.  So in order to start off the conversation, I want to lay the groundwork with perspectives. The Getting Things Done March 2015 edition appendixes. Glossary of terms definition given for perspective. And it says, one of the two key elements of self and organizational management, along with control, and it refers to point of view, focus, altitude of horizon. We have this concept of horizons of focus in getting things done. And what I'm hearing from the definition is that David Allen is saying that each one of those horizons of focus is a perspective. That's what the terminology is talking about. And so with that in mind, I wanted to ask, Is. Perspective the right term? And what does perspective mean to you in your own. Francis Wade | 01:33 My mind perspective is a pseudonym for context. And as someone smart said, context is decisive. The background story from which you take your actions is all important. And it's malleable. And most of us just wake up into the context that human beings wake up into every day, which is something close to survival. Survival, desperation, fear, you know, how can I make it through the day kind of, point of view. I think that's the default.  And then to Create a new context, tics. Or any perspective takes. Conscious act for the most part conscious action it takes deliberate effort. I think this is all important. I think the book GT is really about that. And perspectives is one way of seeing it. I think this idea that... The context of your life is decisive is an idea that's been around probably since the Greeks. And that's something worth paying attention to.  So yes, it's vitally important. Art Gelwicks | 02:41 What I think is interesting about this looking at perspective and how it breaks down is that often perspective is not related to ourselves. If you look at the GTD structure you've got, and I'll work from the bottom up, Actions, Projects, Goals, Vision, Life The first four of those categories are often... Stolen for lack of a better term by corporate and work environments. To set the messaging. For everything that you're supposed to be doing and that becomes the context, for lack of a better term, that those get applied in. It's difficult for us to translate goals, vision and life into actual real life things, because every time we think about it, we think about, you know, the next five year plan at work.  So... If we think about it from the perspective of how they relate to each other, perspectives in my book, are pretty much whatever you're dealing with and the thing above and the thing below it.  So projects is a good example. If you're working on projects, The projects need to align to the strategic goals that you have. If it's business, obviously you have business strategic goals. If it's personal goals, The things that you're doing should align to those. You have to determine what those are, but they should be tied to it. And below that, the actions necessary to execute those projects.  So the perspective is less... What the term would lend me to believe, which is a view on things and more of a relationship. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 04:27 I certainly see perspectives for me. As a vertical planning tool. And so each of the additional perspectives above the actions level or the ground level in at least GTD lingo, you are seeing a different and therefore you were planning at a different time. "layer of time" So it's for me, I always think of time horizons is that, you know, projects are within our time bound within about a year and then you keep stepping up to further and further distances of time. Accepting the horizon too, which is areas of focus and accountability, which ends up being something that is it's a maintenance level.  So, While each of the time horizons keep going up in that sense, Horizon 2 is the exception there because it's maintenance. It's ongoing maintenance. And if you're like me and you've created other horizons, other perspectives, then you may have other time horizons in that sense as well. They're not going away. And so that has an infinite horizon in essence.  So I'm looking at it on a regular basis purely because it's perennial. It's always going to be there. The interesting thing about perspectives for me is that I think that there is a clear... I don't know if I want to say contrast or argument between other systems, other methodologies, other thought processes on this and perspectives. I'll give you one example, which is Dr. Stephen Covey's The Eighth Habit, where he talks about the concept of the four intelligences. And if... Control and perspective are really the only two vectors of a productivity system, then Where does something like the four intelligences fit. And I would say that Dr. Covey would say that this is perhaps a completely different dimension.  You know, the four intelligences being mental intelligence or IQ, physical intelligence, PQ, emotional intelligence, EQ, and spiritual intelligence, SQ. And so he has this perspective on the four intelligences and how they map to all of the rest of how you would develop in his language, you know, finding your voice and helping others find theirs. And so I'm always... I don't know if I'm conflicted because I have myself learned to deal with where these things fit in my own system. But I can see that there can be a difficulty for folks to think about how Picking. IQ, PQ, EQ, SQ, and turning that into vision, discipline, passion, and conscience in the eighth habit world, and then seeing the somewhat limited I wouldn't say limited, but more simplistic view of the perspective concept. And I'm curious from all of you, Do you see a conflict or do you see... Perspective is just basically holding other I. Art Gelwicks | 07:38 Think perspectives are a more tactical term. Approach. They're more tangible. We associate them with things and activities that we have going on. Stephen Covey's concepts are more to understand people. I want to say spheres of influence. I don't know that they necessarily relate directly to each other. There is no dotted line. It is difficult at best. To translate. For example, projects into mental intelligence, you're not going to be able to make that connection easily without it stopping. Significant amount of work. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 08:18 Yeah, but to interject right there, like, so if we step up a few horizons and we get to vision and purpose and principles, then we're really starting to connect. The concepts of what he's talking about there at the very top levels of the system.  So it's not really closer to the tactical level, but more when he starts talking about, you know, creating vision, right, which he defines kind of as applied imagination. And then he we keep stepping down to these other, not stepping down, but going around the four quadrants, right? To figure out passion and discipline and conscious and otherwise.  So it's, At those upper horizons, it starts to bleed over one another. I.

