How To: Improve Productivity For Your Business & For Yourself!

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the biz to biz podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the great Karnak of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. And in today's podcast, we're going to be going over some productivity, you know, tools or things for yourself and in business. Um, it's 2024, so we thought, you know, what a better time to, uh,, you know, give, give our thoughts or, you know, give some, uh, of our tips and how we do things daily to, to stay ahead of the game and stay productive both, both personally and in business. How you doing, man?

I'm doing good. It's a long— been— I can't believe January's almost over. It's crazy. It's been a kind of a, kind of a roller coaster month.

Time warp.

Yeah. Yeah, 2024 went quick.

It was a full moon already yesterday. Yeah, that was weird.

We're having some weird weather too, like, what is the—

it's the— is it the king tide?

That is—

are we still in a king tide type of—

I don't know. That king tide is so crazy, man. Like, down in like Miami and other parts of like the beach, you know, like Hollywood.

I read something about water comes down in Miami that just It's crazy how they built this system. So I read this real quick. So I read an article about— so they did a survey of Miami, the land, right?

Yeah.

They found the highest point.

Yeah.

Of land. Do you know what that was?

No.

So the highest point was the projects of where like poor, low-income families live. Okay. Yeah. So what did they do? They're literally kicking all of those people out one by one, moving them all over Florida— Hialeah, North Miami, Pompano. They're giving them these vouchers, but they're like literally separating families.

That's crazy.

And there's, there's literally nothing these people—

what are they going to do, build high-rises?

What do you think they're going to do?

It's nuts.

It's just sickening, bro. On top of it, it's literally like there's still some green there.

You know what's really bad is that we— I think—

Shame on you, Miami. Whoever is in charge of that, you guys are terrible people. No, you know, karma will come back to you.

It was terrible because remember last year we did it, we read a news story how they sold the last piece of green land in Miami. And it's nuts. Like, even by my house, right, we have this empty golf course.

Yeah, there's two of them, right?

So one of them they're gonna build townhouses on. Now the one that's in my neighborhood they want to build on too, but they can't really build on it because they would have to break a whole bunch of laws or change laws and zoning. And also there's like, the land's been tested for things like arsenic and all these chemicals.

'Cause it's a landfill. It was once a landfill, wasn't it?

No, it was, there was, no, they had like, there was a gas spill like in the property. But in the old days, The golf course has been there since 1990. So in the old days, they used to use some pretty harsh chemicals.

Oh, for sure.

Right. And then in the deed of the property, it says that they can't move the dirt that's there.

Anywhere else.

Anywhere else. So what are they going to do with it?

They're going to put it in the ocean.

No, they can't move it.

Dude. Okay.

Well, I'm just saying they're not supposed to anyway, but they would get caught because it's surrounded by houses. But that developer, these developers that want to develop there, the neighbors are— we're already gearing up to fight with them.

So money talks and bullshit walks, brother.

Well, we'll see what happens, you know.

So we'll see. We sell—

we shall see. But you know, you need green because when it rains, where does the water go?

Nowhere.

Well, it has to go somewhere, and you got to have somewhere for the water to go.

In Miami? No, in Miami, in people's houses. Exactly. I don't mean to laugh, but dude, it's terrible.

No, it's— and you would think like this king tide thing's been going on for years Like, they would come up with some kind of solution where the water is not backing up into the streets everywhere and the streets 5, 6 feet underwater. And it's like the same neighborhoods are flooding all the time. Yeah. And they don't do anything to prevent that, that flooding. Well, it's pretty—

anyway, same on you guys for kicking those people out of their houses. That sucks. Yeah, they did the same thing to the people in the Cabrini-Greens of Chicago. Well, you know, exact same thing. Gentrification, bro. It just, it's just a sad thing. And then we could talk about this all day.

Yeah.

That's stuff that's gone down. So, um, I'll start first because I feel like I kind of—

I—

well, I did. I, I chose this podcast topic.

Okay.

Um, so for work, my number one productivity tool is, it's called Strict Workflow. Um, it's a It's an extension that you install to your browser on Chrome, and it's based off the Pomodoro Effect. That's a book you should read. It's really good. It's about productivity, both in personal and in life. I've mentioned it in the podcast probably a dozen times.

Oh yeah.

Um, so what it is, is it's a 25-minute workflow and then a 5-minute break. So you click the little— for whatever reason, a tomato is the— is the—

well, Pomodoro is a tomato.

Oh, well, now it makes sense. Okay, it's a Pomodoro. Ask the chef and he shall give you the answer for the Pomodoro.

Yeah, there's Pomodoro sauce.

