As you get older, you can start to feel like you'll never achieve your dream or receive recognition for your contributions to a field, or that your best work is behind you. Mo Rocca has compiled stories that demonstrate that you shouldn't give up hope, and that no matter your age, the best may yet be to come. Mo is a humorist, journalist, and the co-author of Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs. Today on the show, Mo shares the stories and lessons of entrepreneurs, artists, actors, and more who achieved greatness or adulation in their twilight years or had a new spurt of creativity when they thought the well had run dry, including KFC founder Colonel Sanders, the artist Matisse, a couple of guys who didn't receive their first war wounds until they were old enough to qualify for the senior citizen discount at Denny's, and even a virile 90-year-old tortoise. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM Podcast #849: Live Life in Crescendo Samuel Whittemore John L. Burns Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum Henri Matisse's The Swimming Pool Documentary about Tyrus Wong Mr. Pickles the Tortoise Connect With Mo Rocca Mo on X

Your relationship with your mother is likely the first and most foundational connection in your life. At its best, this bond can be a source of comfort, strength, and love that lasts a lifetime and changes in healthy, appropriate, and adaptive ways as you mature into adulthood. But sometimes, the attachment between a mother and her son can become unhealthy, resulting in a phenomenon called mother-son enmeshment, in which a man can become a kind of surrogate husband to his mom. Here to unpack this complex issue is Dr. Kenneth Adams. Ken is a clinical psychologist who has spent much of his career working with what he calls "mother-enmeshed men" and is the author of When He's Married to Mom. Today on the show, Ken unpacks the characteristics of mother-enmeshed men and how to know if you are one, and he explains what can happen in childhood that would cause a mother to enmesh with her son. We discuss the problems enmeshment can create in men's relationships and other areas of life and how it can lead to things like compulsive porn use. And we unpack what it means for a man to become independent and emancipate from his mother, how it's different from cutting her off, and what it looks like to have a healthy relationship with your mom. Connect with Ken Adams Overcoming Enmeshment website

You probably know your body follows a circadian rhythm, and probably think of it as primarily regulating your sleep/wake cycle, which it certainly does. But your body's internal clock also regulates many other physical, mental, and behavioral changes that occur every 24 hours, and working with your circadian rhythm, rather than against it, can boost your health and happiness. Here to unpack how to do so is Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience and the author of Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep. In the first part of our conversation, we discuss some science and background on circadian rhythm and its connection to light exposure. We then turn to the practical implications of having an internal clock, including whether you need to worry about viewing blue light at night, the significant mental and physical harms that can accrue from working the night shift and what can be done to mitigate them, what influences your chronotype and whether you're a morning lark or a night owl, whether you should be concerned if you're waking up in the middle of the night, why you wake up to pee in the night, the best times of day to exercise, and how the circadian rhythm can influence when you should take medication. Connect With Russell Foster Russell at the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute

A fair amount of gear is involved in making a camping or backpacking trip a success, and choosing that gear can be a little intimidating as there are lots of options, and it's expensive to boot. Here to offer some tips on selecting gear and getting the most out of it is Craig Caudill, an avid outdoorsman, the director and lead instructor of the Nature Reliance School, and the author of Ultimate Wilderness Gear: Everything You Need to Know to Choose and Use the Best Outdoor Equipment. Today on the show, Craig and I discuss some things to know when purchasing things like boots, tents, sleeping bags, and more, and we offer some specific recommendations as to the gear that's worked for us respectively. Craig also offers tips on using outdoor equipment, including how to dry wet boots without damaging them, whether you should put a tarp under your tent, what to do if you get hot and sweaty or cold in your sleeping bag, a hack for sleeping more comfortably on the ground, and the best kind of knife for an outdoorsman to carry. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM Article: How to Filter and Purify Water for Traveling, Camping, and Survival AoM Article: The Benefits of Hammock Camping AoM Article: How to Pack a Backpack for Backpacking AoM Article: Two Things You Should Be Doing to Take Better Care of Your Camping Gear AoM Article: Outdoor Hydration Showdown — Nalgene Bottle vs. Water Bladder AoM Article: How to Choose the Perfect Survival Knife Craig's books Native Summit in Edmond, OK Brett's Tent: Hubba Hubba 2-Person Backpacking Tent Hennessy Hammock Tent Warbonnet Hammock Tents Military Modular Sleep System Brett's Sleeping Pad: Big Agnes Kate's Sleeping Pad: Therm-A-Rest Trail Prolite Apex Backpacking Cot Brett's Backpacking Pillow: Sea to Summit Aeros Brett's Water Bladder: HydraPak Shape-Shift Craig's Water Filter: Sawyer Mini Brett's Water Filter: Katadyn Hiker Pro Hand Pump Water Filter Sawyer Squeeze Water Filter Brett's Backpacking Stove: Jetboil Stove Fire-Maple Backpacking Stove MSR Backpacking Stove LT Wright Handcrafted Knives Fast Fire Firestarters Hill People Gear Backpacks Connect With Craig Caudill Nature Reliance School Craig on IG Craig on LinkedIn