In this episode of ProductivityCast, we continue our deep dive into the psychological and tactical differences between stalling out and stepping back. While Part 1 focused on defining the core constructs of procrastination and conscious deferral, Part 2 moves into the "why" and the "how." (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/144 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing the concepts of procrastination, conscious deferral and/or unconscious deferral from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Procrastination vs Conscious Deferral Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Procrastination vs Conscious Deferral Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Key Takeaways Practice Persistent Starting: Don’t focus on the final outcome; focus on the act of beginning. Success is the aggregate of many small "starts." Diagnose the "Anchor Weight": If you are avoiding a task, it is likely due to a "lack of definition." Take five minutes to clarify the very next physical step to lower the barrier to entry. Distinguish Deferral from Procrastination: Conscious deferral is a strategic choice based on missing resources; procrastination is choosing a lower-value activity (like escapist media) over a high-priority intent. Utilize Retrospective Planning: After completing a difficult project, perform a "post-mortem" to document the steps you took. This creates a historical record that reduces anxiety for similar future tasks. Stop the "Shoulding": Avoid labeling yourself a "procrastinator." Using the term often induces shame and a "fear-based response" that further erodes the confidence needed to begin. Timestamps [01:51] The Anchor Weight: Why lack of definition causes stalling. [07:50] Unconscious Deferral vs. Procrastination: The role of the unconscious mind. [12:32] The Danger of Identity Labeling: Why calling yourself a "procrastinator" is harmful. [20:12] Moving Past Anxiety: Tactics for getting the ball rolling on new projects. [27:29] Persistent Starting: Using Dr. Neil Fiore’s technique to overcome blocks. [36:38] The Hunter-Gatherer Brain: Why our biology fights against long-term goals. [44:31] The Benefits of Procrastination: Using it as a filter for the unnecessary. Resources Mentioned Books: The Now Habit by Dr. Neil Fiore Atomic Habits by James Clear Concepts/Methods: Getting Things Done (GTD) The Byron Katie method for questioning thoughts. Retrospective (Backwards) Planning. People: Gretchen Rubin (The Four Tendencies/Upholders). Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:29Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, we are going to continue our conversation around procrastination and conscious deferral. And the conversation last time really covered mostly us discussing the defining nature of or just defining the nature of these two constructs, both procrastination and conscious deferral. And so what I'd like us to do is So if you have not listened to that episode, I would highly recommend that you hop back to the part one of this particular two episodes, and then we will now continue today in terms of really discussing the What we're going to do today is then start discussing why we procrastinate in the first place? What are some of the understandings of why we procrastinate and what are reasons for conscious deferral?And then we will… Discuss probably in and amongst that ways in which you can overcome procrastination and when it's probably appropriate to do conscious deferral. When it actually may not be, and it then bleeds back into procrastination. And there's a fine line there, of course.So let's talk about what are the major reasons why You all procrastinate. What are the reasons you've determined that procrastination ekes its way into your everyday life?Art Gelwicks | 01:51I'll throw myself under the bus first. One of the most common reasons that I'll put something off is lack of definition. If I haven't taken time to truly define out all the steps necessary to execute something, it winds up with this anchor weight attached to it to say, "Well, you don't know what you don't know, and you don't know quite what you're supposed to do, so maybe you should go do something else." Whether true