So nice. I'm gonna have to Google that. And then so the 25 minutes are distraction-free. It literally You can't go to social media, or you can go, but it'll just be blank. It restricts your view of any social media, YouTube. The YouTube is a little crappy because, you know, it's for people who are working in it. But yeah, I believe that, I know for a fact you can, you know, click to separate what sites you want to be banned, not banned, but, you know, block yourself from. And then, so the 25 minutes goes, a little buzzer goes off, and then you got 5 minutes to do whatever it is that you want to do. Now, I mean, typically I would say don't, you know, go directly to social media, right?

Right.

I mean, I would say take that 5 minutes, stand up, you know, if you're behind it, if you're, you know, working on a laptop or whatever you're doing, you know, we're in the office all day. So get up and move around, get up and move around, you know, do a jumping jack, a pushup. You know, meditate for 5 minutes, whatever it is.

I would love to see that jumping jacks, and all of a sudden, like, you, Sean, and Samantha all jump up and start doing jumping jacks.

I've definitely done some push-ups in the, in, in the back room when I was feeling tired. Okay. Uh, it's a good idea.

So that's the, uh, we should have a buzzer go off in the office and then everybody does jumping jacks for 5 minutes.

I mean, we'd be in, we'd be like We'd be laughing. We'd all look like David Goggins. You know who that guy is?

No.

Oh dude, you need to Google David Goggins. Shout out to David Goggins.

Okay.

That dude is a monster.

That's probably gonna make it onto a reel.

Dude, David Goggins went through Navy SEAL training not once, not twice.

Okay.

But 3 times. Wow. In 1 year, bro.

That's insane.

They say, Every time you go through that, it knocks off 5 years of your life.

Oh, that's not good.

But that dude, he's ripped, bro. He was like, he was like me. I weighed like 300 pounds. He joined the military and he just felt, you know, he just said, I got to change.

Okay.

So yeah, shout out to him.

Yeah.

David Goggins, man, you're the man. Yeah. So then it's so 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of break.. And then you do that, you know, 3, 4 times in a row. And bro, when I tell you your workday is gonna go phew. By the time you're done doing it, your first 4 hours are done. I'm not kidding you. So I typically try to do that in the afternoon. My mornings are more for like emails, reading, you know, just checking on the website.

You know what they say the number one distraction is at work? The NCAA, when people do the bracket. Oh, that's like a huge—

I mean, I used to be into that so hard. Me and my pops, man, we'd go get like 15 of them.

Yeah, eat.

Not, not like together, we'd have like 5, okay, maybe 6, 3 each, right? And we would just, you know, pick them and we'd be— but, you know, I wouldn't— I would just look at the end of the day. I wasn't—

no, but some people were like super obsessed with that, or people getting on dating sites all the time. So a lot of businesses like even block that from their server. Okay.

You know, so that's my number one productivity tool.

Okay.

And, uh, what do you got?

My number one productivity tool that has— that helps me keep on track during the day is the— my Outlook calendar. And I make sure everything is on that calendar.

Okay.

And this way, you know, I know where I need to be. What phone calls are scheduled, what meetings are scheduled, and then I schedule everything else around that. And it's really important so that, you know, I keep that— just make sure, you know, because sometimes I'll have, you know, 5, 6 meetings in a day, right? You know, and, uh, you know, and then another day there'll be, you know, one meeting. So, you know, you know, it just goes by what customers want. But, you know, at the same time, you just keeps you on that schedule. And, you know, people used to, you know, pre-COVID, used to have to pull teeth with people. I remember doing like an online demo and you'd be like, oh, I'm going to send you this Zoom link. They'd be like, what? What do you mean I'm going to see your screen? They would be freaking out. Now today, people just hop on those things, no problem. Yeah, you know, and I trained tons of people, you know, how to use that like during the COVID period when they didn't know how to use those tools.

Oh, really?

Oh yeah. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of people never used it before, but I used it a lot, especially for, you know, online demos and conversations.

You know, the calendar for me, bro, to be honest, I find myself getting very overwhelmed at calendars, right? When I, when I, when I do my to-do list and my—

well, don't put that on there, but How else do you do it? No, but I put— but the important, like an appointment. Oh, I'm gonna go, right?

I'm not taking meetings like you, right?

But let's say we're gonna go out, never talking on the phone. But let's say we're going out to a convention for 5, 6 hours. Yeah, right. Or I'm gonna be— I know I'm gonna be out of town. I want to block off my calendar. I don't want to get people going to the website and trying to schedule a call, you know.

Speaking of the website, I fixed it. That guy sent us that video Just had some— there was 3 updates, man. When WP Rocket, dude, and when Yoast and SEO— when Yoast and WP Rocket need updates, yeah, they like just blow the site up.

