Productivity Nerd

kathy.soulsby

Welcome to Productivity Nerd by Personally Virtual – your go-to spot for smart, slightly nerdy conversations about productivity, time management, and working smarter (not harder!). Hosted by Virtual Assistant and productivity enthusiast Kathy Soulsby, we unpack powerful tools, books, and habits - from Getting Things Done to Slow Productivity and beyond. Whether you’re a solo business owner, a time-blocking fanatic, or just looking to tame your to-do list, you’ll find actionable tips, interviews, and real talk to boost your focus and reclaim your time.

  1. 3 days ago

    Episode 58 - Why You Don't Do The Thing You Know You Should (It's Not Discipline...It's Design)

    You know what you should be doing. So why aren't you doing it? Kathy's physio takes four minutes, twice a day. Eight minutes. It's the single most important thing for her recovery. She doesn't do it. Helen's got her own version. You've got yours. In this episode Kathy and Helen go looking for what's actually going on and it turns out this has been studied properly for decades. It isn't laziness, and it isn't a willpower shortage. What's inside: Why motivation isn't the problem - Piers Steel's Temporal Motivation Theory, and why anything without a deadline gets rationally deprioritised by your brainThe three real barriers - BJ Fogg's Behaviour Model: motivation, ability, prompt - and why lowering friction beats pumping up motivation every timeThe intention–behaviour gap - Peter Gollwitzer's research showing good intentions predict only 20-30% of actual behaviour, and the if-then plans that close the gapHow to write an if-then plan that works, and why the "then" should be laughably small - put on your trainers, open the app, sit downIdentity over outcomes - James Clear on why "who is the type of person who does this?" beats "I want to do this"Mark Manson's ten-second meditation story - the moment a meditation teacher dismantled the all-or-nothing trap in one questionThe all-or-nothing bar you set yourself - why "it doesn't count unless it's thirty minutes" means you do nothing at allPractical, evidence-based, and mildly self-incriminating throughout. You don't have a discipline problem. You have a design problem...and design is something you can fix.

  2. 2 Sept

    Episode 57.5 - How to Plan Your Week: My Real Weekly Planning Routine (ClickUp, Theme Days & 3 Priorities)

    In this minipod, Kathy walks through her real weekly planning process: what she does on a Sunday so that 9am Monday never starts from a blank page. Inside this episode: How to use theme days to batch work into pots - content, BD, client management, agency management, admin and finance, personal - and aim for one day per potWhy everything lives in ClickUp but the weekly plan gets handwritten on paper or iPadHow to pick your top 3 priorities - and why "spend 2 hours on project X" counts as a priorityLooking two weeks ahead in the diary to catch meetings that need serious prepTime-blocking focus sessions (Kathy uses Flown) so you log on knowing exactly what you're doing - no decision fatigueThe four rules that actually matter: keep one main list, be realistic about capacity, follow the damn plan, and check the list constantly Whether your system is digital, paper, or smoke signals, it only works if it reflects reality. Tomorrow's you will not be less tired than today's you. Plan for the human you've actually got.

  3. 30 Jul

    Taking a well earned break

    Welcome to a little message from the Productivity Nerd crew.  We’re taking a bit of a break over August.   The last few months have been hectic and a rather challenging personally so finding guests and reading business books hasn’t been a priority I’m afraid, the day job and staying sane has taken precedence, as it absolutely should. You know us, we work hard to understand what is important.   What this means is that we’ve rather lost our nice buffer of Leadtime on episodes so I say we’re taking a break in August. That’s not actually the case. We’ll be prepping a load of episodes for you.   We’re playing catch up in the background so we come back in September like the highly efficient folks you know us to be!   I look forward to seeing you properly again in September. In the meantime, whatever the summer has in store for you, I hope it’s fun.

  4. 29 Jul

    Episode 57 - Out of Office, In the Moment: Holiday Prep That Actually Works, with Claire Ennion

    Going on holiday? Here are some holiday planning tips to help you actually switch off - before you go, while you're away, and on that brutal first day back. Kathy and Claire (joined by work-experience guest Emily) cover the stuff nobody warns you about: how to hand over work without a 20-item panic list, whether to set up an OOO or get someone to manage your inbox, how to draw boundaries around "just checking in," and why your first morning back deserves its own plan. Whether you're employed, self-employed, or the boss, there's a tip in here you can actually use. Because a holiday you spend dreading your inbox isn't really a holiday...it's just working from a different place.

  5. 21 Jul

    Episode 56.5 - Using ‘Waiting Time’ Productively – Small things you can do in short gaps of time.

    A tiny mini pod on making the most of the awkward gaps in your day, those 5 or 7 minute windows before an appointment or between tasks that feel too short to bother with. Kathy shares two very different ways to use them: ticking off quick wins from a ready made task list, or putting the phone down and doing absolutely nothing. Because sometimes the best use of five minutes is no use at all.

  6. 15 Jul

    Episode 56 - How to Find Your Values (Using Your Pet Peeves)

    Why does it make you irrationally furious when someone doesn't indicate at a roundabout? According to this episode, that's not just a bad mood, it's a value getting stepped on. Kathy and Helen dig into the ideas from Mark Manson's SOLVED podcast on how to actually find your values, starting with the frustrations and pet peeves that flare up without warning. They cover the difference between an interest and a value, why chasing money never gets you anywhere on its own, and why going all in on one thing for too long quietly wrecks everything else. Honest, a bit chaotic, and genuinely useful for anyone who's ever wondered what their own rage is trying to tell them. Your pet peeves are a map. Follow them.

  7. 7 Jul

    Episode 55.5 - The 3-Second Rule for Decluttering Your Digital Space

    In this quickfire mini episode, Kathy shares the 3-Second Rule for clearing digital clutter, the test that decides in a heartbeat whether a file, app, or screenshot earns its place on your devices. If you cannot say what it is, why you need it, or when you will use it within three seconds, it goes. Kathy walks through where to start, from desktop chaos to phantom apps to screenshot graveyards, plus a clever "maybe folder" trick for anyone who needs a safety net before hitting delete. A clear digital space means faster work and a calmer brain, and this episode shows exactly how to get there without the overwhelm. Tidy mind, tidy files, ten minutes well spent.

  8. 30 Jun

    Episode 55 - The Productivity Advice That Works When You're Falling Apart with Gilly Mulford

    Gilly Mulford wrote her book Where Dandelions Grow while her world was falling apart - not after it, during it.   In this conversation, Kathy catches up with Gilly to explore what happens when the usual productivity tools - the habits, the systems, the routines - fail you because your nervous system is too frazzled to play along. They dig into the relationship between resilience and getting things done, the inner critic Gilly has named Dave, the surprisingly seductive pull of catastrophising, and why acceptance isn't the same as giving up. If you've ever wondered why you can't just implement the productivity advice you know works, this episode might be the missing piece. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop and rebuild from the roots up. Order your copy of Gilly's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1067617906

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Ratings & Reviews

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About

Welcome to Productivity Nerd by Personally Virtual – your go-to spot for smart, slightly nerdy conversations about productivity, time management, and working smarter (not harder!). Hosted by Virtual Assistant and productivity enthusiast Kathy Soulsby, we unpack powerful tools, books, and habits - from Getting Things Done to Slow Productivity and beyond. Whether you’re a solo business owner, a time-blocking fanatic, or just looking to tame your to-do list, you’ll find actionable tips, interviews, and real talk to boost your focus and reclaim your time.

Information

  • Creator
    kathy.soulsby
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © kathy.soulsby
  • Show Website
    Productivity Nerd