Our Daily Rituals That Allow Us To Accomplish So Much 👥

Welcome to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast.

With your hosts, Matt Wolf and Joe Fear.

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast.

Hello, Hello. Joe Fear here.

Joe Fear, Matt Wolf. Today is going to be another little. I keep wanting to call them solo episodes, but they're duets.

They're duets. We're doing another duet.

Mr. Matt, we're doing another duet today.

Oh, God. Yeah. So in this episode, as in all episodes, I don't always say this, but basically, basically our whole concept and our whole goal with these things is to talk about some kind of template process or system that you can then extract from this audio for you or video, if you're watching us. Hi, video people. And go implement that thing in your own life. And there's a way to do it in business. I know there's a lot of people, entrepreneurs listening, small business owners listening to this, but there's also a lot of folks who don't have a business or maybe want to one day. So we try to cater to everyone. Not everyone, but, you know, pretty much everyone can do these things. Especially today's topic. What are we talking about today, Matt?

So today we're going to talk about flow and focus, Hustle and some sort of like, habit mindset Y goodness. So Joe and I, we both, I don't know if you'd really call them rituals, but they're sort of things that we use to help us focus and get into flow state and get a lot done. I mean, I think things from an outside perspective, people who look at us, see us and go, those guys produce a lot of shit.

In a one week period.

We're up to like 11 or 12 podcast episodes now. We just released a book. We're putting out a monthly newsletter every single month. We're still doing work with some of our clients and we've got a blog and you're posting on Influenceive and capitalism.com and Huffington Post and trying to get.

On entrepreneur.com right now.

Trying to get on entrepreneur.com we're being interviewed on other people's podcasts. I think from an outside perspective, people see us as these guys get shit done. They just crank stuff out there. And we do actually have some sort of tactics and processes and tools and stuff that we utilize to help us get into those states. And that's what we want to talk about today is some of these processes, some of these tools, some of these mindset things that we do to get into to be able to achieve and do as much as we do we kind of already talked about one of the more important ones in the very first episode, which is our partnership in the first place.

That's true.

Right. So one of the reasons we do accomplish so much is Joe and I, we have, like, a list of all this stuff that we want to accomplish. We actually have another office that we meet at from time to time, and we've got a giant whiteboard, like a wall of whiteboard, basically, and we map out all the stuff we want to do. And then at the end of mapping it out, we say, okay, what are you going to take on? What am I going to take on? All right, break. Let's go. And then we leave. We don't go back to that office for, like, a week.

Yeah, it's true.

And we go and we knock out the things that we put on each other's plates.

And normally. What, Matt, you and I see each other once per week. Yeah, about once a day is an average. A pretty good average number. And the rest of the time. Yeah, we're working at home, or maybe I go to the office without him there. I just, you know, it just. It works out. We know what we're doing. And it all stems from. Yeah. Good planning. And I feel like it's. It's daily habits and rituals. I guess we want to call them that or just. Just habits, you know, techniques that we then take to our personal life. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, you got to get your mind straight first. Yeah. And then that leads into everything you do. Absolutely. So, Matt, how about you start with, like, what's the very first thing you do in the morning?

The very. Do you really want to know?

The very. I don't want to know that thing.

For jokes. Just kidding.

So, you know, my.

No, like, what's. What's. Like, what's your morning ritual? Because. Because I think we're different.

Yeah. Oh, we're very different.

You. Time block. I just saw. I just saw his Google time blocking, and his first thing says morning rituals. Yeah. No, worky. Yeah.

So, I mean, my. My morning rituals aren't always as on point every day as I'd like them to be. That's, you know, we've got the two kids here, so a lot of times I'm getting up with them and, you know, getting them dressed and fed and all that kind of stuff in the morning. Alana does that a lot, too. But, you know, I do it sometimes as well.

Teamwork.

It's teamwork. But other than that, there's a handful of Things that I try to squeeze in every day. I mean, for me, coffee, coffee is a big one. Like, I pretty much wake up and have a cup of coffee like every morning. That's one of the things that snaps my brain into it. I try to get 10 to 15 minutes of meditation in almost every day. It doesn't happen every day, I'll be honest, but I try to do that pretty early in my day before I start working on stuff. And then you obviously can't see this, but we are recording a video. I'm a big checklist, er, I create a checklist every single night before going to bed of what I want to accomplish the next day. And I do it handwritten on paper. You can actually hear that it's actually a paper checklist that isn't actually a monstrous paper notebook that I have. And I think for me, one of the things that keeps me sane and helps me fall asleep is the fact that tomorrow I know what I'm jumping on. I know what I have to accomplish tomorrow, so it's not circulating in my head when I try to go to bed.

