EducationBusinessCareers

How I Work

Amantha Imber

You know those annoyingly successful people who seem to have it all figured out? Time to steal their playbook. Organisational psychologist Dr Amantha Imber gets world‑class achievers to spill their secrets - the daily strategies behind their success through to life hacks and productivity hacks they’d rather keep to themselves. We’re talking practical tips for boosting your output (including clever AI tools and shortcuts that’ll make you look like a genius), managing overwhelm without losing your mind, and optimising both work and wellbeing. No motivational fluff. Just battle‑tested tactics from people who’ve cracked the code.

Play

Open in

37 episodes
a few times a week
Avg 23 min
English

Episodes 37

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Yesterday · 13 min
Still arguing with AI over a bad first draft? Try these 4 tips
Do you still have a prompt formula saved somewhere, maybe an acronym from an Instagram reel that promised better answers from AI? You paste it in, swap a few words, hit send, and what comes back still misses the mark. Years of typing a few keywords into a search box have shaped how we talk to AI, and that habit might be costing you time and patience. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I look at why prompt formulas took off, what has changed since, and how to brief AI so you get better work back with far less back and forth. What you’ll learn: Why prompt formulas became so popular, and why they matter far less now What AI memory changes about the way you brief it The old search habit that quietly works against you A better way to give AI the background it needs How to get AI to question your idea, not just your draft Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. Find out more about Inventium AI’s training programs at inventium.ai How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
Wednesday · 24 min
REPLAY: Feel like you’re always behind? Chris Guillebeau has a fix for your time anxiety (Part 1)
**REPLAY** Do you ever get the sense that no matter how much you do, you’re still running out of time? Like there’s something you should be doing, but you can’t quite figure out what it is? In this episode of How I Work, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillebeau to talk about a feeling so many of us carry but rarely name: time anxiety. From guilt over unread emails to the pressure to leave a legacy, Chris shares the practical strategies that helped him stop chasing time - and start living with more calm and clarity. ** Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at Amazon.com.au/howiwork ** In this episode: What time anxiety is—and why so many of us feel it without even realising How Chris let go of the pressure to leave a legacy A weekly “time decluttering” ritual that can clear your calendar Why “just prioritise better” is the worst advice The bold email strategy Chris swears by (even if it ruffles a few feathers) Why leaving 10–15 minutes of buffer time between commitments can change everything Key Quotes: “You have to decide for yourself what is enough.” “It’s not about being an email ninja - it’s about understanding what matters.” Connect with Chris on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn and his website, Listen to his podcast Side Hustle School, and check out his latest book Time Anxiety. More from How I Work If drawing clearer lines between work and the rest of your life is something you want to go deeper on, I have put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Listen to the playlist here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 18 · 12 min
Your prompts are stuck in 2025. Here are 5 fixes
Some prompts have been with you for a year or more. They open with a grand persona for the AI, add a few rules in capital letters, and finish with a request to think it all through. They worked well once, and lately the results feel slightly off. The AI models have changed, and a few of the habits we picked up in 2024 and 2025 now work against us. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I walk through five ways good prompting has changed as of October 2026. You will come away with a simple way to tighten up the prompts you rely on most. What you’ll learn: What a persona really changes in an AI response When a goal and a finished example beat step-by-step instructions Why asking AI to think through its answer can backfire How to add emphasis without boxing the AI in What a good checklist looks like before AI hands work back Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. Find out more about Inventium AI’s training programs at inventium.ai How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 14 · 36 min
REPLAY: Why you feel busy all the time (even when you’re not), with Laura Vanderkam
