12 Productivity Tips You Need to Know
(and 5 More that Don’t Matter)

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #530: 12 Productivity Tips You Need to Know (and 5 More that Don't Matter)

Jeff Sanders
Quick wins are fun.

Most of my productivity strategies are tiny optimizations that tweak my habits and systems just enough to make them amazing.

If you're in the mood for small hinges that swing big doors, welcome.

This is the 5am Miracle, episode number 530.

12 Productivity Tips You Need To Know.

And 5 more that probably don't matter but are fun anyway.

Good morning and welcome to the 5am Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is the podcast dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

In the episode this week, I'll break down about a dozen strategies that run my life and business every day, why I focus on productivity hacks so often, and how you can create a lifestyle that improves upon itself all the time.

Let's get to it.

So earlier this week, I went to my new co-working space here in Nashville, Tennessee, and I had a small problem.

I forgot my gym bag.

Now, if you know me, I don't forget things.

I have systems for everything you could possibly imagine, except when I don't.

And that's kind of the point.

I don't have a perfect system.

Not everything is optimized to the nth degree, but it can be.

And when I find opportunities to create new checklists or fix the system or get myself to the next level up, I take it.

And so on this recent trip to the office, when I forgot my gym bag, the very first thing I did when I got to the office was to make a new checklist to guarantee I do not forget this gym bag ever again.

I also made a new reminder to look at that checklist at the right time of day on the days I go into the office.

Now, then the next day after I forgot this bag, of course, I reviewed this new checklist before I left the house and I packed all the right things I needed for that day.

So this mistake and my response to it just reminded me how much I love being organized because it prevents these problems that I frequently encounter or used to frequently encounter.

But then over time, I have fewer and fewer of these things happen because the thing is, is that productivity is not just about checking boxes.

It's really about solving real world problems.

Even one's as simple as trying to remember a gym bag, but it's also about prevention of future problems, especially those things we do over and over again.

And yes, of course, I love knocking out tiny little to do's every day, but really all of that just adds up to the achievement of big, ambitious goals.

And so you look at the tiny day to day stuff, these itty bitty checklists and reminders and systems like remembering a gym bag to go to the office with, that all adds up to the achievement of the larger goals you have set for yourself.

And so if you have these tiny checklists, these little reminders, a system that is optimized in every possible direction, well, then those big goals you want to achieve are so much more likely to happen because you do not have the obstacles that show up in all these different directions, right?

Death by a thousand cuts is a real thing.

If you find yourself in a position where your life is just a mess, there's a lot going on.

There's a lot to remember.

There's a lot of things that could go wrong, right?

I'm there every day in the chaos of real life.

I've got an office to go to a gym bag to grab my daughters to go to school, groceries to buy like real life is happening all the time.

So how do I keep it together?

How do I guarantee that I have what I need?

Well, ultimately the answer comes down to reminders and checklists, but really it's intentionality.

It's awareness.

A problem shows up and what do I do?

I address the problem, right?

I forget something and it bothers me.

So what do I do?

I solve the problem, not just now, but I prevent the problem from reoccurring.

So this week we're going to knock out 12 kind of random productivity tips, but I want to keep this framework in mind of why we're doing this.

Look, why do you need to be productive?

What's the point of all these kinds of random tips?

And the point is it all adds up to something a lot more grand, a lot more ambitious and wonderful.

These productivity tips are designed to enhance your ability to achieve your biggest goals to become the kind of person you're striving to become.

So no, the goal is not to implement all 12 of these.

The goal is to pick and choose the ones that could be useful for you on your journey to achieve your grand goals now.

So keep that in mind as we go through these.

And yes, at the end I do have five kind of fun tips that I think are just great.

So having said all of that, let's go ahead and dig into these 12 awesome productivity tips and strategies to make your life a whole lot better.

Now, before we get to the actual list of 12, there is one thing I do want to mention, which is this question that pops up in my mind frequently and one that has been posed to me recently online when someone basically asked the question, why productivity hacks?

Why tips and tricks?

Why focus on these little wins?

Like do these things really add up to big goals?