or not, That's kind of where things wind up getting pushed to.So that, I'd say that's my primary one is lack of definition around what I'm supposed to be executing.Augusto Pinaud | 02:28Yeah, I need to agree with you 100%. For me… I can tell. By Monday morning. How good or bad my weekly review was on Friday. And I wish to tell that all of them are incredibly good. And I get out of there with a clear mind. And sometimes it doesn't happen. Even sometimes I do some kind of weekly review on Friday. I need to compliment that over the weekend because that is Lack of clarity, that lack of have that clear list of projects and actions, all that it produce is emergencies, fires and procrastination in my world.Francis Wade | 03:12I have a question though then, because the kind of the procrastination that Art was talking about sounds to me more like conscious deferral. That he's not unconsciously Putting off. The lack of definition. He's consciously doing it.Well, I should ask him. Are you unconsciously doing it because you haven't defined the action or are you consciously doing.Art Gelwicks | 03:33It? No, it's… I would agree it would look like conscious deferral that I'm making that action that, I don't have enough detail, therefore I can't get started. I'm not going to give it that level of credit. It's really a, it's a two-step problem. And the more I think about it, the first step in the problem is recognizing that I now need to allocate time to gather that information to know what I need to do for that thing.So for example, let's say I'm planning out an online ad. And I have some of the information I need, but I don't have all of it. And I know it needs to go out at a certain time.Well, I could just say it needs to be done. Or… What happens is I recognize that I need to spend some time filling in those gaps of the process necessary for that item, which means I'm going to have to chase down information to fill those gaps.So to execute that Task? There's a bunch of extra work that I need to front load. And that makes that task feel bigger, creating a bigger anchor, creating a bigger roadblock, therefore, subconsciously encouraging me to push that back to do things that I know I can accomplish and move forward on, which unfortunately winds up in that thing getting pushed back to a point where it becomes problematic.So. There may be times where that's a conscious thing where I say, look, I just don't know what I need to know. Therefore, I'm not going to do that thing. But to me, that's not procrastination. You're absolutely right. That's a choice. That's somebody hasn't provided me an update or something like that. That's a waiting on or a follow up. It's when I myself have not defined things clearly enough. To say Should or should I not proceed with this? That's when the procrastination part will kick in and say, you know what, why don't you hold off on that? You can go do something that you feel better about. And it's, I think it's the feel part more than anything. Because there isn't a rational reason to delay that work. It has to be done. There's nothing about it that says that you shouldn't be doing it. But there's a subconscious feeling there that's saying there's an almost an anxiety that's attached to it. Saying, you're going to find something that is going to be a real problem. Maybe you should put that off. I don't know if that helps any of us.Augusto Pinaud | 06:00No. And you bring a great point that it's that anxiety. It's the procrastination. It starts happening because I start getting all that anxiety of, is this really up to date? Is this really possible? The valuable task that I need to move forward? Is this really what need to happen? Or not. And that or not is the killing part of that.Francis Wade | 06:25I have a different, not different, but I have a… As I'm thinking about this, I wrote a an article on procrastination. It was a long time, like a decade ago. But I basically said that Something along the lines that procrastination was not well defined. And it seemed more like a The feeling. Than a fact. But what's happened over the years is that If someone were to ask me if I procrastinate, I would say no. I don't have that. Kind of self-talk. I don't use that term.

