30:02Dan Zakaria · Listicle
101 habits that (quietly) transformed my life
A rapid-fire listicle of 101 small habits, grouped into six life categories, built on the premise that systems beat goals.
June 16thThe argument in one line.
Self-sabotage kills more businesses than bad strategy, and it's fixed with seven concrete daily systems: controlling information intake, working before distraction, timer accountability, a printed schedule, and daily mind reprogramming.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A founder, agency owner, or solo operator who feels busy all day but can't point to what actually got done.
- Someone who checks their phone first thing on waking and loses the first hour to scrolling before real work starts.
- A creator or operator managing clients or a team who needs a repeatable personal-productivity system, not more strategy or tactics.
SKIP IF…
- You already have a locked-in morning routine and a working accountability system — this repeats fundamentals you've solved.
- You're looking for marketing, funnel, or client-acquisition tactics; this video is entirely about personal execution, not strategy.
The full version, fast.
Larsen's thesis: the funnel, messaging, planning, and metrics only matter if you can actually execute, and most people can't because of seven fixable habits. He hard-blocks news, YouTube, and social media with a VPN blocker and a physical distance-tag device, then protects the first 60 minutes of each day for his single most important task before any warm-up routine. Work happens in 60-minute sprints against a kitchen timer, logged in a form sent to an accountability group. Tasks get printed into 15-30 minute schedule blocks, the daily to-do list is capped at 3-5 items instead of 20-30, and a non-negotiable rule — don't sleep until those items are done — builds momentum. He closes with daily affirmations, a written goal, and pre-scripted thought responses to known triggers.
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00:00 – 01:32
01 · Cold open: the seven-part system
States the seven pillars (information diet, morning routine, timer plus work form, printed schedule, 3-5 things, momentum, reprogramming mind) and frames personal execution as the piece that makes the funnel, messaging, planning, and metrics actually get built.
01:32 – 07:50
02 · Information diet
Treats consumed content like a diet; blocks news, YouTube, and social media with a VPN-level blocker and a physical distance-tag device, pairs it with an addiction-quitting book, and opens the day with positive input instead of a phone.
07:50 – 14:11
03 · Morning routine
Same bedtime and wake time every day, phone out of reach for the first 60 minutes, most important task done immediately on waking, then a 20/20/20 block (move, reflect, read) from The 5AM Club.
14:11 – 17:08
04 · Timer and work form
60-minute sprints against a physical kitchen timer, logged in a Google Form after each sprint and auto-shared with an accountability group.
17:08 – 20:20
05 · Printed schedule
Breaks vague tasks into their real sub-steps, prints a daily schedule tracked in 15-30 minute blocks, and crosses items off as they're completed.
20:20 – 22:09
06 · 3-5 things per day
Caps the daily priority list at 3-5 items, inspired by a Kevin O'Leary story about Steve Jobs, and spends roughly 80% of the day on them.
22:09 – 24:20
07 · Momentum
Frames momentum as the most powerful force at play: the start is always hardest, and a non-negotiable rule, don't sleep until the 3-5 items are done, is what builds an unbreakable streak.
24:20 – 28:16
08 · Reprogramming the mind
Daily affirmations and goals-app review, a single written major definite purpose, a running list of proof and accomplishments, and pre-scripted thought habits for known triggers.
28:16 – 28:51
09 · Recap and close
Restates all seven points and closes on the idea that you are always the biggest bottleneck in your own business, whatever kind of business it is.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Other than oxygen, the information you consume is the input that shapes your output the most, and most people never audit it.
- Hard technical blocks, like a blocking VPN or a physical distance-tag device, work better against distraction than willpower alone.
- Checking your phone first thing in the morning is the productivity equivalent of a flight leaving 30 degrees off course before it's even airborne.
- Doing your single most important task in the first 60 minutes, before any warm-up routine, prevents the routine itself from eating your motivation.