You basically brain dump everything on paper so it's not swirling around in your brain all night to keep you up.

Yeah. So pretty much every night before bed, I make a checklist of what I need to accomplish tomorrow. I try to keep it to four or five things. I mean, Joe, you can see my checklist. They're never like monstrous checklists. They're like four or five things every day. So I try to get that out on paper if there's other thoughts or ideas or something. I have. I have a different section in my notebook where literally you can see I'm a nerd. But I have a tab on my notebook that says thoughts and ideas. So just like random ideas that come to my head that I want to get out of my head, I put in this notebook. So the checklist thing, the meditation, my morning coffee, I think those are what kind of fit into my daily rituals. I do use some apps during the day to kind of focus and get into a flow state. But I know you use those as well. And you're going to talk about those in a minute. Yeah, but that's. That's kind of my things right there for the most part. Yeah, I'm a big journaler too.

So I was gonna say you do that at night though, right?

At night, usually before bed. Yeah, I see. I used to do the five minute journal for a while, but I kind of fell out of it because it is so structured. And I think the journaling thing for me, I like the complete non structure of journaling. I like opening. I use an app called Day one Journal on my computer. It's, you know, on my iPad, on my laptop, on my, my desktop computer and on my iPhone. So I can pretty much journal from anywhere, anytime. But I like the free form of it. A lot of times I'll open up my journal and I'll literally say, I don't know what I'm typing about tonight, but if I start typing, something is going to flow out. Okay, here's what I've been thinking about today. And then it just starts to flow. But if I just get my fingers moving and my brain gets in that, okay, it's time to journal, stuff just floods out. And I really couldn't do that with the five minute journal.

Are you getting things like business ideas and it's everything.

I recap what I did on the day. If I did some cool stuff that I'm excited that we did that I'm grateful for that created memory. I write about that if some business ideas pop into my head that I want to make sure get down on paper. I write about that if I have like a step by step process that I'm like, oh, this is something that will make this thing in my business easier. I'll map out that step by step process. So it's, it's, it is. The beauty of it is that I don't have any restrictions, any sort of specific set of rules. I open up the journal and just go.

And the key thing there with journaling, because I do it as well, not as diligently as Matt, but just don't deleting, you know, don't delete anything. Yeah. Because there's.

Go back and read them from time to time actually.

Sure. Oh yeah. But I mean like if you have an idea that's kind of muddy or you don't really know what's coming out, still just kind of work through it. That's how I do all my, my, my writing with blog posts and whatnot. Like really, it just starts off with just like a one sentence idea. Like it's like a concept I want to really expand upon. And then it's just like it's kind of mush usually when it comes out and then I reread it, do a pass, rejigger it a little bit and then send it on its way.

Such a rejigger.

I do those things. So yeah, that's a cool, simple morning ritual for you. Yeah.

So I mean Mine, my rituals start in the evening and then finish in the morning. I guess you could say the journaling and the checklisting is an evening thing. The morning thing for me is really coffee meditation.

Yeah.

Put on my. My headphones. I used to use an app called Focus at Will, which is really, really good for like, it just kind of plays some background music and gets me.

Into a flow state that's on computer. Right.

That's a web based app. That's Focusill.com all spelled out. I used that for a long time, but now I'm using some iPhone apps instead, which is a good segue to let's talk about some of your rituals and the tools that you use.

So in the morning, I usually get up around the same time. It's 8ish. It's probably gonna change once we have some kids in the house.

Lucky.

