Tremendous Checklists & Reviews
Organize and Optimize Just About Everything

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #596: Tremendous Checklists & Reviews: Organize and Optimize Just About Everything

Jeff Sanders
Good morning and welcome to The 5 AM Miracle, episode #596: Tremendous Checklists & Reviews: Organize and Optimize Just About Everything.

I am Jeff Sanders, and you have reached the podcast that is dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer, and to learn more about that, head over to jeffsanders.com slash speaking.

Now, in episode this week, I'll break down why checklists are the centerpiece

to my entire productivity system, how to leverage the best checklist for your

personal and professional life, and how to optimize your weekly, monthly,

quarterly, and annual checklists for optimal results.

Let's dig in.

Okay, so Macy and Rosie, tell me about your morning and evening checklist.

And this is my list.

And this is my list.

So I have to get up like at 6.30, but I usually get up before that.

And while I'm still in my room, I do my room and I put on my clothes.

And that's just a little way that I like to get ready early.

And I practice to do a check on the back of my list.

Which is fine.

So basically we have these printouts here of your guys' morning and nighttime checklists.

So, Maisie, what's on your checklist?

Where are all the things you see there for the morning?

Um, so clothes, lunch, water, breakfast, snack, hair, shoes, iPad, and book, backpack, clean room, and bye.

And Rosie, what's on yours?

Close breakfast, lunch, warble, hair, shoes, and bed.

And sometimes we could, this is just a thought, but maybe we could make a plan the day before and then maybe print that plan.

out. That's a really good idea.

I can plan ahead.

Oh, there's such a funny crew.

Okay, so let's dig into the conversation this week around checklists and reviews.

And truly, this conversation is such a pivotal one.

I have needed to do this episode for such a long time.

And for one clear reason, checklists have taken over my entire life.

So for a long time in this podcast, I discussed reviews.

reviews. There's definitely a big part of this episode today of the last piece where I'll go into all the detail on reviews. But I want to first cover checklists because they have literally consumed my entire perspective on how to get things done. It is remarkable how everything in my life somehow finds itself onto a checklist, a recurring reminder to do just the right things in the right order each and every time. And then those get optimized and updated and change and evolved. And I,

just continue to go back to them over and over because the value is there.

They're so fantastic to be able to see that if I do these things every single

time, I get the results every single time.

The guarantee aspect of this is just an addiction.

It's just so clear to say, if I want to see goal X accomplished, just do the list

and then do it over and over again.

And it just works over and over again.

So let's begin this conversation with a little more of that of exactly why checklists are just awesome.

The first key component here is that you will not forget anything.

I heard a study that was done a long time ago about the use of checklists in hospitals.

And they had nurses and doctors use checklists on things that they do every single day.

And the story was interesting because a lot of the feedback from the medical professionals was that these checklists were a bit, they felt a bit.

bit insulted by the checklist because they felt they were kind of elementary,

like, why do I need a reminder to do the thing I already do anyway?

But what they found was there were fewer errors, fewer deaths, fewer mistakes,

like legitimate medical outcomes that were more positive because the people involved

in providing the health care didn't forget what to do.

Every single step was accounted for, and if they followed the checklist over and

over, they got phenomenal outcomes over and saw improvement and growth.

Because the reality is this is a GTD strategy, a David Allen getting things done

philosophy of don't use your brain to remember stuff.

That's so silly.

Use your brain to be creative and form new connections and really push yourself

forward.

But we have technology.

We have tools to remember the things that truly matter.

And so if you're trying to use your brain to always rely on it as the

the source of the database of information.

Don't do that.

Just forget about your brain being used in that way.

Instead, you leverage the checklists and you never forget the things that truly

matter and you get the results over and over.

Now, of course, you can always brainstorm new ideas and optimize your list.

It's not stagnant.

This thing can evolve.

It can change.

It can grow.