- A physical kitchen timer plus a logged work form beats an app-based timer, because the phone that tracks the sprint is also the thing that interrupts it.
- Sending a work-form submission to an accountability group works less through guilt and more through seeing other people's completed forms land in your inbox.
- A vague task like 'make a YouTube video' stays undone because it's actually a dozen sub-tasks disguised as one line on a to-do list.
- Printing a schedule and tracking it in 15-30 minute blocks turns an overwhelming mental blob of tasks into a sequence of small, crossable-off steps.
- A 30-item daily to-do list gets abandoned; a 3-5 item list, defended for 80% of the day, actually gets finished.
- Momentum compounds: the hardest day of any habit is day one, and an unbroken streak eventually makes the task feel as automatic as breathing.
- A single, specific, dated goal, like a dollar figure by a named year, reread constantly, does more work than a vague ambition you only think about occasionally.
- Pre-scripting a fixed thought for a known trigger, like a specific reaction to seeing sugar when quitting it, removes the need to improvise willpower in the moment.
- You are always the biggest bottleneck in your own business, no matter what type of business it is.
Seven daily systems that fix self-sabotage before strategy can help.
WHAT TO LEARN
Business failure is usually a personal-execution problem, and it's fixed with seven daily systems, from controlling information intake to deliberate mental reprogramming.
02Information diet
- Use hard technical blocks, a blocking VPN and a physical distance-tag device, instead of willpower to remove news, YouTube, and social media from your day.
- Pair the block with a specific quit-method, such as an addiction-quitting book series, and start the first 60 minutes of each day with positive input instead of a phone.
03Morning routine
- Keep an identical bedtime and wake time every day; the consistency matters more than which specific hour you pick.
- Do your single most important task for the first 60 minutes after waking, before any warm-up ritual.
- Follow that hour with a 20/20/20 block (move, reflect, read) rather than front-loading the reflective routine, which can sap momentum before real work starts.
04Timer and work form
- Work in 60-minute sprints against a physical kitchen timer, then log what got done in a simple form recording the date, hour, task, and a personal standard.
- Auto-send each form submission to an accountability group so peers both catch missed sprints and remotivate you when they see others logging work.
05Printed schedule
- Break vague tasks into their real sub-steps, for example a 'make a video' task becomes title, outline, thumbnail, script, film, upload, before scheduling them.
- Print the schedule and track it in 15-30 minute blocks, crossing off each one as completed; a mental task list stays an overwhelming blob until it's written into slots.
063-5 things per day
- Cap the daily list at 3-5 priorities instead of the 20-30 item lists that create overwhelm and get abandoned.
- Spend roughly 80% of the day on those priorities: 2-3 recurring habits plus 1-2 large tasks time-blocked for 3-5 hours.
07Momentum
- Don't end the day until the 3-5 priority items are done; the non-negotiable rule, repeated daily, is what actually builds the streak.
- Expect the start to be the hardest part; momentum compounds, and an unbroken long streak eventually makes the task feel automatic.
08Reprogramming the mind
- Read a written affirmations list and a top-10 goals list daily, especially during idle moments that would otherwise go to scrolling.
- Write one specific, dated major definite purpose and a running list of past proof and accomplishments to counter negativity bias.
- Pre-script a fixed thought response to known triggers, a craving or a discouraging moment, so the reaction is automatic instead of improvised in the moment.
Terms worth knowing.
- Work form
- A short form, commonly built in Google Forms, filled out after each work sprint to log the date, hour, what got done, and a personal work standard, then auto-sent to an accountability group.
- 20/20/20 method
- A three-part morning block from the book 'The 5AM Club': 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes of reflection such as journaling or affirmations, and 20 minutes of reading.
- Major definite purpose
- A single, specific, dated goal statement, for example a dollar net-worth figure by a named year, written down and reread daily to keep a long-term ambition concrete instead of vague.
