Ep: 031 Maura Nevel Thomas

Maura Nevel Thomas is an award-winning international speaker and trainer on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Her clients include the likes of the U.S. Army, Old Navy, and the American Heart Association. She is a TEDx Speaker, founder of Regain Your Time, author of Personal Productivity Secrets and Work Without Walls, and was recently named a Top Leadership Speaker for 2018 in Inc. Magazine. Maura is frequently cited as an expert in major business outlets including Forbes, Fast Company, and Huffington Post, and she’s also a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, with articles there viewed over a million times.

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Show Notes:

• Maura lives in Austin, Texas with her three-legged dog and an ornery cat.
• She is an award winning international speaker and the most widely cited authority on attention management.
  • She is a TEDx speaker.
• What habits have lead to success in your life?
  • Keeping priorities in line
  • Workflow management system
• Attention management vs. time management
  • Our attention is constantly being grabbed by phones, laptops, etc.
  • Time management relates to attention. You can sit down and do a lot, but if you’re constantly switching attention, you’re not going to get much done.
• We behave as if we’re slaves to our environment.
• It is important to find ways to stop distraction.
• People expect distractions.
• Maura has three steps to lead to better attention management:
  • Control your environment.
  • Control your technology.
  • Control your behavior.
• Try going without technology.
• Maura talks about how technology affects relationships.
  • People know when you’re not listening or distracted.
• How can you get attention back?
  • Mindfulness is recognizing thoughts and being present in the moment.
  • Meditating is focusing your thoughts and centering yourself.
•  If we don’t have our own attention, we let our emotions loose along with everything else.
• In her books, Personal Productivity Secrets and Work Without Walls, Maura talks about attention management and what employees and managers can do to create a better environment to increase productivity.
• Culture within the workplace is important and sets the mood and tone of the office.
• Culture comes over time without intention, and it is based on the habits and behaviors of people who participate.
  • The behaviors of managers and leaders greatly affect the culture and shape the team.
• Downtime is very important.
  • We are knowledgeable workers and can’t get a fresh perspective on something if we never walk away from it.
• One of the best things you can do for your work is not work.
• Fifty-four percent of people check their email while on vacation.
• It is important to also consider internal distractions and how those affect our work and attention management.
• Writing things down so that you don’t have to remember them is an important way to free up internal distractions.

Maura Nevel Thomas’s Recharge Round

1. Share with us how you believe your mindset affects your life? Your mindset is critical. If you have a system and feel productive, that changes things. You have to get a system in place to motivate you. We’re motivated by accomplishment.
2. What do you do daily to bring Energy into your life? I honor how I’m feeling, and by keeping in mind what needs to be done, I can chose what I want to do based on how I feel. Our brain is the most important thing we bring to work everyday so take care of yourself.
3. Share the number one connection that has made the biggest impact on your life? Tony Robbins. I listened to his cassettes and chose the things that served me. He really helped me and with mastering communication with myself.
4. What advice has Influenced you the most in your life? “You get what you expect.” “You get what you seek.” “Attitude is important, but remember it’s about how you make people feel.”
5. Recommend a book and share why you love it? Outliers: The Story of Success or anything by Malcolm Gladwell
6. Define in one sentence or less, what legacy you want to leave on the world?  I want to leave a positive impact on people once I’m gone. I want to leave that feeling where when you see someone and they give you a real hug it makes you feel like a million bucks.

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Maura Thomas

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