It's a great question because as someone who has taught productivity for so long, one thing that I get caught up in is being too kind of small minded about it, thinking too much about the day to day and getting caught up in the fact that this is just what I do and missing the bigger picture.

Now, to be very clear about why I love productivity hacks, the first and best answer is I just love the endorphin rush of getting a lot of things done.

I love to check boxes just flat out.

That is true.

And you probably do too.

As a high achiever with big goals, you know that awesome feeling when you get something done and you cross it off your list and go on to the next thing.

That's a self-reinforcing cycle that leads to more activity, more busyness, hopefully more effective productivity doing the big and right things, the important things.

But ultimately at the end of the day, activity is better than non-activity.

Getting things done is better than not getting things done.

And the endorphin rush keeps you motivated to keep doing stuff.

And ultimately that's going to be better.

Now, the second reason why I love these kinds of hacks is I know the real value of getting the right things done, right?

I've achieved enough goals in my life and enough objectives I set for myself that I fully understand what it means to do something of value.

And I know what it means to have systems in place that support those big goals.

So the real value comes from the day to day, the minutia, the tiny details, the little checklists, the little reminders that do add up to important big things.

Third reason why I love this stuff so much is I have big dreams and life is short, right?

Like there's a lot to get done in my life.

I have big things I want to accomplish and the clock is ticking.

So the sense of urgency is real.

And the fourth reason finally for this list is I want to share these ideas with you.

I want you to be able to be involved in this process right along with me and get this value from the things that I have personally experienced and found value in.

Once again, you're not going to adopt all of these strategies, but you might find one or two that are possibly life-changing.

So let's go ahead and get right to it with these 12 productivity tips you need to know.

Number one, checklists are everything.

I just talked about this.

I love checklists when you can optimize every important and recurring task or project with detailed checklists.

And then of course the reminders to review those checklists.

You're there, you've won.

Like this is, I think recently I came upon this realization in a way that has been profound for me.

Yes, I have discussed checklists forever.

I've had them forever, but recently I have doubled down on them.

I have made them an essential component of basically all the things I do.

And the more that I use them, the more that I want to use them, the more that I have reminders in the right place at the right time with the right checklist attached to it.

Well, then I can stop thinking about what's important.

I know what it is.

It's right in front of me and here's how to do it on the list.

I just follow the list, right?

I make it easy.

I make it effortless.

Greg McKeown's amazing book, Effortless, really challenges and asks you that question.

How do you take something that's complicated, difficult, grand, ambitious, and break it down and make it straightforward, easy, methodical, doable.

And honestly, the best answer to that is a really good checklist.

You're not going to forget something if you follow the list.

And over time you can improve these checklists to make them even better.

So if you are asking the question right now, how do I get this next health and fitness goal accomplished?

How do I nail down this new project at the office?

Like how do I really clean up my home life with all the chores and errands and kids and chaos?

Make a checklist for all of it.

Every single thing that is important and especially recurring the kinds of things you're going to be doing over and over again.

You make a checklist, you make it intentional, you make it awesome, and you do that thing every time.

And as we very practical on how my checklists are actually implemented, the very first thing to know is my checklists are all created in a Google doc.

So I use the cloud for all of these, which makes them linkable as individual documents.

And that link is then put into a task in my task manager called Nozbe.

N-O-Z-B-E.

You can use any task manager you want to that's digital in this system.

We're going to take that link from the Google doc.

You put it into your task manager on a recurring task that shows up on all the right days in the future.

And then when that reminder pops up on your task list with a link to that checklist, well, then all you do that day is open that link, look at the list and go through it.

That's it.

It's really that simple.

If you look at my Nozbe task manager right now, I have dozens of these checklist reminders all over the place for all kinds of projects, personal and professional.

They're everywhere.

So if you're going to take one piece of advice this week, one tip of these 12, honestly, checklists, they're the one that's why they're number one.

Okay.

Tip number two is one that I had discussed before and I will be discussing until the day I die.

This is one that literally just affected me before I began recording this episode.

Respond to every email within 24 hours if you possibly can.

