1071: Boosting Productivity and Slashing Overwhelm through Timeboxing with Marc Zao-Sanders

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

Success, Career, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Sharpening, Business, Education, Selfhelp, Collaboration, Winning, Meaning, Development, Mockaitis, Skills, Training, Mental Health, Speaking, Decisions, Careers, Interview, Fun, Money, Writing, Thinking, Wins

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marc Zao-Sanders reveals the key to breaking the cycle of overwhelm with a power tool that makes a huge difference.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) How to prune your to-do list effectively

2) How to use timeboxing to plan your day with intention

3) The art of choosing breaks

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1071 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT MARC —

Marc Zao-Sanders is the CEO and co-founder of filtered.com, a learning tech company. He regularly writes about algorithms, learning and productivity in Scientific American, Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. He has followed the practice of timeboxing for over ten years. He lives in London.

• Book: Timeboxing: The Power of Doing One Thing at a Time by Marc Zao-Sanders

• Podcast: The ADHD Skills Lab Harvard Business Review Article: "How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive"

• LinkedIn: Marc Zao-Sanders

• Website: MarcZaoSanders.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Study: "Implementation Intentions and Goal Pursuit" by Peter M. Gollwitzer and Veronika Brandstätter

• Article: “To-Do Lists Don't Work” by Daniel Markovitz

• Book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

• Book: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

• Book: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

• Book: Winning the Week: How To Plan A Successful Week, Every Week by Demir Bentley

• Past episode: 038: Establishing the Essential with Greg McKeown

• Past episode: 080: Finding and Doing the One Thing with Jay Papasan

• Past episode: 2024 GREATS: 935: The Five Steps to Winning Every Week with Demir Bentley

— THANK YOU SPONSORS! —

• Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome

• Quince. Get free shipping and 365-day returns on your order with Quince.com/Awesome

• Plaud.ai. Use the code AWESOME and get a discount on your order

• Rula. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at Rula.com/Awesome

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Don't just let life and your job just happen to you.
0:13.9	Rediscover what you want to do, what your intentions are and find a way to bring them into being, into your work, into your life.
0:21.1	I use the word agency a lot with time boxing.
0:23.9	It's taking back your agency.
0:25.2	You be in control.
0:26.0	Don't let the world happen to you.
0:27.6	You decide what needs to happen and when it's going to happen and get it done.
0:32.7	Giving yourself the space to think through what is most important.
0:36.2	And then when is deciding when it should start and when it should finish,
0:39.3	not being too ambitious, but being ambitious enough with those timings.
0:44.3	One of the productive things might well be having a break,
0:48.3	taking your dog for a walk.
0:50.3	It's just positive, intentional activities that by the end of the day and even actually during the day are going to be really good for you.
1:09.6	That's Mark Zau Sanders.
1:11.1	He's an expert on living and intentional life
1:13.2	whose frameworks have helped leaders and people across the globe
1:16.0	take back control their time.
1:18.0	Mark practices time boxing all the time,
1:19.8	and his new book shares principles of focused productivity
1:22.1	to help you focus on doing the right things at the right time.
1:26.0	So you'll learn, one, how to prune your to do list effectively.
1:28.6	Two, how to use time boxing to plan your day with intention.
	...

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