[Productivity] Configuring Your Phone

The goal of this process is to live a life free of distractions and interruptions, and to turn your phone into your productivity tool (and not your crack-addicted boss).

We're going to eliminate all notifications and unwanted distractions, then sanitize our phone for peak productivity...

After this process is finished - you'll be able to start batch processing your incoming messages. What this means is YOU can decide when you want to look at your messages, and you can do them ALL in one big batch...

Every notification you see robs a tiny bit of your future potential. Let's clean them up!

1) Look For Intrusive Notifications

Let's first look at the most recent notifications for some quick productivity wins.

On the iPhone, I just need to swipe down from the top to see my 'Notification Center'. You can read more iPhone instructions here. Or click here for Android instructions...

You should eventually see a screen with ALL recent notifications. These are the lowest hanging fruit - let's get rid of some of these!

Look over all your recent notifications and ask yourself - is this something that the FUTURE me would find absolutely necessary?

For me in this example: 

• I absolutely do not care what Costco is doing, and future me would not want me even knowing about that (let alone driving to Costco and wasting 2hrs for $20)
• Voicemails seem like a legit notification, so I will keep those.
• Robinhood I am 50/50 on. Future me would likely want me to see significant drops in stocks on my watchlist, so I can move into them at favorable prices. Keeping this notification would require more discipline on my behalf to keep my watchlist trimmed.
• Moes I definitely do not care about. While I like queso and free stuff, ultimately the future me would be disappointed if I was scheduling my day around a free cup of queso. I should stick to MY eating habits and schedule and system - not uproot it for a free cup of queso.
• Uber Eats I will keep, because I need to know when my delivery drivers are close to my house.

So even for me - someone who does this constantly, I have found 2 notifications I can eliminate and regain that little bit of attention and time back.

2) Turn Off (Almost) All Notifications

After you've found a few obvious apps to disable notifications on, go ahead and do it!

Open the settings app on your phone, and head into the area where you can control Notifications...

Start with the apps you identified in Step 1, and click to disable notifications on those apps...

Then continue going through and disable notifications on almost every single app you have. By the end of this process, almost everything should look like this:

This begs the questions - what apps SHOULD you keep notifications enabled for? Here's what I do:

• ONE Closed Communication App: Slack is one of the only notifications I actually want to see on my phone. And I only have notifications enabled for Direct Messages OR when someone directly mentioned me in a channel (@willmitchell). I definitely don't want to see ALL messages as notifications 😉
• Calendar App: I want my phone to keep me on track with my goals and my company. So to me - calendar notifications are one of the primary uses of a smartphone.
• Delivery Apps: Unfortunately there are some delivery apps where I actually need to see the notifications. Examples would be Uber, UberEats, Lyft, Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmates, etc.
• Maps / Google Maps: I still want to see the notification pop-ups for GPS driving directions (and these apps rarely give me unwanted notifications).
• Phone Calls: I leave notifications enabled for phone calls & voicemails, but I NEVER answer incoming calls (unless it's a previously scheduled appointment). My voicemail tells people that I will likely not answer if they call back, and tells them various ways to get in touch with me instead (text, email, my assistant, etc).
• Text Messages: If you don't get many text messages, then leave notifications enabled. If you're sending and receiving lots of text messages, then you need to stop and get a new phone number (seriously).

Here's some extra tricky ones that fooled me for years:

• Financial & Banking Apps: I used to like seeing cash coming in & going out, and thought it was good for me to see in real-time. Over time I realized that this need to see every dollar was born out of insecurity in my cash-flow management systems, and it was constantly taking me out of my flow state. Like all notifications - it was constantly knocking me off track from my real goals. Now I have better cash-flow management systems and have these disabled (however, you may want to keep these for a period of time).
• Amazon Seller App / Related: When you're first starting out as an entrepreneur (or even on a new project), there may be situations where you NEED to see things ASAP when they happen. For example - if you're a new Amazon seller, you REALLY want to see incoming customer service messages. So you might need to enable notifications on this - but realize that you also need to systematize and delegate this into your business (and eventually turn the notifications off)
• Email: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We will address this much more in-depth later - but NO, do NOT leave your email notifications enabled! This might be the definition of unproductive...
• Dopamine Hits: There's so much crap that you really don't need to see. Do you really need to know the EXACT moment your Amazon Order arrives, or can it sit outside for a couple hours? Deeply think about every notification you see and ask yourself if it's helping you succeed - or just something you keep around because it feels nice. What would happen if you turned these notifications off forever?

There might be a few I missed here, but that's about it.  If you're ever unsure, think about you actually using the app. Is there any point in you using the app that you WANT or NEED to be interrupted? Whenever you enable notifications, you're giving the app UNRESTRICTED ACCESS to interrupt and distract your brain.

The goal here is for MOST of your notifications to be turned off. On the average workday, I get an average of 5-10 notifications per day. Try to end up somewhere around (or under) there...

We're going to turn your phone into something that actually HELPS you succeed 🙂

If you're ever unsure about one of your notifications, feel free to post about it in the Private Facebook Group to see what other productivity masters have done!

3) Disable ALL Badges

Badges are the little red bubbles next to all your apps that make you feel like something urgent or important is happening...

