The Game with Alex Hormozi - The Surprising Productivity Hacks You Have To Try | Ep 549

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

"It's much easier to change your conditions than it is to change yourself." Today, Alex (@AlexHormozi) shares his personal productivity hacks that helped him go from zero to a hundred million in net worth at age 31, emphasizing the importance of reducing decision-making fatigue and increasing leverage to maximize output. His tips include optimizing sleep, minimizing distractions, and cycling stimulants.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Timestamps:(3:45) - Optimize sleep environment for productivity.(6:03) - Optimize decision-making processes.(9:20) - Change your environment, not yourself.(13:20) - Reduce decision-making time.(19:57) - Find clothes that fit you.Follow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

And I don't have to think about it at all. And so I just try and smooth out these little inefficiencies on as many parts of my life as I can so that as much of my attention gets allocated to working and doing more work and doing better work. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff to more people in more ways and build businesses worth owning. I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing with Acquisition.com. I always wished Bezos, Musk, and Buffett had documented their journey. So I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy.

For December of 2016, until December of 2016, until December, December of 2021, I went from zero to $100 million net worth at age 31. And that kind of, quote, speed of wealth accumulation didn't come from necessarily doing things faster, but getting more from the work I did. And so I get lots of questions around productivity. And this particular one came from an Instagram AMA. And I thought it was worth making a video about. And I have refrained from making productivity type stuff, mostly because I think it's a little bit of mental masturbation for most people in this industry to give themselves an excuse to procrastinate. and not actually get work done. And so let's define some terms before we get in. And so I'm going to

hit the many small things that I do throughout the day in terms of how I dress, how I sleep, how I work, what stimulants I take, how I take supplements, et cetera, how organized my life to ultimately be as frictionless as possible to getting more work done and getting more from the work I do. Now, let's define productivity right off the bat. Productivity is output per unit of time. All right. So if you're more productive, it means you get more for the output. Now productivity is really just another fancy word for leverage because it means you get more for what you put in. And so any output is, any output comes from two things. Volume of inputs times leverage equals output. So if I pump something a hundred times and I have a little lever, I get X output. If I pump something 200 times, I would get

twice the output with the same lever. Or I could increase the lever size and I would get a higher output for the same hundred. And so when we're thinking about productivity, those are the two variables. How much are we actually working and what are we getting from the work we do? Now, today, most of my TED talk is going to be focused on how do I clear all of the distractions around my life to facilitate me working more. And I think that that is a wildly underestimated approach to doing this. I think a lot of people try and say, like, I need to do my three hour affirmation, morning routine, blah, blah, blah, so I can be like more effective. but I would have a hard time with someone arguing that three hours of not working is going to cover three hours of working and make up for it with the other six of their day or whatever.

So I'm going to start chronologically with time and how I sleep and wake up. So I think it's really common for people to like masturbate to the wake up early and suffer mentality. Now, when I was in the gym business, I woke up at four o'clock in the morning because it was the only time I could get uninterrupted work done. And I think that's the key lesson is that we all have to have to have. time where we can actually work deep without interruptions. And so for my entire decade now, as an entrepreneur in business, that has remained constant. So when I really think about the things that have contributed to the outsized returns we've gotten, I think this is probably one of the biggest ones, which is why I want to kick this off with this. Now, some people need to do it from

10 p.m. to 4 a.m. because one of my good buddies is a billionaire, and that's when he works. He jokes with me that I wake up cool early when I wake up now at about six. But the thing is, is that the first six hours of my day. So in the beginning it was from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., and now it's about from six to 12 for me, I work without any meetings. That is block time on my calendar, and I'll see if I can send a screenshot of what my calendar looks like,

but the first six of my day are empty. The next thing is how I can facilitate that simple schedule is by always having the same sleep and wake time. So weekends and weekdays, I treat the same way. And that's because for me, once I get into this rhythm, I don't want to break that just for like a night out with the boys. Now mind you, that's not even part of my life.

but like if that were a part of my life, that would be something that I would probably not want to break it for. And as a point of proof here, like Jeff Bezos wakes up at 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. And then he says he places around for an hour, and then he gets to work at 9. He likes to have his real meetings at 10 a.m. Right.