In this episode of ProductivityCast, we continue our deep dive into the psychological and tactical differences between stalling out and stepping back. While Part 1 focused on defining the core constructs of procrastination and conscious deferral, Part 2 moves into the "why" and the "how." (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/144 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing the concepts of procrastination, conscious deferral and/or unconscious deferral from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Procrastination vs Conscious Deferral Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Procrastination vs Conscious Deferral Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Key Takeaways Practice Persistent Starting: Don’t focus on the final outcome; focus on the act of beginning. Success is the aggregate of many small "starts." Diagnose the "Anchor Weight": If you are avoiding a task, it is likely due to a "lack of definition." Take five minutes to clarify the very next physical step to lower the barrier to entry. Distinguish Deferral from Procrastination: Conscious deferral is a strategic choice based on missing resources; procrastination is choosing a lower-value activity (like escapist media) over a high-priority intent. Utilize Retrospective Planning: After completing a difficult project, perform a "post-mortem" to document the steps you took. This creates a historical record that reduces anxiety for similar future tasks. Stop the "Shoulding": Avoid labeling yourself a "procrastinator." Using the term often induces shame and a "fear-based response" that further erodes the confidence needed to begin. Timestamps [01:51] The Anchor Weight: Why lack of definition causes stalling. [07:50] Unconscious Deferral vs. Procrastination: The role of the unconscious mind. [12:32] The Danger of Identity Labeling: Why calling yourself a "procrastinator" is harmful. [20:12] Moving Past Anxiety: Tactics for getting the ball rolling on new projects. [27:29] Persistent Starting: Using Dr. Neil Fiore’s technique to overcome blocks. [36:38] The Hunter-Gatherer Brain: Why our biology fights against long-term goals. [44:31] The Benefits of Procrastination: Using it as a filter for the unnecessary. Resources Mentioned Books: The Now Habit by Dr. Neil Fiore Atomic Habits by James Clear Concepts/Methods: Getting Things Done (GTD) The Byron Katie method for questioning thoughts. Retrospective (Backwards) Planning. People: Gretchen Rubin (The Four Tendencies/Upholders). Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith | 00:29Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, we are going to continue our conversation around procrastination and conscious deferral. And the conversation last time really covered mostly us discussing the defining nature of or just defining the nature of these two constructs, both procrastination and conscious deferral. And so what I'd like us to do is So if you have not listened to that episode, I would highly recommend that you hop back to the part one of this particular two episodes, and then we will now continue today in terms of really discussing the What we're going to do today is then start discussing why we procrastinate in the first place? What are some of the understandings of why we procrastinate and what are reasons for conscious deferral?And then we will… Discuss probably in and amongst that ways in which you can overcome procrastination and when it's probably appropriate to do conscious deferral. When it actually may not be, and it then bleeds back into procrastination. And there's a fine line there, of course.So let's talk about what are the major reasons why You all procrastinate. What are the reasons you've determined that procrastination ekes its way into your everyday life?Art Gelwicks | 01:51I'll throw myself under the bus first. One of the most common reasons that I'll put something off is lack of definition. If I haven't taken time to truly define out all the steps necessary to execute something, it winds up with this anchor weight attached to it to say, "Well, you don't know what you don't know, and you don't know quite what you're supposed to do, so maybe you should go do something else." Whether true or not, That's kind of where things wind up getting pushed to.So that, I'd say that's my primary one is lack of definition around what I'm supposed to be executing.Augusto Pinaud | 02:28Yeah, I need to agree with you 100%. For me… I can tell. By Monday morning. How good or bad my weekly review was on Friday. And I wish to tell that all of them are incredibly good. And I get out of there with a clear mind. And sometimes it doesn't happen. Even sometimes I do some kind of weekly review on Friday. I need to compliment that over the weekend because that is Lack of clarity, that lack of have that clear list of projects and actions, all that it produce is emergencies, fires and procrastination in my world.Francis Wade | 03:12I have a question though then, because the kind of the procrastination that Art was talking about sounds to me more like conscious deferral. That he's not unconsciously Putting off. The lack of definition. He's consciously doing it.Well, I should ask him. Are you unconsciously doing it because you haven't defined the action or are you consciously doing.Art Gelwicks | 03:33It? No, it's… I