Yeah. Well, for now, changes on Friday. But yeah, so it starts off doing that. And I typically have some kind of. Some kind of meditation I do. Typically. Maybe it's sometimes in bed while I'm still kind of lying down there. But definitely it always starts off with a shower. Like, I can't. My brain doesn't function without a shower. Like, I feel like even if I wash my face, it doesn't work. I've even experimented with this. Heather thinks, my wife thinks I'm crazy, that I shower like multiple times a day sometimes. But it's like I do this shower and it doesn't even have to be a long time, but it's. I get thoughts. Like, they're kind of like Noah Kagan calls them, shower ideas or shower thoughts. But usually the writer downers for me. And it's not like multiple thoughts. It's just like one thing here and there. Like, I know it's usually business y things, but there's a lot. Not like there might be, hey, I should reach out to this person. And like, I've written before in our EGP letter about, like, okay, if that thought pops in your head, there's a reason you probably should actually reach out to them because more likely than not, they're probably thinking about you too. Or there's just some reason for it. So shower thoughts are good and recording. Those are amazing. And at the end of each one of my showers, I do a cold shower for two minutes. And that is. I learned that from Wim Hof, who is a. He's what? He's from Amsterdam and has all these world records for cold water like crazy. Like freezing cold water. But it's supposed to be very good for your mind. It clears your circulation out. It gets you thinking. It involves breathing as well. So I usually go for like hot shower and then a cold shower for two minutes. And I do like a breathing cycle where I can kind of count the minutes based on my breath. So I have it down. And I learned that from an app, which this episode's gonna be like littered with different apps and things for you to download. But the app is Calm C A L M and it's pretty popular now. And there's like Headspace and Calm are like the two meditation apps.

I used to use Headspace, but now I'm all on the brain wave, which we'll talk about in a minute.

Yeah, but the app Calm is really cool. It's a paid app after like seven days after this thing, but you can use it for free. And there's actually a thing you can breathe along. So it kind of shows the visually, like the visual structure of a breath and gives you perfect timing of when you should like.

Then you'll hold it for like 5 seconds or 3 seconds and then it goes out. And typically it goes about. It's like a 15, 15 second cycle. So in my head I'm like, okay, well, I'm just gonna do that four times. And then boom, you got your 60 seconds. And. And then that's pretty much how I. I do the two minutes in the shower. Boom. Thinking great.

After a shower, it's usually romwad, which is like a very quick. What?

I don't know, just sounded like a funny word. Romwad.

It is.

Okay.

R O M W O D. It stems from the lacrosse fit community, but it's basically yoga positions and stre. Like condensed in a 15, 10, 15 minute period of time. And it's like a $13 a month subscription. You get a video every single day. So it's pretty sweet, especially if you're like in a condensed rush to like get onto your next thing. And then the last thing I would say, and there's probably some other stuff, but I read the Daily Stoic every morning, which is by Ryan Holiday. It's a book. You could just look it up on Amazon. And it's literally every day of the month or the year is listed out on a single page or one page or one day per page.

Does it actually have a date on each page too?

So today is. We're recording this on February 15th. And today was about basically leaving your dreams, like bad dreams as they are. They're not reality. And so basically starts off with a Headline, like a subject line and then a quote from a stoic philosopher, which is like Marcus Aurelius and all these guys back in the day. And then there's an explanation, kind of like writing it in layman's terms for today's use. And it's a different topic every day. It's like, don't worry, it's not worth it. And it'll talk about this. And it's a cool reminder. And I do it with my wife, Heather and I sometimes we trade and we're like, oh, it's time for the Daily Stoic. And Heather's like, February 15th, blah, blah. Yeah.

And we start just like, got a deep voice.

Yeah, well, yeah, she tries to match Bo. So that's cool. Daily Stoic, it's just a good way to get your head straight.

That's cool. That's the. Actually the only Ryan Holiday book I don't have yet.

Yeah. Get it. And then later in the day. So Matt was mentioning the Brainwave apps, these things. I got this. I learned of this Brainwave app on iPhone. I'm not sure if it's on Android, but I'm pretty sure I Learned it from.

Mr. Rush, Ed Rush, who worked with and works with Mike Koenigs. He posted it and told me about it about a year or two ago. But it's called 32 advanced binaural brainwave entrainment. It's a crazy name, but just look up 32 brainwave.

I think I just typed in Brainwave into my iPhone into the app store and Brain Wave is the first one that popped up.

