Productive, Happy, Focused—How Small Habits Bring Big Success  🔗 **Source:** [Productive, Happy, Focused—How Small Habits Bring Big Success](https://share.snipd.com/episode/f800d5a0-3895-4778-9ebb-4e89c834ad1c) ## Highlights - **How A 5AM Run Sparked A Lifestyle Shift** - Jeff Sanders started waking at 5 a.m. to run while juggling a full-time job, marathon training, and a side business. - That single experiment transformed his mornings into uninterrupted time for major projects and sustained productivity gains. Transcript: Jeff Sanders I think 5am is kind of a miraculous thing. And it was not my story growing up. I definitely was the late riser, the last minute kind of guy. I think that's what led me to early mornings was that I got to a place in my mid-20s where I was kind of tired of waking up feeling exhausted. I was tired of waking up feeling like I'm rushing here. And I was busy at the time. I had a full-time job. I was training for a marathon, building a side business. I'm like, how do I make this work? So I tried waking up at 5 a.m. One day, and I loved it. It just clicked right away, mostly because I woke up and went for a run. And the morning run really transformed how I thought of my day. And so then that led to more productivity down the road. And so instead of running in the morning later on, I started doing major work projects or personal goals. And I've just optimized those early morning hours to make it my time. ([Time 0:02:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e0971c8f-d31f-4d6c-8c67-827df7d3584e)) - **Pick Habits That Feel Right And Show Results** - Jeff chooses habits that feel emotionally right and produce tangible results rather than following one-size-fits-all prescriptions. - He abandons or tweaks habits (like meditation) when they don't resonate, focusing energy on emotionally compelling practices. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Oh, certainly. I don't think I was even looking for a new lifestyle or a new solution necessarily. All I really knew was is that something wasn't working and I needed to do something different. And then when I did something different, even on day one, I was like, oh, there's something to this. And I could lean on this and I could make this into something more. And it wasn't for a few months before I realized that this was going to become a real permanent thing for me. And so for a while, it was just tinkering and trying things and seeing what works. And I've been that kind of guy for a long time. Mostly I apply that to different hobbies I take on or a business I may want to start. But this was the first real intentional lifestyle shift that I made. And I think that once I discovered that I had the ability to just tweak my habits in different ways, then I could see those results. And it was like, oh, this is a thing. This changing my life on a daily basis really adds up. So then what else can I do? And that's for me has led to years of just like exploration to figure out how can I optimize my time? ([Time 0:03:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7e4c000f-ea73-405d-a5bc-69fcfe5f963c)) - **Set Supporting Habits Around A New Routine** - Prepare your life around a habit: to make 5 a.m. work, shift bedtime to 9 p.m. and align related routines. - Momentum depends on surrounding habits and planning, not just willpower at the alarm. Transcript: Jeff Sanders A good question because 5am on day one is fun and 5 a.m. On day two really sucks. You begin to feel the pain of your decision. But no, in all honesty, though, the habits over time have to be something that you have shifted all of the different elements to align to make it work well. And phrase another way, for 5 a.m. To work well, I have to then go to bed at 9 p.m. And that is the key for me that has the habit change is not just the habit itself. It's the lifestyle, the habits around that other habit. And so if everything is shifting to allow it to work, then you can create that kind of momentum over time and allow that to become part of who you are. But it's not going to feel fantastic if you haven't planned ahead for it. And that for me is 5 a.m. Is not a requirement. I don't have to get out of bed at 5. But if I want my early mornings to go well, that means that my day has to lead up to me going to bed on time to get the good sleep, to wake up feeling refreshed. So if the alarm goes off and I'm not happy about it, that probably means that I did something the day before to cause that to be true. And so I want to address that and figure out how to change my life to ensure that the core habits that matter most to me are getting done every day. ([Time 0:07:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5d3c9801-b7d7-475c-a9e9-4e8d46891e6a)) - **Use Progress And Weekly Review To Define Success** - Define success as the progressive realization of a worthy goal and measure it by forward progress. - Use a weekly review (inspired by GTD) to honestly assess wins, failures, and plan next steps. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Questions. I think that for me, success, the actual definition that I use is one I just I stole from somebody else on their late Earl Nightingale, who was a very kind of famous guy with personal development For many years. And he has a definition of success or had that speaks to the core of kind of how I want to live, which is that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. So it's just the idea of making tangible forward progress. And so for me, that's what I'm looking for with anything that I'm setting out to do. Whatever I decide is valuable or worthy of my time, I just want to make sure on a daily basis that I'm making real progress, hopefully in a way that's focused in a way that is impactful and Profound for me. But really, it's just that question of can I check the box to say I did something today that moved me closer to that goal? And then the second component of that, the idea of staying committed, is that I do a very intentional review process every week. This one I also stole from another great guy, David Allen, the author of