How I Work

Broad City's Abbi Jacobson on productive procrastination, imposter syndrome, and how a dog changed her headspace.

Listen on

Episode notes

My guest today is Abbi Jacobson. Abbi is a co-creator, writer, director, executive producer and star of the critically-acclaimed Comedy Central show Broad City, with Ilana Glazer. And that’s how I first became familiar with her work. I am a hard core fan of Broad City and would go so far to say I think it’s the funniest show on TV right now (although it recently wrapped it’s fifth and final season). Seriously, if you have not watched Broad City or have no idea what I am talking about check it out.

Aside from Broad City, Abbi has done a stack of things ranging from voicing the character “Bean” in Netflix’s series Disenchantment by Matt Groenig, hosting the podcast A Piece of Work with WNYC and MoMA, in which she discusses modern and contemporary art.

Oh and she has also written and illustrated a stack of NYT best-selling books, ranging from, I Might Regret This (a memoir style collection of essays), her illustrated book, Carry This Book, and two coloring books called: Color This Book: New York City and Color This Book: San Francisco.

We cover:
  • Her strategies for keeping herself accountable and meeting deadlines
  • Abbi’s form of productive procrastination
  • How Abbi tricks herself into getting work done
  • Abbi’s strategies for overcoming writer’s block
  • Abbi’s preference for going analogue rather than digital
  • How getting a dog has helped Abbi get out of her head
  • Abbi’s love-hate relationship with social media
  • Why Abbi still transitions in and out of Imposter Syndrome
  • Why Abbi and Ilana would shake hands before filming big scenes for Broad City
  • How Abbi manages her nerves before big events and moments

Find out more about Abbi via her books (I Might Regret This, Carry This Book, Colour This Book), watch her shows (Broad City, Disenchantment), listen to her podcast A Piece of Work, and you can follow Abbi on Instagram.

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

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co
 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.