- Distance-tag blocker
- A physical device that must be brought within range of a phone to unblock restricted apps or sites, adding real friction to compulsive checking beyond a simple software toggle.
Things they pointed at.
04:33toolFocus Me (VPN-level blocking app)
05:18toolDistance-tag blocking device (shown on screen as Unpluq)
05:57bookThe Easy Way (Allen Carr addiction-quitting book series)
12:03bookThe 5AM Club (Robin Sharma)
15:22toolGoogle Forms (for the work-form accountability system)
20:46channelKevin O'Leary clip on Steve Jobs and signal vs. noise
24:33channelQuote attributed to a coach the transcript renders as 'Alex Tremozi' — audio transcription is unclear on the name, possibly a mis-hearing of a similarly-named business commentator
25:32toolGoals app called 'Accomplish'
Lines you could clip.
01:55
“Other than oxygen, content is the thing that we consume the most.”
03:31
“You could use a baseball bat to play baseball. You could use a baseball bat to beat someone to death.”
06:45
“I'm so happy and grateful that I'm free from YouTube. It basically had no positives or advantages and only disadvantages.”
08:00
“You're trying to fly from Los Angeles to New York, and then you're just flying towards Hawaii for the first hour of the day.”
10:54
“Momentum is probably the most powerful force in the universe.”
24:41
“People need to be reminded more than they need to be taught.”
28:29
“You are always gonna be the biggest bottleneck and the biggest roadblock no matter what type of business you're in.”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogy
This is going to be a video on how to overcome self sabotage and get 10 times more done every day. No matter what content I make, no matter how many clients I work with, actually getting stuff done and getting out of your own way is always the number one problem, and even for me as well.
So in this video, I'm gonna go over seven major things, the information diet, the morning routine, what I call the timer and the work form, having a printed schedule, planning three to five things per day, getting momentum, and reprogramming your mind. And this is what's working for me in my agency and mastermind.
That is what's working with my 550 plus clients. And for each example, I'm gonna do a story.
I'm gonna go over the different problems I face and a five part plan on how you can implement this yourself. So these are the pillars of success in every business. We have our funnel.
We have our messaging. We have our planning. We have our metrics, and we have the personal side.
This, of course, is going to be about the personal side, and it's very, very, very big part of it. Because if you don't have the mindset, the habits, and all of that kind of stuff to kind of get enough done to implement the funnel, do the messaging, do the planning, and do the metrics tracking, like, the rest of the stuff is not really going to get there.
Right? So let's get into the first point. And the first point for me is always the information diet.
So everybody kind of we know what a real diet is, the food we eat, the drinks we consume, and all of that kind of stuff.
But I think that more importantly or equally as importantly is the information that we consume. I watched a it was like a YouTube video.
Like, I've never been able to find it since, but the first line was other than oxygen, content is the thing that we consume the most.
And while most people think about the air quality we breathe, most people don't think about the quality of content we consume, and I think that's extremely true. I think most people don't even get off the ground because their mind is filled with everything except the stuff that actually matters. Like, normally, this will go into, you know, short form content, social media, news, politics, sports, YouTube streaming sites, porn, all of that kind of stuff.
And I know for myself, the number one weakness that ruins my life is both YouTube and news. I'm not really short form content, yes, I guess, if it's on YouTube, but I did not really ever go on Instagram or TikTok.
I don't really go on social media. But YouTube and news have probably cost me 20 times more money in the grand scheme of things than all of the bad hires or mistakes that I've ever made in business.
And I actually purely just block these from my life where I make it so difficult to access all of these things that even if I have a moment where I, like, chimp out and really need to really want to do any of these things, I just can't access it.
There's VPNs. There's blocking tools. There's stuff on my phone.
There's stuff on my computers where it's just so bad for me that I completely got it away from my life. I don't know about news, but you definitely can use new YouTube for good.
Like, I make YouTube videos, and there's definitely stuff to be learned on YouTube. But you can use a lot of things for good. Like, you could use a baseball bat to play baseball.