**REPLAY** What would you do with four extra hours a day? Probably say you don't have them. But according to Laura Vanderkam, one of the world's leading thinkers on time, they're already there. You're just not seeing them. Laura has tracked her own time for 11 years. She's run large-scale time-tracking studies with hundreds of participants. And what she keeps finding is the same thing: the stories we tell ourselves about our time are almost always wrong. The tasks we dread feel longer than they are. The free time we insist we don't have keeps showing up in the data. In this How I Work episode, I sit down with Laura to dig into what 11 years of time diaries actually reveal, why tracking your time for just one week can make you feel dramatically better about your life, and how to reclaim those post-dinner hours that most of us write off as dead time. Laura is a bestselling author of many books on time and productivity, and her latest, Big Time, is one of the most practical and perspective-shifting reads I've come across in a long time. If you've ever ended a weekend convinced you had no time to yourself, this conversation will change how you see the week ahead. ** Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at Amazon.com.au/howiwork ** In this episode, Laura and I discuss: Why tracking your time for a single week raises time satisfaction scores by nearly 18%, and what's actually driving that shift The gap between how people think they spend their time and how they actually do, particularly for those who work flexibly or check email on weekends The concept of "golden hours" and why the four to five hours between dinner and bedtime are far more valuable than most of us treat them How to tell the difference between a complex life and a chaotic one, and the circus metaphor that reframes what a well-run household actually looks like The weekly planning ritual Laura swears by, including the three rings of the circus she reviews every Thursday morning Three surprisingly small changes that can make your workday feel genuinely better, without changing jobs Key quotes "Four to five hours is a lot of time to just write off as unusable. The day is not over after dinner." "Complexity and chaos are not the same thing. We're aiming for controlled complexity." Connect with Laura Vanderkam on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn and her website, and check out her latest book Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance wherever you get good books. More from How I Work And if this episode resonated, I recommend my conversation with Oliver Burkeman on how to make time for the things that actually count. Check that out here. If you want to get better at prioritising what matters, saying no to things that don't, and making more intentional choices about how you spend your time, I've put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Listen to the playlist here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 11 · 7 min
Your custom GPTs and Gems are going away. Here's how to save them.
Who keeps moving my buttons? You know the one. You finally learn where everything lives, and overnight the menu has been rearranged, the feature has a new name, and the thing you spent months perfecting is on a list of things being retired. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I make sense of the latest shake-up: what is replacing GPTs and Gems, when the lights go out on each platform, and how to back up your hard work so none of it vanishes without warning. You'll leave knowing what to save, what to convert, and when. What you'll learn: Why GPTs and Gems are being retired What skills are and why they're taking over The deadlines to put in your calendar now The first thing to do before pressing any migration button Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 7 · 33 min
The Work Edit: The AI skill that saves me 200 minutes a week. Here's how to build yours.
Twenty minutes doesn't sound like much. Multiply it by ten sales calls a week and it adds up to more than three hours spent on a task that someone, or something, else could be doing. Now think about how many tasks like that are hiding in your own week, repeated so often that you no longer notice them. In this Work Edit, I sit down with Stephen, an organisational transformation advisor with more than 20 years of experience. Stephen uses Claude every day for client research, interview synthesis, first-draft deliverables and thought leadership, but he knows his approach has been sporadic. He wants a deliberate setup without signing up for 12 different tools. I share how I'd restructure his projects, how I catch the writing habits that make readers suspect AI wrote the whole thing, and the tools I rely on every day. Then we zoom out to a simple one-week exercise that reveals which tasks AI should be taking off your plate for good. If you use AI daily but suspect there's far more value on the table, this conversation will show you where to look. Stephen and I discuss: Why very specific projects, GPTs and skills tend to outperform one big, broad project How to train an AI on your voice using your best work, and why a separate anti-AI writing skill adheres better than one long instruction set Why I always write the first draft myself, and how I use AI as an editor afterwards The AI tells that make readers switch off, and why even writers with their own genuine style can get caught by them The tools in my daily stack, including Granola, Whisperflow and Superhuman, and how I handle disclosure when AI is taking notes in a meeting The one-week task log that shows you what to automate, and how a 20-minute pre-call task turned into a skill my EA now runs How recurring tasks, like a weekly actions recap or a daily AI news researcher, can run without you prompting them If you would like more tips on getting more value from AI, check out How I AI. Every week, my co-host Neo Aplin and I share practical ways to get more out of whichever AI tool you use. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