would agree it would look like conscious deferral that I'm making that action that, I don't have enough detail, therefore I can't get started. I'm not going to give it that level of credit. It's really a, it's a two-step problem. And the more I think about it, the first step in the problem is recognizing that I now need to allocate time to gather that information to know what I need to do for that thing.So for example, let's say I'm planning out an online ad. And I have some of the information I need, but I don't have all of it. And I know it needs to go out at a certain time.Well, I could just say it needs to be done. Or… What happens is I recognize that I need to spend some time filling in those gaps of the process necessary for that item, which means I'm going to have to chase down information to fill those gaps.So to execute that Task? There's a bunch of extra work that I need to front load. And that makes that task feel bigger, creating a bigger anchor, creating a bigger roadblock, therefore, subconsciously encouraging me to push that back to do things that I know I can accomplish and move forward on, which unfortunately winds up in that thing getting pushed back to a point where it becomes problematic.So. There may be times where that's a conscious thing where I say, look, I just don't know what I need to know. Therefore, I'm not going to do that thing. But to me, that's not procrastination. You're absolutely right. That's a choice. That's somebody hasn't provided me an update or something like that. That's a waiting on or a follow up. It's when I myself have not defined things clearly enough. To say Should or should I not proceed with this? That's when the procrastination part will kick in and say, you know what, why don't you hold off on that? You can go do something that you feel better about. And it's, I think it's the feel part more than anything. Because there isn't a rational reason to delay that work. It has to be done. There's nothing about it that says that you shouldn't be doing it. But there's a subconscious feeling there that's saying there's an almost an anxiety that's attached to it. Saying, you're going to find something that is going to be a real problem. Maybe you should put that off. I don't know if that helps any of us.Augusto Pinaud | 06:00No. And you bring a great point that it's that anxiety. It's the procrastination. It starts happening because I start getting all that anxiety of, is this really up to date? Is this really possible? The valuable task that I need to move forward? Is this really what need to happen? Or not. And that or not is the killing part of that.Francis Wade | 06:25I have a different, not different, but I have a… As I'm thinking about this, I wrote a an article on procrastination. It was a long time, like a decade ago. But I basically said that Something along the lines that procrastination was not well defined. And it seemed more like a The feeling. Than a fact. But what's happened over the years is that If someone were to ask me if I procrastinate, I would say no. I don't have that. Kind of self-talk. I don't use that term.

What if procrastination is not always procrastination? In this episode of ProductivityCast, we begin exploring the difference between true procrastination and conscious deferral, and why that distinction matters more than most people realize. This conversation challenges the labels we use, the judgment we attach to delay, and the hidden reasons we avoid certain tasks, making this a thought-provoking starting point for anyone who has ever wondered whether they are putting something off or making a more intentional choice. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/144 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing procrastination versus conscious deferral from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Procrastination Versus Conscious Deferral Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Procrastination Versus Conscious Deferral Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. In this first part of a two-part discussion, the ProductivityCast team examines the meaning of procrastination and questions whether the term has become too broad, judgmental, and unhelpful. The conversation begins by comparing common definitions of procrastination and quickly moves into a deeper exploration of whether all delay should be treated the same. The hosts distinguish between unconscious delay, conscious prioritization, and what Ray describes as conscious deferral, which is the intentional decision to postpone something for a clear reason. They also explore how the label of procrastination can create shame, obscure the real causes of delay, and distort how we interpret other people’s behavior in work and life. The episode ultimately reframes procrastination as a more complex mix of perception, prioritization, emotional regulation, and context, setting up a follow-up discussion on how to handle procrastination at both the project and task levels. Key Takeaways: Not every delay is procrastination; some delays are intentional, rational, and better understood as conscious deferral. Labeling yourself or others as a procrastinator can add shame without revealing the real cause of the delay. A better question than “Why am I procrastinating?” may be “What is preventing this