It could be. There's a lot of Brainwave shit there now. But look for one that says, says Brain Wave. It's kind of like a bluish logo with a brain in the middle and then like squiggly rainbow lines. The app's a horrible looking app. It's pretty ugly, designed wise. But once you get the hang of it, like, it's kind of confusing looking at it, but you just mess around with it. And I might even record a video about this, like, because I write it a blog post and share it. But the whole thing is use your headphones and you get this app and Brainwaves. So if you Binaural. So that whole thing is basically there's two Binaural. So you have two different brain waves happening, two different frequencies in each ear, but when they're combined, it creates this, this, this type of frequency in your body and in your brain where it resonates and creates this kind of emotion. So literally inside the app you can, you could say I need a kind of a boost of energy. So there's something you can say for like a ten minute thing. Thing. It's like, okay, here's your espresso shot brainwave thing. And then it, you know, you hammer down the brain waves and then you also, you get like a background like ocean noise too. So it's not just weird like.

Sound.

Yeah, I can actually probably play what it sounds like real quick.

That could be kind of cool.

So this is what I'm listening to when I'm listening to Brain Wave. I put it on the ocean waves.

So I have my ambience about midway on the little slider thing. And then the brain waves, I have it about 3, 4 of the way.

Okay.

And this. And then I have it set on concentration mode. When I'm in my, when I'm trying.

To write, I use that. When I, when I'm kind of focused, just hammer down.

And this is what it sounds like.

Yes.

It's a little loud. I'll turn it down.

So obviously if you don't have headphones on, you're not really going to hear everything because it's the brain waves. And actually just crank up the brain waves and lower the ambient noise.

So that brain waves cranked all the way up and then ambient is way down now.

So if you hear that little. It sounds just like a vibration or like an electrical hum almost. But those are two different, very slight waves that are happening at different frequencies. And it explains all the science in this thing too. And this is definitely science. Like, you can look this stuff up, but the power of this app is literally you throw in your headphones and it kind of actually just worked there. Like, literally you throw your headphones on and listen to this for five minutes. Like a concentration or an espresso or you can have one that's good for napping, to slow down and creativity down.

There's a creativity one that I use when I'm trying to draw and stuff.

Yeah, yeah. But the crazy thing is, and this is when you know it's working is a. You're just like, literally you put on the blinders. When, like I did this in a coffee shop, I had like people freaking yelling all around me and I threw this on and I pumped up the brain waves as loud as they can go almost. And I was just like, boom. I don't even care. Kids, crying, dogs, all that shit. But then, but you take your headphones off after you're done after like five plus Minutes. And your head literally feels like you're like, holy shit, what just happened to my head? Like, it feels like you just chugged a bunch of coffee. Like, if you're in the concentration one or energy.

Yeah.

Or if you. Or if it's the nighttime one, it's like, whoa, I'm groggy and I'm ready to just crash. So it's like something's happening in your head there. And, like, I feel it when you combine it with coffee or something else. Like, your eyes go.

Like, all I've noticed when I'm. Because I use this, the same app every day now, pretty much when I'm. When I inverted you, when it's just kind of like, head down, let's focus. I put this on and I just find, like, hours, like, melt away. Like, I will open up a doc. Like, I'm writing a book. Because I was just kind of rewriting my WordPress revealed book. I opened up that doc, put on my headphones, and just kind of head down, focused in on it. Next thing I know, two hours have passed and I've written like 50 pages of my book.

Yeah.

You know, it's just like, insane.

It's kind of scary, actually. I'm just going to show this to.

Are you gonna try to show.

But, yeah, so that's. I mean, literally, like, I, Like, I catch myself and I think Matt caught. Well, Matt didn't catch me, but I noticed it, like, the other day I was just in a funk and Matt was like. I mean, I was getting stuff done, but it was just like a slow getting things done. And Matt and I were talking Brent, and Matt's like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna go away now because we're on slack typing. He's like, I'm gonna go away now and. And get some stuff done. I'm gonna throw on the Brainwave app. And I was like, shit, that's a good idea, because I wasn't using it. And, like, I just didn't think of it. And then the second I popped on these Brainwave things and then I started writing. I don't know if it was like an article or something. It was like no brainer. It just kind of flowed. And I got out of my funk. I'm like, jesus Christ, this thing works so well.

Yeah. No, I love it. I mean, it's been a big game changer for me. Focus at will was a great game changer. First brain wave, I actually feel like, took it to another level because focus at will is just kind of white noise. Background sort of music. This actually has those binaural audio waves going into your head that help with the focus. I don't know the science behind it. I don't totally understand how it works, but it's pretty damn effective.