Warren Buffett doesn't brag about waking him at 4 a.m. All right. And so, like, you can be unbelievably successful and have lots of leverage and lots of work done without having, you know, it has to be at this time. I think it's just more important that you have the time in general set aside.

And in terms of like, Optimizing your sleep environment. You guys already know this stuff. There's a zillion videos on YouTube that cover it. But like dark room, dark room, keep it cold. Make sure that you have the right amount of blankets on. If you need a fan on your face, then do that. Get some stuff for breathing if you snore or die.

You know, like put mouth tape on if that works for you, whatever it is. Like for me, I have a nasal strip. I put mouth tape on and I sleep in a dark room. And like, that works great for me. I have no problems falling asleep. Do all the basics. If you're not doing that, then what are we talking about? Like the best stimulant in the world, which I'll get to in a second,

is a good night's sleep. Everything else is just masking or enhancing that. So next piece I'll talk about is morning routine. So I basically don't have one. I wake up and I have coffee with Layla and then I work. And that's literally it. That's my entire day. That's my planning.

And I know what I'm going to do because most of the projects that I work on are very big. And so if I'm writing a book, like it's the same thing as it was yesterday. I'm just going to keep writing and chipping away at the big stuff that I need to do. Now, if you're a different season of your life, then you probably, will have more tasks to do in your business. And so obviously prioritizing those and the most important ones that'll make you the most money.

Duh, do those first. Talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, not doing that. Do the ones that make you the most money first. The next piece is like, what am I wearing all day? Right. And so for me, I have obviously become a fashion icon. I'm kidding. Kim Kardashian and I are kind of like neck and neck here with most fashionable.

But no, but this may sound silly, but each article of clothing that you have seen me wear, I have tried on and bought usually between 50 and 100 of that exact thing. So different brands, different sizes within each brand, different makes. He might be surprised, but like Haynes has multiple different tank tops with multiple different materials. And I'll try multiple sizes in each one of those things. And I do that because I like having decisions made.

Like if I'm going to make the same decision over and over again, I want to just make the one best decision, front load the work, and then never think about it again. And so I optimize my outfit primarily on temperature, because one of the biggest things I hate is getting hot, like the worst. On the flip side, if you're shivering, you're not as productive either. And so I just want to be the right temperature whenever I can. And so if I have an outfit that accommodates that easily, then that's a plus for me. The next is can I have it accommodate that in as many different conditions as possible? Can I have that same outfit when I go to a restaurant? That's really nice. Can I have that same outfit when I go to the

gym? Can I have the same outfit when I go to the pool or go to the beach? Can I have the same outfit when I walk outside for an hour or so every day, which I do, each of those in your mind might have a very different outfit. And so I've tried to maximize the outfit that I have so that I can only have one outfit that I wear every day all the time. And that's why I usually have some long sleeve that's buttoned because I can go completely buttoned all the way down when it's coldest to rolled sleeves and button to open and rolled sleeves to completely off with a tank top. And these shorts, for example, I can wear it to the gym. They stretch.

They're tear-free. They have a pocket for my cell phone. They have a pocket for anything on the side. They have a Velcro. They're big enough that they can actually fit my legs. And they actually don't ride up my crotch, which most elastic shorts do. And these ones are just light elastic so it stays right above my quad, which for me makes me look pretty. And so I tried on a hundred-ish pairs of shorts to get these shorts.

also has belt loops if I want to wear a belt to make it dress up if I feel like it. And it has a zipper because I prefer having zippers. And even my footwear. Like this is like finding footwear was probably the hardest of all the things that I've done because I wanted it to the footwear that I wear to be nice and ugly, be able to walk without making the shoe smell after like weeks of use. I wanted to be able to walk without my foot sweating. I wanted them to also be waterproof.