You could use a baseball bat to beat someone to death. Right? You could use a knife to basically prepare dinner and cut food, or you could stab someone with it.
Like, everything there's very few things that are only used for good or only used for bad. And I had a moment of honesty with myself, let's just say, and 95% of my time I ever spent on YouTube is used for bad.
Like, basically, entertainment, numbing of the brain, and all that kind of stuff. I think of all the things that I'm gonna go over, the information diet was something that made a a big difference for me.
And then another thing too, but I'll go over that in a sec. So here's the plan. If you find that your information diet is bad, if you find you are absolutely, you know, kind of just terrible, you're on your phone all day and it's just like you go and you see that you have, you know, ten hours of screen time and you just don't can't even, like, tell anybody what you actually did, try this plan.
So I use a VPN called focus. Me. This is blocks everything for me.
Basically, you set it up, and then if you go to x, y, and z website or x, y, and z keyword shows up, it just shuts it off. So I do that for all news, YouTube, social media, that kind of stuff. Then I use the child settings on my phone, but I also use something called this is like an actual I think it's sent called an RFD tag where you have this next to your phone, and it will, like like just like in the picture, you know, x, y, and z is blocked.
And to have to unblock it, you have to pull the tag near your phone. You just have the tag or your phone, you know, across the office or across the home.
That's a very good way to do it in my view. The next that I really like, and this is very important to me, if you have, like, some sort of addiction that's really kind of causing you a lot of problems.
Like, I another thing that I did that's not really necessarily the information diet, but I was absolutely addicted to coffee.
And by addicted to coffee, I mean, I would just, like, buy an absolute, like, 10 coffees a day, which is not good for you.
Sure. And probably something something information diet here, but it's also just very time consuming. I read this book and completely quit cold coffee cold turkey, like, basically the next day.
He has one for alcohol, smoking, your phone, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And I think especially if you're in some of those reading this where wouldn't call it necessarily an information diet, but you have addictions that, like, prevent you from focusing.
Very good book to do. Next thing that I always do is I'll get to this in a later part, but I have affirmations about how I'm so free of all of this stuff.
I'm free from distractions. I'm free from my previous addictions, all that kind of stuff. And over time, it becomes more and more ingrained in your brain, and you're just really, really you know, I am able to focus ten hours per day without any problems.
I'm so happy and grateful that I'm free from YouTube. It basically had no neg no positives or advantages and only disadvantages.
I didn't really find it difficult to give up because I didn't actually lose anything. I just freed myself. This kind of stuff in my view is very powerful, especially when you do it over the course of months and years.
And then the first the final thing I think everyone should do is listen to something positive within the first sixty minutes of waking up. So I like to do a Tony Robbins app. I just like to watch or listen to something of that.
I think I'm gonna go over it in a minute in the morning routine, but how you start the day is very indicative of how good or bad the day will be.
And I think when we get our information diet right, we basically free up time for to think about the stuff that actually matters, free up mental space, but we also, you know, are just able to get a lot more done, and we're going to be in a better frame of mind.
So that leads to the next point, which is gonna be the morning routine. And the big problem that I think a lot of people have and why they should have a morning routine is because most people just don't get off to the right start.
They get off to the wrong start. And when you basically are getting off to the wrong start, that's like you're trying to fly from Los Angeles to New York, and then you're just , for example.
And then you gotta go and turn around if you can even turn the ship around at that point. And a lot of the time, you know, wake up, check your phone, you know, check all of the social media. Basically, hammer out the exact wrong thing I talked about earlier with the information diet.
Endless phone scrolling, endless distraction, not a good way to start your day with the information diet side of things. And I think a lot of people just wake up and or get started way too late.
You know, they just wake up 11AM. I remember I was born in Canada, and I spent the first, you know, twenty plus years of my life in Canada.
And when I started working and started being an entrepreneur, I was very good about waking up at five, six, 7AM depending on the time period of life.