If you do, it will change your life forever.

I have spent the better part of the last decade yelling at people online.

I have spent a lot of time being angry and frustrated and just tearing my hair out because people don't respond to their email.

They ignore me, they take forever to get back to me.

They just waste my time ultimately.

And one thing that I committed to a long time ago was to be responsive.

Every text, every email, every communication, every place I possibly can, every online social media platform that has a message board on it, every single time if I need to respond to something, I will do it in 24 hours or less.

And yes, that is seven days a week all year round.

Sometimes I have a break on a vacation but usually I don't.

I'm hardcore about this.

Now why?

Why would I ever want to commit that much to email?

Most people do not respect or appreciate email.

The reason, and this is such a critical component here, communication is the grease of business and life.

You will gain more respect from everyone you work with if you are fast, reliable, and always on top of everything, including communication.

Work and the office and business world, it's not really about doing things.

It's about communicating what you're doing.

If people know what you're working on, they don't think about it as much.

They know you've got it.

Whatever it is, you've handled it.

You are on the ball.

You're making it happen.

Communication or telling people what you're working on while you're doing it is just as if not more important than the task itself.

I can't stress this enough.

If you do not communicate effectively, you are giving yourself a massive disservice in the journey of your dreams, right?

In this process to achieve these goals, get these projects completed, knock these tasks off.

If you want to improve your life and especially your career and your business, make it a commitment.

You're going to reply to every single email within 24 hours or less.

Now, of course, there's a whole process here to break down with getting rid of spam emails and deleting the ones that are useless and being selective on who you reply to.

There's a lot more intentionality here, but the core principle is the same.

You will process every email in your inbox within 24 hours or less.

Number three, fast technology is way more important than you realize.

I was just reminded of this recently in my new coworking space, which by the way, I love.

It's great to have a place to go.

It's not my home office to go somewhere and get stuff done.

It's an awesome place.

They have one flaw and it's really bugging me.

Their wifi is just terrible.

I mean, come on, it's a coworking space.

It should have better wifi.

It doesn't.

It's bad.

Now, having said that, I am very blessed to have fiber internet at my home office.

And so I have incredible gig speed, both upload and download speed are full, amazing, symmetrical, awesome speeds.

I love my fiber internet and I will not give that up.

But having said that, if you can have faster technology, whenever you're working, that's your computer, it's your internet, it's your phone.

For me as a podcaster, I hold studio of gear in front of me.

I want everything that I use all of my technology to be maybe not top of the line, but pretty close.

I want everything to always work and always work at the best capacity it possibly can.

Now there's a really important reason why this actually matters and not just some fluffy thing of saying I have a fast phone or a fast computer or the best internet.

It's not about bragging rights.

This is about productivity.

This is about guaranteeing your technology is not an obstacle to your success, but instead it is an asset to you getting stuff done.

If your tech is an obstacle, your tech needs to be upgraded, thrown away, swapped out, improved in some capacity.

Fast technology, properly working technology is a game changer because not that when it works well, you like it.

It's when it works poorly, you hate it.

And this is the problem.

Like I just said, slow wifi bothers me, but fast wifi, I barely even notice when I have it because I just simply use it and I move on.

And that's the point.

It makes everything so efficient and so smooth.

You just have the tech, you use it and you're done.

So slow tech, bad tech, old tech, it's gotta go as best as you possibly can.

If you control your technology for what you do, make the upgrade.

It is well worth it.

Tip number four this week.

This actually relates a pretty similar way to what I discussed earlier about communication.

And here's the one, this is a personal note for me, by the way, not you.

Arguing is almost always a complete waste of time, both now and especially in the future.

I say this because I spent a lot of time in my, let's call it late twenties and early thirties arguing with people on social media.

I really had this ego driven desire to always be right, to prove to other people, even strangers, especially strangers, that they were dumb and I was smart, that they were wrong and I was right.

And I got to a point, thankfully at some point in my early thirties ish, where I decided that was dumb.

It was time to stop arguing with people who I thought were idiots, to be frank, that that's what I was doing.

And even if I was right, whether I was or wasn't, was not the point.