There's really no reason to have these enabled. It's a huge subconscious drag...

You know that feeling when you see these apps completely cleared out - with no red bubble at all? It feels great, right?

So here's a quick productivity / life hack - just disable ALL the badges, and you can feel like that ALL the time 🙂

There's some people who have lost control of their productivity SO much, and receive SO many notifications - that they feel this little red badge reminds them of something they need to do or check...

But this is a FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM with productivity. You need to DO SHIT when it COMES IN - not just look at it and set it aside for later.

If you follow this guide correctly, you will get so few notifications that it will be easy to address the ones we do receive...

So turn off those badges!

4) Disable All Government Alerts

Let's also take a second to scroll all the way to the bottom of the notification settings, and DISABLE everything under Government Alerts.

Some people may freak out about this. But for those who don't like this - I would argue you're living your life inefficiently. Let me explain...

If it's really THAT important for you to see Amber Alerts or Government Alerts, then you should build that into your life deliberately. Maybe there's an email you can receive, or maybe there's an app that allows you to see them...

The WRONG approach, is to simply let the Government send you push notifications whenever it pleases. We are CHANGING HOW YOU LIVE - you are no longer going to be REACTIVE to things coming at you. You're going to STOP things from ever reaching you, and PROACTIVELY select what you allow into your life...

So if Amber Alerts are seriously important to you - go find an app, and then log into that app deliberately at some point each day. Please don't allow yourself to be distracted and interrupted at any time the Government chooses!

All social media apps are spending billions of dollars trying to get you fundamentally addicted to their product. 

1) Create Folder for Social Apps

You don't want these apps floating around trying to grab your attention all the time. Obviously it would be much better if YOU decided that YOU need to use the app (for your success and goals and stuff) - and then deliberately went and found it...right?

Well that's the goal here. Simply create a folder for social media apps and move them all inside.

You can call this folder 'Social' if you want, but I really recommend naming it something more deliberate (mine is simply called 'Time Wasters')

2) Use the Second-Screen Hack

So now we have all of our social media apps in one folder, but it's STILL going to grab more attention than we want...

What we can do here is move ALL apps except one (preferably the most boring and least eye-catching one) to the SECOND PAGE of apps...

Now you won't be tempted to open these apps simply because they're investing billions to hijack your attention. The only way you'll see them, is if YOU decide you actually NEED them.

Question: Why Not Delete Entirely?

Many people will advocate for completely deleting social media apps. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea!

For me personally - I use my social apps for work quite a bit. All my companies have FB Groups attached to them, and I really don't use social media for personal use too much...

However, there are social apps I have deleted because I am using them for personal purposes too much. The biggest offender would be Reddit - I was just wasting time on there with no upside whatsoever.

You need to start analyzing your own ROI from each app in a real and honest way. As an entrepreneur, there are likely some social apps that you SHOULD keep (and optimize HOW you use them to drive more ROI). But there are many reading this that probably SHOULD delete one (or all) of their social media apps...

Ultimately you need to decide if each app is worth it for you and your future. And you need to live with the results of that. Because of that - I typically error on the side of caution and delete things first (then add them back if I find I actually need them later).

Now we're going to do the exact same thing, but this time with messaging apps. 

And don't forget - Badges should be disabled on ALL of these, so you shouldn't see any red bubbles 🙂

Inbox Management

For you to reach peak productivity, you can't be interrupted by any incoming messages. You need to accept incoming messages, but answer them in big batches on your schedule. This avoids the serious downsides of task-switching and allows you to actually focus throughout the week (while still knowing everything will be responded to).

If you've followed this guide up until now, your phone is now largely set up for proper incoming message management...

• Most apps will fire ZERO notifications, but will always be there when you need them.
• Important apps (such as GPS, Uber, Phone/Voicemail, Texts) will still show notifications, but you won't ever see those stupid little red bubbles again.
• You can batch manage everything else. Next time you're bored at the mall waiting for your significant other, or delayed on the runway, or whatever - NOW is the time to batch process everything that's piled up in other apps. Don't worry - if it was actually important, it would have made its way to you already.

You can NOT achieve peak productivity without this ability to sustain focus by eliminating the possibility of distraction...

If this all sounds CRAZY to you - then just try it for 7-days. Set up your phone in the exact way I've detailed in this guide, and let me know what you think in the Private Facebook Group. This is the EXACT set up for my phone - not some random guide I put together. So I'm extremely confident it's going to make a huge difference for you!

How many times have you opened an app, and gotten some pop-up about leaving a review?

This is the antithesis of peak productivity. Let's disable these little buggers forever!

Settings > Apple ID > iTunes & App Store

Here you can DISABLE 'In-App Ratings & Reviews'

I would also recommend you DISABLE both 'Music' and 'Apps' under Automatic Downloads (but you should keep Automatic Downloads for Updates enabled)

People think of phones and computers as productivity machines, but there are SO MANY little attention-killers like this. You need to CONSTANTLY be on the lookout for ANYTHING that grabs your attention throughout the day - even for a split second...

