Too many things to do and not enough time to do them? Inundated with messages asking you to take action on something? Too many invitations to engage in new projects? Will these projects be something that in the long run offer you the kind of reward you want or will they distract you even further?

If you are looking for solutions to help you sort out problems stemming from the above subjects or other problems you face in daily life, then take a look at our list of the top 15 productivity podcasts for brain hacking.

1. The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss is famous for the Four-Hour Workweek. Tim released his podcast in 2014 and has more than 300 episodes as of April 2018. What you will find refreshing about the Tim Ferriss Show is the variety. Some of the podcasts are less than an hour, but most of them are in the range of one hour to a little more than two hours.

The most popular one at the time of writing is ‘Inside Out with Katie Couric’. The shortest ones are ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger Teaser’ at five minutes and ‘The Power of Negative Visualization’ at six minutes.

The negative visualization of understanding worse-case scenarios and minimizing the possibilities that would lead to the negative results. The longest episode to date is three hours and 33 minutes long, featuring David Heinemeier Hansson and “The Power of Being Outspoken”.
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2. Organize Mindfully

Is there something you have a difficult time organizing? Chances are that Mark Dillon has covered the topic on one of his episodes, whether it’s doing your taxes or cleaning up your garage (and moreover, keeping it that way), Mark Dillon has an episode for you. Mark Dillon produced the Organize Mindfully podcast from 2015 to 2016. Episodes range from four to 47 minutes.
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3. The Accidental Creative

Todd Henry is the author of Herding Tigers: Be the Leader that Creative People Need. Todd made the Accidental Creative podcast to help you build a healthy prolific life. He started the podcast in October 2017 and most of the podcasts are 20 minutes long, give or take ten minutes.

The most popular episodes are the first six editions: 1) How to Keep a Creative Project on the Rails 2) The Coaching Habit Revisited 3) Five Ways to Shake up Your Creative Process 4) Push Through the Second Wall 5) Make Your Contribution, and 6) Great at Work.
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4. Cortex

CGP Grey and Myke Hurley started the Cortex podcast in June 2015. The best episodes are the first five editions as well as episode 67, which is from April 4th 2018. Most of the episodes last more than an hour. The first three episodes are titled: 1) I don’t really like work, 2) redundant office 3) good for brain health.
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5. 5 AM Miracle with Jeff Sanders

Getting up early in the morning is undoubtedly an effective way of increasing your productivity. Jeff Sanders started the 5 AM Miracle podcast in July 2013. Episodes range from  five minutes to a few episodes that last a bit more than an hour. There is also one episode that is two hours long (Fitness for Busy People with Ted Ryce). At the rate that Jeff is podcasting, he will have his 300th podcast in 2018.
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6. Kwik Brain

Jim Kwik is the newest podcast on this list. He started the Kwik Brain podcast in March 2017.  Most of his podcasts are 15 minutes long, give or take five minutes. His three most popular podcasts are 1) Learn ANYTHING Faster 2) How to Keep Your Brain Ageless and 3) Improve Your Memory Now.
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7. Extreme Productivity with Kevin Kruse

This podcast of 42 episodes ran from January 2016 to March 2017. The most popular episodes are 1) The Cure for Procrastination 2) Kevin Harrington’s #1 Productivity Tip and 3) Why Millionaires Don’t Use To-Do Lists. Episode Fiver: ’How to to Get it All Done’ is just six minutes long as is also popular. Kevin’s podcasts range in length from five to 19 minutes.
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8. ProdPod - just two minutes

Think you don’t have time for podcasts? Then start out with ProdPod, where each podcast is just two minutes long. Some our our favorite episodes include: Episode 108 “Overcoming Overwhelm”  Episode 49: “Pareto Principle of Productivity” which suggests the takeaway for the 80/20 rule in terms of productivity is that you spend divide the 20% into two parts so you spend 10% of your time planning and 10% of your time reviewing.

The other 80% of your time you should spend doing the tasks. ProdPod began in June 2011. Many releases continued until 2017. Episode 117 was released in March 6th 2018. We are curious to see if the podcast will resume the prolific releases of the period from 2011 to 2017. The first podcast in the series was about setting priorities.
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9. Beyond the To-Do List

Erik Fisher began the Beyond the To-Do List podcast in August 2012. There is not a lot of consistency with the time length of the podcast. A few episodes are more than an hour long. Most of them are between 30 and 50 minutes in length. The three most popular episodes are numbers two, three and seven which are about the topics of 1) creativity 2) meetings and 3) focus, free time and priority.
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10. The Productivity Show

The podcast has dozens of highly popular episodes. Subjects include: strategies for waking up early, productivity apps for Macs, Pomodoro, planning and other tips and tricks to become more productive. This long-running podcast by Asian Efficiency began in February 2011. There was a hiatus from May 2011 to March 2014. The show has been consistently brining productivity podcasts since its return in 2014.
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11. TED Radio Hour by NPR

National Public Radio began this podcast in June 2015. Since its inception, you can count on a weekly podcast to be released. The length is also consistent, with the nearly all the podcasts being 50 minutes long, give or take a few minutes. Topics range from anything such as how to listen effectively, how to raise children to become grown ups, how to adapt to change, how to play with perceptions and much more.
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12. The Sean Kim Show

Sean Kim, the Founder of Rype, began to podcast in November 2014. Sean is often inspired by figures from history, by travel and by influencers and thought leaders who take part in interviews on the podcast. The most popular episode features Kelly Leveque on Living Longer, Working with Jessica Alba and Body Love.

If you are looking to advance in your career don’t miss episode 4 on how to find mentors. Have an idea that you are looking to spread? Check out episode 8: ‘How to Make Your Idea go Viral’ with Jonah Berger.
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13. MetaLearn

For nearly two years, Nasos Papadolopoulos has been consistently podcasting MetaLearn. Now Nasos has numerous popular episodes and generally features interviews with thought leaders from neuroscience, education, science and discovery. One of our favorite episodes is number 111 featuring Charles Fadel on Four Dimensional Education: Developing 21st Century Skills.
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14. Productivity Paradox

Since January 2017, Tonya Dalton has consistently been releasing a weekly podcast of about 20 minutes. The most popular episodes are episode 65 “investing your energy in you”, 001 “why resolutions don’t work” and 002 “setting goals you can actually achieve.”
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15. Strategy Hour

The Strategy Hour is a podcast relevant for those of you who have a ‘side hustle’ and are looking to turn it into a long-term viable business so that you can eventually quit your day job. Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams began the Strategy Hour podcast at the start of 2017.

Since then, they have consistently been adding episodes every two to four days. Most episodes run between 25 and 50 minutes. Some of the most popular episodes include: number 201: Creating a Workspace that Inspires You and number 199: Quadrupling Your Email List and Selling Out a Group Program.
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If you’re looking for more inspiration on becoming more productive, then check out our posts on how to increase productivity without burning out and how to get rid of bad habits.