Episode 96: Compensatory Muscles

FromBack to Work

Start listening View podcast show

Episode 96: Compensatory Muscles

FromBack to Work

ratings:

Length:

101 minutes

Released:

Dec 4, 2012

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

TOPIC: A Better System for Dealing with Life's "Stuff"

This week, Dan and Merlin continue their discussion of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done.

Released:

Dec 4, 2012

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Back to Work is an award winning talk show with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discussing productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, and more. Hosted by Merlin Mann & Dan Benjamin.

Skip carousel

29: I Download FLAC: With Dan on sabbatical, TV's Rob Corddry talks with Merlin about Getting Things Done, writing, fear, and finding success as a blood-soaked clown. by Back to Work
83 min listen
32: The Beertruck Scenario: Merlin and Dan talk about Dan's sabbatical, hotdogs, services, triggers, Quicksilver, Launchbar, and why there's no 'I' in 'ordnance.' by Back to Work
87 min listen
1: Alligator in the Bathroom: In the inaugural episode of Back to Work, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss why they’re doing this show, getting back to work instead of buying berets, the lizard brain, and compare the Shadow of the Mouse to San Francisco, and eventually get to some p by Back to Work
89 min listen
2: Picture of a Boat: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin formulate a five-minute warning tactic before discussing the reality of bringing change to your company, some patterns that work for startups, solving the right problem at the right level, why you can’t find the innovation but by Back to Work
69 min listen
3: The Second Arrow: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss ADD, Buddhism, mindfulness, concentration, and insight. by Back to Work
71 min listen
4: Failing with Style: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about trying to change other people, how things really aren’t that bad, balancing fear or being driven by fear, leaving capacity for when you get The Pitch, procrastination (eventually), and giving yourself permission to by Back to Work
63 min listen
8: Little Velvet Hands: This week, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin eighty-six their restaurant jobs—emptying grease traps, handling logs of meat, and sharing what they learned by bringing mostly bad food to America's table. Dan burns velvet hands, Merlin's Mom gives the guy with th by Back to Work
73 min listen
7: Vocational Wheel: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin relate to Richard–a listener in the middle of a quarter life crisis working jobs he doesn't like–with stories from their pasts, suggestions to combat the cascade of seriousness, and some first steps for breaking out of the voc by Back to Work
82 min listen
22: My Baby Likes Aluminum Foil!: This week, Merlin and Dan share their Pick: The Macintosh Computer. Also, a 17-minute experimental startup sound, catching conflicts, shivving the stagecoach, machine-gunning with SoundMaster, the dangers of ResEdit, and the future of recumbent bike ba by Back to Work
71 min listen
17: Brick Building Full of Lies: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about checking email under the table to catch up on your 27 high priority tasks, a good time to use the word priority, blowing cycles on meeting with Narnia's stakeholders, and getting tasks out of your dreamcatcher. by Back to Work
86 min listen
10: At Last the 'Inspiration' Show by Back to Work
82 min listen
26: Spaghetti Guy Hits Close to Home: This week Wutang Dan and The MZA bring the ruckus to finding a job, selling your Mustang, and putting your house on the market: remember that you can't negotiate with reality, Merlin can't do anything to make you love him, enthusiasm is irreplaceable, and by Back to Work
93 min listen
15: Marionette of my own Design: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin are here to discuss the awareness of fear, asking yourself why, and knowing the problem instead of chasing fake confidence, patches, and hacks. by Back to Work
60 min listen