It was, it was taking something from me.

It was wasting my life, wasting my time, accomplishing nothing.

Even if it did stroke my ego, who cares?

It was just a pointless endeavor.

Now, if we take that to the next kind of section of my life, the next five years after that, I began to argue with people I work with, people who are my partners in business, people who I am expecting something from.

And I began to raise the bar both for myself and especially for other people to make them work on my standards, to expect somebody else to do life the way I do life.

And I've come to realize just recently how dumb that was.

So what I'm now in a position of not just making things effortless, not just making things stress-free or easier, but specifically flowing downstream.

I'm not going to push the envelope.

I'm not going to be that guy who's the loud bell ringer in the corner trying to get the attention.

I'm going to the best of my ability, be more methodical, more objective, more direct, get the job done and move on and do my very best to leave emotion at the door.

This has been a challenge for me.

I'm not going to lie.

I'm an extreme kind of guy.

If you know this podcast, you know my personality, you know that I'm a high achiever.

I want to get a lot done, you know, run a long distance, do a big project, make things happen, right?

High energy, lots of caffeine, a lot of stuff going on.

But that also means that I can be kind of feisty.

It means I can hold people to standards that are just inappropriate.

Now, even if they are appropriate, this is the other key thing.

Let's imagine that I am right and that this other person does need to change.

The way that I approach that has to also evolve, right?

Take the emotion out of it, be objective, communicate clearly, but without kind of being the jerk that I would end up appearing as because I was being a jerk.

Right?

The key here is about deciding who you want to be and how you want to interact with others in your world.

And if you want to get things done, you're going to have to rely on other people for the, as your dreams evolve and get bigger, right?

Life is not lived as a solo project.

You're not just by yourself all the time.

We are involved in a community, whether it's at the office or around in your family, wherever it is, we are interacting with others.

And the more efficiently you make that process happen, the more likely others will then like you want to support you, want to make sure you are successful as well.

And it all works out a lot better.

So if you want to waste time, go ahead and keep arguing.

But if you want to really get things done, I would challenge you to change your perspective and head in a direction that makes you more amicable, that makes you more friendly, more likable, that makes all of this so much more smooth.

Cause that's really a lot better for everybody.

All right.

Tip number five.

This is one that I've discussed for a long time in this show that I've recently reintroduced yet again in my life, which is to pack what I call a produce bag for work.

So instead of a lunch bag, instead of a lunch pail, instead of bringing your lunch in some capacity that you usually do change it up, make it a produce bag.

Now, yes, I'm a vegan.

I have been for many years now.

I think it's about 14 years.

And so I have a very strong emphasis towards raw fruits and veggies and I eat those as much as I can.

But when I get into bad seasons and bad habits and I stop eating those foods as much, the winter season is tough to get access to those.

And so I tend to get into a rut.

So recently I've reintroduced my produce bag.

So I will pack this bag for myself to eat the healthiest foods I can, whether that's at home or at the office, I will pack a bag with the foods I plan to eat that day.

They're the healthiest things I could possibly imagine.

And then that's all I have access to.

So I'm not going to pack leftovers from dinner last night, unless those leftovers are super healthy.

I'm just going to leverage a simple reusable bag.

I'll pack a bunch of fresh produce or other healthy foods, and I'll just eat those all day long.

This saves a lot of time.

It also removes the guesswork out of what you're going to eat and just makes it simple.

Just here's the food.

It's healthy.

If you're hungry, you eat.

If you're not, you don't.

It makes the workday so much more efficient.

Your lunch time can be shorter.

You have more time to get things done.

Energy stays up.

It does work really well.

So if you've not ever attempted to introduce more plant-based foods in your life or more healthy foods during your lunch and during your workday, this is a simple way to do it by changing your perspective on what this is.

It's not a lunch bag.

It's a produce bag.

It's a health and fitness bag.

It's a bag full of the best nutrient-filled goodiness you could possibly imagine.

And when that happens, you're going to feel better, like physically feel better, more energy, more clarity.

The mental sharpness that shows up is phenomenal.