You may know Nate Silver as an election forecaster. But he’s a poker player as well. And his experiences operating in a world of competition and risk led him to explore what his fellow gamblers, as well as hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, and many other kinds of maverick types do differently than other people. Amongst the findings Nate shares in his new book, On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, are the “13 habits of highly effective risk-takers.” Nate and I discuss some of these habits today on the show, including exercising strategic empathy, avoiding the pitfalls of resulting, taking a raise or fold stance toward life, and more. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM Podcast #685: How to Decide With Annie Duke AoM Podcast #840: When to Quit With Annie Duke Sunday Firesides: Careful Kills Connect With Nate Silver Nate‘s Substack Nate on X

To train the body, strengthening its muscles, increasing its cardiovascular health, and improving its agility, you need to do exercises like stretching, running, and lifting weights. To train the soul, expanding its capacity, you likewise need to perform exercises, in this case, what are called "spiritual disciplines" — practices like fasting, silence, self-examination, study, and simplicity. As a pastor, John Mark Comer approaches the spiritual disciplines from a Christian perspective, as the habits and practices from "the way of Jesus" that allow individuals to make deeper layers of themselves available to grace and access the transforming power that's necessary to become what John Mark calls "a person of love." But the practices that are considered spiritual disciplines can be found across different religions, and even philosophies like Stoicism, and can be utilized by people from varied backgrounds to deepen their inner life and strength, center themselves in chaos, find greater purpose, and subdue baser desires to reach for higher ideals. Today on the show, John Mark offers an introduction to the spiritual disciplines, and the way they can be an act of resistance, a way for us to form our own values and rhythms in life, instead of allowing our lives to be formed by the defaults and external forces of our age. Resources Related to the Podcast The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer AoM's series on the spiritual disciplines: An Introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines Study and Self-Examination Solitude and Silence Simplicity Fasting Gratitude AoM Article: How and Why to Take a Tech Sabbath AoM Podcast #503: The Case for the 24/6 Lifestyle AoM Podcast #708: Overcome the Comfort Crisis Connect With John Mark Comer John Mark's website

If you’re a parent, teacher, coach, or manager who lives, loves, and works with tweens, teens, and 20s-somethings, you know that young people sometimes act in seemingly head-scratching ways, that you don’t always feel like you’re being listened to, and that it can be frustrating to try to guide them in acting towards positive ends. The source of these challenges is often chalked up to the underdeveloped brains and hormones that tweens through young twenty-somethings possess. But my guest would say that what’s more to blame is the ineffective way mentors often approach young adults. David Yeager is a developmental psychologist and the author of 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier. Today on the show, David and I discuss the “mentor’s dilemma” — the idea that you either have to be a tough authoritarian who holds young adults to high standards or a softie push-over who doesn’t crush a kid’s spirit — and how to navigate through this unnecessary dichotomy. David explains the critical importance of understanding what really drives young adults, what approaches cause them to shut down and disengage, and the best practices that parents, teachers, and other mentors can take to leave young adults feeling inspired, enthusiastic, and ready to contribute. Connect With David Yeager Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute David’s faculty page