That's crazy.

I mean, it's WordPress for you.

No, but it's, you know, but that's the, you know, it's, it's crazy how everything, you know, you just— it just makes you— the calendar kind of keeps you in check for like what you have to do so that you have, you know, any important tasks on there, not just every I mean, I agree.

I agree. I mean, I was just saying, like, in the back, I, I guess I used it more as like a planner, right? Like, I would use my, my time as a planner.

That could be tedious.

Never was successful with that. I mean, for some, like, for some people it works, but, you know, for me it didn't.

But that can be very tedious.

Oh, it is. But it's on an organizational level, it made me, you know, like my anxiety was like really good, you know, to see it all organized.

Right.

But then to actually, you know, get in there and execute the stuff was a totally different story.

Yeah, because maybe you give yourself too much to do.

I always, always.

And then that's not good because then you don't feel productive at the end of the day.

Exactly. When you go back to reflect on your day and you see that you only got one of your action items done and that don't feel good. But so, so I agree. So number 2 on my list for like work type things, and this is, I mean, more of a, I don't know, I guess a, a tool to, to help me with my work, which, which is, you know, I, I mean, it's like artificial intelligence.

I would agree that that's very important that people need to learn how to use OpenAI and Figure AI.

All these, I mean, there's a lot of different types of— I don't want to go in there and just talk. I'm just saying artificial intelligence in general, the number one on the list of that tool right now is ChatGPT, right? And, you know, we use that for a lot of different writing prompts and, you know, writing, uh, help, whatever, um, social media posts, stuff like that. Um, but don't rely on that to do your work. But I'm saying it helps you in your being productive, right? If you got to crank out some blog posts for the week, and you give that, you know, a good—

can give you a boost.

Yeah, it just gives you a good foundation and somewhere to start instead of you sitting there crafting the idea and then putting it all together. It gives you a whole, you know, a little blueprint for you to go ahead and Execute, execute, execute. Yes. What about you?

No, I would agree. AI is very important. Tools-wise, let's think. I had something on my— one thing that I think is a really important tool that I don't know how— I'm not very good with using, but my assistant always uses Adobe Sign. So when we're sending out documents to people, we get it Adobe signed. Another important tool like that goes along with that are using all the portals that we have. So we're not doing paperwork anymore, right? I think people are really used to now, like, not getting paperwork, you know, for when they're opening a merchant account. They're used to like, oh, they've got a link to the portal, right? And their information is going in there and You know, and that's all, you know, that's how that all works out, you know. So, you know, tools like that, any kind of tools you can use to help you like automate and things like that, yeah, it's going to help you with your business. And, uh, so, you know, those, those kind of things are important to incorporate into your business is any kind of, uh, you know, automation that you can use, you know.

I agree.

For your business.

Yep. We got a, we got, we got an intruder.

I think we got a lunch delivery.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So I agree.

That makes sense. Hey, whatever. You know what I mean? But yeah, I agree. You know what I mean? But I don't know. Any, far as productivity in the office, this is gonna be different for everybody, right?

Yeah.

And in work, you know, you gotta find what's, what's gonna help you be the most productive. But I really think that everyone should definitely check out the Pomodoro Effect. Read the book, read the book first. The book is really good. I can't remember the author's name. I should have Googled it before. I'll Google it now. But yeah, then download the app. It actually tells you in there, like in the book to download the extension for Chrome.

Oh, that's cool. Yeah.

So who wrote the book?

You know, I think, you know, I think like every, you know, I don't take enough time for like reading, you know, like a motivational.

So it's called The Pomodoro Technique.

Technique.

Oh, wait, no, it's not the book.

The Pomodoro Effect book.

Francesco Cirillo.

Oh, sounds Italian.

Yes. I mean, it was really— it's really worth the— it's worth the read. It's worth the money to buy the book. But so personally, to stay productive. Well, it's all—

I find things like you said, like when you get up, I try to take like a few walks during the day.

Yeah.

Of course, I have Rocky to help with that because he wants to always go for— he's good for going for a walk around the complex. But I think when you're working all the time, it's good to get up, get out, get out of your chair. Forget— besides the jumping jacks, when you're taking your lunch break, take a walk and do something relaxing. That's how I start my day, with a walk. And it kind of clears my head and I'm outside. And maybe I put on music or Maybe I'm playing a word game on my phone while I'm walking. But getting outside and doing that walk for like an hour, it clears your head and helps you make productive. Another thing that I think is important for productivity is to take your important tasks and put it on a list, whether you put it on your computer which I'm not a big fan of. I get a notebook out and I write it in a notebook. And that way—

Your goals are— it's better to write them.