Most people allow these to ruin their lives because they think "it can't be so bad, just a little pop-up". These are the people that will never take control of their lives, and never achieve much of anything 🙁

I highly encourage you to keep your phone in Do Not Disturb mode ALL THE TIME!

This might sound drastic, but it just means that incoming notifications (from any app) will NOT vibrate your phone or activate your screen. So you will ONLY see notifications when you actually pick up your phone and look at your screen. You won't even be distracted by the screen turning on or the phone vibrating 🙂

There's 2 options within Do Not Disturb mode that don't make this quite as crazy as it might sound...

1. Repeated Calls: If anyone calls you while you're in Do Not Disturb, and then calls you again within 3min - they will then bypass your Do Not Disturb entirely (i.e. an emergency)
2. Allow Calls From Favorites: This feature allows contacts tagged as favorites to bypass your Do Not Disturb system entirely

So this strategy allows you to take a proactive 'whitelisting' strategy, rather than the reactive 'blacklisting' strategy most people use. You'll slowly move people into your Favorites and have a fail-safe for emergencies, rather than constantly moving telemarketers into your blacklist...

1) Settings > Do Not Disturb

Here's what mine looks like -

I personally leave Do Not Disturb enabled ALL THE TIME, so I have no schedule set for it...

I can't tell you how much I recommend copying me and leaving Do Not Disturb permanently enabled. It will do wonders for your personal productivity.

You will never feel the pain of losing these moments until they've piled up into years of missed opportunities...

Follow my lead and leave Do Not Disturb enabled ALL THE TIME 🙂

2) Contacts App > Favorites

Since we've just set up your phone to only allow phone calls from your Favorite Contacts, it's probably smart to check on those. Many people don't use this feature at all - so you may have NO Favorite Contacts until you add them...

Your Favorite Contacts will ultimately be able to bypass your Do Not Disturb system. So don't think about this as "Who you talk to most", think about this as "Who do I want to bypass my DND System?"...

For instance, I do not really talk to my sisters or my business partner on the phone much. But if either of them were calling me, it would likely be about something pretty important - so I would add these to my Favorites, even though I barely ever have phone calls with these people. It's all about allowing certain Contacts to bypass my DND System (thus having the ability to interrupt me at any time)...

So go ahead and add a few people to your Favorite Contacts (inside the Contacts App). You can always add/remove Contacts from your Favorites easily as time goes on.

We're going to change your background to a PLAIN BLACK IMAGE (also known as NOTHING)...

Why would we ever do such a thing? 

1. Your phone is now a productivity machine, not some shiny toy. Who cares what the background is?
2. Because of how OLED screens work (most smartphones), a plain black background actually saves up to 60% of your battery life!

Plain Black Wallpaper

Go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose New Wallpaper > Stills > Then scroll to the end. The plain black wallpaper is the very last option.

Other Wallpapers

I personally want the purely void distraction-free wallpaper above, but I realize some people will not be that drastic just yet. So here's some alternatives...

RAINBOW STRIPE ON BLACK BACKGROUND

PICTURE OF YOUR PET

This is particularly good if you want a conversation starter or are the type of person who wants emotional pick-me-ups throughout the day

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

Below is an example of an inspirational quote that people may think helps them - but is actually incredibly distracting...

You can't have a bunch of random words and text and concepts being shoved in your face all the time - and expect to be fully engaged. 

People think they are inspiring themselves or motivating themselves with this sort of crap, but in reality they are just lying to themselves as they continue to struggle...

BETTER INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE

This background eats monster battery life, and even this gives you too much to think about (we could have a 5hr conversation sprouted out of this photo alone). But much better than the above...

SOLID COLORS

You can hack your emotional state a bit (in theory) with solid color backgrounds. Each color corresponds with some emotional trigger - 

• Red: Passionate, Aggressive, Important
• Green: Natural, Stable, Prosperous
• Blue: Serene, Trustworthy, Inviting
• Black: Powerful, Sophisticated, Edgy
• White: Clean, Virtuous, Healthy

You would not want to pick orange (cheap) or yellow (caution). 

YOUR KIDS / FAMILY

In theory this one should be fine, but I do not actually know yet since I don't have any kids. I'd personally still stick with the black background, and spend all your extra time and attention with the kids 😉

VISION BOARD

I've heard of some people putting together Vision Boards as backgrounds, but I am personally not a fan of that. Sounds like a lot of work for something that feels nice - but does not actually make you more productive. The time I spent on this would make it a negative ROI.

There's a well-known feature on most smartphones where the screen activates and shows you the notifications when you pick the phone up. You don't need to touch the screen or any buttons - it just shows you based on the movement of the phone...

This is a BAD idea! You want to only see notifications when you DELIBERATELY want to! Not whenever you move your phone...

Turn Off Raise to Wake

Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Raise to Wake

And turn that sucker off!

You're probably familiar with the feature where your smartphone automatically locks itself after it's been left untouched for a certain period of time.

In theory this is a great security feature. However, it more often results in you being locked out of your phone often while working between your phone and computer...

So what we're doing here, is just adjusting the auto-lock time higher up - so we have a little more time before the phone locks itself after each use.