It allows you to update this list easily every single time that you use it.

this is the part to me that's most surprising is I'll have checklists for everything

from morning routines to my annual taxes and everything in between.

And every single time that I go through a checklist, it somehow just even the

back of my mind, I'm asking the question, what am I missing here?

How can I improve this?

What's not here that should be?

What's on the list that shouldn't be here?

And naturally, nearly every single time I use any checklist, I improve it.

I change it.

I tweak it just a little, then these things get better and better over time.

Now, one thing I'll get to in a minute is the fact that nearly all of my

checklists are Google Docs, which means I have tons of almost unlimited potential

for formatting and customization.

And if you use a digital document or digital tool of some kind, you generally

have amazing potential to make these checklists your own and really clearly communicate

even to you, even to only you, exactly what you're doing, why you're doing, why you're

you're doing it, you know, links to resources, big colors or pictures or whatever

it is that you need to make it your own, you have that potential as well.

And I just see checklists as this infinite possibility for growth and guaranteed

success over time. Literally anything that you do repeatedly can become a checklist

to remind you what to do on each iteration that you accomplish that task or push

yourself forward on whatever goal you're working on. Sometimes my checklist are

temporary, but oftentimes they are things that are staples in my life and in my

work, which means I'm going to go back to these things over and over again,

and I'm going to see them a lot, and all the chance to improve them and the chance

to take myself to the next level. So speaking of all of that, let's now go through a

quick review of most of my checklist, not necessarily all of them, but pretty close.

So the first category of checklist that I use are the natural ones, the review

checklists, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual checklists, and I'll go through

all of those in more detail at the end.

The second big category are checklists for this podcast, everything from how I

batch my content together, the technology that I use, scripting checklist, show notes,

recording, recording strategies, interviews, post-production editing, publishing and promotion,

sponsor onboarding, client podcast editing.

The list goes on.

This is just a few of the checklist that I use just for podcasting.

That's 12 right there, I think, right?

Hold on.

24, six, eight, 10, 11.

11 checklists just in the podcast category.

And this can continue.

For public speaking, I've got pre-event checklists, packing, travel,

actually delivering the speech checklist as well.

In my business and finances, I have estimated tax payment checklists,

quarterly sales tax payments, tax filing for my CPA,

an LLC annual report checklist, Academy onboarding, which is my online course,

and of course refunds and cancellations for that same online course.

In the health category, I've got an amazing checklist for what I call allergies and sinus infection prevention.

This is a staple in my life that I use multiple times throughout the

year and it gets better every single time. I also have a great checklist to

exercise and work on specific parts of my body as well as for running. I have

so many for running, but specifically the long run that I love to do. I have a

very clear checklist of all the resources needed for that. At my house, I have

checklist for lots of repair things, drywall patch repair, my deck, my shower,

laundry facilities, everything you could imagine. I have checklist for how to take

things that are kind of busted and make them better, and especially, this is a good example of a checklist, because I'm not going to do this all the time.

I mean, just earlier this year, I had a massive home project and renovation work, and I did a lot of drywalling for the first time.

And so I took a lot of notes.

I wanted to not only get really good at it to repair all the different holes in the wall that we had and all the challenges with the drywall, but specifically to say, once I finish this phase and all the holes are repaired, I'm not going to use this skill.

set again for years most likely. And so I need a very clear reminder of what to do

the next time around. And so I took a lot of time to really create some amazing

checklists for these areas of home repair to guarantee that I have what I need

the next time this happens. Because there will be a next time and I want to make sure

that I am prepared when that happens. And the final category I call Other. In this one,

I have my kids shot records, focus blocks of time checklists, personal packing checklist

for personal travel, as well as a blood donation checklist.

That's right.

When I give blood, I have a very specific protocol that I go through to make sure

the experience for me is as smooth as possible.

So you can see that there's a lot here.

I just shared probably more than a couple of dozen different checklists that I use

in my personal and professional life, and there will be more.