October 4 · 13 min
AI is a terrible brainstormer (until you do this)
You ask AI for ideas and get a tidy list of ten, each one praised as being brilliant. The tempting move is to grab the first one that looks decent and get on with your day. The catch is that you've handed over the thinking, and what comes back tends to look a lot like what everyone else is getting. AI can be a far better brainstorming partner when it sharpens your thinking instead of replacing it. The difference comes down to how you set it up and what you ask it to do. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I unpack how we use AI as a brainstorming buddy at Inventium. You'll leave with a way to brainstorm that produces ideas built around your business, your customers and your goals. What you'll learn: Why AI's ideas tend to land close to everyone else's The context AI needs before it can help you brainstorm well Four techniques that keep you doing the ideating How to get AI to put the questions to you The bonus prompt that makes AI ask something of you first Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Download Inventium's Brainstorm Buddy skill here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/brainstormbuddygpt Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. If this episode got you thinking about how to brainstorm with AI, listen to my interview with the Exploding Kittens CEO about his working-with-AI ritual for generating great ideas. Listen to the full episode here. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 30 · 39 min
The 7 types of rest you need, and how to find the one you're missing, with Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith
One surgeon takes his boat out onto a lake, screams until he can't scream anymore, and then cries. It is how he recovers from a job where patients die and he can't fall apart in front of his team. That is what emotional rest can look like for one person, and it is only one of seven types of rest that most of us have never thought to separate. Which raises this possibility: you might be resting effectively in one area while a completely different part of you runs on empty. In this episode, I sit down with Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, the doctor behind the seven types of rest framework and author of Sacred Rest, to unpack what each type of rest actually is and how to tell which one you are missing. I share how I scored on her Rest Quiz, and we test the theory against my own life, from a joyful community singing night to nature walks with a friend. If you keep waking up tired after a decent night's sleep, this conversation will help you work out what is really missing. Saundra and I discuss: The three-question morning energy check-in Saundra uses herself, and how some of her clients set an AI up to ask it for them The seven types of rest Why mental and emotional rest are the two areas where people score highest for depletion, and the gender pattern Saundra sees The signs of a mental rest deficit How suppressing emotions at work drains your energy, and what an emotional rest deficit can look like in everyday life How one activity can restore several types of rest at once, from yoga to a phone-free dinner table Saundra's annual rest retreat weekend with girlfriends How mirror neurons help explain why some people leave you drained Two simple sensory rest snacks you can do today, including one that involves your phone settings Key quotes "We don't recognize how much energy it takes to suppress emotions." "Creative rest at the very heart of it is the rest that helps to awaken awe and wonder inside of us." Connect with Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith on Instagram, LinkedIn and her website, take her rest quiz at restquiz.com, and check out her book Sacred Rest. More from How I Work If managing your energy and burnout is something you want to go deeper on, I have put together a Spotify playlist of my favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Listen to the playlist here. And if you enjoyed this episode, a great companion listen is my conversation with Shelley Johnson, where we go deep into the science-backed strategies from my book The Energy Game. We cover how to boost your energy in under five minutes, what actually counts as rest versus fake rest, and the protect strategies that stop your energy leaking in the first place. Listen to the episode here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 27 · 10 min
Your AI gets dumber at 60%. Here's the free fix.
