You've read the books. You've locked the phone in a drawer. You've set a hard cut-off at 8 PM. And none of it has lasted more than two weeks.

That's exactly where Shaun found himself. By day he's a senior corporate strategy leader at Bupa, and by night he's the volunteer operations manager for a junior footy club responsible for 450 kids across eight teams. The systems he runs at work are tight. The systems he runs at home? Nowhere to be seen.

In this Work Edit, I sit down with Shaun to figure out why the productivity habits that protect him in his corporate role have never made it home, and what it would actually take to change that. We get into AI knowledge agents, ghost mode, setting expectations as an act of generosity, and a specific gratitude practice I think is worth trying even if you find most of them a bit naff.

If you've ever been brilliant at boundary-setting for everyone else and terrible at it for yourself, this one's for you.

Shaun and I discuss:

• Why Shaun's corporate productivity systems work flawlessly at Bupa but have never crossed over into his volunteer role or home life

• The AI knowledge agent idea: how building a self-serve FAQ for 450 families could cut the stream of evening messages and remove Shaun as the constant bottleneck

• Staying in your lane: why context switching between work mode and parent mode leaves you doing neither well, and the simple question that helps you catch yourself doing it

• Ghost mode: the difference between locking your phone away and actually choosing to be fully present, and why that reframe matters

• Setting expectations as an act of generosity: how a simple autoresponder or comms window can relieve the guilt of not responding instantly, without making you seem rigid

• Three good things: a specific gratitude practice, grounded in research, that quiets a busy work brain at night, and why doing it with your kids makes it even more powerful

More from How I Work

If you related to Shaun's struggle with an always-on role that never quite lets you clock off, I think you'll love my conversation with Katie. She's 18 months into a consulting portfolio career, and saying no is a muscle she's still building. Requests were multiplying faster than she could field them, which is honestly just the same problem wearing a different outfit.

Listen to Katie's episode here.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most people treat AI like a vending machine: you show up, you ask, you wait. But what if there's another way to use it, one where the work gets done before you've even thought to ask for it.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I explore scheduled prompts: what they are, why they're worth setting up, and how to actually write one that works.

What you'll learn:

• What a scheduled prompt is and how it differs from a regular AI conversation
• When it makes sense to run a prompt in the background rather than in real time
• The kinds of recurring tasks that are well suited to scheduling
• How to know when a scheduled prompt has actually run
• Neo's trick for writing a prompt worth scheduling again and again
• Practical AI tools for productivity and focus
• Real-world AI workflows used by high performers
• How to use AI at work without burning out
• Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hiring someone is one of the highest-stakes decisions a founder makes. Get it wrong and you can lose time, money, and momentum. And after 16 years of building Showpo from her parents' garage into a nine-figure business, Jane Lu is the first to admit they still do not always get it right.

But across all those hires, she has landed on one single biggest red flag she screens for, and it is probably not what you would expect.

In this episode, I sit down with Jane Lu, founder of Showpo, to talk about what that red flag is, how she structures interviews to surface it, why she has built her whole leadership philosophy around being a lazy CEO, and the distinction between dopamine tasks and dividend tasks that explains why so many of us feel busy but stuck.

Jane and I discuss:

• How Jane treats her calendar as her external brain, scheduling everything from supplements to podcast links to make good habits frictionless

• The difference between dopamine tasks (inbox zero, Slack notifications) and dividend tasks (the work that compounds but offers no immediate reward) and how to stop letting the former crowd out the latter

• Jane's content creation workflow and how she gradually built a small team of offshore editors to take the process off her plate

• What 16 years of hiring has taught her about misaligned values and ego as the biggest red flags to screen for, and the specific interview questions she uses to uncover them

• The accidental lesson in delegation that came from leaving her business to go to a music festival, and how it revealed what systems and a trusted team can do when the founder steps back
• The case for being a lazy CEO: building the right culture, setting up strong systems, recruiting well, and then genuinely getting out of the way

Key quotes

"Being lazy is setting up the right systems and processes and really trusting your team."

"The biggest red flag I personally look for when it comes to the wrong people is ego."

Connect with Jane Lu on Instagram, LinkedIn and her website.

More from How I Work

Check out last week's conversation with Cyril Peupion, a great companion listen for anyone wanting a framework for protecting time for the work that actually matters. Listen here.

And if you want to get clearer on what deserves your time and get better at saying no to the rest, we have pulled together a Spotify playlist of our favourite How I Work episodes on exactly that. Find it here.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've put in the work on your prompts. You know how to give AI the right context, set the right tone, ask the right questions. But then, mid-conversation, something shifts. The AI starts making things up, forgetting what you told it five minutes ago, contradicting itself.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I unpack what is actually happening when AI gets unreliable mid-conversation, including how to read the warning signs that tell you it is time to close a thread and start fresh.

What you'll learn:

• Why AI gets unreliable mid-conversation, and what's actually going on

• What the 60% rule is and why it matters

• Which file types quietly eat through your context window

• The warning signs that it's time to close a thread and start fresh

• Practical AI tools for productivity and focus

• Real-world AI workflows used by high performers

• How to use AI at work without burning out

• Smart shortcuts for managing time and mental load

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

How I AI with Dr Amantha Imber and Neo Aplin explores how high performers are using AI at work to boost productivity, make better decisions and reduce overwhelm.

