In this edition of Workflow, we have Gareth Robinson, the co-founder of Thriverapp, a community connecting people to the resources, habits and success-systems of exceptional people.
This conversation is brought to you by Thriverapp, where you learn and embed the life-lessons of exceptional people like Richard Branson, Oprah, Tim Ferriss, Brené Brown, Elon Musk and many more. Campaign page live on Kickstarter!
Describe what you do: Typical early stage start-up hustle in addition to training and coaching business people to improve their communication effectiveness (I consult for a few training organisations).
How do you like your coffee: I drink a lot of hot drinks so mix it up but for coffee it’s a large long black.
Device(s) you use: Run of the mill laptop, Samsung mobile, Sennheiser noise cancelling headphones (important when working from home, cafes, etc.)
Describe your working style in one sentence: Structured around blocks of time so that I can ‘uni-task’ rather than pretend to multi-task.
What does your workspace look like: I share a home workspace with my wife Jo, it’s a large sun room so it’s bright and airy. Our desks are at each end of the room facing the wall rather than each other and we have a small table in the middle (less for meetings and more for our youngest kid to draw!).
On any given day you’ll see half a dozen clear plastic A4 folios on my desk, which is how I organise my workflow, in addition to my to-do list.
When I’m training and coaching face-to-face (not happening much these days in the COVID ‘new-normal’), I am at client’s offices and often in a meeting or boardroom so the workspace varies, however, I have a set routine and items that I take with me so that a) I can do my job and b) my workspace has some familiarity.
How does your workspace affect your creative process: Environment obviously affects how you work, however, most of what I do is on a laptop or desktop monitor so for me it’s about minimising any alerts and notifications and then listening to a few different playlists to help me focus.
Do you have a favourite playlist for work: I listen to different playlists/sounds depending on what I’m working on.
If I’m doing deep thinking, then I use an app called Noisli, which Tim Ferriss recommended ages ago. With Noisli you combine different background noises (nature, cafes, transport, white noise, etc.) to create a particular sound.
Alternatively, I listen to a few Spotify playlists on repeat to help me concentrate because some studies have shown that if you listen to the same song(s) over and over again it helps your concentration.
My go-to’s, depending on what I’m trying to achieve, are; housework, electronic concentration, techno/house, peaceful meditation and finally my own ‘Happy’ playlist which often I start the day with.
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