This is not an end of the road list.

I continually add new checklists all the time for every new goal, every new project.

I'm personally going through a massive shift and are personal investing for long-term financial wealth strategies.

I've got all new checklists for that as well that are coming out.

And I just see so much potential in every single area of my life to say,

if there's something that I want to see, a goal I want to see achieved, I'm going to leverage these things.

and make them the best they can possibly be.

Now, we may ask a question based upon all these lists I just threw out there,

well, which ones are the most important?

If you wanted to mimic some of these checklists for yourself

and really double down on the ones that make a difference for you,

well, which ones are the best?

The number one answer to this question is the only thing that matters is that you use checklist you actually use.

This same strategy goes for anything in your life you care about.

I have given this same philosophy for task managers, for productivity tools in general.

It doesn't matter what it is that you think is a great strategy.

If you're not going to use it consistently and pour your whole self into it, you've missed the point of the strategy.

Whenever I discuss Noseby, my personal task manager, I always talk about the counter example to that, which are all the people who have tried it and decided it wasn't for them.

All the listeners of this podcast and my coaching clients who they try Noseby and they say, well, Jeff, it's just not for me.

It's not my best tool.

And I follow up immediately with the question of, did you actually use it?

I mean, for real, did you actually use it?

You put your whole life into it, personal, all your projects, all your goals, all your tasks.

You actually used it, right?

And they're like, ah, I mean, I did like one or two tasks.

Like, that's not using it.

You have no idea of its potential.

And that's the same for any tool we're talking about.

If you don't fully commit and actually say, you know what?

Yes, I'm going to leverage checklist at a high level.

Therefore, then and only then can I see the value that you.

checklists provide. If you make one small checklist for one tiny thing in your life,

that's a good test, but it's only a test. You will never see the value until you

commit to it fully and dig in and actually use them and use them every single day.

That's the catch. That is the thing as the foundational element. You will not have a

true answer unless you're all in. The second big category for the most important

checklists are all the review checklists because everybody needs these morning,

evening, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually.

This will apply to anyone and everyone.

Personal, professional, doesn't matter.

These are the most important because these are the checklists that guarantee you

can review what happened and guarantee you can stay on top of the things that are

consistently happening in every area of your life and work.

The third big area to focus on are checklists that really give you the details you just

literally couldn't remember if you tried or shouldn't even try to remember.

Once again, the value of checklist is guaranteeing you don't have to keep these

things in your brain.

And so this is obviously something where you can make a checklist for a thing

you do every day, but it's less valuable if you literally can remember it easily.

There are plenty of checklists I have not created for that exact reason where it

just, I've tried it, but it was too elementary.

It literally didn't actually add value.

It was a hurdle to my execution of the task.

If that's what this becomes,

if any productivity strategy or app

becomes a hurdle, an obstacle

between you and execution,

it may be a bad fit.

However, if it assists in your ability to do it better

and guarantee you do all the things that are there,

then it's an asset and that really should be part of your system.

So focus on checklist that really double

down on those small details that you otherwise would just never remember.

And the final area here for the most important checklists are the ones that guarantee

the results you depend on.

This is the most important piece.

If you need a result, if you just, you cannot live without it, well, then make

sure it's going to happen.

Approach this from every angle.

This is the strategy I use over and over again that any time that I am focused

on something that's potentially complicated, that's got a lot of.

lot of weird details that requires me to really be on my A game, I will approach

it from a 360 degree approach, which means don't just try one strategy, try them all.

I can do everything you can to make sure that you get that finish line crossed

that you were trying to cross.

And checklists are one of the absolute best strategies to incorporate into

your arsenal, your toolbox of productivity strategies.

You're going to need checklist for a thousand reasons, and they'll be integrated

in a lot different ways.

Whether it is a Google Doc or a task manager or a piece of paper that's on

the counter, you're going to need a checklist.

You just will.

