For years Patrick Norton has been a familiar figure to computer nerds everywhere, dispensing cheerful commentary and advice about the latest tech news and gear. You may know him best from his time at Tekzilla; personally I first watched Patrick as host of The Screen Savers back in the good old days of TechTV.

Katrina Barry is the head honcho at youth travel brand Contiki Australia. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day running of the company and spearheading new digital strategies, Barry has also gone on Contiki tours undercover to learn more about the experience of customers. We caught up with Katrina to learn about the tools of her trade and her productivity habits.

Warren Ellis is a writer. You may know him from Transmetropolitan, his acclaimed cyberpunk comic book series about a gonzo journalist, or from his novels like Gun Machine. And then there are the television shows, film projects and magazine columns, many of which comment on our relationship with technology and the future.

In the past week, Ryan Holiday read seven books, flew from Austin to Atlanta to Miami to Atlanta to LA to Maui, and juggled two demanding jobs: director of marketing at the controversial clothing retailer American Apparel, and partner at creative marketing company StoryArk. (Just writing that sentence made me tired.) Ryan is also a best-selling author. I caught up with the 26-year-old media whiz to find out how he juggles it all.

If you've ever taken a museum tour, you know that they can be pretty dull. Nick Grey is out to change that. As the founder of Museum Hack, Nick leads groups through New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in what he describes as "highly interactive, subversive, fun, non-traditional museum tours".

In a world of preachy self-help texts and websites, Gretchen Rubin's best-selling book The Happiness Project (and blog of the same name) is just the opposite. Practical and honest, Gretchen's writing on the pursuit of happiness has sparked nothing short of a movement. (We'vefeaturedtonsofherideasonLifehacker.) Now, Gretchen is turning her attention to how we make and break habits in a forthcoming book called Before and After. We caught up with the always-inspiring author to find out what she's reading, using and listening to.

Dr Catriona Wallace is the co-founded and CEO of Fifth Quadrant, an Australian consultancy which specialises in advice on how to improve the customer experience. Plenty of scope there! Competing with multi-national consultancies, Fifth Quadrant has done very well: the company just picked up the Telstra NSW Business of the Year award. Dr Wallace is an inspiring and impressive individual, plus Fifth Quadrant also has the best-looking boardroom I've ever visited. So what tools and tactics help her stay productive?

If you've seen Pixar's latest feature, Monsters University, you will have been charmed by the animated short film that played before it. Written and directed by Saschka Unseld, The Blue Umbrella tells the story of two umbrellas that fall in love, despite running into a few challenges along the way. Prior to The Blue Umbrella, Saschka worked on Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Brave. He is currently in the staging and layout department of Pixar's next feature, The Good Dinosaur. We caught up with the uber-creative Mr Unseld to find out his favourite apps and gadgets, and to get a peek at his seriously cool workspace.

When I asked Tim Leong why he wrote the book Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe, his response was nerd-perfect: "Why would you not want to build infographics about comic books?!" A lifelong comic and design enthusiast, Tim spent the better part of a year intensively researching, writing and designing the book (all while leading the digital design team at WIRED Magazine).

Prepare to have serious workspace envy. As Executive Vice President of Science House, a creative consultancy in New York City, Rita J. King works out of a seven-storey townhouse originally built by Abraham Lincoln's son.