Most of us keep our phones close and protected at nearly all times, so keeping your phone unlocked for an extra couple minutes is not a major security risk. It's worth it for the thousands of 3-5 second unlocks you will prevent (not to mention the ability to stay focused and be distracted less when working).

Go to General > Settings > Display  Brightness > Auto-Lock

Once you're there, max out your auto-lock to 5-minutes (or the highest duration you can stomach).

In the worst case scenario, this will save you a few minutes per month. In the best case scenario, you'll save hours by avoiding the stupid things you would have gotten sidetracked on in that split moment...

People often talk about avoiding distractions, looking for some eureka epiphany. The human mind is MADE to LOOK FOR distractions. You need to limit the possibility of them ever existing!

Night shift changes the colors of your phone display away from the blue spectrum and into the red spectrum. Research has shown that blue light near bedtime really screws with your sleep quality (which is essential for peak productivity). So in theory, this makes sense...

The other benefit is that blue light is less harsh on your eyes, so in theory this will help prevent eye damage from too much screen time.

There are two ways you can set this up...

Sunrise to Sunset Method

This is how I used to have mine set up. And it works just fine. You don't really notice any difference, and the screen is just less harsh on your eyes. In theory, it's easier to fall asleep and get deep sleep...

Make Your Phone Unusable Method

For those of you who have deep problems with your sleep schedule or phone addiction, I would recommend this method...

Here we are setting a specific schedule to activate during times we don't want to be on our phones, and we are jacking up the phone's colors so much that the phone will literally become unenjoyable to use between certain hours.

Honestly, I hope most people start out with this method. And then adjust from there as you gain more control over your behavior on your phone...

Set Up On All Devices

If you use a tablet or something else - make sure you do this there too!

We will also be setting up a similar feature on your main workstation / laptops in another area of the program. So just do this for mobile right now...

There are many other things people are tempted to put on their phones. So many, I'm sure I can't think of them all...

Goal/Habit Trackers

There are all these apps that you're supposed to check into daily to say "I drank water" or "I ran a mile" or "I meditated".

Pardon my french, but I think these are all f*kn stupid and a complete waste of valuable energy...

As you'll hear from me often - I don't believe in this shallow superficial version of habit formation. The most effective way to change a habit is to change your natural behavior (control your inputs, modify your beliefs, etc).

I personally don't believe there is anybody netting over $1mm/yr who is logging into apps daily to track if they're drinking water and whatnot. It's just a waste.

Now ironically - we will be using a custom system I built to track your goals over time. It has some similar elements - but we are not going to use it anywhere near the same way. You'll see this elsewhere in the program...

Video Games / Entertainment Apps

Obviously I am 110% against having any games on your phone. This is coming from someone who has wasted thousands of hours on video games. You need to remove these and starve yourself of the addiction - then replace it with things like books/audibooks, self-improvement, or you know...work 🙂

That being said - I still have my Fantasy Basketball app installed on my phone (no notifications, of course). So even I have a few guilty pleasures on there. But the key is making sure you actually feel guilty while using them!

You've already done quite a bit to reclaim ownership of your attention...

Now that we've subtracted much of the toxic BAD, we are going to start adding the GOOD that will make you a productivity machine 🙂

Listen to me very closely here...

If you don't know how to use - I mean REALLY USE - a password manager in 2019, you will be completely left behind by your competition

Password managers save you such an enormous amount of time and brain space, it's hard for me to explain...

It would be the equivalent of somebody trying to remember all their contacts addresses and phone numbers VS. them having all those contacts written down in a nice little pocketbook VS them having those contacts synced across all their devices for instant access via text, app, or voice command. 

It's simply ridiculous to me that anybody even knows any of their passwords any more. A good password manager will allow you to do the following -

• Automatically create new ultra-secure randomized passwords that are virtually unbreakable and completely secure (rather than remembering some whacky system for the 14 passwords you use across every single website)
• Save existing passwords and check for security risks over time
• Automatically log into websites with every account you have across every device you own without ever having to type in a username or password again
• Share individual passwords with freelancers, friends, family, or whoever. They can use your password to log in, but can never see the actual password itself. You can revoke access at any time, or based on a schedule
• Share groups of passwords in Shared Folders. So if you hire somebody in your marketing department, you can instantly give them access to all those accounts and nothing more. Then if someone is fired, you can instantly revoke access to everything instantly

I could honestly keep on going. Password managers are an absolute requirement!

Best Password Manager = LastPass

If you're already using a password manager, you may want to continue using that one...

However - I recommend everybody use LastPass. I personally think it's miles ahead of any other password manager. It's also one of the cheapest, starting at just $2/month.

You're ultimately going to need to install and set up LastPass in 3 places -

1. Programs on any computers you have (for me - my main workstation and my laptop)
2. Browser Extensions for those computers (for me - I use Chrome on both those devices, so I also have the LastPass Browser Extension on those)
3. Smartphone App - You're here 🙂

You may want to set this up on your computer first. But once you're signed up and ready to go - install the app and follow set up...

AutoFill Passwords from LastPass

Once LastPass is set up on your phone, head to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Autofill Passwords

We will set up LastPass further (on your other devices) later - so don't go through the settings on LastPass right now. Just get it set up, logged in, and ready to autofill from your phone...