When many people try to lose weight, they choose a specific, cookie-cutter diet that claims to be the one true way to shed pounds. My guest says that approach is bound to backfire, and that there's a better way to lose weight and change your body composition. Alan Aragon is a researcher and educator, a pioneer of evidence-based nutrition, and the author of Flexible Dieting: A Science-Based, Reality-Tested Method for Achieving and Maintaining Your Optimal Physique, Performance & Health. Today on the show, Alan offers an intro to his method of flexible dieting, in which, as long as you stay in a caloric deficit and hit your daily protein target, you can decide on how much fat and carbs to consume according to personal preference. We discuss what to keep in mind as you create your own individualized nutrition plan, including how much protein you need a day, the minimum amount of fat to get in your diet to avoid a decrease in testosterone, and the minimum of carbs to consume to maximize muscle gain. And, because flexible dieting is also about not rigidly sticking with your diet 100% of the time, Alan shares how often you should take a break from your diet to eat what you want. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM Podcast #475: How to Lose Weight, and Keep It Off Forever Alan's diet calculator AoM intro to tracking macros AoM Article: How I Used the AoM Podcast to Lose 20 Pounds in 3 Months AoM Article: Why Carbs Don’t Make You Fat Connect With Alan Aragon Alan's website and research review Alan on IG Alan on X

When we think about anxiety, we typically think of something that is generated and felt within an individual. But Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist of the mid-20th century, argued that anxiety was also created by the interactions between individuals and could spread like a contagion in a group, an idea known as "Family Systems Theory." Here to offer an introduction to Family Systems Theory and how its implications extend far beyond the family is Steve Cuss, who is a former hospital chaplain, a pastor, the founder of Capable Life, which offers coaching and consultation, and the author of Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs. Today on the show, Steve and I discuss how individuals in both families and organizations can "infect a situation with [their] own assumptions and expectations" and create a sense of anxiety that permeates a group. Steve unpacks the false needs that create chronic anxiety in an individual, how this anxiety spreads to others, and the unhealthy ways people deal with this tension, including becoming fused together. And we talk about how to put this anxiety back where it belongs, and how a single person can change a group dynamic by differentiating from it and becoming a rooted self. Resources Related to the Podcast Murray Bowen A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin H. Friedman AoM Article: The 5 Characteristics of Highly Dysfunctional Groups AoM Article: Becoming a Well-Differentiated Leader The Cornerstone Concept by Roberta M. Gilbert Sunday Firesides: You Are Not Responsible for Other People’s Feelings Connect With Steve Cuss Steve's website

Do moments where you run up against your dependence on modern technology get you wondering about the ways some of your personal capabilities seem to be atrophying? Graham Lee has spent years thinking about this idea. While he's a digital skills educator who appreciates the way technology can enhance our abilities, he worries that our ever-increasing reliance on algorithms and artificial intelligence may be robbing us of elements that are vital to the core of who we are. Lee is the author of Human Being: Reclaim 12 Vital Skills We’re Losing to Technology, and today on the show, we talk about some of those dozen endangered skills, including navigation, reading, writing, craftsmanship, and solitude. Lee offers case studies on how these skills enhance our humanness, why their loss matters, and how we can reclaim these capabilities and a greater sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy. Resources Related to the Podcast We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific by David Lewis AoM series on learning how to navigate with a map and compass AoM Podcast #534: How Navigation Makes Us Human AoM Podcast #793: The New Science of Metabolism and Weight Loss AoM article on the benefits of solitude Indian Running: Native American History and Tradition by Peter Nabokov Watchmaker Geoge Daniels Castaway Alexander Selkirk NotebookLM Connect With Graham Lee Graham on LinkedIn

You have a relationship with family, with friends, with a romantic partner. You may not have thought about it this way, but you also have a relationship with your job — a quite serious one, in fact; after all, you spend a third of your life working. Just like the relationship you have with your significant other, there are ups and downs with your relationship with your job. It can start out with exciting honeymoon feelings, but along the way, you can end up drifting apart from your job, lose interest in it, or not feel appreciated. And there can come a time when you start wondering if you and your job should part ways. Here to help you figure out if you should break up with your job is Tessa West, a professor of psychology and the author of Job Therapy: Finding Work That Works for You. Tessa interviewed thousands of people who have recently switched jobs or undergone career changes and found that there are five forms that job dissatisfaction typically takes. Today on the show, Tessa shares those five job dissatisfaction profiles, and how to know when you need to try to move into a new role within your company, or move on altogether and even change careers. Resources Related to the Podcast Tessa's previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #834 — The 7 Types of Work Jerks (And How to Deal With Them) AoM Article: 30+ Questions to Ask Yourself Before Leaving a Job AoM Podcast #578: Figuring Out If You Should Change Careers (And How to Do It) Connect With TessaWest Tessa's website Tessa's research lab

