How I Work
Dan Heath on curing himself from procrastination, solving problems before they happen, and the ideal time to seek feedback.
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Episode notes
My guest today is Dan Heath. Dan is the co-author, along with his brother Chip, of four New York Times bestsellers: Decisive, Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Moments. The Heath Brothers’ books have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 33 languages.
Dan is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE center, which supports social entrepreneurs.
I am a HUGE fan of Dan's work and we cover a lot of ground in this interview, including:
The importance of trying to solve problems before they happen - and why this is so hard to do
How Dan thinks about coming up with titles for his books
Why he saw the title of his new book, Upstream, as incredibly risky
The value in focusing on recurring irritants to focus upstream thinking
Why Dan tracks his time, and the changes this lead to in his life
How tunneling gets in the way of solving problems
How Dan overcame his procrastination tendencies
The importance of momentum in writing
The pros and cons of not working with his brother Heath for writing Upstream
Dan’s approach to soliciting feedback and the ideal time to seek it
Where Dan’s book ideas come from
What makes a great business book
How Dan develops the frameworks for his books
The strategies Dan has written about that have had the biggest impact on his own life.
Find out more about Dan at Heathbrothers.com and grab a copy of Upstream here.
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