So if you're really looking for your next kind of step up with your productivity, taking care of your health and especially the dietary choices you make during the day is going to be epic.

All right, tip number six.

Right along with that, we're trying to make healthier habits at the office.

You can introduce one minute workouts.

So this concept basically asks you to get moving every single hour of your workday, but for just one minute per hour.

So at exactly 10 a.m. for example, you could say, okay, the clock hit 10.

I have one minute.

I do whatever I want to do in that one minute.

Pushups, squats, crunches, one in place, jumping jacks, take a fast walk, whatever it is, you have one minute, you pick a physical activity, you make it happen, and you get back to work.

Well, the next hour shows up.

Now it's 11 a.m.

One more minute.

Do it again.

This is really impressive.

One more minute.

Do it again.

This is really profound if you do this on a consistent basis, especially if you normally just sit in a chair all day and physical movement is just a rare thing for you.

By introducing a single minute per hour, it will change your energy.

It will change your physicality.

It's not going to replace a daily workout necessarily.

It might depend on how much or how little you work out.

It could, but generally speaking, this is just about getting your blood pumping, get your energy up and get you re-energized and re-engaged for the next hour of work.

So if you're looking for a way to boost your energy throughout the day to keep things going, try a one minute workout on the hour, every hour.

Tip number seven is one of the ones that I have relied on for a very long time and I love it because it's all about focus.

So tip number seven is to work alone or to work anonymously whenever possible.

So I just mentioned this new coworking space.

Well, part of what makes that space amazing for me is no one knows who I am when I'm there.

I'm anonymous.

It's the equivalent of me being alone in public and that philosophy is very effective when you're trying to get something done.

But in the case of what I'm trying to go for here, I can't work from my house.

It's too distracting.

I need to go somewhere else that's better.

An office space that has what I need in terms of resources and you know, they do have wifi though slow it is.

They've unlimited caffeine.

They've got all these, you know, desks and chairs, the whole thing.

So if I go somewhere where I could work and I'm alone or anonymous, then my focus is going to be a lot better.

And one thing that I have really come to realize is as my life progresses, as I have, you know, two kids that are growing up, my life is a little bit busier every single day.

I have to rely on focus more now than ever.

And so if you can find a way to guarantee focus, to guarantee alone time or guarantee the kind of time you need to execute on the project you're after, it will change your life.

Now to the point of the coworking space, one specific thing that makes that so amazing is the fact that it's a new environment.

And when you put yourself in an environment where everyone else is doing the kind of thing you want to do, like going to a gym, for example, or going to an office, you go or go to a coffee shop.

If you want to drink coffee, go to the place where these activities are happening and you are significantly more likely to do the same kinds of things that those around you are doing.

If you're in an environment that does not support your goals and that people are doing things that are wildly different than what you want to be doing, it will distract you.

I guarantee it will pull you away and you will get less done if you get your work done at all.

The goal here is to put yourself in a position to guarantee success.

And I have found that working alone or anonymously is fantastic for certain kinds of tasks.

Not all of them, but the ones where I need guaranteed focus, it absolutely works.

And it's extremely effective.

Now, right along with that is tip number eight, which is to work in a boring office.

So this coworking space I keep mentioning, the funny thing is, is that right away I noticed that the space though effective is very boring.

It's dull.

The colors are not as bright as my home office.

The lighting is not really what I'd prefer.

It's not the kind of space that screams excitement, but because of that, it does allow for effective work to get done.

If I want to guarantee focus, once again, I go to the environment that guarantees it.

And one thing I've realized is the effect that the colors have on my ability to get things done, that the lighting is very important that the space that I'm in cannot distract me and pull me away from the work.

But instead, if the space itself is very mundane, then the most exciting thing for me to do is the next task on my list.

It guarantees focus because I'm not going to do anything else when I'm there.

There's nothing else to do.

Nothing else that's drawing my attention.

It's not a fun place.

So if you have the kind of work that needs to just, it's gotta happen, right?

Check that box, make it get done and move on.

Once again, go to the environment that supports that.