I'm still experimenting. And you can even put your, like if you have cool tracks you listen to. Because I know you used to listen to a lot of focus type tracks that were just pretty much just like not nature sounds, but stuff without lyrics. You can actually load that in the app.

Yeah, I've seen that.

Yeah, I haven't done it, but yeah, but you can definitely load something that you like.

And then we'll have to try some like Metallica with like focus brain waves.

Dude, we need to create that and put some in. We'll splice it into this episode or something.

Metallica would probably sue us.

Yeah, I'll come with something. It's a good idea. That's the biggie. That's like our big find lately.

Let's just kind of recap everything and maybe something else will come to us. But I mean, for me it's been, you know, in the evening, doing some journaling, creating a checklist before I go to bed. That kind of gets everything out of my head. So I'm not carrying any of it when I go to bed. So that's. Those are kind of two pre morning rituals.

Yeah.

And then in the morning, it's always a cup of coffee. I do like that four sigmatic coffee. I ran out of of the four sigmatic coffee, so I'm back to my, you know, Costco brand. But I do like that coffee. I do get some meditation in. And when I'm actually sitting down to get focused work done, I turn on my. My brainwave app to, you know, the settings I just mentioned.

Yes. There's one more I want to add, actually. And I started doing this a couple of weeks ago and it's a nighttime ritual. So for me it's literally. And I got this from Tim Ferriss. It's apple cider cider vinegar. So it's what, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, hot water, like as much to kind of fill a cup up. And a teaspoon or tablespoon of honey. So raw honey. And it's kind of crazy. Like the whole concept behind this, I don't know the exact science, but it's been written about. Multiple people have done it. But it basically gives you that groggy effect at night. And it's almost instantaneous for me, especially if I haven't eaten, like, right before, but if I have kind of like, you know, kind of digesting and just coming down, you. You pound that. It's like a T size. And supposedly it helps you wake up a little bit nicer in the morning, too. I don't know if I've felt those effects so much, but definitely at night, like, if you're having sleeping issues or whatever, you just want to go to bed. That'll calm you down. And it's super easy to make. And I don't think it tastes bad. My wife thinks it tastes horrible. But I think you just add a little bit more honey to it and then you're good.

How can somebody, like, be into kombucha but not like that? Because it's kind of a similar taste.

It's basically. She described it as hot salad dressing last night, and I was like. Because I actually forced her to drink it. Like, you are going to have your own. Yeah. But either way, it works for me.

Very cool. Well, do you want to just sort of super, super concisely recap what your sort of rituals are?

My stuff. Yeah.

People can take from mine, take from yours, mix and match however you want to do it. This is what we do.

So, yeah, I said showers, cold showers. Write down your thoughts. The Wim Hof method. So there's another good app is called Inner Fire. One word, Inner Fire. And you can look that up in the app store. And it's all created by this guy named Wim Hof W I m space H O F And he's the ice, ice water guy. Breathing ice ice baby. Now we're gonna be sued by Mr. You know, that guy now going into. So you do that. And then. Oh, the daily stoic was another one. And then 32 brain waves. So Brain wave. Basically just look that up and you can even buy a whole pack for like 10 bucks. That gives you like six apps. And I think it's worth it.

It's got, like, the lucid dreaming. There's like, stuff to help with weight loss and all sorts of crazy stuff.

Or even if you're in the gym, like, there's stuff to help you when you' working out, like, to get pumped up. Which I haven't used yet, but I'm like, that's pretty cool.

That's cool.

So I think that's it.

Yeah, we covered a lot. Sweet. So this is. That was a good duet. Thank you for doing a duet with me.

Thank you for dueting with me.

Duet. We need to go grab an alpine brewery duet now.

Oh, that's it. I was gonna go get a mushroom coffee, but.

Oh, okay.

We could do that, too. Okay. That might taste weird together.

All right, well, thanks for joining us on this episode. We'll see you in the next one.

Next time.

I have no idea what we're talking about next, but that's okay. It's, you know, life's mysteries are what makes it fun.

Yeah. Something like that.

Something like that.

Bye. Bye now.

You can quote me.

See you.

Bye.

Hey, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. Now, if you don't know already, myself and my partner, Joe Fear, every single week, we put together this killer weekly newsletter that's completely free. If you go to the weekly profit you can get on this weekly newsletter. And what we do with this newsletter is we scour the Internet.

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