I wanted to be able to go to a nice restaurant in them. But I also wanted good ventilation. a heavy order, and I want to be able to work out with them and train hard. So I could have one pair of shoes that checks all those boxes. And it took me, it took me 15 months of like probably 10 pairs of shoes a month. Now mind you, if you're like, that's a waste, we actually return them. But I wear them, I try them, and then I'm like, no. And you're like, wow, what a waste is I?

I have a team, and they can do that for me. And for me, the big output here is that now when I put on what I wear every day, I feel great. and I don't have to think about it at all. And so I just try and smooth out these little inefficiencies on as many parts of my life as I can so that as much of my attention gets allocated to working and doing more work and doing better work, which leads me to one of my biggest kind of hacks overall

has been watering holes. And so I've had a, like some people have a hard time starting habits. Other people are hard time stopping habits. I'm very good at stopping habits. I'm very bad at starting them. I don't even like really saying that. I, in the past, have had a, I've been less successful with the attempts I've done.

But I feel like I have cracked that. And I've cracked that through watering holes. And so it's much easier to change your conditions than it is to change yourself. And so rather than be like, I need to be more disciplined, what I do is I try and get myself more visual cues that are effortless. So don't take me wellpower. And so most people have a few places in their life that they spend more time at. And so for me, I have three.

I have my kitchen table, which is where I eat all my meals. I have my work desk, which is where I work all day. And then I have my bedside table, which is where I spend in the morning and at night. And so if I want to start taking things like supplements or put on sunscreen or X, Y, and Z, I put the stuff there. And so when I was actually a gym owner and I would teach people how to take supplements, I would focus the vast majority of my time with them, not on what the supplements did, but on how they would be able to take them consistently. because probably anybody watching this has bought a supplement, put it in a cabinet and never take it, right? And then you wait until it goes bad and then you toss it. And then you buy another one and you do it for a week and then you do it over and over and over again. So I think it's far

more important to have the system of being able to insert new stuff into your life and know that you're going to do it. Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have of you guys is that you help me spread the words so we can out more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products, and have better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I has to do is you can just leave a review. It'll take you 10 seconds or one type of the thumb. It would mean the absolute world to me. And more importantly, it may change the world with someone else.

So for me, if I have morning things, I put it at my kitchen table because that's where I go and I have my coffee with Layla. So I put it right there. So I see it as soon as I sit down. So I don't have to think about it. for my gym clients back in the day, I would ask them, what's the first thing you do every morning? And so somebody was brushed their teeth, for somebody who was to make their coffee. And so I'd have them put it next to their coffee. That way they didn't have to think about it.

When they would go to the gym to work out, I would say, okay, well, what are you always going to have with you? They're like, well, this car or this bag. I'd be like, okay, I want you to keep your pre-workout, your intro workout, and your post-workout in your car, since your car is always going to be with you. And so that's what I do. I have a gym bag, and I have all my stuff in that bag, right?

And it's always with me. And so I don't forget it. And then the post-workout stuff, and this is a little hack I'll give you, is that I actually buy the cold ones that they have in the fridge that are overpriced. You know, those ones at the gym. I actually buy those. A couple reasons. One is because I like to support gyms because obviously I made all my money in that space. And it's kind of like my way of giving back.

So I always want to support small gyms. The second reason is because I actually think psychologically you reinforce working out because you get this treat at the end of working out. I don't want to wait 30 minutes because I won't associate the reward with the activity. And so I always want to give myself a little, my brain a little like cookie at the end of the workout. And for me, personal workout shake fits the bill. And I like it cold and I like it there. And then I'll have to think about it. The final thing is nighttime stuff, right?

And so for me, that's my bedside table. And so at night, for me, I put my nostril on. I put mouthtap on so I don't snore. I put chastik all over my face, which sounds crazy. But that's how I actually try to keep my skin nice and pretty. And if I have like vitamins or melatonin or anything like that, that I don't want to take a night. Like I take sleep multiplier, which is from Prestige Labs.