Kelly Starrett, a doctor of physical therapy, has trained professional athletes, Olympians, and military special operators, helping them unlock peak performance. But as he approached his fifties, he started to see cracks appearing in the health of the folks around him. What had worked for his peers in their 20s and 30s, wasn’t working anymore; they were gaining weight, having surgeries, and just didn’t feel good. So he and his wife and fellow trainer, Juliet, decided to write a book — Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully — that took all that they’ve learned from training elite performers and distilled it into the foundational practices that everyone, at every age, can use to develop lasting mobility, durability, and all-around health. Today on the show, Kelly unpacks some of those essential physical habits, sharing the “vital signs” — tests that will help you assess how you’re doing in that area — as well as daily practices that will help you strengthen and improve that capacity. Resources Related to the Podcast Kelly’s previous appearance on the AoM podcast — Episode #213: Undoing the Damage of Chronic Sitting AoM article on the Sitting-Rising Test AoM Article: 7 Simple Exercises That Undo the Damage of Sitting (including the Couch Stretch) AoM article on foam rolling AoM Article: The Benefits of Hanging for Strength and Mobility AoM Article: 12 Balance Exercises You Can Do on a 2×4 AoM Podcast #638: How Changing Your Breathing Can Change Your Life AoM Podcast #678: Physical Benchmarks Every Man Should Meet, At Every Age Muscles and Meridians: The Manipulation of Shape by Phillip Beach Video of Kelly demonstrating the Couch Stretch Video of Kelly demonstrating the squat test Video of 90/90 sit/stretch Video of Chris Hinshaw demonstrating the Old Man Balance Test Get yourself a pull-up bar The SlackBlock Kelly’s article on fixing shoulder pain, including a video on the Shoulder Spin-Up Connect With Kelly Starrett The Ready State website, including the Built to Move book page The Ready State on IG Kelly on Twitter

The journey of personal development, of becoming a more excellent and extraordinary individual, can sometimes seem a little abstract. That’s why it’s helpful to imagine it as Mark Divine does, as a set of five metaphorical mountains to scale. Mark is a retired Navy SEAL Commander, a professor of leadership, a yogi, the creator of fitness and mindset programs like SEALFIT and Unbeatable Mind, and an author. He combines his two decades of military service with his study of martial arts and zen meditation to create the holistic warrior monk development philosophy that informs his work, including his latest book, Uncommon: Simple Principles for an Extraordinary Life. Today on the show, Mark acts as a guide to the topography of the five mountains of personal development and the daily practices that will help you summit them. We talk about why mastering the physical mountain comes first and climbing the intuitional mountain comes fourth, the Navy SEAL breathing practice that will help you develop your metacognition, how the Japanese concept of ikigai can help you find your purpose in life, and much more. Resources Related to the Podcast Mark’s previous appearance on the Art of Manliness podcast: Episode #60 — The Way of the SEAL Box breathing Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine Staring Down the Wolf by Mark Divine AoM Article: 4 Key Insights From the Bhagavad Gita AoM Podcast #616: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling Sunday Firesides: You Don’t Have the Time, Not to Take the Time F3 Nation Ikigai Connect With Mark Divine Uncommon website Mark’s website Mark on IG

Filling out paperwork. Making travel reservations. Paying bills. Shopping for groceries. Returning packages. These are all examples of life admin — the little tasks we have to do to keep our lives moving along. Life admin is typically pretty tedious and annoying. But staying on top of it is essential to reducing the stress and chaos that would otherwise burden our relationships, muck up the gears of our schedules, and prevent us from participating in all the fun and fulfilling parts of life. Fortunately, there are ways to better manage your life admin. Here to share some of them is Dinah Rowe-Roberts, the co-host of the Life Admin Life Hacks podcast and the co-author of a book of the same name. Today on the show, Dinah explains what lists you should be keeping, including the 10-minute time killers list, why you should do a regular “hour of power” to stay on top of things, how to schedule your life admin, how to keep track of and divvy up chores between you and your spouse, how to get all your meal planning and grocery shopping done in less than 15 minutes a week, how to streamline your kids’ schedules and your vacation planning, and much more. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM article on shadow work AoM article and podcast on how to have a weekly marriage meeting AoM article on how to have a weekly family meeting AoM article on how to use Todoist to get things done AoM article on how to manage your lifeadmin AoM article on how and why to have a reset day AoM article on 8 lists you should be keeping (besides the to-do list) Connect With Dinah Rowe-Roberts The LifeAdminLife Hacks website LifeAdminLife Hacks on IG Dinah on LinkedIn