I remember when I moved to Dubai the first time just because of the time zone more than anything else. It's nine hours ahead of Eastern time and eleven hours ahead, and you're always taking calls to you know, if you don't keep on track of it, like, you'd be taking calls till two, three, 4AM.
So I think what I did that is, you know, batching all my calls to end at 11AM so I or 11PM so I could go to bed 11PM, wake up at 7AM consistently, and get started on the day versus you are like, what a lot of people do even in The United States is they stay up until forever, and, you know, they wake up at 11:30, middle of the business day.
And when you do that, in my opinion, you're just getting hammered by messages, emails, all that kind of stuff problems. And it's not a good way to have a a nice building positive morning routine when you're waking up too late.
Even so, I don't think getting up early is even the, you know, let's just say catch all solution because a lot of people don't really get into their work early enough.
You know, they might get up at 7AM, but they don't really start working. You know, they're on their phone. They're doing some other morning routine.
I'll go over this one in a minute. They're answering questions to their employees or clients or doing they just get started way too late. And I think that's a complete shame when you're being disciplined and waking up on time, but you're just not actually getting into the routine fast enough.
I think, overall, like, not having a morning routine, like, most people get off to the wrong start. And then if they don't have a you know, even the first sixty minutes of their day kind of, let's just say, scripted or there's no consistency day to day. And consistency day to day builds momentum, which I'm gonna talk about later, and momentum is probably the most powerful force in the universe.
So I think it's kind of essential we start the day the same every time. So to implement a good morning routine, I think a key is the same bedtime and wake up time every day.
Can't be going to bed at eight 8PM, waking up at 4AM, and then 10PM, and then 3AM, and then, you know, we need to have the same general bedtime and wake up time every day.
I like to keep the phone off and out of my bedroom or out of reach within the first sixty minutes of the day. I first thing I do, and this is something that I learned over time because I used to be one of those people that would just sit in an insane morning routine. And by the time you do the morning routine, you're like, wow.
I did so much. I don't wanna work. So the first thing I like to do is basically leap out of bed and go to the computer, turn on something good to listen to, and do sixty minutes of work right away.
Basically, whatever your most important task is for me, it's usually making these YouTube videos. So I'll literally do that within the first sixty minutes rushing to the computer and waking up, and then I kinda invert it.
So I do that sixty minutes of work till I actually get real progress and, like, I actually started something. And then I go and do the twenty twenty twenty morning routine from the 5AM club.
So if you don't never read that book, I really like it. It's the first twenty minutes. We are gonna move.
So I usually do this on the treadmill, and that's where I do some of those affirmations and all that kind of stuff. Next twenty minutes is reflecting.
Sometimes I do that on the treadmill, but sometimes it's, you know, the goal setting, the affirmations, the journaling, that kind of stuff.
And then the final twenty minutes is I grow, and I just read a book there. So when you do that, I think it's kind of the perfect morning routine. So you've got your sixty minutes of actually doing work, and then you've got your sixty minutes of, just say, exercise, mental exercise, and we'll just say spiritual exercise for lack of a better word.
And then we always wanna have our our affirmations, our goals, our days without doing x, y, and z, and then our progress tracking. So affirmations for me, it's like I am every single day, I'm getting closer and closer to becoming a billionaire.
And I think that's a a very important distinction with your affirmations if you're gonna do this is your affirmations cannot be made up. It's not I am a billionaire. It's every day I'm becoming closer and closer to becoming a billionaire.
Because if you don't do it right, I think you can sigh up yourself to actually believe in your own stuff, and I know that from experience. So, you know, like, step number one here. So for me, YouTube video, and then two, you know, treadmill, and then three, kind of goals, and then four, read.
And then this is going to be, for me, typically between six and 8AM, and then I have some very big, very good accomplishments to the time that 9AM eastern time comes around. Like, I've gotten so much done already that not only is actual real work, but is good for the body, the mind, and all of that kind of stuff.
