
Dan Heath on curing himself from procrastination, solving problems before they happen, and the ideal time to seek feedback.
About this episode
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.
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 omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Get every episode summarized
Each time How I Work publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from How I Work

Why planning 60% of your day is the most productive thing you can do, with Cyril...
How I Work

Quick Win: The million-dollar moment that tested Catriona Wallace’s integrity
How I Work

The Work Edit: When gratitude becomes entitlement, and how to reset it
How I Work

Quick Win: How to rebuild trust at work when its broken
How I Work