And yes, everything from colors to lights to distractions, plant life, anything that could pull you away needs to be adjusted to bring you back into focus, back to the thing that matters the most.

Make that environment count.

Make all the things around it add up to you execute on these tasks that matter so much to you.

Tip number nine is to work with a timer.

This is one thing I have toyed back and forth with over the years, and I used to use a timer every single day for almost every task.

And then recently I kind of walked away from it.

And what I've noticed is there is a distinct difference between working with a timer or having that sense of urgency and a deadline versus not having one at all.

So technically right now, as I record this podcast, I'm under a deadline.

I have a timer set.

Now it's self-induced.

I made this time up for myself, but it's important.

It keeps me focused to say, I only have until the next top of the hour to get this work done.

So let's get that done and go on to the next thing.

Without that sense of urgency, I really have no reason to begin the process when I did, let alone finish when I'm going to finish.

The timer says not just when the work ends, but specifically when it starts and what you're going to do during that time.

So I love to discuss my focus blocks of time here in the show for years, my F bots and what an F bot really is asking you to do is make a decision.

What are you going to work on?

What matters the most right now?

When will it happen?

Both the start time and the end time.

Where will you be?

Do you have the resources you need to guarantee the work gets done?

Right?

You answer each of these questions one by one.

And then when you do and the time starts and you see the timer and the clock ticking down, you get to work.

It makes you move.

It makes you say, okay, we are under the deadline now.

Here we go.

And then guess what?

Not only will the work get done, the quality will go up.

The quantity of work will go up to, you're going to surprise yourself nearly every time on how much you're able to really kick butt in these focus blocks of time.

It's a really powerful time.

And the more of these that could be on your calendar, the better you're going to be.

Tip number 10 is to drink water between your coffee or other caffeinated beverages.

So hydration is way more important than caffeine for energy.

And if you can leverage both of those, you may be able to have the best energy and focus you need for yourself.

But one thing I've seen very acutely recently is that as I increase my caffeine intake, which I definitely did, I felt a lot better if I had water between the coffees, I feel calmer, but yet more awake.

I have more energy, but without being jittery, hydration is very powerful.

Water is very powerful.

So if you find yourself on that slippery slope of just another coffee, another black tea, another, you know, energy drink of some kind, lay off on that just a tad and increase your water by quite a bit.

And when that happens, you will feel a lot better, not just more focused, not just more energetic, but healthier, less crazy.

It's a very, very good thing.

All right.

Tip number 11 is to dress for the job you want, even if you work from home.

There's a guy that I talked to in this podcast many years ago who had the same perspective and he implemented this specifically because he shifted to a remote job and he found himself in this weird position of saying, "I'm dressing sloppily.

I'm wearing sweatpants every day.

I don't feel like I did when I was in the office."

If you're the kind of person who has made that shift to a remote worker, you are in your home office, you're not at a physical workspace like you used to be, or this happens to you frequently, you go to the office, but you're not dressed like you think you maybe should be.

There's a challenge here to improve not just your personal hygiene, not just your appearance, but your own self-esteem, your own identity.

Who are you?

Who do you want to become?

If you present yourself to yourself and of course the rest of the world as you would like to be treated, well, it's huge for becoming the kind of person you want to grow into or maintaining a certain level of standards you've set for yourself.

I'm not arguing you can't wear sweatpants.

I do that all the time working from home, but what I am arguing that I have tried this a lot recently is when I take my appearance more seriously, and for me that has meant I do a clean shave a lot more often, when that happens, I feel a lot more like my best self.

So the question is, what is your best self?

What are those characteristics and specific components that make you feel awesome and ready to do your next thing at the highest level?

And if that includes putting on a suit and tie, working for yourself at home, go for it.

It probably doesn't, but it could.

And if that's going to allow you to do your job at the highest level, then make it happen.

It's a phenomenal transformation that takes place when you take your own appearance as seriously as you would like the rest of the world to do as well.

And number 12 on the list of these 12 tips is to read for about a half hour every night before bed.

Now, this is specific to personal development, so I'm not arguing to read fiction.