Yeah, it's better to write them down because when you write them down, you kind of re— I think it's reinforcing it.

No, it's not kind of. You're writing it. You're writing it into existence. You're creating your plan for the day, whatever it is. That's detrimental.

Yeah, I feel like I think it's important to, you know, to write those things down.

On top of that, I think that society needs to go back to that. Put this down, put the phone down. Like, literally, I'm almost to the point, bro, that I'm gonna be that guy. Yeah, that has the flip phone, right? Because I don't use it. I literally don't use this thing for what it's— the capabilities of what it has in here. I don't, I don't use it, man. Like, I don't. It's no, it's not. I'm, I'm working on a laptop all day, or am I, or on the PC, dude, right? I don't— what am I gonna do on here besides take a video or a picture? And they have a camera that I can— that's about this, a little bit cheaper than this, that does the same kind of thing, you know what I mean? I, I, I don't I think that as society, we have really, really set ourselves up, and specifically in the United States, dude. I mean, I can't talk for everyone, but I know that we go back to working with our hands, writing stuff, going to actual places.

In school, they need to make kids write with their— write things down so they have good handwriting skills. No, the thing with the phone is I find if I'm out of the office, let's say I have to go take my son to an appointment, doctor's appointment, or my mom somewhere, I have my phone and I'm getting an email. Great. Well, I'll tell you a crazy story. So I was talking to a guy one day and he's like, man, he goes, when I'm trying to make a sale, he goes, I go nuts. He goes, I'm hitting the guy with an email, a text message, a WhatsApp message. I'm calling his office, calling his cell phone. He's on Facebook. I'm hitting him with a Facebook message, a LinkedIn message. I mean, there's a million ways to get a hold of somebody today.

I will block the shit out of you if you do that to me, bro. I am blocking you, bro.

I'm just saying.

But that's stalker stuff. Yeah, that's not okay, man.

No, I know, but I'm just saying, like, the left— but the amount of ways social media and technology has made that okay.

Okay to certain people, like, you know what I mean? Like, if I'm trying to— yeah, no, no, no, no, no.

And I also think like the cell phone and like all the messaging and emailing, it's also— I think it's also made people a little ruder.

It's made people— man, the whole world is just mean as hell. No, I'm just saying, like, I'm just saying the whole world is mean, dude. People are mean as shit. And yeah, where I'm from, you get slapped in the face. So be nice. Yeah, if you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all. And if you're feeling grumpy, go take a walk or a run. I'm telling you, that's my number one thing for personal, uh, productivity is physical activity. Um, I, you know, I, I said I was joking about the jumping jacks, right? But yo, like, literally, like, you can't go wrong with doing a set of 25 jumping jacks. You can't. You know, you're feeling a little sluggish or, you know, you don't want to get up and go, hit them 25 jumping jacks before you get in the shower. I guarantee you're going to feel— or if you can't do 25, do 10 or whatever, you know. It's like, if jumping jacks ain't your thing, do a set of 10 push-ups.

Okay, I want to get— I want to see a real video of Justin doing 25 jumping jacks. If you want to see that, let us know. Okay. Me and Justin will do 25 jumping jacks.

I would like to see you do 25.

I can do 25 jumping jacks. I'll do them right now. Sure.

No thanks. No thanks. Yeah, no, but my, like, the setting the goals, you know, I haven't gotten to the point where I'm doing like setting goals in the morning time and, you know, setting myself up for the super awesome days that I know like is out there that are coming. But that's on the list, you know what I mean? Setting goals, like, and I'm not saying like in the, just in the morning, I've, I've set goals, but like you set goals and you have to set intermittent goals so that you don't have like, oh, I want to save $10,000, $20,000, you know what I mean? That's a big number, right? So say instead of that, I want to save $200 every 3 months. Okay, you know, so then that way you look up and you're like, okay, here, I'm— 3 months passed, boom, I got more than $200, I did great. And you know, that way you're setting yourself up for success.

Exactly.

Um, declutter, declutter, and declutter. I was used to—

less is more.

I used to be a guy that had his desk full of like all kinds of stuff everywhere. And then I realized that this was actually working against me.

Counterproductive.

Yes, it definitely was.

Some people can live with organized chaos.

I mean, I'm still pretty chaotically organized, but you know what I mean?

That's my word I made, organized chaos.

You didn't make that up.

Okay.

Nice try.

I've used that word before. Yes.

It's a good way of describing the office.

Yeah.

Anyway, and my personal, like, this is something that really, I've been saying this for years, right? You are what you consume.

Right.