Great product. But whatever sleep thing you take, you might want to take one. And if you do, I put it. there. And that way, I don't forget it. And so the key is having the watering holes first, and then you can slot in whatever supplements you want to take. And that probably leads pretty naturally into a quick caveat here, which is stimulants, right? And so again, we're talking, how do I do more work? How do I get more from my work? All right, well, if I'm awake and I'm well rested, and I'm wearing the shit I want to wear, and I don't think about the food that I'm going to

eat, which I don't think I've covered yet. Yeah. So let's talk about food real quick. I've I eat the same meals more or less every day. So breakfast and lunch, always the same. The only exception is dinner, which I would say four nights a week is the same thing. And then three-ish nights a week, I have like business dinners and, you know, colleagues and portfolio CEOs, et cetera, that come in. And so on those nights, I'll eat out. But because I know what I'm going into dinner with every day, because my breakfast and my lunch are the same, it makes dinner really easy to eat dessert every night and still be in shape. Because I know how many calories I'm going to dinner with.

So I can just adjust my dessert accordingly. And by doing this, I have no prep, no cooking, no cleaning for any of my meals. And that's because for me, that feels like such a waste of time. And I don't mind. And so I've had the same lunch for as long as I can remember. And I just get my lunch is delivered and my mornings are pre-packaged. This is a shake that I get a pre-packaged shake and a bar that's pre-packaged. Very easy for me.

And then dinner, the other four nights of the week is usually the same type of thing. Pre-packaged meal or we go out to a place that's pre-cooked food makes my life easy. And I do that because I hate smell of food in the house and the idea of like prepping food and having pots and pans staying around the house and like cooking and then cleaning up after that. Like that's such a huge amount of time because I remember because we said Prestige Lab for a brief moment we had done for you meals, which was a subsidiary. And I did tons of research on how much time people spend cooking and preparing food. And it was actually around this time that Layla and I had a conversation where I asked her to stop making me food every day because, you know,

she's my wife and she wanted to do like wifely duties but i was like you you're worth a lot more not in the kitchen you're worth a lot more like in the business with me and so it was a huge relief for her because she basically got two ish hours a day back from where she would have to like cut stuff clean stuff wash it cook it uh like serve it and then clean up all the dishes that she had done like pot pen etc all of that was gone and we got two hours plus productive back for her time uh which was great and for me that ultimately made me more money because if she's in the business longer than we make more one or the other. But that was a big hack in terms of like how few things can we do that we have to do every day. I'm going to briefly touch on training. I'm not going to go deep on it. I'm just going to

give you a concept of it. So rather than following any kind of strict periodization for the training that I do, I try and get cardio and weights together by minimizing my rest when I work out. And I try and hit every muscle group every day. And I do that because I don't train on a consistent schedule because my business career takes precedent for me over my aesthetics. And so if I have a business meeting that's going to go during the workout, then I don't go to the workout. And then I do it the next day. And some people have strong opinions on that. I've been working out for 20 years, being flexible as work for me. And so with our workout every other day, every day, or twice in a week, I don't have to worry about the fact that I haven't done legs because I missed leg day is Thursday. And if it's not Thursday,

then I skip it and I do back again. No, I hit full body every day. And that way, no matter what duration I have in between, I still stimulate every muscle. And I do it in a fast way so that I can still get some cardio into. And for me, that is what has worked. So I don't have to think about it when I go to the gym. This is the common theme of trying to decrease the number of decisions I have to make on an active basis so I can allocate as much of that time to working more and being better for the work I do. The last piece is going to be stimulants. So this is like lots of people of talking to tropics and like all the stuff like, I'm a big fan of stimulants overall. But the way I do them is I actually cycle them. And so teacrine, nicotine, and caffeine, and cations.