Some of us have a favourite chat thread we keep coming back to, adding a bit more context every time we open it. It feels efficient, like you're building up a work buddy who really knows your stuff. But every extra message quietly chips away at how reliable that thread becomes, and by the time you notice, it's surprisingly hard to pull it back. Knowing when to walk away from a chat, and how to take your best thinking with you, is one of the most useful AI habits you can build. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I unpack why long chat threads lose their way and how to move your work into a fresh chat without leaving the good stuff behind. What you'll learn: The point in a chat thread where AI becomes more likely to hallucinate How to think about the lifespan of a chat thread The simple way to carry your work into a new chat, and where it falls short What a strong handoff brief includes, and why its opening lines matter The signs it's time to start fresh, even before AI goes off track Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Download Neo's handoff skill here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/e53f183014 Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 23 · 30 min
The Work Edit: 3 evening strategies to actually help you switch off
You've read the books. You've locked the phone in a drawer. You've set a hard cut-off at 8 PM. And none of it has lasted more than two weeks. That's exactly where Shaun found himself. By day he's a senior corporate strategy leader at Bupa, and by night he's the volunteer operations manager for a junior footy club responsible for 450 kids across eight teams. The systems he runs at work are tight. The systems he runs at home? Nowhere to be seen. In this Work Edit, I sit down with Shaun to figure out why the productivity habits that protect him in his corporate role have never made it home, and what it would actually take to change that. We get into AI knowledge agents, ghost mode, setting expectations as an act of generosity, and a specific gratitude practice I think is worth trying even if you find most of them a bit naff. If you've ever been brilliant at boundary-setting for everyone else and terrible at it for yourself, this one's for you. Shaun and I discuss: Why Shaun's corporate productivity systems work flawlessly at Bupa but have never crossed over into his volunteer role or home life The AI knowledge agent idea: how building a self-serve FAQ for 450 families could cut the stream of evening messages and remove Shaun as the constant bottleneck Staying in your lane: why context switching between work mode and parent mode leaves you doing neither well, and the simple question that helps you catch yourself doing it Ghost mode: the difference between locking your phone away and actually choosing to be fully present, and why that reframe matters Setting expectations as an act of generosity: how a simple autoresponder or comms window can relieve the guilt of not responding instantly, without making you seem rigid Three good things: a specific gratitude practice, grounded in research, that quiets a busy work brain at night, and why doing it with your kids makes it even more powerful More from How I Work If you related to Shaun's struggle with an always-on role that never quite lets you clock off, I think you'll love my conversation with Katie. She's 18 months into a consulting portfolio career, and saying no is a muscle she's still building. Requests were multiplying faster than she could field them, which is honestly just the same problem wearing a different outfit. Listen to Katie's episode here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 20 · 12 min
The 4 recurring tasks you should hand off to AI permanently
Most people treat AI like a vending machine: you show up, you ask, you wait. But what if there's another way to use it, one where the work gets done before you've even thought to ask for it. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I explore scheduled prompts: what they are, why they're worth setting up, and how to actually write one that works. What you'll learn: What a scheduled prompt is and how it differs from a regular AI conversation When it makes sense to run a prompt in the background rather than in real time The kinds of recurring tasks that are well suited to scheduling How to know when a scheduled prompt has actually run Neo's trick for writing a prompt worth scheduling again and again Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 16 · 33 min
Steal Jane Lu's system for delegating without losing control
