Fantasy Footballers’ Andy Holloway is a dedicated zero-inbox kinda guy

With fantasy-football drafts taking place and the NFL regular season due to begin next week, Andy Holloway is approaching the busiest stretch of the calendar with an unusually strict approach to digital clutter. Holloway is one of three friends who host the Fantasy Footballers podcast, alongside Jason Moore and Mike Wright. In an interview focused on the devices and habits surrounding that work, he described keeping only two browser tabs open and maintaining an empty email inbox.

The show has grown from a project among friends into a large fantasy-sports outlet. It reaches more than two million listeners each month and has received multiple industry honors, including iHeartRadio’s Best Sports Podcast award. It has also won the People’s Choice honor at the Podcast Awards in four consecutive years. That scale puts its hosts in front of an audience that is particularly attentive as roster-building season arrives.

Holloway said the original ambition behind the program was to make fantasy football more approachable, rather than reserve it for the most committed enthusiasts. The timing of the interview reflects that aim: draft decisions are being made now, before the new NFL campaign begins. A broad audience can create a demand for advice that is clear, quick to absorb and useful under the pressure of an approaching deadline.

His personal technology preferences point in the opposite direction of the always-open, notification-heavy workday. Holloway said he would like his phone to demand less of his daily attention. Even after adjusting its settings, he said, messages and alerts can feel obligatory. The concern is not simply the number of incoming signals; it is the impression that every signal needs a response, whether or not it deserves one.

The two-tab rule and zero-inbox habit are part of a wider method for protecting attention. When he needs to concentrate, Holloway said he clears many small tasks in a brief burst. The purpose, he explained, is to remove low-level obligations before they become distractions from higher-priority work. It is a simple system, but it separates the satisfaction of completing minor work from the harder question of what actually requires sustained focus.

Holloway’s favorite gadget is a Whoop wearable, a choice he said surprised him after years of skepticism. He values it for helping him stay accountable and motivated, for needing relatively little charging, and for creating a shared experience with friends. The contrast is notable: he is wary of a phone that insists on attention, but sees value in a device that offers a narrower form of tracking and social connection.

The project he identifies as his proudest achievement remains the Fantasy Footballers itself. Holloway said the team had been told it could not be built without outside backing, yet he and his friends developed it independently. For him, the result was meaningful not only because the show succeeded, but because it allowed him to work with close friends on a subject they cared about. Its later audience and awards give that early decision broader significance.

Away from screens, Holloway said his most recent purchase of physical media was Noah Kahan’s vinyl album The Great Divide. Asked to imagine a line for a film about his life, he chose “The Man Who Overthought Everything.” Those details add a lighter counterpoint to the discussion of routines, while also echoing the central theme: managing a crowded flow of decisions without letting it consume the day.

The interview offers a snapshot rather than a prescription. A tidy inbox or a nearly empty tab bar will not suit every job, and a major fantasy-football season can generate demands that no personal system fully eliminates. Still, the weeks ahead will place Holloway’s approach in its most visible setting, as the podcast’s large audience turns from draft preparation to the weekly demands of the NFL season. It also leaves open how these habits will hold up when audience questions, changing player news and the pace of the season intensify.

Source: The Verge