the book, Getting Things Done. And in that system of getting things done, the GTD system, the weekly review is a really profound and important aspect of that that I've used for many years. And I do that because it forces me to say, you know, let's take a really hard look at my life, my time, my goals, my tasks. What did I do last week? Did it work well? What are my goals for next week? And how can I ensure they get done? And it's really assessing at least once a week in a really intentional way. Here's my life right now. Here's the snapshot of where I am. And here's what went well last week. Here's what did not go well. ([Time 0:10:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2460becf-1403-4d92-a758-570de94ab14b)) - **Doing Less Enables Deeper Productivity** - To be more productive you often must do less and focus deeply on few priorities. - Jeff feels more successful spending a day on two major tasks than completing a long messy to-do list. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Well, the problem you just addressed, I think is really important. The idea that we're so busy, we can't be productive. We're doing so many things that we can't find the time to slow down, which is kind of the irony of productivity of itself is that in order to get more done, we have to do less. And that for me is like one of the most profound lessons that I always struggle with. But I know is important because the only way for me to live the life I want to is to be very focused and specific on the few things I give my energy to, which is why I have to be really good at Saying no to lots of things. That's also why if I have a meeting on my calendar that gets canceled all of a sudden, I get really excited because now I know I have some free time that I can then fill with things that I value Just as much or even more. And so I look forward to opportunities where I can reflect, where I can dig into these difficult problems. And I know that every single day I'm asking that question, how do I make this to-do list smaller? How do I do less in order for me to invest myself more into a fewer number of items? Because that's how I feel more successful. I feel so much better when I do two things all day, but my whole day was about those two things, as opposed to a to-do list that's a mile long. I may have done a hundred things, but I feel overwhelmed. I feel exhausted. I just feel beat up by that process. So I don't want to live like that. ([Time 0:15:57](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a5c84604-7e0a-44cc-abad-f3e58c8a9019)) - **Filter Tasks By Immediacy And Postpone The Rest** - Filter incoming tasks by what is due today and intentionally postpone or delete nonurgent items. - Treat many interruptions as postponable and reserve calendar focus blocks for what matters now. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Trying to figure out with filtering, it comes down to what's due today. What do I absolutely need to address now? And so a lot of the filtering that I do is just delaying things, postponing them till later. And that's not a process. It sounds like I'm just procrastinating or just being lazy, but it's actually a very intentional way of addressing and filtering the noise that comes in. Because most things that come at us every day are things that definitely could be done later. And so my only real question for today is how do I make today the best it can be? And generally that answer is focusing on a few things. And the rest of stuff that comes in should be done later. And so if I can figure out how to A, delete things, I'll do that, or B, just postpone them to a time that's more ideal for me and my schedule, then I can figure out in my calendar how to guarantee Focus blocks of time around those new tasks that have just popped up. ([Time 0:17:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ea8ab413-bb14-4336-b58a-98ac08c3ca79)) - **Reframe Procrastination As Strategic Delay** - Reframe procrastination as a strategic choice to delay nonessential tasks rather than a moral failing. - Saying no or delaying frees time for higher-value work and reduces reactive busyness. Transcript: Rachel Cooke Love what you just said about procrastination. And I'm chuckling as I'm listening to you say this because we've given it that label like it's a bad thing. But to your point, procrastination is sometimes a strategic choice. I'm not doing it because I'm lazy, which is sort of what procrastination tends to imply. I'm not doing it because it doesn't demand my attention right now. And I'm being strategic about the things that do. And I think sometimes part of what holds us up is just semantics, right? Let's not call it procrastination. Let's call it a strategic choice. I tend to say the same thing with some of my clients about the idea of perfectionism, right? I think we have a tendency to hide behind it. Well, I can't ship this yet. It's not perfect and I'm a perfectionist. But really, sometimes you need to make the tough call and say, this is good enough. I'm gonna ship it and move on. So I think productivity has some terms and labels associated with it that can kind of hold us back sometimes. Oh, certainly. Jeff Sanders There's a lot to productivity I think people get hung up on, which, yeah, it stops you from being your best self because you believe that there's some sort of societal impression about This terminology. And really, at the end of the day, it's like, did the things that matter to you get done? And if that's true, then odds are you're doing fine. And the people that really want to get a hold of you, they'll try again or they'll just give up. It's not actually a thing that you have to be that concerned about. And so I think for me, most of the time, it's this pressure from someone else that you think is important, but really it probably isn't or probably could be postponed. ([Time 0:18:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/56d18927-8dbb-4d02-ab5a-68575c35a917)) - **Schedule Protected Focus Blocks For Big Work** - Block focused time (FBOTs) on your calendar for single tasks like writing or reading