Now, speaking of that, let's get to the specifics around how to create and actually

use the checklist.

This is an important conversation because this is the nuts and bolts of how I

actually leverage my checklist every day to make them truly useful and easily

accessible, which is the other big component,

here. I've been talking about Google Docs is a great solution, but a digital

document has one major problem, which is that it falls into this massive, messy,

potentially, archive of digital noise. Imagine a really messy basement or garage or

storage bin where it's just a lot of junk, where you haven't organized it well,

it's just stuff everywhere. Your digital storage solutions need to be better than that.

Now, there are searchability ways to find things faster, thankfully, which is wonderful, but I think there's a better way to do this, especially when you integrate a task manager.

So the way that I approach this as each and every day, I will open up Noseby, my task manager, which has usually a short list, 10, 12 items of the things I want to do that day.

And usually three or four of them will have links to a Google Doc with a checklist.

And that becomes kind of the magic way that I organize my life is everything that I do revolves around my calendar and task manager, right?

What big events do I have going on today and what specific tasks am I going to work on?

Well, if it's a specific task and that task is a link to a checklist, well, then that gives me all the detail right there.

So I open up Noseby, I see that there's a checklist.

I click on the link that's right there in the task.

The Google Doc opens up.

I run through that checklist, do all the things there.

I go back into NOSB, check off that task.

It's now completed.

It's off my list and on to the next one I go.

That simple formula allows me to guarantee that I have a strategy where every day the tasks that matter in the task manager will pop right up.

And the checklists that matter are always linked directly to them so I never forget them.

I don't have to look for them or search for them or be necessarily crazy organized with them.

But I have to have the link.

And a Google Doc, thankfully, has a URL you can just copy and paste into your task manager and link to it right away and off you go.

This can be used with Asana and Dropbox, with reminders with Apple and OneDrive.

You can combine these things however you want, any task manager with any linkable documents that you use for your checklist.

When this becomes the default way that you behave, then every single day there's a guarantee what matters is right in front of you with a link to all the details that you use.

need. I can't even begin to express how powerful this component is and how I just

leverage this over and over again every single day repeatedly because this is how

I guarantee that I always have access to the details. And then once it's in front of me,

I can't not do it. Like, I just, I have to because I'm a checklist oriented guy.

Like, I love to check boxes, sure. And I love to get things done. Yeah. But I also love

of a system that I can rely on, a system where I pour everything into it,

and because of that, it's all consolidated, and then therefore I know all the

value is here.

I just have to show up and do it.

And then I'm not going to forget it, and I'm not going to miss any steps,

because I can't because I'm staring at them every single day.

So for you, create your own checklist in Google Docs or the equivalent you

would like to use, Dropbox, One Drive, etc.

and then create a recurring reminder, or maybe a browser bookmark,

to actually use that checklist with a link directly to it.

When that becomes how you operate, you will have a guaranteed system to always have what you need right there.

Having said all of that, let's go through some specific checklist that I use every day,

and we'll start with the morning routine and eating routine,

and then we'll run through all the big ones, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual.

This is the 5A Miracle podcast after all, so let's discuss the morning routine checklist first.

This is a checklist that in the beginning I used to have these things listed inside of Noseby itself.

Because Noseby has checklists available.

And when I had only a few items, that worked out great.

But then I got a little fancier.

I wanted to go a little deeper.

And so I began to link to Google Docs instead.

And so now here are the items that at present I tend to include in my morning routine check.

list. The first area for waking up as I set the alarm for the next day and do some

morning stretches. Now on that topic as a side note, I have used the chirp wheel for years.

The chirp wheel is a very popular tool to stretch out your back. As a guy who had back

surgery years ago, I really care about back health and I love my chirp wheel.

And so definitely pick up one. You can buy cheaper ones, but the chirp wheel is just, it's

fantastic. So after I've set the alarm,

and done my stretches, I then go into the actual 5 a.m. Miracle components,

which at present tends to be one of four things.