Hiring someone is one of the highest-stakes decisions a founder makes. Get it wrong and you can lose time, money, and momentum. And after 16 years of building Showpo from her parents' garage into a nine-figure business, Jane Lu is the first to admit they still do not always get it right. But across all those hires, she has landed on one single biggest red flag she screens for, and it is probably not what you would expect. In this episode, I sit down with Jane Lu, founder of Showpo, to talk about what that red flag is, how she structures interviews to surface it, why she has built her whole leadership philosophy around being a lazy CEO, and the distinction between dopamine tasks and dividend tasks that explains why so many of us feel busy but stuck. Jane and I discuss: How Jane treats her calendar as her external brain, scheduling everything from supplements to podcast links to make good habits frictionless The difference between dopamine tasks (inbox zero, Slack notifications) and dividend tasks (the work that compounds but offers no immediate reward) and how to stop letting the former crowd out the latter Jane's content creation workflow and how she gradually built a small team of offshore editors to take the process off her plate What 16 years of hiring has taught her about misaligned values and ego as the biggest red flags to screen for, and the specific interview questions she uses to uncover them The accidental lesson in delegation that came from leaving her business to go to a music festival, and how it revealed what systems and a trusted team can do when the founder steps back The case for being a lazy CEO: building the right culture, setting up strong systems, recruiting well, and then genuinely getting out of the way Key quotes "Being lazy is setting up the right systems and processes and really trusting your team." "The biggest red flag I personally look for when it comes to the wrong people is ego." Connect with Jane Lu on Instagram, LinkedIn and her website. More from How I Work Check out last week's conversation with Cyril Peupion, a great companion listen for anyone wanting a framework for protecting time for the work that actually matters. Listen here. And if you want to get clearer on what deserves your time and get better at saying no to the rest, we have pulled together a Spotify playlist of our favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Find it here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 13 · 10 min
3 signs it's time to start a new chat thread
You've put in the work on your prompts. You know how to give AI the right context, set the right tone, ask the right questions. But then, mid-conversation, something shifts. The AI starts making things up, forgetting what you told it five minutes ago, contradicting itself. In this How I AI episode, Neo and I unpack what is actually happening when AI gets unreliable mid-conversation, including how to read the warning signs that tell you it is time to close a thread and start fresh. What you'll learn: Why AI gets unreliable mid-conversation, and what's actually going on What the 60% rule is and why it matters Which file types quietly eat through your context window The warning signs that it's time to close a thread and start fresh Practical AI tools for productivity and focus Real-world AI workflows used by high performers How to use AI at work without burning out Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams. How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm. Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 9 · 29 min
Why planning 60% of your day is the most productive thing you can do, with Cyril Peupion
There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes not from working hard, but from never quite feeling like you've worked on the right things. You finish a full day, maybe a long one, and yet the projects that actually matter haven't moved. The inbox is cleaner, the meetings are done, but the needle hasn't shifted. Cyril Peupion has spent two decades coaching executives on exactly this problem, and his diagnosis is consistent: the issue is the gap between where leaders want to go and what they actually spend their time on. In this episode, I sit down with Cyril, author of Work Smarter, Live Better and his latest book Less Achieves More, to work through his practical framework for closing that gap. He has trained more than 5,000 people across 19 countries. Cyril and I discuss: Why high performers prioritise by impact rather than by deadline, and how to train yourself to do the same The quarterly big rocks process: how to choose two or three genuine priorities and find the courage to subtract everything else The weekly planning ritual Cyril recommends, including why you should look at your big rocks before you ever open your calendar The ideal week exercise that helps leaders reclaim 40% of their time without guilt How to plan for the unplanned by deliberately blocking reactive time in your day The four Ds (delete, decrease, defer, delegate) for handling the urgent stuff without sacrificing what matters most Key quotes "If you work 10 hours a day, you cannot plan 10 hours per day. It's a recipe for disaster." "I'd rather start my planning from the ideal and then adapt it than start my planning from an open sheet and let everything take control." Connect with Cyril Peupion on LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Less Achieves More. If this episode resonated, I also recommend my conversation with Sabri Suby on the subtraction method, where he shares how he ruthlessly outsources anything that isn't his highest value work. You can listen here. My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 6 · 8 min
Quick Win: The million-dollar moment that tested Catriona Wallace’s integrity