12: Chewie's Medal is Not Canonical: Merlin Mann has some "followup" before he and Dan Benjamin discuss entrusting your agency to others, how to reclaim it, and picking the right balance between expertise and challenge instead of fixing your metadata. by Back to Work
65 min listen
35: Why My Pants Were On Fire: How to handle job interviews. Merlin and Dan can't solve the problem of interviews being dumb, but Merlin will tell you what is wrong with you, how long you'll have to wait for your resume to get you a job, how Larry Wall interviews for a Perl job, an by Back to Work
95 min listen
16: Bracing for the Blow: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin aren't afraid of lawyers, dentists, negative feelings, or of not being afraid of something. by Back to Work
72 min listen
11: Johnny Heuristic: Merlin Mann joins Dan Benjamin to talk about evolution, investing in roulette, taking smarter chances and futureproofing your passion. by Back to Work
79 min listen
5: Chigger Bites on the Bus Driver: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about the black art of paying attention to the right things, how lamps are no substitute, that it's hard whether you’re working from home or a cube, being honest about your expertise before looking for independence, and t by Back to Work
80 min listen
34: Rectangular Door Conspiracy: How to say "no." Merlin talks with Dan about saying No to toilet paper diamonds, mints on pillows, and things you don't have the wallet for instead of saying Yes to a crate of bananas you don't have enough information about or giving a qualified Yes to by Back to Work
65 min listen
9: Out of Scope!: Dan and Merlin improvise topics this week and get from Synechode, NY to dopamine, being scared and being safe, believing your thoughts and coloring your dreams, and solving problems by moving your hands instead of thinking. by Back to Work
71 min listen
51: Living Inside the Nonsense: TOPIC: Slipping on Dates, Sliding on Days by Back to Work
83 min listen
6: Expectational Debt: Merlin Mann is back from Webstock and ready to recap with Dan Benjamin, which leads back to caring first, performance and fear, meditation, hypnotherapy, and why you really need the hard answer instead just more tips. by Back to Work
64 min listen
19: Corner Casey Kasem: Merlin and Dan talk about mindful tool adoption, screwdriver museums, why Vi users may (or may not) be cannibalistic insects—plus debate on whether a home video of a toy horse falling down in someone's bathroom is about Humanity. Also, Dan effs with Merli by Back to Work
83 min listen
18: Forking the Question: Merlin and Dan talk about educating "That's Just a Button Guy," practicing more humane pushback, asking better questions, why laundromats don't accept "focus," plus what happens when you put WAY too much crap in your five-pound bag. by Back to Work
85 min listen
21: Assistant TO the Regional Monkey: Merlin and Dan talk about the problem of permanent zeroes, desiring not to desire, why "hypocrisy" is killing you, stepping back on the path without apologizing, Merlin's new tattoo, and—yeah—going a little easier on yourself. Also, how almost everythi by Back to Work
62 min listen
13: The Kid's Great: Dan and Merlin talk about "Cranking" - Merlin's latest post at 43folders.com. by Back to Work
90 min listen
20: Muscle of Failure: Merlin and Dan talk about getting started, putting on your shoes instead of shopping for pedometers, false dilemmas, doing as much work with your hands as you've done in your head, why you should leave some water in the pump, meta-fiddling, and getting be by Back to Work
73 min listen
30: I'm Not Working in an Abattoir: With Dan on sabbatical, Merlin is joined by Jonathan Coulton to talk about traveling, horn sections, and Jonathan’s new album, "Artificial Heart." by Back to Work
61 min listen
14: Velocity of Disappointment: Merlin Mann joins Dan Benjamin to talk about problems that are impossible, problems that are boring, problems that you're scared of, and why you need to differentiate between fear and anxiety so you can be scared of something interesting. by Back to Work
68 min listen
24: The Daddy for your Destiny: Dan's in a closet, but Merlin has a lot of FU from the last show: good jobs don't get posted on Craigslist and while you may not know what's gonna happen next, you're not just gonna install Xcode and retire on your angry bird so either do your research, g by Back to Work
93 min listen