I'm either going to do some meditation or reading or possibly some yoga with some walking and running.

So I kind of mix and match what it is.

And this season I'm in right now is one of meditation and reading.

But as the summer months are ending and the cooler weather is showing up,

I will do a lot more morning walks and trail runs, which I'm very, very excited for.

So my 5A miracle component is built into this checklist.

The next piece is what I call house pickup.

This has become the most important thing I do every morning.

In fact, I would argue house pickup is my miracle.

As a dad of two young kids, my girls are a lot.

And so we had to spend a lot of time making beds, doing the dishes, doing laundry, picking

up toys, and doing all of that all over again multiple times a day.

So I absolutely emphasize house pickup as a part of this checklist.

The next category are all of my health items.

So I will set out my bananas and healthy foods, my supplements.

I also shave and I will update my fitness log with the plan for that day's workout.

This is a major component for me because I tend to do my workouts now in the afternoons at the gym.

And so in the morning, I will review the fitness log and make sure I have specified exactly what that

workout will include. So when it shows up later that day and I'm feeling tired or have

excuses not to go, well, I've already pre-planned the workout. So I'm not going to skip it

because I know what it is. I spend some time doing some financial bookkeeping and then

move into my work check-in with things like email, social media, and reviewing my

schedule for the day. The very end of the routine will be taking my daughter to school

and then coming back from there at my home office,

and I begin my first focus block of time.

That's a general flow for most mornings for me

that includes a wide variety of stuff,

which is why it's so important to have all this stuff written down.

Everything from set the alarm for the next day,

so I don't forget to do that up on time,

to, of course, taking care of my house,

making sure my health is in order, my finances, my work stuff,

my daughter going to daycare, all of this,

has to be written down and organized and then optimized, change the order of events,

add things, remove things, optimize things. That guarantees my day begins the way I want it to.

And if all these things get done in generally 90 minutes or so, I can then move on to my first big

focus block of time for the day, knowing full well, the day started like I wanted it to,

and everything that mattered was addressed. But I have to go through the list.

to guarantee that. I have to do the work. And when I do, it just works.

All right, now let's shift to the evening routine. This one for me has been a lot

less intentional, and I am both fine with that and also upset with myself on this one.

So if I have anywhere to improve my checklist, this is the area. And I would bet for most

people, this is also true. Because in the evening, we have the least amount of discipline.

we're tired, we've been stressed maybe throughout the day,

we don't have what it takes to really be intentional and do things

at a high level because we're just tired and ready for bed.

And so the question becomes,

what's the best way for you to guarantee success at the end of the day?

I think the best way to approach that is to define success at the end of the day for you.

What does it mean to end a day well?

Well, those are the elements that should be on your checklist,

the things you want to guarantee you do because it,

allows you to go to bed feeling fantastic.

Put your head on the pillow, stress-free, get awesome sleep, and begin again tomorrow.

So at present, my eating routine checklist includes, once again, that home category of dishes, laundry, house pickup.

There's a lot of that at night.

My girls, as you just heard, have their own checklist with reading and songs and teeth brushing and bedtime chaos.

It's just they made it sound like they have an awesome checklist, and they do.

it's a lot of chaos.

It's a messy time of the evening.

Now, once the girls are in bed,

Tessa and I have time to ourselves,

and so we usually spend time together,

talking and catching up.

We may watch a TV show together or something,

but usually it's pretty low key.

And then as my final component for the evening,

I generally do some last minute emails

specifically to review the next day's schedule.

So I'm looking at what work did I not get done

that I should be scheduling and working on for tomorrow.

And so this is really important because a lot of what I do needs to be thought through at that level of, okay, I had goals for today.

I got through most of them.

Some didn't.

So what's going to carry over for tomorrow or the next day?

And that process is a very fickle one because some people refuse to go to bed unless they have answered every email and polished up every unfinished bit of work.