So it's very, very good and very, very important in my opinion. So the next thing is the timer and the work form, and this is by far the number one thing that all of my clients who I get this on say that is the best thing.
And most people, in my opinion, like, just can't even focus for even an hour without Adderall. And, you know, being dependent and relying on Adderall is not necessarily what you wanna be doing either.
I would say that's the exact opposite of what you're gonna be doing. So for me, I always have a timer and a work form. So what does that mean in practice?
That means, like, you're going to Amazon preferably and not using your phone even though I don't have my timer with me right now, so I'm gonna do it here. You have a kitchen timer.
So, like, kitchen timer Amazon. You have something like this, and then you take it and you literally put one hour on there.
I'm just putting my phone here. And you put this down. You could put music in.
You can do whatever you want, and you work nonstop until that timer goes off. Right?
Then when that timer goes off, you have a Google Form or any form, but I like Google Form because it's easy and free. And you say, okay. It's December 29, hour two.
What did I do this hour? Film YouTube video. And what is your work standard?
I am working more and more every day. I get at least eight work forms done per day, and you submit.
And then when you submit it here, it's going to send an email notification and a text message notification if you want to the boys, right, to your accountability group, all your friends, and two things happen. One, you know, you're actually being held accountable because they're gonna see if you're not doing it.
And when you get other people's email in your inbox that they're doing it, it's going to remind you and remotivate you to do work. So to implement, you know, you have your Google Form. It's free.
Just you know? The date and hour, what did you do, and what is your work standard? You could put whatever you want on here, but I like to keep it simple.
You link all those responses to a spreadsheet so you have them all, and you can track how much work you're actually doing. Set up that group chat with the accountability, and then you zap your email over to them. Work for the sixty minutes and then record it.
And this to me is the number one thing I hear. I've worked with 550 or so clients over the past twelve months.
Of the things that I actually tell them to do and they actually do consistently, this is the number one thing that they kind of bring back to me that really, really help them. So it's just one of those things where it doesn't cost you anything.
It's free. It's just a very good mental way to break up the day and actually get work done that I've never found anything as good as this, but I guess some people might think differently.
The next thing is having a printed out schedule. You could also just write it out if you want on a notebook, but I think that this is one of the best things that's you know, I think for me, this is the number one.
And I think for me and a lot of people, they kinda just get, like, technology overwhelm and or they have a lack of awareness of what they should be doing.
It's like, logically or, like, mentally, you know that there's a thousand things that you should be doing, but it's just all one big blob. It's kind of like the phrase, the how do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time. Right? Or how do you climb Mount Everest one step at a time?
And it's kind of like when you take all those things that you know you need to be doing and you put it out into a printed schedule, and a printed schedule can be pretty simple like the one that I use.
So I'll just, like, print this out, and then it's tracking every thirty minutes. And then I'll just write in what I'm gonna do every 30 minutes, and then just cross it off when I do it.
And you just go through that line by line, and you break down all of the big tasks into pieces. You schedule the pieces, and then you just work through it and cross it off one at a time.
So, like, a good example of this would be, like, make a YouTube video. You know? That's a kind of a vague task.
So maybe on, you know, 6AM, create title plus outline or video.
Create thumbnail plus intro script for video.
Create mural board for video. Film video. Film video.
Upload video. Turn video transcript into newsletter, create messaging module for course, upload and format messaging module for course, and you get the picture.
Like, just make a YouTube video, work on the course, do client work, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
Okay. And then we'll go, you know, Logan call, Matas call, Joe call, lunch, exercise, exercise.
And then, like, just you have all of these things in your head, and it's just very difficult in my view to get anything done unless it's printed out on a schedule like that. So I like to create a page like that.
I like to I like to print it out, but you can just also just write in the notebook. And I would either track every fifteen minutes or every thirty minutes depending on how messed your brain is. If your brain is ultra messed, doing it 50 every 15 is a good way to kind of audit your time.