from feeling clear, doable, or important right now?” In leadership and collaboration, replacing blame with curiosity helps uncover obstacles, competing priorities, or missing information. Much of what looks like procrastination may actually be displaced activity, where you are still doing something, just not the thing you believe you should be doing. Timestamps: [00:00] Introducing the problem of procrastination vs. conscious deferral [00:02] Why common definitions of procrastination may be too simplistic [00:05] Internal judgment, external judgment, and who gets to define procrastination [00:09] The emotional weight of procrastination and the case for conscious deferral [00:13] Unconscious choices, intuition, and the hidden reasons behind delay [00:19] How to think about procrastination in teams, leadership, and collaboration [00:33] Procrastination as displaced activity and preview of Part 2 Resources Mentioned: Wikipedia definition of procrastination Dr. Gary Klein on intuition Conversations for Action Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:28Welcome gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today we're gonna be talking about procrastination versus or and conscious deferral. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna define procrastination. I think everybody procrastinates a little bit and sometimes a lot in their lives, and we wanna talk about why we procrastinate and what are some of the things we. Do when we consciously defer projects, goals, and tasks from what we are [00:01:00] presently and actively working on, and then we can close out with discussion on maybe if you are struggling with procrastination, what are some things that. If it's hindering your productivity, what can you do to get over that hump? And we can give some quick tips for folks to get started with conquering procrastination at the end. So let's start off at the top, which is, let's all get on perhaps the same page relating to procrastination. How do you define procrastination? I am gonna pause here for a moment. Francis, if you could just stay if everybody just stays off mute, I wanna see, I can void out your audio, so don't worry about muting yourself. Only because when I'm wondering if that has something to do with why it gets into the drift mode. 'cause when you are muted Oh. I'll start us off and you all can perhaps add on to the definition. And I went to a bunch of different places, but I think Wikipedia actually ended up having a, an interesting [00:02:00] definition that I don't necessarily agree with. And I think this is helpful for us to start the conversation, which is Wikipedia defines procrastination as an action of unnecessarily and. Voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. So I immediately feel like this is not true in some perspective here because it says unnecessarily and voluntarily, and we know that not everybody is aware of the. Negative consequences and sometimes there are not negative consequences for procrastinating. And so I'm curious about just that base level definition from Wikipedia. Do you agree or disagree? That only works if you're taking involuntary delay and giving it a different name because [00:03:00] procrastination is a blanket term that any sort of a delay on something. It's either do it or don't do it. And if you do it, you're in action. If you're not, you're procrastinating. It's not about the how, so I don't know that I necessarily agree with their definition of procrastination. But I also don't think the term necessarily needs to include the cause. It is a delay of action. When an action should be taken. Maybe phrase it that way or it would be. Beneficial for an action to be taken, what the trigger of that could be, any number of things. And I don't think they, they are remotely related to the term procrastination. So this is where I have some difficulty because the most tasks, of course, are delayed until later. If not every task that you plan to do in the future is based on a delay and. There's a cost for delaying any [00:04:00] task. In other words it's, there's a risk that it might not get done. So the only way to remove the risk of doing a task and not doing a task in the future is to do it. No. So by that definition, procrastination covers every single task. That is, in other words, every time demand, every one that you're gonna do in the future, at that point, the verb procrastinate loses its value because all it's saying is, whatever you're not doing, whatever task you're not doing. No. At that point, I don't think it has much value. So I don't like the, I don't like the idea that procrastination is putting off a task. I don't think it, it adds a lot of value. I think there's a, what if we were to re rephrase the definition? 'cause we were all about definitions to procrastination. Being inaction when action should be taken. Because theoretically, if you're not doing something and you're [00:05:00] supposed to be doing that thing, you're either unintentionally putting it off. You're intentionally putting it off. It's an either or situation. There is a, there's a decision point for the conscious part, but the unconscious part, no, it can just happen. One of the things when we talk about what is procrastination, we never start to look at it from the standpoint of saying, okay, this, take something simple. Taking out the trash. I choose not to take out the trash. Or I'm going to do something else. I may have chosen to do something else. And what ha what happens is taking out the trash gets put off. But if that context isn't provided in the definition, the perception is then, oh, you procrastinated on taking out the trash. No, I did make a conscious decision to do something else I prioritized over. So when we go back to [00:06:00] procrastination. I still think it comes back to that inaction when action is warranted. How you get to that point could be any number of factors, but I think that's as simple in my mind. That's as simple as it gets. A piece that comes into mind for me though, is that your wife might say that you were procrastinating,