And others are totally fine to let things carry over to the next day and those do it later.

I fall in between that.

I'm not hardcore in either direction, but I definitely set the tone for

if there are things I wanted to ensure got done that day, I get those things done.

Usually early in the day, but if I didn't for some reason or couldn't for some reason,

then I will do that at the very last minutes because I want to go to bed feeling like what matter today got done.

That's when I sleep well.

I am totally fine to postpone tasks that were not due yet.

But I'm not fine if something is overdue.

I'm not fine if I'm late because I never am because I refuse to let myself

be late.

I refuse to let myself go to bed until I am prepared for that.

On most days, that works out great.

But of course, there's a possible sacrifice there.

So test the limits here.

Find your best rhythm.

I think the best way to do so is to just see what works.

Try different types of checklists.

Mix and match the items on here and see what fits your flow best.

I think that whatever you can do to ensure you go to bed feeling confident and ready for the next day, it's where your checklist should orient you to.

That's really the goal here.

So that was the morning and the evening.

Now let's get to those big reviews.

of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.

And we're going to start with weekly.

And this is a topic I've covered in depth on this podcast of the last time

with episode number 525.

So if you're going to go back to that episode, you can get this in a lot more

depth to really optimize this review.

Of all the reviews you could do, this is the most important one.

So it deserves your attention for sure.

There's a quick overview of what I do.

So I begin the review with what I call home updates.

And actually, today as a recording day, is a Friday, and I do my reviews on Fridays.

And so this morning, I did this entire checklist.

And so that includes towel day as my first update.

What's towel day?

Well, I wash the towels in our house once a week, or more often than that if I need to, but at least once a week.

And so Fridays are part of that.

The review process incorporates that.

And so it's a very general kind of house maintenance update, but it's one that I look forward to because

because it guarantees we have fresh towels.

It's something small, but gives me some joy, so I go with it.

The second piece of that is I will also check the house for repairs and projects

and really ask the question, what am I going to do this weekend?

As a Friday, it's a nice wrap up for the work week,

and then I'm trying to making that pivot or that transition into the weekend,

so the review time is a great chance to ask the question, what will this weekend include?

The next section is my tech updates, which is a really big one.

So I'll do everything from an iPhone reboot to charging my Garmin watch for my fitness workouts.

I run a system called Clean My Mac on both of my Mac computers.

Clean My Mac is a software program that's a really great job of deleting a lot of old stuff and junk.

And it really could optimize the performance of your machine.

So definitely get that software tool if you have a Mac.

The next section, I do a lot of work with podcasting, reviewing the next week's episode and my production schedule.

line up any guest interviews I may have or any and all content strategies for

the show, I will review what the next week will include.

Then I jump to my health components, which is restocking my gym bag, I clean

out my water bottles, I review my list for the next week's focus of my workouts,

really anything that says, what do I need to be healthier next week, I review

in this process.

And then I go through the actual formal review, which are things like what my

wins and losses from last week. My aha moments or personal growth ideas.

All my gratitude and anything related to what am I thankful for from the last week.

I then pivot that into scheduling the next week. This is where I'll review my

monthly goals and my goals for the next week. I will then incorporate the key daily

habits that I have like meditation, reading, and exercise. And then after I've reviewed

this entire process and decided upon the goals that I want to achieve for that next week,

I then write those down on the whiteboard in my home office.

This is a very important step.

Of all the steps before this, they're all optional.

You can do whatever you want to review.

But whatever it is that you decide you're going to do next week,

make sure you post that in a very public way.

Write it down, put it on a whiteboard, on a post-it note,

make it physical.

There's very few things I do that are outside of the computer,

but this is one of them, and it's extremely important.

because there's a level of commitment that you get when you post something on a big whole whiteboard that everybody can see.

It really says, like, this is what I'm after.

And so let's go make sure this happens.