There are several Google Apps that I believe are necessary for peak productivity. You simply can not reach your peak levels of productivity using the alternative apps. These required apps include -

• Gmail App - Make sure you've downloaded this app, logged into all your Google accounts, and also turned off ALL notifications. You can delete Apple's mail app (or any other mail apps) after this is done.
  
  • My core email app is HelpScout, but I still use the Gmail app on my phone constantly. It's great for searching for things on the fly, sending out quick random emails, and more.
• Google Calendar - Absolutely essential for peak productivity. There is no alternative, nothing else even compares. You need to install Google Calendar and start using it as the core scheduling system for your life.
  • You'll leave notifications ON for calendar (but of course - turn off those badges!)
  • Set the 'Start of Week' to Monday (it defaults to Sunday)
  • Set 'Show Declined Events' to OFF
  • Set 'Show Event Illustrations' to OFF
  • Set 'Default Event Duration' to 30min (it defaults to 60min, too long for a meeting)
• Google Maps - Is significantly better than Apple Maps or Waze (or anything else). Install Google Maps, then uninstall/delete every other map application.
  • Go into the app, and add Home and Work addresses in the My Places section. This will save you time later, and enable you to just say "Hey Siri, directions to home" (among other things)
• Google Photos - I'd recommend using Google Photos instead of your phone's native Photos application. Google Photos will pull in photos from more places, and has much better search & organization functions. Install the Google Photos app and go through the setup process (no notifications!)
  • Your iCloud Photo storage is now redundant. You can stop paying for iCloud Photo Storage (and for some people - start paying for Google Photo Storage) 
  • Follow this guide (or a similar one) to migrate from iCloud Photo Storage to Google Photo Storage. Be careful along the way so you don't lose all your pictures 😉

Systems, workflows, and strategies for email, calendar, and more will all be discussed later. For now, let's just get these apps installed and set up properly...

1) Install & Set Up Gboard

We're going to install Google's Gboard Keyboard app and delete all other keyboards on your phone...

Why are we using Gboard over your default keyboard?

• It's much faster to type via swiping/sliding your finger along the screen (rather than individually tapping each and every key). It's also much worse for your joints 😉
  • Because it's so much faster and healthier to NOT do the peck-typing, you'll find yourself writing down ideas and doing better work in general on your phone (rather than postponing til you get to a keyboard).
• Gboard has quick access to features like Emojis and Gifs that eliminate the need for constantly switching keyboards
• It also has some awesome enhanced features you'll come to love

So go ahead and install this keyboard, and then go through the set up process...

2) Delete All Other Keyboards

When you're done setting the app up, head back to Settings > General > Keyboard > Edit

Here you can go through and delete all keyboard other than Gboard (don't worry, you can get them all back easily). 

3) Adjust Gboard Settings

• Keyboard Settings
  • 'Block offensive words' is ON by default. I use offensive words, so I turned this OFF 😉
  • Most of us will want to turn off 'Multilingual typing'. If not, you'll get some random words from other languages in your typing from time to time.
  • I turn off 'Share usage statistics' at the bottom. In general, I will ALWAYS turn this off whenever I can. I just don't like the idea of my devices using processing power and bandwidth to send data off to random places.
• Search Settings
  • I turn 'Contacts Search' ON, since I want to be able to quickly send the contact info profiles out of my phone to other people
  • I would not turn on location services. I have not actually tried - but I can't see any reason this would be a good idea. Google Maps has your location - your keyboard doesn't need it.
• Themes
  • I switch from the light theme to the dark theme in the Default category. It saves battery life and extends the lifespan of my eyes 😉

Here's what this should look like when it's all done -

I'll make this really simple for you...

• iPhone Users - Use Safari
• Android Users - Use Chrome

You're going to use the native browser for your phone, regardless of anything else. So even I (who just preached on embracing Google Apps) have uninstalled the Chrome App from my iPhone and now use Safari...

But why?!

• Your native browser has some extra features that are stellar for productivity.
• Your native browser plays more nicely with all your other apps
• Everything is going to open via your native browser anyways. There's no way to completely change your native browser, so you'll always lose time switching between apps

So take the risk and try it out. I promise, nothing bad happens if you change your phone's internet browser 🙂

1) Install Your Native Browser

I don't think you can actually uninstall your native browser. But you may need to find the icon for the app and move it to your Home Screen (I have mine on my main toolbar)

2) Adjust Browser Settings

The main setting that's going to drastically improve your productivity (and battery life) is reading mode. Let's go ahead and enable reading mode all the time, whenever it's available...

On iPhone, you can adjust this within the Safari App

Open up Safari and browse around until you find a website where it says 'Reader View Available' in the URL bar. Once you find that - press and hold on the little hamburger menu to the left of that text...

On Android, this setting is in Settings > Advanced > Accessibility

3) Uninstall Any Other Browser You Have

There's no reason to have more than one internet browser on your phone...

4) Disable Advertising Tracking

There's a few settings we can use to limit tracking data be stored on our device and sent out constantly. I really don't care about privacy or security - but I do LOVE the idea of getting less effectively targeted ads (ones that won't draw your attention and create desire). 