What if the world's #1 brain coach wrote a book that's better suited for someone else than you? The ProductivityCast crew puts Jim Kwik's Limitless under the microscope, and their verdict might save you 12 hours of listening time (or not! 😉). Today, we're doing a book review of Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life by Jim Kwik. (NOTE: We recorded this book review before Kwik published his latest edition, Limitless Expanded Edition (December 2025); however, at least for Ray, who had a chance to read the latest version, his opinions shared in this episode haven't changed.) (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/142 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing DRAFT from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Limitless by Jim Kwik Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Limitless by Jim Kwik Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. In this BookCast installment, the ProductivityCast team dissects Jim Kwik's bestselling Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. The panel explores the book's four-part framework — Free Your Mind, Limitless Mindset, Motivation, and Methods — and debates its value for different audience segments. Timestamps TimeTopic[00:00]Introduction & Book Overview — The hosts frame the BookCast format and introduce Limitless and Jim Kwik's background[04:30]First Impressions & Accessibility — The panel shares initial reactions, debating the book's entry-level tone and pop-culture framing[09:00]The Book as a Motivational Survey — Ray argues the book's strength lies in its motivational arc and broad survey of productivity concepts (Pomodoro, flow, mindset)[16:00]Pros & Cons Deep Dive — Discussion of the audiobook's bonus content, the book's resource page, repetitive self-promotion, and inconsistent acronym usage[23:00]Oversimplification & False Promises — Art raises concerns about "superhero" framing and the risk of leaving beginners feeling oversold and underserved[30:00]Amazon Ratings vs. Real-World Value — The hosts unpack the 4.7-star, 12,500-review score and what it actually signals about the book's audience[36:00]Who Should (and Shouldn't) Read This — Final recommendations: beginners benefit; experienced practitioners should go directly to the Kwik Brain podcast 📚 Resources Mentioned Books Referenced Limitless by Jim Kwik (the featured book) Getting Things Done by David Allen The 8th Habit by Dr. Stephen Covey Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck Work Clean by Dan Charnas Works by Dr. Edward de Bono (including Six Thinking Hats) People Mentioned Jim Kwik — Author & brain coach Dr. Carol Dweck — Mindset researcher Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — Flow theory Dr. Edward de Bono — Lateral thinking Mel Robbins — Guest on Kwik Brain podcast Dr. Michael Breus — Guest on Kwik Brain podcast Dr. Brené Brown — Referenced for comparison Anthony Robbins — Referenced for comparison Stan Lee — Referenced re: Kwik's Marvel relationship Tools & Resources Kwik Brain podcast by Jim Kwik Limitless book resources page Limitless audiobook (available in full on YouTube at time of recording) The 10-Day Kwik Start Plan (included at the back of the book) Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Note: Parts of this automated transcript mixed up Francis and Art 🤪, so definitely listen to the audio to note who said what. Voiceover: Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a more fulfilling, productive life? Voiceover: Then you've come to the right place. Voiceover: Welcome to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. Voiceover: Here are your hosts, Ray Sidney Smith and Augusto Pinault with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond: Welcome back, everybody, to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. Raymond: I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto: And I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis: I'm Francis Wade. Francis: And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond: Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Raymond: Today, we are going to be doing one of our book cast series. Raymond: Basically, we're reading and discussing books that we think are of interest to the productivity community. Raymond: And we're somewhat reviewing them for folks so that they can know whether or not they'd be worth picking up. Raymond: And today, we're going to be discussing Limitless, Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life by Jim Quick. Raymond: And so a little bit about the author and