If you don't have that as part of the process, I encourage you to make that part of this because you will do more.

You will stay committed.

You will ask that question as the week progresses, why am I behind on this?

And then you'll figure out how to get ahead.

It's really powerful.

And then the very last step of the review process for me is I review all of my

upcoming tasks in NOSB for the next couple of weeks to make sure all the little

details are ironed out. And once that's done, the review is completed. This whole

process takes me between one and two hours, depending on the week. I go through

quite a bit of detail with this. This is a pretty fast, high level overview, but I really

want to make sure that I have thought this through because the one thing that is clear for me is

that if the review happens with a lot of depth and a lot of thought, I clean up

my schedule in a way that otherwise would never happen. I cancel things that are

silly. I add in things that are more important. I reshuffle around the puzzle of

my calendar and the results speak for themselves. The next week always functions at such

a better level because it took that few minutes to just ask the question, how could this

be better? What could the ideal look like and let's orient ourselves in that direction? It just

It works every time.

So then on to the monthly review checklist, which is similar, and you'll see the very theme here of all these are very related and similar, but they're all a bit different as well.

On the monthly side, I do more tech updates.

I will back up phones and computers.

I will spend a lot of time charging batteries for every device I own, lots of headphones, backup recorders, security cameras, you name it.

I charge all the batteries.

I cleared the cache in the browser that I use on all my computers, and I will clean up all of my tasks in NOSB to do a full review of every single one.

Then on the home side, I review home projects, I will clean appliances, check stock levels of resources like paper towels and toilet paper, just to make sure we're good in all those avenues as well.

On the business side, I will manually back up really important documents to ensure that the things that matter most are always there.

I then spend a lot of time doing spreadsheet updates on lots of various goals that I have.

Almost everything is either a checklist or a spreadsheet of some kind, and so there's a lot of time spent making sure the data is all lined up.

Financially, a very related way to spreadsheets, is I will update my investment spreadsheet.

If needed, I will change our contributions or our investments if I need to.

And then for the final review component, it's the exact same as the weekly but just expanded.

So what are the big wins for the month, the losses for the month, any brilliant aha moments I want to definitely double down on, more gratitude, and a final component of the top three goals for the next month?

So you can see how everything in the review process asks the question, what usually does not get done,

that needs to be addressed, and then at a high level of view, what are my thoughts

from last month? What went really well? What did not? And based on that,

how can next month be better? That's the process repeated over and over again,

but at higher levels. Which brings us to the quarterly review checklist.

In the same way here, I have tech updates. So I do tons of website stuff once a quarter,

a lot of nerdy updates and not going to get details on here, but I basically optimize lots of tech

Also check my podcast for all kinds of possible issues and make sure everything's lined up with it.

But then I move to the most important section, which is the calendar.

So once a quarter, I will update all of my major recurring events for the next three months to make sure my calendar is truly optimized for the bigger picture of where we're going in this next larger chunk.

I don't tend to plan my life much beyond the next three months because the details change so often.

It doesn't really help that much.

but three months for me seems pretty solid most of the time.

On the home front, of course, I'll work on more project updates at a higher level,

really asking the question, are there big things I want to schedule far in advance to work on?

One example I have is another kitchen upgrade I have to do.

So that's on my calendar right now in the next couple of months.

And then we move to a different type of review process for the quarter,

where instead of asking questions like what was a big win or big loss,

There's actually more than that.

So I'll start with my top 10 wins for the quarter, which are based on my previous reviews.

But then I go through a whole set of questions that are a little bit different.

And these are ones I recommend you take some time to really think through.

So these are the questions.

What am I most proud of?

What are the greatest lessons that I learned?

Which personal improvements have I made?

What would I do differently?

What was the smartest decision that I made?

What was the biggest risk that I made?

I took? What is one word that summarizes my experience from last quarter?

What are three things to do less of? What are three things to do more of?