and protect those hours. - Jeff wrote his book by going to the library, turning off his phone, and treating those sessions like gym time. Transcript: Jeff Sanders This has been a concept for me that has really revolutionized how I am productive and how I'm most importantly effective with my time. And so for me, I use the acronym of a focused block of time. I call it an FBOT. And so my FBOTs are just times on my calendar where I guarantee focus for one specific task. So a simple example most people are aware of would be time at the gym. If you're going to go work out and you walk into the gym and you're wearing your gym clothes and you're going to work out that day, you've got an hour on your calendar guaranteed for it. The odds that you're going to work out are extremely high because you're already in the right place with the right materials. The time's already guaranteed on the calendar. So at the end of that hour, pretty good chance you probably worked out. It was probably a decent workout. So you got the results you wanted. But that same level of intentionality is usually not applied to work. And so that's what I like to apply with something like, for example, my last book that I wrote. I went to the library, and that was my gym time with the book. So I'm at the library. I have my materials. I'm ready to focus. My phone is turned off. Nobody knows that I'm here. So there's no distractions from other people. Like I'm going to sit and write and be done with it in a few hours. And I did that exact process over and over and over again until the book was finished. And that simplicity for me makes the task at hand so much easier to focus on because that's all I'm doing. I'm not doing anything else. I'm not going to try to do anything else. And when that happens, it is amazing how much you get done and so fast. And the quality bar goes up and it feels great. You end those sessions. I just feel wonderful because I know that time was spent on an important project and I got a lot done on it. And so I try to apply that simple methodology as a focus block of time to those few projects and goals I'm working on and to guarantee that time on the calendar. ([Time 0:21:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4437ac9c-b4e6-4950-8137-cfc3f82284b2)) - **Use Calendar For Events And A Task Manager For Tasks** - Separate guaranteed calendar events from small tasks by using a task manager plus calendar. - Jeff keeps meetings on his calendar and minor tasks in Nozbe so his calendar stays sparse and focused. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Of the things that I started doing a few years ago was balancing how I use my calendar versus my task manager. So I use an app called Nozbe, N-O It's very similar to other tools like Asana or Todoist or Trello. These are very common task manager tools. And so the one that I use is very similar to the rest of them, but it's the way I use that in comparison to my calendar that I think has made a big difference for me. So the way my calendar is set up is I have events and guaranteed large blocks of time. So if a meeting that I have or a scheduled call with someone for a podcast, for example, that'll be on the calendar versus my smaller tasks, the little things, those are all in the task Manager. And the reason why that's important is because I think it's very easy for a calendar to fill up really fast with a lot of minutiae. It's very easy to fill one space with way too many ideas that really don't belong there. And so one way to help kind of mentally process all the things we have going on is to not have everything in one view. We have things separated into buckets and kind of placed in different apps for different reasons. So you're never quite seeing everything at once, because if you do, you'll probably go crazy because there's so many things that could be addressed. And so for me, it's figuring out how to drop these items into various buckets so that when I want to focus on something, I can go see that one area of my life and get more value from it. And I think that has worked really well for me because now my calendar looks a lot more sparse. It only has the guaranteed events and meetings, and it doesn't have everything on it. And the task manager, same idea, a bunch of little things, but they're scheduled and they're in buckets there and organized as well so that I only see what I need to when I need to see it. ([Time 0:23:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2c4d4a6f-eae2-49a4-a5ab-978c9103907a)) - **Delete Nonsense By Saying No Repeatedly** - Delete 'nonsense'—tasks that don't align with priorities—by saying no repeatedly to free time and reduce overload. - Jeff calls removing those mismatched commitments a muscle that grows stronger with practice. Transcript: Jeff Sanders Is one concept in my last book that I wrote that I love discussing because I feel like it defines my life a lot of times, which is that in the book, I discuss what I call nonsense. And nonsense is anything that does not have to get done that for whatever reason is on your to-do list, it's on your calendar. And I feel like a lot of us have a lot of nonsense in our lives. We just, for one reason or another, said yes to something that doesn't really fit our current priorities, doesn't fit our goals, doesn't fit who we are, who we want to be. And so I find so much joy in just deleting the nonsense, just getting rid of it completely and walking away forever. And when that happens, you can take a really busy life and make it so much more manageable because you just said no over and over and over again. And it's a muscle. It requires effort to figure out how to grow that and get better at saying no. But the more you do it, the better you feel and the more time you have. And I just I love it. It's still difficult. I still have to use that muscle in that sense to really say no more often, but it is such an effective way to just be more on top of your life because you're not filling it with nonsense. ([Time 0:25:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/975b4f48-f84c-4c1c-b993-995171ad0b9e))