There has been a lot of media coverage and dialogue about the struggles men are facing in the modern day. There's been some solutions forwarded to these struggles as well. Among these, Dr. Anthony Bradley has a more surprising idea that you don't hear every day: revitalizing college fraternities. Anthony is a research fellow and professor and the author of Heroic Fraternities: How College Men Can Save Universities and America. In the first part of our conversation, Anthony offers his take on the state of men in the modern day, the difference between heroic and disordered masculinity, the insights that a writer from the mid-20-century can shed on the forms that disorder can take, and why many men today are choosing the path of resignation. We then turn to Anthony's idea that college fraternities can be the training ground for virtue. We talk about the loftier origins of fraternities, why, at some universities, they devolved into organizations that have become symbolic of the worst traits of masculinity, and Anthony's six principles for reviving the potential of fraternities to shape great men. Resources Related to the Podcast Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization by Karen Horney AoM Podcast #758: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather Anthony's framework and list of resources for the course he teaches on the masculine journey Connect With Anthony Bradley Anthony's website

You probably think of the health effects of sunlight as a mixed bag. On the one hand, sun exposure helps your body make vitamin D. But on the other, it can cause skin cancer. To get around this conundrum, dermatologists frequently recommend avoiding sun exposure when you can, slathering on sunscreen when you can't, and taking a vitamin D supplement to make up for the lack of sunlight in your life. Yet in seeking to solve one problem, this advice may open up many others and be contributing to ill health in the West. Today on the show, Rowan Jacobsen, a science journalist who has spent years investigating the health impacts of sunlight, will unpack the underappreciated benefits of sun exposure, and that, crucially, they're not primarily a function of the production of vitamin D and can't be replaced with a pill. We talk about what else is at work in ultraviolet radiation's positive effects on blood pressure, autoimmune diseases, insulin resistance, mood, and more. We also get into how to weigh these benefits against the risk of skin cancer, why health officials in Australia, which has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, have changed their recommendations around sun exposure, and if there's a role sunscreen should still play in your routine. Resources Related to the Podcast Rowan's article in Outside magazine: Is Sunscreen the New Margarine? Rowan's article in the Atlantic: Against Sunscreen Absolutism AoM Article: Why You Should Become a Sun Worshipper Dermatologist Richard Weller's TED talk: Could the Sun Be Good for Your Heart? Australian recommendations on sun exposure Connect With Rowan Jacobson Rowan's website

When men think about optimizing their hormones, they tend only to think about raising their testosterone. But while increasing T can be important, an ideal health profile also means having testosterone that's in balance with your other hormones as well. Today on the show, Dr. Kyle Gillett joins me to discuss both of those prongs of all-around hormone optimization. We start with a quick overview of the different hormones that affect male health. We then get into what qualifies as low testosterone and how to accurately test yours. We also discuss what causes low testosterone in individual men, and how its decline in the general male population may be linked to both birth control and the world wars. In the second half of our conversation, we discuss how to both raise testosterone and get rid of excess estrogen, including the use of some effective supplements you may never have heard of. We then get into the risks and benefits of taking TRT, before ending our discussion with what young men can do to prepare for a lifetime of optimal T and hormonal health. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM series on testosterone, including How I Doubled My Testosterone Levels Naturally AoM Podcast #761: How Testosterone Makes Men, Men AoM Podcast #878: The Fitness Supplements That Actually Work Connect With Dr. Kyle Gillett Kyle on IG Gillett Health Podcast on Spotify and Apple Gillett Health on YouTube Gillett Health website