Right. So that goes to your diet and everything else, right? And specifically, I'm talking about the music that we digest. And I guess I'm aiming more towards like, the my, my, my, the hip-hop heads and stuff like that, right? The kids, people who listen to hip-hop, stop listening to that sad-ass, depressing, murderous music, bro. Like, every time I've, you know, you turn the radio on, it's something so sad. And the music, the lyrics is just bad. Like, Those are spells, man. It's like you start thinking and believing that type of stuff, yo. So stop listening and consuming the negativity. And I promise you that your life will be better. You will feel better about yourself. You'll be nicer. There's a lot of good things that'll start happening.

I think those things start to affect people's psyche because when you're listening to things where there's a lot a lot of negativity or violence and things like that.

Absolutely.

I think that it— that, that you lose your, uh, sense of sensitivity.

Well, on top of that, like, especially if you're traumatized already, right? Like, you know, I, I went through some serious therapy over the past year, and, you know, I'm still in therapy, and, you know, you start learning about like the trauma, and then, you know, these little things that trigger— you might not even know it Right. But that song that makes you cry, yeah, you should stop listening to it, man, because it's triggering your trauma. And yeah, you got to face your traumas, but you don't have to face your trauma over and over and over again every day, right? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Or you can—

or you could be listening to something that's making you angry.

That as well. You know, I'm not just talking about hip-hop, I'm talking about hip-hop for me because That's the music.

It could be any song, anything, any kind of thing that can trigger—

I had to stop listening to Tupac because Tupac makes me sad. It just makes me sad, yo. Like, I have bad stuff happen. Like, that's like the soundtrack to negative shit, right, of my life. Shout out to Tupac, he's amazing. I love you, you know what I mean? Rest in peace. Man, but listen to Griselda. Specifically listen to Westside Gunn. Yo, he's gonna make you feel motivated. He's gonna make you want to get up, go hustle. He's gonna make you want to put on some nice clean clothes, you know, make you look fly, feel fly, all of that. But yeah, listen to Griselda Records. Benny the Butcher's album is coming out tomorrow. Everybody Can't Go. And that's a major, major gem. Everybody Can't Go. Just, just listen to that album, man. But yeah, that's, that's for me. Those are my, you know, that main— those are the main things, dude, like for me. And my, my personal is to also journal. I forgot to mention journaling. Journaling is so— I can't even express how great of a thing.

You know, iPhone just put an app on the phone.

I did.

Journaling.

I told my— I bought all of my kids a journal.

Okay.

And one of them says to me, yeah, I'm probably not going to use that because they put it in the phone. And I, you know, I was so disappointed, man, because it's like, what happened to writing? Can you imagine the penmanship? Everybody's penmanship, they're going to look like doctors. Writing. No one's gonna be— but do you even know how to spell? Do people even know how to spell anymore?

No, there used to be a thing called a spelling bee.

Does that still happen?

Yeah, they still have the National Spelling Bee.

Well, that's bullshit. You know, I'm talking about like, yo, man, no penmanship. Yeah, and learn how to— no, Nazi, that's Yahtzee. Is that it?

No, I don't know if Scrabble— Scrabble. Oh, I love Scrabble.

Yeah, it's a great word, great game, word games.

I play Scrabble, Words with Friends, Mortal.

He tried to get me to play. I'm not playing Wordle.

Okay, I like words. I like—

I love— I mean, I used to rap, bro, so I mean, I like words. I like writing and poetry and all that.

Still waiting for Justin to rap, but that's okay.

Yeah, that's right, you heard correct. I'm Jay Classic, the love for hip-hop won't stop, my culture's classic. Anyway, all right, mic drop. Yeah, man, um, shout out to all the people out there that listen, we appreciate you. Thanks for turning— tuning in as much as you do. I was looking at the analytics. Uh, there's a lot of people that are listening to our podcast on the browser. Oh, so that doesn't— for whatever reason, we're not really seeing, like, I don't know, it's really hard to, to try to—

the— yeah, podcast analytics Like, I look at—

just think about it, like, you'd have to be on SoundScan.

No.

Yeah, you would.

No, you can open up Spotify on your computer.

Yeah, but that's just— we get that. I'm talking about that's the only thing we're really seeing. I don't, you know, like, I see all the Apple Podcasts. Anyway, we'll have a discussion about podcast analytics maybe the next time we talk. Okay, that'll be a good— that'll be good. We'll just talk about processing data for your business and podcast or something.

Well, we can talk about analytics of your social media.

Sure. Things like that. Anyway, how do you measure it? Yeah, do it, do, do better. Shout out to, uh, everyone that's listening. Smash that subscribe button for us. Like, share.