You can do that if it's just going to be kind of the last thing so you can go to bed more easily.

What I'm arguing here is a guaranteed block of time every single day for personal and professional growth.

I'm a huge proponent of nonfiction, personal help, self-help books.

It is what I do, it's what I sell, it's who I am.

It's just everything about me screams, I need more of this in my life.

And if you have gotten kind of out of habits of daily reading, daily consumption of materials that benefit you and move you forward, this is a chance to reintegrate that.

Now I'm arguing here for physical books, not digital, not audio, physical books, paperback, hardback books to read, highlight, take notes in the margins.

Old school, super old school kind of methodology.

Most people don't do this anymore.

And the reason why I think this is actually more powerful is the level of focus and engagement with a physical book is significantly higher than a digital resource or an audio resource or anything else that would allow you to be distracted and go do something else.

Also, the physicality of the highlighter, the pen and paper, taking notes, it changes your level of engagement.

You are more committed, you're more in, and it works so much better.

You will extract more value from that material.

And so this kind of study time you have for yourself is guaranteed every day.

I argue at night, but you could definitely do this first thing in the morning, maybe both.

You're trying to guarantee time, at least 30 minutes a day to engage in a personal and professional growth experience that is intentional and based on physical books.

Really old school.

Love that stuff.

Okay, now let's pivot to these five productivity tips that don't really matter, but I think are awesome.

All right.

Fun tip number one, this is an item I just purchased recently, which is called a portable DAC.

Now, what does that mean?

D A C it's a digital to analog converter.

This is my, my podcaster kind of coming out here, my audio file version of me.

I bought a portable DAC and amplifier, which what that means is, is it converts the sound from digital to analog.

So whenever you have headphones and you're, or speakers and you want to produce sound, those are analog devices, headphones and speakers or analog, but the source is digital, your phone, your computer, your tablet.

So what you want is a converter that turns that digital signal into an analog signal with the highest possible quality.

And if you can have one that's small and portable, you could use that on your phone or on your laptop when you travel.

And that's exactly what I bought.

It's called the IFI go link.

That's I F I go link.

It's about 60 bucks on Amazon right now.

And it's awesome.

It dramatically increases, not just the quality of the audio that I hear through my laptop and my phone, but also the volume as well.

So if you love your audio, you want to hear the best possible sound you can, even if that's focused music, by the way, you could use while working this portable DAC is fantastic.

Now, of course, in my podcast studio here in my home office, I have much more high end versions of these, but most people don't need any need for those at all, but you may have a need for a portable one, a small one you can take with you.

And this particular device here is very tiny.

It's USB-C base, but also comes with adapters for an iPhone lightning port as well.

And the USB-A port.

So it's got lots of possibilities, 60 bucks on Amazon.

I F I go link.

That's what that's called.

All right.

Fun tip number two.

And this is one I just did the other day is using the sauna and steam rooms at your gym.

I will be the first to say, not the first, but one of many to say no one uses these things enough.

My goodness.

They're so great.

Saunas and steam rooms are life-changing.

If you have access to a gym that has a sauna and or steam room, and you're not using it, change your habits and go use these things after your workout.

Every single time it's the most phenomenal way to cool down because you're getting really hot, but the best way to end a workout is to have this opportunity to decompress, de-stress, heal your mind and body for the next day.

It is amazing.

Not only that, I recently had a sinus infection and I was able to shorten the duration and intensity of that sinus infection by using the gym steam room for about 30 minutes a day, every single day during the infection.

Now the people in that room did not appreciate me being there as much, but it was very effective for me and no, I was not contagious, but it did really allow me to have this sense of I'm actively doing something to help my current infection.

And every single time I go to the gym, I take on these activities of sauna and steam room and it changes the way I feel in a very dramatic way.

So if you don't currently leverage these, check them out.

They're great.

Fun tip number three, throw a dance party every week.

So let's go back to the years of COVID, the pandemic.

My family began a new habits during COVID where we had Mexican food Fridays.

And what that meant was we would get takeout from our favorite local Mexican restaurants.

We would bring it home and then play a Mexican restaurant playlist on Spotify.

