I suppose that a lot of the idea in Make Time is about making good use of time. That was a near-death experience for me at the tender age of, I guess I was 16 at the time. Well, to try to tie it into the spleen, I guess. What’s sort of the big idea behind this one? Maybe that is a good thing for people to learn about like, “This guy is a badass.”

I had about – as it turns out they just had to sort of cut me open, see what was going on, and they had to take the spleen out because there wasn’t time to fix it, so I have no spleen and that’s the backstory. By the time they got me to the hospital, I had almost bled to death internally. In order to get sort of medical care, you have to be helicoptered off the island if it’s an emergency. I lived – I grew up on this remote island, not super remote, but you have to get there by ferry boat up in Washington State. I took a really weird hard fall, where I actually sort of got caught up with my legs caught up on somebody’s shoulder and fell down really hard. But I was in high school and playing basketball. I want to start where perhaps many of your interviews have started, your lack of a spleen.

Pete, thank you so much for having me, really excited about it. Jake, thanks so much for joining us here on the How to be Awesome at Your Job podcast.

Previous episode: 148: Optimizing Sleep for Sharper Performance with Dr.

Previous episode: 310: Managing Your Energy to Perform at Your Best with Tony Schwartz.

Research: The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress.

Book: The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath.

Book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath.

Book: Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina.

Jake’s book: Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.

Jake’s book: Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day.

Sponsored message: Phonetic Eyewear helps combat digital eyestrain.

Sponsored message: BetterHelp makes therapy more accessible.

He is currently among the world’s tallest designers. Previously, Jake helped build products like Gmail, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Encarta. He has since coached teams like Slack, Uber, 23andMe, LEGO, and The New York Times on the method. Jake spent 10 years at Google and Google Ventures, where he created the Design Sprint.

Approaches to clear out distractions for laser focus.

Why and how to set the highlight of your day before it starts.

A fresh definition for what makes a day successful.

Jake Knapp shares how to deliberately design your day around what’s important to you, and how to give yourself more energy in the process.

Microsoft encarta encyclopedia