When Dr Catriona Wallace was offered a million dollars to take out her nose ring, she didn’t hesitate. Her response wasn’t defiance - it was clarity. In this Quick Win, Catriona shares how she dealt with the sexism and double standards she faced as a tech CEO, from being told to “brush her hair” to being offered a million dollars to look more like the kind of leader investors expected. Her story is a reminder that staying true to yourself is sometimes the most strategic move you can make. Catriona and I discuss: The moment Catriona was offered $1 million - if she removed her nose ring The everyday misogyny she faced while leading a listed tech company Why she refused to compromise, even when it cost her How staying authentic became her greatest advantage as a leader The ripple effect of saying “no” from self-respect, not rebellion KEY QUOTE: “The moment you start to compromise and change, more things will compromise and change — and you lose who you are.” Connect with Dr Catriona Wallace on Instagram, LinkedIn, and via her website. Check out her book Rapid Transformation for more on how to embrace change through technology and leadership. Listen to the full conversation with Catriona here My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
September 2 · 33 min
The Work Edit: When gratitude becomes entitlement, and how to reset it
You give your team something rare. A four-day week. Flexible hours. Real breathing room. And for a while, it works beautifully. Then, gradually, the gratitude fades. The expectation creeps in. And suddenly, the gift feels like a given. This is one of the more uncomfortable paradoxes of building a genuinely good workplace: the better the culture you create, the faster it becomes the new normal. And once people stop noticing it, they start resenting any friction that interrupts it. This episode is part of The Work Edit, a format where I sit down with someone facing a real professional challenge and we work through it together. My guest is Marilla, who has spent eight years building Equality Media and Marketing, a 30-person agency where flexible time is a core part of the culture. Marilla came to me with a challenge I hear a lot from leaders of genuinely good workplaces: what do you do when your team starts taking the culture for granted? If you lead people, this one is full of things you can take straight into your week: The goat story: an ancient parable that explains why people stop appreciating what's good, and how to use it as a leadership tool Why Inventium runs a Four Day Week policy reset every one to two years, and the specific questions that make those conversations productive Why checking emails for 45 minutes feels like "working all night", and what that distortion does to team morale What to do when one or two people are quietly poisoning the culture, and when to stop trying to bring them around The "deal or no deal" conversation: how to give people a genuine choice about whether they're still on the bus The single question I ask before any team-wide pep talk, to make sure I'm not just avoiding a direct conversation I need to have Key quotes "All I can control is how I approach the conversation and the messages that I deliver. I can't control how that other person is gonna react." "Is this about the minority or the majority? Because that's really unfair if it's just the minority that's the root cause of what's happening." My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 30 · 7 min
Quick Win: How to rebuild trust at work when its broken
Trust doesn’t rebuild with one big apology. It grows back quietly - through small, consistent moments that prove you mean what you say. In this Quick Win episode, my teammate Aly Solly and I share how we rebuilt trust after one of Inventium’s toughest years. Together, we discovered that trust isn’t restored overnight - it’s rebuilt in small, deliberate ways that show care, honesty, and vulnerability. Aly and I discuss: The moment a leadership wellbeing survey sparked real vulnerability Why openness - when it feels uncomfortable - can transform a relationship How showing up consistently matters more than grand gestures The “ugly cry” call that turned a breaking point into a rebuild What to do when you’re trying to repair trust at work KEY QUOTES “Trust doesn’t hinge on one big apology or grand gesture. It’s built through the small stuff - the check-ins, the honesty, the willingness to be vulnerable.” “You don’t wait for the perfect moment. You just start showing up consistently and with care.” Connect with Aly Solly on LinkedIn. Listen to the full conversation with Aly here. My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ Connect with me on the socials: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 26 · 32 min
The two numbers that predict whether you'll actually hit your goal, with Jia Jiang