Print it out. Break all the big tasks down on your overall to do list into pieces, schedule them, and then work through it. And you're gonna get a lot done when you're doing this as opposed to anything else.
This is the number one thing for me that keeps me on track. I rarely do a single day without doing this. The next is something where I personally always used to schedule way too many things on my to do list, like 30 things, and then I would just kind of not do any of them because it was so many things and it was so overwhelming.
And I think that's probably what a lot of people do. Where I think that it kind of all changed for me is when I heard a Kevin O'Leary clip of him talking about Steve Jobs.
And, basically, what he said there that Steve Jobs is, you know, literally the the number one person in the world distinguishing the signal and the noise where, you know, he's like, okay.
There's two to three or three to five things that you need to get done over the next eighteen hours, and 90% of your time needs to get done on these things. And that is the mark of a, you know, successful versus unsuccessful person.
So if you do that, you probably spend 80% of the day on these at least, hopefully a 100%, but that's not always realistic. You're probably gonna have two to three habits that you have to get done. So, like, for me, making a YouTube video, writing a thousand words of content, and making a module.
And then you'll probably have one to two large tasks. So, you know, make a welcome flow, make a VSL, make a film these ads, whatever.
Right? You're gonna time block three to five hours on basically kind of, you know, time to work on this, and just do this and repeat it the next day and the next day and the next day until that just becomes kind of what you do.
And when you do it like this, you are shielded from overwhelm, but you're still making a tremendous amount of progress in compared to, you know, doing one or two things per day. It's just very, very strong.
This here could probably be the most important part of the video. This is not really kind of an action step, but this is kind of the whole point of it all, and that is to build momentum. So everything feels hard at the start, and that's why people quit, but it gets easier the more you do it.
And it's the law of thermodynamics. I can't remember which one it was, but it's Isaac Newton. An object in motion wants to stay in motion, and an object in at rest wants to stay at rest.
The exact same thing with all of your productivity and your life in general. When you really get going, it's easy, but most people don't kind of get going, like, for lack of a better word. So, you know, this is why on a daily micro level, the morning routine is so important because that builds momentum for the day, and this is why all of the other stuff is important because it will build momentum for the long term.
So I always like to have my habit tracker apps. I like to do the three to five things that make the day successful. And no matter what, before I go to bed and I won't go to bed until I get all of those things done, those three to five things.
All you really need to do when you do them, and we make it as simple as this. You know, you string the days together, and it becomes easier and easier and easier over time to where it's just as easy as, like, breathing. You know?
If you worked out 365 straight, the three hundred sixty sixth day would be extremely easy. You wouldn't really even need to think about it.
Versus you are trying to work out for the first time, or you're trying to work out for two days in a row, and it's, oh my god. I have to go back to the gym or I have to go running again. Oh my god.
And it's the same thing here where if you have it like this and you build that momentum, you pretty much will become unstoppable. It's going it's kind of like that big boulder or that or not the boulder, but the snowball that, you know, becomes so big rolling down the hill and keeps collecting more and more and more snow until it can't be stopped.
When at the start, it was, like, this big, but then it kept rolling and rolling and rolling and became as big as that. I think that's the number one way to think about it.
You want to become that , and eventually, you can't be stopped, let's just say.
The final thing I wanna talk about is reprogramming the mind, and most people don't have a mindset that serves them.
That's the main problem that they're dealing with. It actually is against them.
And I think that's I quote I like from Alex Tremozi, he said it a few times on certain content that I've consumed over the how many years it is now. People need to be reminded more than they need to be taught, and I think that's absolutely right.
I had a horrible mindset for two to three years. What years would these be?
Probably 2021 to, you know, early twenty twenty four is when I had an absolute terrible mindset about pretty much everything.
And when I was going through it, I obviously needed to knew I needed to change it, but unless you consciously make the effort to do so, you're really gonna be able to do that.