The concept here - YOU are the boss, not your phone. YOU decide when you want to buy something, and then the phone helps you do that better. NOT the other way around, where the phone sporadically brainwashes you into a completely different reward system on the fly!

Go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Turn ON Limit Ad Tracking

5) Delete All Your Favorite Bookmarks

When you open up Safari (or whatever), you don't want to see anything. You opened it for a reason - go do that...

When most people go to open a new tab, they see a nightmarish assortment of distractions -

This is the OPPOSITE of peak productivity! We don't want to have the willpower to avoid distractions - we want to eliminate the distractions from ever even occurring (no willpower or cognitive expenditure).

So DELETE THESE SUCKERS! On iPhone, you just press and hold down - then delete...every...single...one...

When your done, your screen should look like this when opening new tabs in Safari - 

You'll always still have your bookmarks. Just click the little book icon on the bottom right to see those...

But this will eliminate all distractions and keep your subconscious focused on the task at hand. You're unlocking a whole new level of subconscious cognitive power here!

When you're at you're main workstation, you should always have a pen & plenty of paper handy to quickly get ideas and information out of your head. But many of your best ideas will come when you're away from your office and least expect it...

So you want to set your phone up to be the easiest, most frictionless place to quickly jot down ideas and notes. The goal is for you to get the idea/note out of your head as quickly as possible, and know that it's being placed in a 'conceptual queue' that you'll review and process at a later date.

What About Evernote?

When most people hear note-taking app, they think Evernote...

I've tried Evernote several times. I've bought the accessories and I've paid for the subscription and I've tried the insane productivity systems built on Evernote...

My conclusion - Evernote sucks. I personally am not a fan of it at all.

I'm sure there's lots of people out there using Evernote - but I thought it was completely disconnected from the rest of my system and cumbersome in general. 

If you're already using Evernote and loving it - go ahead and keep using that. But if you don't have a note-taking app that you're in love with, then I would NOT try Evernote. I think they will slide into irrelevance over time.

Google Keep = Awesome Too

If you want a built out note-taking app for your phone (and you're not using Evernote) - check out the Google Keep App. It's similar to Evernote in some ways, but much more lightweight.

So much of what Evernote does is a gimmick to me, or maybe meant for students who are just taking notes for the sake of tests. But in terms of actually being consistently productive as an entrepreneur, I don't like Evernote.

I'll show you below the note-taking system I use on my phone most often. But I do use Google Keep from time-to-time as well. Very rarely, but sometimes.

If I want to build a packing list, or a list of things I need to fix around the house - I will use Google Keep. It's just small personal to-do lists really...

But that's it! I would NEVER put an actual business to-do list in here. This is strictly for stupid little personal things I don't want involved in my work systems.

Anything work or money related, I am going to take notes with the system described below...

Bear is also a good option, but I have never personally tried. Ultimately, you need just ONE of the 3 I have mentioned. Then keep reading and move on!

My Note-Taking App

Ultimately the app you use to take notes and jot down ideas is not too important. I want something that's extremely easy and lightweight to plug ideas into, and easy to input into my Information Processing System (which I'll talk about more later).

So that sounds really complex. But here's what it actually means in practice -

• I personally use Slack to take notes and jot down ideas. If I have an idea, I'll open up Slack and send a Private Message to myself to capture the idea.
• If I want to set myself a reminder, I'll use Slack again and type in /remind me to cancel Netflix on Jan 14 - then I know that this reminder will pop-up in my main communication platform right on time, and I can forget about it until then.
• To set to-do list items, I will again use Slack - but this time type in /todo @steve get us an exclusive discount for this app by Feb 1 - which uses our Slack to-do app to remind Steve and myself of the open task until it's complete.

That may all sound complex to you now, but will soon make perfect sense as we set it up for you!

Why Do It That Way? Why Not Use an App?

I've tried pretty much every to-do list and reminder app out there, but they're all too disconnected from the rest of my company to really work...

I think there are a lot of to-do list apps that work perfectly for the general person. However - for entrepreneurs, I don't think there are many effective options out there.

Ultimately the reason I use Slack is this -

• I don't want another separate app just to capture ideas and notes. My only goal with this is to quickly get ideas out of my head, so they can be properly processed at the right time (in batches)
• Slack is already connected to the rest of my company, so I don't need to reserve mental space for a whole other app and workflows surrounding it
• Slack is installed on all my devices, and it's super quick for me to send myself a PM from anywhere
• Slack is already built into many of my workflows and automation systems. Like the /remind and /todo commands I showed you above, I can do a LOT more with a LOT less work through Slack than any dinky to-do list app I've ever seen.

There's probably more reasons I'm not thinking of. Although it may seem a little messy or complex, this will all be simple for you by the end of the ProductivePreneur program...

So What Should You Do?

Ultimately, it's up to you. But I have spent a LONG time trying a LOT of different tools, and this is the best I have found. I encourage you to model how I use Slack and run the majority of all communications through there.

But you could even use email for this (and just shoot yourself an email every time you have an idea). The goal is the same - have some way to quickly capture ideas and notes, so you can forget about them now and trust you'll revisit and process them in the future...

Entrepreneurs need to use simple calculators to make quick calculations constantly. And Apple's default calculator sucks from a productivity perspective...