Want more practical ways to put AI to work? You can now follow How I AI separately on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes not from working hard, but from never quite feeling like you've worked on the right things. You finish a full day, maybe a long one, and yet the projects that actually matter haven't moved. The inbox is cleaner, the meetings are done, but the needle hasn't shifted.

Cyril Peupion has spent two decades coaching executives on exactly this problem, and his diagnosis is consistent: the issue is the gap between where leaders want to go and what they actually spend their time on.

In this episode, I sit down with Cyril, author of Work Smarter, Live Better and his latest book Less Achieves More, to work through his practical framework for closing that gap. He has trained more than 5,000 people across 19 countries.

Cyril and I discuss:

• Why high performers prioritise by impact rather than by deadline, and how to train yourself to do the same

• The quarterly big rocks process: how to choose two or three genuine priorities and find the courage to subtract everything else

• The weekly planning ritual Cyril recommends, including why you should look at your big rocks before you ever open your calendar

• The ideal week exercise that helps leaders reclaim 40% of their time without guilt

• How to plan for the unplanned by deliberately blocking reactive time in your day

• The four Ds (delete, decrease, defer, delegate) for handling the urgent stuff without sacrificing what matters most

Key quotes

"If you work 10 hours a day, you cannot plan 10 hours per day. It's a recipe for disaster."

"I'd rather start my planning from the ideal and then adapt it than start my planning from an open sheet and let everything take control."

Connect with Cyril Peupion on LinkedIn and his website. Check out his latest book Less Achieves More.

If this episode resonated, I also recommend my conversation with Sabri Suby on the subtraction method, where he shares how he ruthlessly outsources anything that isn't his highest value work. You can listen here.

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Dr Catriona Wallace was offered a million dollars to take out her nose ring, she didn’t hesitate. Her response wasn’t defiance - it was clarity.

In this Quick Win, Catriona shares how she dealt with the sexism and double standards she faced as a tech CEO, from being told to “brush her hair” to being offered a million dollars to look more like the kind of leader investors expected.

Her story is a reminder that staying true to yourself is sometimes the most strategic move you can make.

Catriona and I discuss:

• The moment Catriona was offered $1 million - if she removed her nose ring

• The everyday misogyny she faced while leading a listed tech company

• Why she refused to compromise, even when it cost her

• How staying authentic became her greatest advantage as a leader

• The ripple effect of saying “no” from self-respect, not rebellion

KEY QUOTE:

“The moment you start to compromise and change, more things will compromise and change — and you lose who you are.”

Connect with Dr Catriona Wallace on Instagram, LinkedIn, and via her website.
Check out her book Rapid Transformation for more on how to embrace change through technology and leadership.

Listen to the full conversation with Catriona here

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You give your team something rare. A four-day week. Flexible hours. Real breathing room. And for a while, it works beautifully. Then, gradually, the gratitude fades. The expectation creeps in. And suddenly, the gift feels like a given.

This is one of the more uncomfortable paradoxes of building a genuinely good workplace: the better the culture you create, the faster it becomes the new normal. And once people stop noticing it, they start resenting any friction that interrupts it.

This episode is part of The Work Edit, a format where I sit down with someone facing a real professional challenge and we work through it together. My guest is Marilla, who has spent eight years building Equality Media and Marketing, a 30-person agency where flexible time is a core part of the culture. Marilla came to me with a challenge I hear a lot from leaders of genuinely good workplaces: what do you do when your team starts taking the culture for granted?

If you lead people, this one is full of things you can take straight into your week:

• The goat story: an ancient parable that explains why people stop appreciating what's good, and how to use it as a leadership tool

• Why Inventium runs a Four Day Week policy reset every one to two years, and the specific questions that make those conversations productive

• Why checking emails for 45 minutes feels like "working all night", and what that distortion does to team morale

• What to do when one or two people are quietly poisoning the culture, and when to stop trying to bring them around

• The "deal or no deal" conversation: how to give people a genuine choice about whether they're still on the bus
• The single question I ask before any team-wide pep talk, to make sure I'm not just avoiding a direct conversation I need to have

Key quotes

"All I can control is how I approach the conversation and the messages that I deliver. I can't control how that other person is gonna react."

"Is this about the minority or the majority? Because that's really unfair if it's just the minority that's the root cause of what's happening."

My latest book The Energy Game is out now. You can order a copy here: https://amzn.to/48ID29M

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha.substack.com/

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trust doesn’t rebuild with one big apology. It grows back quietly - through small, consistent moments that prove you mean what you say.

In this Quick Win episode, my teammate Aly Solly and I share how we rebuilt trust after one of Inventium’s toughest years. Together, we discovered that trust isn’t restored overnight - it’s rebuilt in small, deliberate ways that show care, honesty, and vulnerability.

Aly and I discuss:

• The moment a leadership wellbeing survey sparked real vulnerability

• Why openness - when it feels uncomfortable - can transform a relationship

• How showing up consistently matters more than grand gestures

• The “ugly cry” call that turned a breaking point into a rebuild

• What to do when you’re trying to repair trust at work

KEY QUOTES

“Trust doesn’t hinge on one big apology or grand gesture. It’s built through the small stuff - the check-ins, the honesty, the willingness to be vulnerable.”

“You don’t wait for the perfect moment. You just start showing up consistently and with care.”

Connect with Aly Solly on LinkedIn.

Listen to the full conversation with Aly here.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.