So what I like to do is I have an affirmations app on my phone.
It's called I'm I like to read through my affirmations between five and fifteen minutes per day. I have a goals app on my phone called Accomplish, and I like to look at my top 10 goals over and over and over. Whenever I have downtime instead of YouTube or instead of scrolling news like I used to do from the information diet section, I'll, you know, work through the affirmations and look at my goals.
I have a major definite purpose. Currently, my major definite purpose is to have 55,000,000 liquid in investments by December thirty five 12/31/2030.
Got a ways to go, but I think I'm making good progress. I think of that and repeat that to myself as the goal and the benchmark as much as possible. You can't see it here, but right here, I have I'm sorry.
No. Right here, I have a sticky note on my computer that has this goal. So no matter what, I constantly look at it every day.
And I think one of the cool things or one of the things that I learned from this coach who I think is kind of a hippie. I worked with him last year, and I almost don't agree with almost anything he says other than this.
But he said to you need to keep a list of proof and accomplishments that's like a written list either on your Apple notes or in, a journal, and you need to read that every day because especially when you are ambitious and hard on yourself and you're trying to do x, y, and z and trying to achieve very, you know, big, hard goals, you also should keep this list and remind yourself, like, how far you've actually come and what like, maybe even year over year so that it doesn't feel like you're not making any progress and you're not such a negative person all the time.
Because I'm a historically, a bit of a negative person, to be honest. That's one of the things that really worked well for me.
And then the final thing is, I think, having predetermined thought patterns or thought habits.
Like, a good one that you know, I was trying to quit sugar at one point.
And then I determined that, you know, one of the thought habits when I saw cookies or something like that was, that is absolutely disgusting.
I can't believe I used to eat that. I'm so happy that I no longer do. And anytime I see cookies, sugar, cakes, like, all of that kind of stuff, I literally think that.
And I think another one that's good is when I was creating my big agency is every time I had a lull, every time I was feeling discouraged, like, what I would say is, like, this could be fixed by making better paid ads because that's what's going to acquire customers.
And having three to five predetermined thought habits that are gonna be the highest impact area on your life is one of the highest ROI things that I think we can do. So those are the seven things that I think are, like, the video title suggests, going to help you overcome self sabotage and get 10 times more done.
So to recap, the information diet, the morning routine, the time or the work form, the printed schedule, three to five things to do every day, getting momentum, and reprogramming your mind. Because if we don't get the personal side of things done, we are not really going to be able to get anything else in our business.
You are always gonna be the biggest bottleneck and the biggest roadblock no matter what type of business you're in. So, hopefully, it was helpful, and thank you for watching.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
A marketing agency owner who says he's worked with more than 550 clients over the past year opens by naming the real bottleneck: not the funnel, not the messaging, not the metrics, but whether you actually get the work done. What follows is the seven-part personal system he uses and teaches, from a hard block on news and YouTube to a scripted thought habit for every discouraging moment.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:01list
The seven systems
- Information diet
- Morning routine
- Timer + work form
- Printed schedule
- 3-5 things per day
- Momentum
- Reprogramming the mind
The video's full outline, stated up front and shown as an expanding mind-map board on screen throughout.
Steal fora personal productivity audit, a client onboarding checklist, or a coaching-call framework
12:03model
20/20/20 morning block (from The 5AM Club)
- Move (20 min)
- Reflect (20 min)
- Grow / read (20 min)
A three-part 60-minute block he runs after his first hour of real work, borrowed from Robin Sharma's book.
Steal fora repeatable post-deep-work morning ritual
00:54list
Five pillars of success (business)
- Funnel
- Messaging
- Planning
- Metrics
- Personal
A framework for where a stalled business's problems typically live; the video argues this whole talk is about the 'personal' pillar.
Steal fordiagnosing where a stalled business is actually stuck
How they asked for the click.
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