And then, of course, did I accomplish last quarter's major goal? And what is the

goal for this quarter coming up? These kinds of high-level questions are ones we don't

often take time to ask and really think through. So from my perspective, at least a few

times a year, it's helpful to sit down and really just do some deep soul searching.

Like, what's really true about my life now and what's going to be true in this next

season?

And you take the time to ask and answer these questions and don't rush the process.

I think it's really important to make sure that this is something you take seriously

because if you don't do that, I think you miss the chance to pivot.

You miss the chance to make improvements.

You missed the chance to reflect and really have the best type of personal and professional growth that's possible.

Because honestly, most growth is going to come from being reflective, from asking the question, well, where did I screw up?

I could fix.

Where did I do really well?

I can double down on.

But you have to ask the question first.

Otherwise, it's just going to be happenstance.

You hope those things take place.

But I prefer to be more intentional.

As you can tell, there's a lot of intentionality in all of this.

Which brings us to the final big review, the once a year annual review that I do,

typically the very last week of December between Christmas and the new year.

And during this process, I will ask the same set of questions I just did for the Corley review,

but I'll do so for the entire year.

And so then I'm asking all the same big questions,

but just making sure that I know the next 12 months could look like because I understand what just happened in the last 12 months.

The details, though, are more based on the specific documents and tasks that I focus on,

so I'll do things that everyone should do, like replacing your batteries and your smoke detectors.

I'll also go through my contacts list and delete old contacts, update phone numbers and email addresses.

I then spend some time on some website documentation for the next year,

and then I shift into all the new documents that I'll need,

like a new fitness log for the next year, a new financial budget,

I will run annual credit check reports or create review documents for the next year for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual.

And of course, there are many more tiny and customized details for my life and work that I did not mention here.

That's been the theme, though, for the entire episode.

I did my best not to bore you to tears with all the details of my life.

But I will say that that is kind of the nuts and bolts of what needs to be true is that level of customization.

When I say there was tiny customized details, that's because everything here has

been custom built by me, for me, for the work that I'm doing.

And the real value of these checklists is not that it reminds you to do things

that everyone should do, like replace the batteries in your smoke detectors.

But more importantly, to really ask the question, what is true about my life

and how do I create all of the customization I need to push me where I want to go?

That's the theme of all of this.

The checklist, the review processes, the organization, the optimization

of everything is all about you.

It's all about living the life you want to live at a higher level that's ideal

for how you define it.

And I think that these tools and strategies give you the ability to clarify that,

to put it in writing, to really say, this is what I care about, this is why I care

about it, and this is how I'm going to prove that I care about it by doing the work,

which is what all this is about.

It's all about execution.

And once you've done that and you get the results, you're done.

It's great.

And the stress is off because you just did the thing that mattered and he did it over and over again.

And that level of consistency, it will compound over time.

And you'll be amazed at what is possible long term when you commit to this very basic level of organization.

And I think checklists are basic only because we can all do them at any time for anything.

But I don't think we leverage them like we could.

And if we did, imagine what's possible.

Now, I would love to hear which checklist that you personally use and love,

whether it's your personal life, professional life, I don't care.

Email me, jeff at jeffsanders.com.

I would like to go into a deeper discussion of checklist in the future,

specifically targeting the ones that I didn't even mention here,

the ones that are actually more helpful for you because you built them for you.

That's the whole point.

Love that stuff.

And for the action step this week.

Of course, go create and optimize your checklist and review systems.

You can create reviews and checklists for anything,

but it's best to start with ones you will definitely use over and over again.

So I would start with a weekly review checklist and then upgrade to the longer term checklists

needed, but whatever you do, write everything down and review it as often as you need to.

Of course, subscribe to this podcast and your favorite podcast app, or go to 5am Miraclepremium.com for the VIP ad-free experience.

That's all I've got for you here on the 5 a.m. Miracle podcast this week.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life, and all that fun begins bright and early.

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