Larry Tribble, Ph.D.
100 episodes listed below
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If you're like most people, there's lots of stress in your life around your level of "busy". Funny thing: we're never taught how to manage the 'stuff' that delivers that stress. The key is to set up tools and workflows that allow you to better manage your tasks and your attention. That's what Do Busy Right means - manage your tasks and attention in such a way that you get things done with less stress. We are learning that here. Happy to have you.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Larry Tribble makes knowledge-work productivity concrete by tracing attention, information, meetings, and digital distractions back to the systems that shape them.
Do Busy Right turns the daily friction of knowledge work into systems that can be examined and changed. Larry Tribble works solo, moving from the history of workplace management to the mechanics of processing incoming information, protecting focus, and running meetings with a…
Larry Tribble wants your inbox to stop moonlighting as your desk.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm case for treating the backlog as a working tool, not a dumping ground.
The episode treats task management as a system, not a mood. A backlog holds the work that matters, refinement keeps it usable, and priority stays relative to the rest of the list instead of pretending to be fixed. Deadlines sit in a different lane.
Productivity is framed as a measurement problem, with waste split into interruption, multitasking, and distraction.
The discussion makes a plain point and keeps coming back to it: productivity is hard to measure, and that gap can flatter people into thinking they are doing better than they are.
A calm case for giving information one place to land before attention runs out.
Do Busy Right treats incoming information as an attention problem, not a personal flaw. It argues for opening the channel, taking in what matters, closing it, and moving on before the work gets crowded out.
A calm reset for attention, scheduling, and the habits that make work feel harder than it should.
This episode offers a clear correction to a familiar productivity mistake: the real problem is not time itself, but the scheduling, interruptions, multitasking, and distractions that make the day feel unmanageable.
A clear look at how work from home can help and still leave attention and motivation under strain.
The episode treats work from home as more than a convenience and asks a harder question: what gets in the way of thriving when the office is gone? It stays close to attention, engagement, isolation, motivation, and the management habits that shape how remote work gets judged.
A calm stress talk that treats attention as something to manage, not just endure.
It treats stress as a practical problem instead of a foggy mood, and it keeps circling back to how attention and information can help people rather than drain them.
A practical, grounded take on AI for knowledge work.
The episode treats AI as a working tool, not a shiny trick. Its strongest move is the plain comparison between chat-based AI and a typed Google search: when the goal is to understand something, the new option can feel more direct. The Shazam example lands for the same reason.
A calm look at mindset as part of productivity, not just mood.
Do Busy Right treats optimism and pessimism as part of productivity, and that frame gives the episode its shape. It moves through confidence, imposter syndrome, grit, learned helplessness, and growth mindset, then comes back to a simple question: does a way of thinking help…
This episode makes a case for calm productivity.
Larry Tribble's 'Fables of Work: Hard Work #2 - Beyond the "Brute Force" Model' on Do Busy Right argues that 'hard work' is not one thing and should not be reduced to the Emil Barr-style model of 12.5-hour days, seven days a week, and 3.5 hours of sleep.
The host opens by naming meetings as a familiar source of pain and laying out practical ways to make them more productive.
The episode begins by treating productivity as a question about knowledge work, attention, and how to be more effective without getting more worn down.
The host opens by treating AI as a moving target, then narrows the conversation to the principles that still matter as the tools keep changing.
He makes the case that self-improvement works better as a group effort.
Larry Tribble opens by pushing back on the idea that monk mode has to be extreme.
Larry Tribble opens by tying happiness to productivity and cites Charlie Gilkey’s claim that happy people are 31% more productive.
The episode opens with stress.
Larry Tribble uses Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast to argue that “information overload” is usually the wrong label for the problem.
Larry Tribble uses Daniel Emmerhorn’s New York Magazine article, “What if the Attention Crisis is All a Distraction?”, to frame a debate about attention span, technology, and knowledge work.
Larry Tribble, PhD, frames Do Busy Right DBR 087 around one claim: executive function is the operating system behind knowledge-work productivity, and he says 61% of people feel productive while 80% report productivity anxiety.
Larry Tribble frames productivity anxiety as a cognitive ergonomics problem, not a personal failure, and says he developed Attention Compass after dealing with it around 2009-2011.
Larry Tribble, PhD uses Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast to argue that knowledge workers need focus as a trainable skill, not a personality trait.
Larry Tribble, PhD, argues on Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast that commonplace books become practical when they are built inside Attention Compass on Evernote rather than as blank notebooks.
Larry Tribble uses 'The Modern Productivity Paradox' to argue that knowledge workers keep spending on information technology without clear evidence that productivity improves.
Larry Tribble, PhD uses Do Busy Right 095 to argue that information management starts with a fast keep-or-ignore judgment, then becomes more precise through tags and categories.
Larry Tribble frames Do Busy Right 094 around “group information management,” arguing that the usual shared-document repository model is too rigid for how teams actually think.
Larry Tribble compares knowledge work productivity to manual labor productivity from 120 years ago, saying Frederick Taylor’s time-and-motion studies showed that process affects output.
The host introduces Attention Compass as a classic episode from about a year and a half ago, brought back because the podcast has grown and the topic still matters.
Larry Tribble frames Do Busy Right DBR 073 around Cal Newport's phrase 'Productivity Rain Dances' and Chris Williamson's use of the same image for productivity habits that lack evidence.
Larry Tribble frames Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast episode "Pessimism Cloaked as Realism Considered Harmful - DBR 075" as a productivity argument for optimism, confidence, and grit.
Larry Trouble says work-life balance is really an attention management problem, not a time management problem, and ties that claim to the show's attention compass coaching.
Saying no is the starting point.
Do Busy Right starts with a straightforward claim: a backlog is a useful place to keep actionable work, and the refinement rhythm is what keeps that backlog organized and workable.
The episode looks at how hard productivity is to measure, and how easy it is to mistake being busy for actually doing well.
Larry Tribble frames Do Busy Right – The Task and Attention Management Podcast episode “Digital Moderation and How To Decline a Technology - DBR 084” around a recurring debate pattern: a critic says technology X has problems, and the response is to compare it to older technology Y and dismiss the critique.
He starts with a plain claim.
The episode opens by pushing back on the phrase "manage my time." It says people manage calendars and schedules, while time itself is something that happens to you, not something you control, then breaks the problem into interruption, multitasking, and distraction.
Larry Tribble on Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast focuses on Gallup’s reporting that remote-only workers are seeing engagement rise while well-being falls.