then a little bit about the book, and then we will get into our discussion. Raymond: So Jim Quick, from his own website's bio, says, Raymond: For the past three decades, Jim taught his learning techniques to students from universities such as NYU, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Singularity, Raymond: as well as executives and employees from companies such as Nike, GE, Zappos, SpaceX, and Virgin to get the most out of work and life. Raymond: He started out as, quote unquote, the boy with the broken brain, and over the past 30 years has been teaching all of these various methods for helping people, quote unquote, upgrade their brains. Raymond: The book itself from the Amazon description says, quote, Jim Quick, the world's number one brain coach, has written the owner's manual for mental expansion and brain fitness. Raymond: Limitless gives people the ability to accomplish more, more productivity, more transformation, more personal success and business achievement by changing their mindset, motivation, and methods. Raymond: So those are the three M's that he talks about in the book. Raymond: And I won't read the entire description here, but that's kind of the general gist of the book in essence. Raymond: So what I want to do today is I want to talk about kind of three different components here. Raymond: One is covering the key points. Raymond: What are the things that stood out for you in terms of the book? Raymond: And then we'll talk about the pros and cons of the book and some of the key takeaways that you had from reading the book. Raymond: And then finally, would you recommend or not recommend this book? Raymond: And why? Raymond: That is to whom and why? Raymond: So let's start off with kind of the overview of the book. Raymond: The book itself is broken up into four different parts. Raymond: The free your mind. Raymond: And this is really, I think, his opus on overcoming the reality that somehow you have a limited brain. Raymond: You have some kind of limitations. Raymond: How to kind of unwrap that component and think expansively. Raymond: Then part two, which is the limitless mindset. Raymond: Then part three, which is limitless motivation. Raymond: And then part four, which is limitless methods. Raymond: Basically, he goes from the what to the why to the how. Raymond: And among amongst those pieces, he gives little tidbits along the way. Raymond: What did you think about the book generally? Raymond: What were those key points throughout the book that that stood out for you all? Art: I I didn't actually read the book. Art: I used the audio book version of it, which made it a little bit. Art: I don't know if I want to say more challenging. Art: The overall sense I got from the book is that this this is a title that if you have never done any personal exploration into improving your productivity. Art: This is about as entry level as you get. Art: There's a lot of classic tropes, classic comments, classic nuggets of wisdom that are honestly every place that are consolidated into the book. Art: I was a little put off by some of the framing of some of the content. Art: Specifically, you know, how you can do anything. Art: You can master anything. Art: You can use 100 percent of your brain. Art: Stuff that we know through, you know, tried and true testing isn't accurate. Art: And it actually creates. Art: It can create a situation for somebody who's trying to get into improving their own productivity that they feel oversold when they try when they they listen to a lot of this stuff. Art: And there's key things. Art: And I know I'm fumbling with the explanation on this a little bit, but he'll go through a chapter and then he ends the chapter with here's the quick action. Art: Do this. Art: I'll use an example one. Art: He has a section on memory and he's talking about, you know, improving your memory and things like that. Art: And he ends with the quick action. Art: Memorize someone's phone number. Art: And that's the takeaway from the chapter. Art: And I listen to that. Art: I'm like, OK, I've listened to for this for quite a period of time now. Art: And you have just told me to memorize a phone number, which apparently was my problem to listen to the chapter in the first place. Art: Because if I can do that, I wouldn't have been listening to the chapter.

We are thrilled to announce that ProductivityCast is officially relaunching on April 6th! We have missed our community and are so excited to get back to our regular publishing schedule. We have a wealth of all-new topics prepared and plenty of fresh insights to discuss regarding the world of personal productivity.To ensure you don’t miss our return, please take a moment to check your favorite podcast app. While seeing this update means you are likely already connected with us, we recommend verifying that you are properly subscribed and that your notification and auto-download settings are turned on. This ensures our new episodes will be waiting for you the moment they arrive. We truly look forward to being back in your ears and sharing this next chapter with you!

In the last episode, Augusto posed a question for the ProductivityCast team about how we chose the hardware we use

On this cast, we are excited to introduce a new member of the ProductivityCast team, Francis Wade of 2TimeLabs. Francis