1) Install Numerical Calculator App

This is a simple calculator without a lot of bells-and-whistles. It does quick calculations without needing to click on the = button, stores a history of your calculations, and automatically inserts parenthesis where needed for most business calculations...

Install the app and place it on your home screen. This will further reinforce the concept that your phone is now a proactive tool (rather than a reactive consumption device).

2) Adjust Numerical Settings

Even on a calculator, I screw with the settings...

• Change Theme to 'Pitch' (are you seeing a theme here?)
• Make font bold

This will be more important for some than others. But everybody should have a great weather forecasting app. This will allow you to plan better and avoid using more toxic mediums to obtain this information (such as the internet, radio, friend, or TV)...

Which Weather App For You?

There are a ton of options out there for weather forecasting apps. But I would not recommend experimenting with many of them...

One offensive thing you'll hear me say often is "Commercials are a tax only the poor pay". And this is a good example of that. Most of these weather apps will give you the weather - but they'll also be trying to steal your attention at every opportunity.

There are a couple weather apps I'd recommend, and I wouldn't really try much else. You don't need the world's greatest weather app with the most information possible. You need to know what the temperature is going to be, and if it's going to rain or not...

Paid Option = Dark Sky

My personal favorite weather forecasting app is Dark Sky. While the price tag on this seems a little ridiculous for a weather app - let's be real here, it's $3.99...

I understand if you don't want to pay that for a weather app (I held off for a long time). But you really should. It's the last weather app you will ever need - accurate information with beautiful graphics and NOTHING ELSE to distract you 🙂

Free Option = NOAA Weather Radar

This is my free pick for weather apps. It has a lot more going on that I really don't want to see (useless cognitive load), but it's a solid and accurate app with relatively little advertising.

But I'd still recommend Dark Sky 😉

Add Your Weather App to Your Home Screen

This is another tool you want on your home screen. We'll also be adding this as a widget later in this checklist...

Everybody is going to waste time. Our goal is to make sure our wasted time is what most people consider productive.

There are some content consumption apps that I do recommend putting on your phone. Train yourself to use THESE apps (instead of music or entertainment) during your commutes/travels, while you're exercising, etc...

• Audible App - I think Audible's audiobooks are almost always going to be the most valuable audio-based content you can waste time on
• Kindle App - 
• Podcasts App - I personally don't listen to much podcast content. I don't have a lot of time to listen to audio-based content, so I almost always try to stay in the Audible app. However, lots of successful people love podcasts, and they're infinitely more valuable than music or YouTube.
  • You need to be extremely careful and limited in the Podcasts you listen to. Always think of the end result you want to achieve with this podcast, then find a new one for your next goal. NEVER listen to every episode of ANY podcast - pick and choose the most valuable for you at the moment you're wasting time on podcasts.
    • Ask in the FB Group for recommended podcasts. Maybe start with Jocko Podcast and Unmistakeable Creative
      • Just to drive the point home - LISTENING TO PODCASTS IS NOT PRODUCTIVE. We're putting this on your phone specifically for situations where you can listen to audio and absorb information, but not much more (i.e. commutes, exercise, yard work, warehouse work, etc)

What About Book Summary Apps like Blinkist?

I don't like these. My goal here is not to jack myself full of as much information in the shortest time possible. I want to spend time with the authors of these books. I want to hear and feel their ideas. I want to hear the personal stories that led to their understanding.

Information alone does nothing for me. I need to be sold these ideas - I need to get emotionally hooked and amped up to fully understand an idea enough to execute it subconsciously over time...

There are a select few books I will listen to or read and say "This is all fluff, I'm going to find a summary". But if you're consuming great books that stretch your understanding, you should almost always listen to the full thing.

I really, really, really hate wearables like Apple Watches and Fitbits. However - I know some of you will always use them for health, and that is fine 🙂

It's a good idea to track how active you are, and to give ultra-subtle reminders to your subconscious when you're not being active enough. And you don't need a fitbit or a wearable to do that - almost every smartphone offers this feature for free now...

So let's get your phone set up to track your steps and give subconscious cues to be more active (without EVER having to open & waste time inside the actual fitness apps themselves).

1) Enables Fitness Tracking

On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Fitness Tracking and ENABLE it...

For Android, you'll need to Google and see if this feature exists for your phone...

2) Install Simple Step Tracker App

Your phone is going to do the step-counting, but we need an app to show us that data in the least distracting way possible. We also want an app that offers a Widget (we'll be screwing around with widgets later in this checklist).

My favorite app for this is Pedometer++. It's super simple and doesn't have many features outside of the ones I want...

3) Open the App and Set It Up

For now, let's just open this up and allow it access to our steps. In a few steps, we'll add the widget from this App to our Today screen (but don't worry about that for now)

Face ID / Touch ID

You should be using Face ID for everything. If you don't have Face ID, then you should use Touch ID. If you don't have either - then you should get a new phone (seriously)...

Anytime you need to punch in a pin or password, you should consider that a personal productivity failure. This is an incredibly useless expenditure of cognitive processing power (and time). You should ALWAYS be logging in via Face ID / Touch ID, or LastPass.

