David Sparks and Mike Schmitz are not nearly as productive as they’d like to be. Join these fellow travelers (and a bunch of special guests) as they share the best ways to get focused, and talk through their successes and failures along the way.

Hosts

David Sparks

MacSparky.com

Mike Schmitz

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    Latest Episodes

    #141: You Never Arrive

    December 22nd, 2021 · 76 minutes

    David & Mike discuss the arrival fallacy and the importance of finding joy in the journey.

    #140: Your Brain is Not a Computer with Cory Hixson

    December 7th, 2021 · 79 minutes

    Engineering professor Cory Hixson joins the Focused crew this week about staying on target, not letting your kids eat take your brain, and why you are not a computer.

    #139: Soundtracks & Self-Talk

    November 23rd, 2021 · 69 minutes

    David & Mike consider the source of negative self-talk, the power of positive thinking, and taming the rebellious brain.

    #138: Hyper-Scheduling Revisited

    November 9th, 2021 · 94 minutes

    Mike and David return to the subject of hyper-scheduling after they've both been at it a few years. What works? What doesn't? And how did Mike's experiment go where he stopped blocking time?

    #137: Managing Busy

    October 27th, 2021 · 81 minutes

    Mike and David return to the insidious problem of "busy". Mike and David are not beyond getting caught in this trap and share some ideas about how to avoid it.

    #136: Social Focus, with Taylor Jacobson

    October 12th, 2021 · 82 minutes

    Taylor Jacobson joins us to talk about groundedness, vulnerability, and accountability on his journey to founding Focusmate.

    #135: Don't Eat the Frog, with Jesse J. Anderson

    September 28th, 2021 · 80 minutes

    Jesse Anderson joins us to talk about self-awareness and the struggles with being productive while battling ADHD.

    #134: Finding Space with Sean McCabe

    September 14th, 2021 · 95 minutes

    Sean McCabe comes back to report in on what happened when his year-long sabbatical smacked into a pandemic and how he keeps his focus while winding up a new business.

    #133: Success & Failure

    August 31st, 2021 · 78 minutes

    David & Mike do an audit of their productivity workflows and share what's working (and what isn't).

    #132: Willpower and Your Environment

    August 17th, 2021 · 73 minutes

    Is willpower enough to plow through? In this episode, Mike and David look into that question.