More Episodes from Back to Work

Skip carousel

Episode 644: A Tony Bennett Hair Hat: It hurts every time. by Back to Work
61 min listen
Episode 643: The Price of Lies: Merlin thinks LLMs have raised the bar for voice assistants in general and Siri in particular. Dan and his kid watch the excellent HBO series, "Chernobyl." by Back to Work
89 min listen
Episode 642: A Better Roll of Toilet Paper: Your hosts discuss facial hair, notebooks, the metric system, flexing about local weather, and becoming the bathroom supplies you want to see in the world. by Back to Work
103 min listen
Episode 640: Bob's Big Mess: A classic odds n' sods episode. Plus, Merlin has thoughts about memory and ecosystems, and Dan is considering jetting through an eclipse. by Back to Work
80 min listen
Episode 641: Germans in the Wild: Travel is not always about traveling, but it is definitely always about your life. by Back to Work
77 min listen
Episode 639: The Commodore's Club: Dan talks about what he's learned from traveling a bunch, and Merlin thinks a lot of weirdness comes from our twin fears of boredom and inconvenience. by Back to Work
76 min listen
Episode 638: A New Kind of Bullet: A classic odds n' sods episode. by Back to Work
134 min listen
Episode 637: The Minimally Viable Log Cabin Channel: A deep dive on being busy versus being time-constrained. by Back to Work
95 min listen
Episode 636: Honoring My Pivot Table: Dan is navigating the landscape of task management apps, and, shockingly, Merlin has some thoughts. by Back to Work
81 min listen
Episode 635: Buffet de Canard: Dan and Merlin kick off the new year with a wide-ranging look at how tools and motivations evolve with how we work. by Back to Work
80 min listen
Episode 634: Nominally Future-Resistant: A fairly epic episode covering health tracking and self-quantization. Remember: data doesn't have to hurt. by Back to Work
81 min listen
Episode 633: A Self-Aware Old Man: Your hosts talk about how we perceive the world and the challenge of mindfully updating our perceptions. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 632: Big Strong Beef Boy: Dan and Merlin are excited about technologies that have found a place in their lives. What a blessed season of thanks! by Back to Work
83 min listen
Episode 631: Little Bit of Dirty Grey: Merlin has more on generative AI, and Dan has a sweet new watch. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 630: Monchichabowsky: On AI and curiosity. by Back to Work
75 min listen
Episode 629: Benjamin Franklin's Disease: And and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion. by Back to Work
51 min listen
Episode 628: Beating Yourself Up at Scale: Talk of eyes, intentionalities, and HDMI. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 627: Unscheduled Dirt Event: Merlin claims he's not going to do any work for this one, and Dan has some advice for travelers. by Back to Work
67 min listen
Episode 626: Chekhov's Lightsaber: Your hosts catch up on some great media, and Merlin expounds on the magic of Channels. Also, Merlin logrolls a recent podcast episode and re-extolls the power of dictation. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 625: Chapters of Madness: Dan and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion. by Back to Work
45 min listen
Episode 624: Rectangle Time: Dan and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion about technology, and Merlin lays the groundwork for several spirited rants. by Back to Work
54 min listen
Episode 623: My Terrible Adhesion: Over the course of this classic Odds n' Sods episode, it becomes clear that all Merlin cares about is babies and 3D printing. by Back to Work
61 min listen
Episode 622: A Gentleman's Malt Liquor: Dan returns from a nice trip, and Merlin has been printing lizards. by Back to Work
74 min listen
Episode 621: Hairy Legs and the Whole Nine: You’re either early or you’re late; leave time for a flat tire; have you tried melatonin?; a new search engine and some enthusiasm for blogs. by Back to Work
70 min listen
Episode 620: Happy to be a Chair: With Merlin on the mend, your hosts discuss actors named Hurt, comic books, and old Macs. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 619: A Beautiful Jam-Up: A self-hypnosis recommendation leads to another look at meditation (as well as not-meditation), plus Merlin has a few more beta finds that contribute to the Tiny Life Improvement Project. by Back to Work
75 min listen
Episode 618: The Living Room Test: Dan sets up his little office, your hosts talk about the new Apple dingus, and Merlin highlights some strong OS updates. by Back to Work
67 min listen
Episode 617: Trailer for the Future: Dan needs your help with a flooring dilemma, and your hosts share some thoughts on WWDC announcements. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 616: Archipelagos of Functionality: Dan dives deep on his Sonos setup, and Merlin explores official state things. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 615: An Attractive Nuisance by Back to Work
76 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