A lot of self-improvement advice and content feels empty. And there's a reason for that. It often offers routines and habits to practice, but doesn't offer a strong, overarching reason to practice them. That's why the self-improvement advice of the Founding Fathers is particularly compelling. Though they were imperfect men, they had a clear why for trying to become better than they were. For the Founders, life was about the pursuit of happiness, and they equated happiness with excellence and virtue — a state that wasn't about feeling good, but being good. The Founders pursued happiness not only for the personal benefit in satisfaction and tranquility it conferred, but for the way the attainment of virtue would benefit society as a whole; they believed that political self-government required personal self-government. Today on the show, Jeffrey Rosen, a professor of law, the president of the National Constitution Center, and the author of The Pursuit of Happiness, shares the book the Founders read that particularly influenced their idea of happiness as virtue and self-mastery. We talk about the schedules and routines the Founders kept, the self-examination practices they did to improve their character, and how they worked on their flaws, believing that, while moral perfection was ultimately an impossible goal to obtain, it was still something worth striving for. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM's series on Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues Ben Franklin Virtues Journal available in the AoM Store AoM Article: Young Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Conduct AoM Article: Thomas Jefferson’s 10 Rules for Life AoM Article: The Libraries of Famous Men — Thomas Jefferson’s Recommended Reading AoM Article: The Best John Adams Quotes AoM Article: George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation AoM Podcast #366: Teach Yourself Like George Washington AoM Article: The Spiritual Disciplines — Study and Self-Examination Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero The Golden Verses of Pythagoras Connect With Jeffrey Rosen The National Constitution Center website We the People podcast Jeffrey's faculty page Jeffrey on X

Friendships are a central part of the lives of both men and women. But from personal observation, you've probably noticed that the dynamics of male and female friendships aren't always the same. You may not, however, have been able to articulate what those differences are or have known what's behind them. While there's still a lot of facets of friendship that haven't yet been researched, Dr. Jaimie Krems, who runs UCLA's Social Minds Lab, has a lot of interesting insights about what we do know about how and why men and women approach friendship differently. Today on the show, she explains why men and women form friendships and the differences in the size and nature of their social circles, how long their friendships last, and what they look for in friends. We also discuss why men have a greater tolerance for their friends' flaws than women do, why men and women would want to be friends with each other, and how each sex experiences friendship jealousy. Resources Related to the Podcast The Banker's Paradox Joyce Benenson's research on "Males' Greater Tolerance of Same-Sex Peers" Jaimie's research on women's interpretation of disgust faces Jaimie's study: "Friendship Jealousy: One Tool for Maintaining Friendships in the Face of Third-Party Threats?" AoM Podcast #229: How Men and Women Socialize Differently AoMPodcast #360: Understanding Male Friendships AoM Podcast #726: What’s Causing the Male Friendship Recession? AoM Podcast #772: How Long Does It Take to Make Friends (And How Does That Process Work, Anyway)? AoM Article: How Not to Be Disappointed With Your Friends Connect With Jaimie Krems The Social Minds Lab at UCLA Jaimie's faculty page Jaimie on X

Businesses and individuals often feel overwhelmed and stretched — that they can't get done all the work they need to. The solution they frequently turn to is finding a new app to use or hiring more employees to spread the load. But my guest would say that you can steal back hours of productive time simply by using the tools and teams you have now, if you learn to use them in a more efficient way. Nick Sonnenberg is the founder and CEO of Leverage, an efficiency consulting business and the author of Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work. Today on the show, Nick explains how people spend almost 60% of their time doing work about work, and why hiring more people can actually make the problem worse rather than better. He then shares his "CPR Business Efficiency Framework," and how making changes in how you communicate, plan, and manage resources can open up hours of time. We talk about how to organize your communication channels so your work day isn't taken up by what Nick calls "The Scavenger Hunt," one of the most underutilized tools for taming your inbox, how to stop wasting time on meetings, and tiny changes that will add up to many hours saved each year. Along the way, we talk about how some of these tactics can save you time in your personal life as well. Resources Related to the Podcast AoM Podcast #689: Email Is Making Us Miserable — Here’s What to Do About It AoM Podcast #972: Down With Pseudo-Productivity — Why We Need to Transform the Way We Work AoM Podcast #973: A Butler’s Guide to Managing Your Household Teach Your Wife to Be a Widow by Donald I. Rogers "Saving Seconds Is Better Than Hours" — Time article by Nick Texts.com Workona tab manager Connect With Nick Sonnenberg Come Up for Air website Leverage website Nick on LinkedIn Nick on IG Nick on X