All the aene, all the ains. And then you've got prescription stems, which I won't get into. But no matter which ones you're choosing to take, I think the key is cycling them in and out. Because if you take one thing every day, eventually become dependent on it rather than getting a boost from it. And I realize this with caffeine and other things that I've taken on a regular basis. Like the first time I was like, oh my God, if I did this every day, you would actually feel the same. And so I try and only heavily stimulate two-ish days a week and I cycle which ones I do so I get the most out of them. Again, most work, most out of it equals Apple. but equals productivity. And so combining all these things together has, in my opinion, surrounded my, all of the effortless, stupid, silly decisions that people spend a lot of time on. I want to eliminate all of those things throughout the day so I can spend all of my mental energy

on the few things that matter. So I've got my cell phone pocket, which I can immediately answer any of the, I don't know, it ever calls me. But I like having it right here because it's just easy and convenient because when I sit, I can sit with it and it doesn't bother me. I have it right here, which is where most shorts have it.

When you sit, you're like, what is this? And you have this thing digging into you. I hate that, right? And then these shorts, I can also go to the pool in because they dry super fast, but they're also super stretchy. So I've got a lot of stretch, but you can hear they're tear resistant. They're like, they're hard. Like I could poke these things at the knife and they're like bulletproof.

Not bulletproof, but maybe they are. You never know. And so like I've tried 100 plus pairs of shorts on. Now I wear these dark because if I'm like washing my hands and I get like water on these, A, it rolls right off, but B, even if it does stay, like, you can't see it as much. Whereas if you've got like light gray, it's like you've got these splotches everywhere, right? And so that's why I do that. On the flip side, I wear white up top because I'm usually in dry climates because I'm in the southwest.

And so if I have dandra for something, if I have dark on, you can see all the standard. It looks nasty, right? And so I wear white so that you don't see that. And I always rock my logos, which if you look at any of my old pictures of any seasons of my life, you can always know what business I was focused on by the logos that I'm rocking. Because at the end of the day, like, I'm going to have a walk. If somebody's going to be a free walking billboard, it might as well be me. And I'm always proud of the companies that I have.

Like, I'm proud because I'm putting a lot of effort into growing them. And I want to support them at the very least by always repping my own stuff. And all these are sponsored by Acquisition.com because Acquisition.com and the companies we have in the portfolio pays for the entire team that puts this stuff on for you guys. And the world's sexy issues, I wanted to have, and this old, be a thing is like I actually don't do like the added layer of underwear and I don't wear socks and I also don't wear t-shirts and I don't wear any of those things because I realized that like I don't need any of them and so I wanted to find a pair of shoes that checked a zillion different boxes and this

one does because I can work out in them I can walk in them I can go to the pool in them I can I can hike with them I can go to a fancy restaurant in them because they're a closed towed and my feet don't sweat in them and even if they do they have a foam bottom or foam insol which actually keeps your feet dry and that's after like a hundred pairs of shoes that took me 15 months to try all of those on to figure it out and it took me probably four months to figure out the tank tops because I'd wear a different tank top different size every day and see how it felt see where sweat stains happen see if like one of these tank things just like floats up which some of them do or they're like too long or they're like baggy around the midsection.

Like there's just lots of, like, do they shrink too much when we wash them? Does it, this is the logo fate? Like, there's a lot of different things I was looking at to finally pick the right ones. And the reason I'm not sharing the brands with them is because I think it's more the perspective and approach, which is find the thing that works best for you. I have found that this has worked best for me. Now, if you're one of those people who loves fashion, then fucking rock it because that's part of your life.

For me, I truly only can. care about how I feel in the clothes, and that's it. And so that's all I care about. And mind you, people will judge you based on how you dress. Like, if I walk around in a suit, I get treated differently. I get treated better. But there's, I think there's a little part of me that kind of likes, like, the little tip on my shoulder. Like, I like getting a little bit of people thinking that I'm poor when I walk into a nice store with Layla. I think there's some element that I, like, sickly enjoy. But if that's important to you, then obviously change the way you dress.