Every productivity guru will tell you the same thing: set realistic goals, or you're setting yourself up to fail. Jia Jiang did the opposite. He told the internet he'd sell 10,000 copies of his new book in 100 days, sold about 3,000, and is now going around calling it one of the best things he's ever done. He's not being delusional about it either. He'll tell you straight up that part of him wishes he'd hit the number. He just thinks failing loudly beats succeeding quietly, which might explain why only 9% of people who make a New Year's resolution actually stick to it. Most of us are setting goals to feel good for five minutes, not because we've figured out how to actually get there. In this episode, I sit down with Jia Jiang, the entrepreneur and speaker behind 100 Days of Rejection, a YouTube experiment that became a TED Talk with more than 10 million views. We talk about his new book, Easy Discipline, and how he turns huge, terrifying goals into something he can actually control day to day. If you have ever downgraded a goal so you wouldn't have to feel bad about missing it, Jia is about to make you rethink that entirely. Jia and I discuss: Why Jia deliberately sets goals so ambitious he is likely to miss them, and why a public near miss beats a comfortable target The one action goal: how to turn a big, uncontrollable ambition into a daily input you can fully control The inspiration index, the two numbers Jia tracks on every project, and why you need both the outcome and the input The Mover's Manual, and how changing his physical environment lets Jia get three to ten times more done in an afternoon Reverse AI: what happened when Jia started deliberately training himself the way AI models are trained The letter he wrote to Steven Bartlett after being turned down for Diary of a CEO, and why he published it anyway Key quotes "I'd rather fail my ambition publicly than letting it die inside privately." "When you are already rejected, you have nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to fear." Connect with Jia Jiang on Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn and his website, read his newsletter on Substack, and check out his latest book Easy Discipline. If you enjoyed this episode, check out my chat with Google's Executive Productivity Advisor, Laura Mae Martin, on the practical strategies she uses to get more done in less time: https://www.amantha.com/podcasts/ruthless-prioritization-with-googles-executive-productivity-advisor-laura-mae-martin My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 23 · 6 min
Quick Win: The hidden reason AI isn’t delivering value at work, according to Dom Price
AI might be saving you time, but if you don’t know what to do with that time, it’s not worth much. In this Quick Win, I’m joined by Dom Price, who spent 12 years as the Work Futurist at Atlassian. Dom shares a powerful reminder: saving time with AI is meaningless unless you know how to reinvest that time intentionally. After watching organisations roll out sophisticated AI tools without upgrading the human system around them, Dom explains why people often use their newfound hours poorly - and how a single, deliberate question can transform the return you get from AI. Dom and I discuss: Why organisations focus on AI tools but forget the human system that actually uses them The surprising behaviour Dom saw when teams became “35 percent more productive” - including a huge spike in meetings What happens when people gain time but aren’t guided on how to use it The small mindset shift that helps you reinvest saved time more wisely The reflection question that turns AI gains into genuine value: What’s the most valuable thing I can do with this time? KEY QUOTES “I don’t care what you saved. I care what you did with it.” “Take a moment before filling that space. Ask yourself: what’s the most valuable thing I can do with this time?” Connect with Dom Price on Instagram, LinkedIn and his website. Listen to the full conversation with Dom here. My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript
August 19 · 32 min
The Work Edit: How to scale a consulting business without growing the team
Hiring feels like the obvious next move when a business starts doing well. More people, more capacity, more revenue. The logic is so clean it barely needs questioning. But the businesses with the smallest teams are sometimes the ones making the most money. This episode is part of The Work Edit, a format where I sit down with someone facing a real professional challenge and we work through it together. My guest is Lisa, who has spent four years building The Culture Ministry, a diversity and inclusion consulting business. She came to me with a question I hear constantly: how do I scale? What followed was a conversation about why growth doesn't have to mean hiring, what a proposal win rate above 60% is really telling you, and why a well-designed experiment beats any polished strategy framework. If you run your own business, or you're thinking about going out on your own, this one will give you plenty of tips to apply. Lisa and I discuss: Why hiring more people often grows revenue but not profit, and how Inventium is having its highest-profit year ever with a smaller team The single line in your profit and loss statement that signals when it's genuinely time to hire How AI has reshaped businesses, and the surprising place it creates new bottlenecks rather than removing them What a high proposal win rate is actually telling you about your pricing The Inventium ROI guarantee, and the slightly awkward question worth asking past clients about what you should have charged How to treat a market shift as an experiment to learn from, rather than a personal failure Key quotes "If you are getting the majority of your proposals accepted, I would say you're not charging enough." My latest book The Energy Game is out on July 7, 2026. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/ Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au Credits: Host: Amantha Imber Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 37 episodes