172: Somewhere Between a Habit and a River: TOPIC: How to undig a river. by Back to Work
63 min listen
43: I Return Null: Topic: Asking questions in order to find better questions by Back to Work
59 min listen
99: Nobody Wants to Live in a Scaffolding: TOPIC: Troubleshooting for Saner GTD by Back to Work
95 min listen
95: She's Five for a Living: TOPIC: Intro to David Allen's "Getting Things Done" by Back to Work
91 min listen
Story Themes: How Particulars Form Threads (Part 3 on Story): This week, Dan and his wife, Becky Allender, continue a series on Story. They dialogue about how their own particular upbringings and life events formed distinct themes in their lives. The episode presents a challenge to us: Have we taken time to... by The Allender Center Podcast
22 min listen
139: Tap Your Meat Stack: TOPIC: Grab Bag, plus Tasks vs. Calendar Items by Back to Work
86 min listen
Spirituality of Listening: An Interview with Dr. Keith Anderson: This week, Dan Allender is joined by Dr. Keith Anderson, President of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, to talk about Keith’s new book, A Spirituality of Listening. Dan and Keith discuss what it means to listen for the voice of God in... by The Allender Center Podcast
23 min listen
125: Hakuna Potato: TOPIC: There are Only Two Prices: Free and What It Costs by Back to Work
119 min listen
249: A John Nash Moment: TOPIC: Personal Crazy Walls by Back to Work
110 min listen
331: Hidden in Wigs: TOPIC: Time Tetris in Difficult Mode by Back to Work
91 min listen
233: Emotional Density: TOPIC: Can I ask you a question? by Back to Work
80 min listen
94: A False Sun by Back to Work
91 min listen
Basics of Ecology by The Seed Pod
47 min listen
46: Not Counting the Mezzanine: Topic: The Meta-Distractions of "Minimalism" by Back to Work
83 min listen
263: The Working Definition of Love: TOPIC: No one cares about your demo anymore. by Back to Work
127 min listen
86: The Talmud of Claremont: TOPIC: Anxious about the Change by Back to Work
103 min listen
What? We're Studying Daniel?—Introduction | 167 by Former Adventist
51 min listen
J.R. Becker on the Annabelle and Aiden Book Series and Teaching Children Critical Thinking: Author J.R. Becker joins Leighann Lord in this episode of Point of Inquiry to speak about his book series, The series is a pro-science children's book series that explores science, philosophy, and critical thinking. Their conversation dives into: ... by Point of Inquiry
38 min listen
101: Sprinting Straight Into a Wall: TOPIC: Those New Years When We're Not *Actually* Resolved. by Back to Work
89 min listen
Andrew Kern on How to Read a Great Book (And a Hard One): A talk by Andrew Kern from the Indiana Home Educator's Convention 2015 by CiRCE Institute Podcast Network
62 min listen
Modeling Conferences as Conversations: Katie Wood Ray, Jennifer Serravallo, and Carl Anderson by Heinemann Podcast
28 min listen
109. Discipline and Punishment: Trigger warning: this episode discusses different types of discipline. Please take care if this is a topic which is sensitive to you. This might be the most sensitive topic in Danielle and Adam's current relationship. Having a high schooler,... by Marriage and Martinis
67 min listen
056 The Babadook (2014): This week, talk to your mom and tell her that Ben Eller and Steven Spratling sent you. We watched The Babadook: the most effective form of birth control on the market. We talk children's books that we loved growing up. We also get deep into dealing w... by Dead And Lovely Horror Movie Podcast
146 min listen
Listening in Lament: An Interview with Dr. Keith Anderson: This week, Dan Allender concludes a conversation with Dr. Keith Anderson, President of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, about Keith’s new book, A Spirituality of Listening. Dan and Keith talk about how authentic spirituality will... by The Allender Center Podcast
23 min listen
265: Especially Doris: TOPIC: Welcome to Costco. I love you. by Back to Work
125 min listen
The Making of Redeeming Heartache: What goes into the creation of a book? In this special episode, we take a deep dive into the making of Dr. Dan Allender and Cathy Loerzel’s new release, . Special guest host Dr. J. Derek McNeil, President & Provost of The Seattle School, Dan,... by The Allender Center Podcast
66 min listen
260: Stuck in Green Forever: TOPIC: Grab Bag. by Back to Work
122 min listen
106: Enough Candy to Last Forever: TOPIC: Duplicates, duplicates, duplicates. by Back to Work
96 min listen
Grieving the Death of a Parent, Part Two: This week, Dr. Dan Allender and his wife, Becky Allender, continue their discussion about the painful journey of grieving the death of a parent—a conversation sparked by their own experience of processing the death of Dan’s mother just a few weeks... by The Allender Center Podcast
24 min listen
"How To Keep House While Drowning" With KC Davis by The Terrible Reading Club
43 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Episode 96: Compensatory Muscles

Episode 96: Compensatory Muscles

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Back to Work

Related podcast episodes