And we would listen to this fun Mexican music, eat our tacos, and then we would dance after dinner.

And we have continued that habit ever since.

It is awesome.

If you want to release your stress on a regular basis, have a lot of fun.

It's really cool to be able to throw an intentional dance party.

Yes, of course you can go to a club and dance if you want to, but if you're going to be at home, especially if you have kids like me, you throw a little fun dance party with your kids after dinner.

It's great.

And we've done this as a family and it's such a fun thing to do.

And specifically, you know, tagging along the Mexican restaurant playlist really brings the theme home.

So if you want a theme dance party, man, it's great.

Good times there.

All right.

Fun tip number four, stop posting on social media.

Okay.

This is not as fun, but it is very powerful.

So about a year and a half ago, I deleted all of these social apps from my phone for the first time ever in a significant way.

And I have not reinstalled them since.

And the one thing I noticed when this happened was that I stopped posting as much.

And if you don't post as much on social media, you're not going to want to check it nearly as often, right?

If you don't post, you're not going to look for the likes and the comments on the things you post.

Now, yes, you may still do the doom scrolling of looking through your feed all day, every day, which is a bad habit in of itself, but you will check social less if you're not personally involved in the content.

Now, of course, if you are a social media marketer or own a business or have to be on social, you can create systems to do so in a more kind of defined fashion that doesn't allow for the extreme bad habits to kick in.

But if you don't have a need for that, and you're just the kind of person who's on social way too much, and you want to be able to improve your life in a number of ways, delete these apps from your phone.

Honestly, it doesn't sound like a fun tip.

It sounds like I'm giving you a bad homework assignments, but it really is better when you're not on social all the time.

What ends up happening is you choose other things to do with your life and those other things tend to be better.

And so you're going to improve the quality of your life by just not being there all the time.

I still go there, but just not nearly as much.

All right, finally, tip number five, fun tip number five is to begin a hobby.

Now, specifically, I have a ton of hobbies, everything from woodworking to paint by number.

My wife recently bought a new cricket, which is a fun device to cut out very specific designs that she's going to use for parties for our kids.

One thing I've realized is that my hobbies have taken a really important central role in my nights and weekends.

And I've given my nights and weekends more value by having specific hobbies I look forward to.

Ones that would define my social time or my non-working hours.

And I'm doing activities that are just so unlike what I usually do during my workday.

During my workday, I'm on a computer all day, but I'm not the office and I'm not working.

Well, I'm building things.

I'm being creative.

I'm getting my hands involved.

I'm really physically full body experience with not just exercise, but also woodworking, painting, and creative projects.

I would argue this is one of the best things you could possibly do for your own personal growth and to give your life so much more value and so much more fun.

So make that a commitment, dig in, start a hobby, get into it, make it awesome.

Okay.

So there are some 17 ish tips for you to tackle this week.

Obviously you don't have time for all of them, but hopefully a few of those were inspiring for you to reintroduce some old and good habits or start a brand new one.

Either way.

I love these kinds of things and I would like to do more episodes regarding these kinds of tips, but I want your advice on what to include.

Email me, Jeff@jeffsanders.com and tell me some productivity tips and strategies and tools that you leverage every day or every week that are significant for you.

Things I did not mention here that you think have been life changing or just in some way dramatic and helpful.

Once again, Jeff@jeffsanders.com.

Tell me about your tips.

I want to hear them.

Hey, for the action step this week, yes, go choose that one tip, that one strategy and apply it today.

The best way to improve your productivity is usually with tiny tweaks to your current system.

No big changes are not likely to happen very often, but optimizing your anchor habits, those core habits you're already committed to, well, that can bring about tremendous results right away.

So pick one tip today and apply it.

You can pick one more in a few days, one more a few days later, and then maybe a year from now, you'll be amazed at how far you've come.

Now, of course you can subscribe to this podcast and your favorite podcast app, or become a VIP member of the 5am Miracle Community by getting the premium ad-free version with exclusive bonus episodes at 5ammiraclepremium.com.

And that's all I've got for you here on the 5am 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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