Whenever I type in a password or pin, I immediately remedy the problem (usually through going to the app settings and enabling Face ID / Touch ID).

Set Up iCloud Backups

Look at all this work you're doing to make your phone the ultimate productivity machine. Good for you!

But let's lock this in and make sure this is the only time we ever have to think about (most of) this stuff...

You should be backing up pretty much everything, and your phone is no exception. I strongly suggest using Apple's iCloud Backups (their native backup service). It's super cheap (I pay $11.88 per year for 50GB) and super native - you will never even realize it's running, and your phone will always be backed up.

Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud

You'll see options to manage your iCloud storage and which apps get backed up. Given how cheap this storage is, you should probably just back everything up...

I used to resist paying for backups too. But you can not risk downtime in today's world. The amount of time and energy this $11.88/yr will save you is totally worth it. I hope you all take my advice, and nobody has to realize this the hard way (like I did)...

Also - iCloud backups are extremely easy to restore. Whenever you get a new phone, you'll be able to instantly pull back your familiar environment with about 5 taps of the screen. Totally worth it and necessary for peak productivity.

We'll set up backups for other things later. Right now, just get your phone backups automated and move on.

Set Up Medical ID

Sounds pretty trivial, but amazingly this could save your life! If you're incapacitated, a stranger can access your Medical ID from your power-off screen. Paramedics and hospitals are becoming more and more likely to check for this in emergency situations.

Go to Health App > Medical ID > Edit

Insert your medical information here...

• Emergency Contact (or a few)
• Under medications and conditions, you can put your actual information or simply put "Call Emergency Contact for Medications & Medical Conditions"
• Your blood type would be useful. Most of the time you'd be pumped full of O-negative blood (the universal donor). But there are situations (especially in third-world or mass casualty) where this could save your life
• It's up to you whether or not you want to be an organ donor. There is no productivity gain for becoming one 🙂

This is also sometimes used by kind strangers when you lose your phone (to check for contacts or address).

Set Your Home Address (Final Spots)

There are lots of different places your phone will pull this information from. Let's just go ahead and get it finalized now, so we never have to think about it again...

We've already put our address in the Google Maps App, so no need to touch that. But there are 3 other places to set your address -

• Settings > Apple ID > Payment & Shipping
• Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Shipping Address
• Siri pulls your address and personal information for your personal contact record. So go into the Contacts App, locate your contact record, and click Edit. Make sure this information is what you want Siri using and sending out.

Change Your Phone's Name

This one is getting a little crazy. But why not?

Instead of using the default iPhone name (which gives away who you are at your local Starbucks or airport), let's use the real estate for something more useful...

• Advertise yourself or your business - StartupBros.com/about
• Inspire yourself to stay focused w/ small affirmations - I Stay Focused or Watch Me Grow

To change your Phone's Name, head to Settings > General > About > Name

Set a Simple Personal Hotspot Password

Most smartphones now operate as personal hotspots, allowing your computer (or other devices) to use your phone's data network as it's internet connection. Which is an awesome feature 🙂

Instead of having some ultra-complex personal hotspot password, why not have something dead simple anyone can understand on the first try?

One great method for this is short 3 word passwords. You can read about that method here. So your password may end being horsealphaomega or staplehotbulb

I would never use a password like this for anything LastPass could handle. But wifi passwords are things I need to say out loud and communicate to people. It's super annoying having to explain Uppercase vs Lowercase and all that BS...

You can do this on your home or business wifi networks as well. For most of us, there will be little to no security risk.

Other Apps

TrueCaller or NoRobo App

AdBlock App

Calm or Headspace

Shortcuts

Acrobat Reader App

Copied App

Doodle App

Dropbox

Launcher

ScanBot / CamScanner

Brain.FM / Tide

Pomodoro (BeFocused) - We'll talk about the Pomodoro Method elsewhere in this program. But this app is the best Pomodoro Timer I have ever found. If you do use this, it should be a tool on your Home Screen

Fasting (Zero App) - We'll talk about diet & exercise elsewhere, but this is the best intermittent fasting tracker. Install this (enable notifications for once), choose 16hr fast, and enjoy!

Our goal here is to create a Today Screen that is worthy of a Daily Habit...

You're going to end up wasting time on your phone every day, My hope in all of this, is that wasting time on your phone becomes a productive endeavour for you. Our goal is to create something that redirects your distracted and wandering mind back to what's really important to you in your life.

So let's make it happen...

Google Calendar

Screen Time Widget - Much of this is designed to decrease or refocus most of your smartphone usage. This widget will tell you how you're doing. And I always love seeing this subconsciously and thinking "Man, I've got to get back to what I need to be doing". 

If you're REALLY good, you will set limits for usage on especially harmful categories like social media. Imagine you are your own parent or boss once again. How much time playing games do you feel is appropriate? How many hours on social? You need to measure these things and have them available - and also rewire your brain to find certain time expenditures completely unacceptable. 

Weather

As you'll see elsewhere, I am a big fan of keyboard text replacement shortcuts...

What this means (to give a real example), is that I never actually type in my email address. I just type in w@ and my computer automatically replaces that with my full email [email protected]

This is just one of hundreds of keyboard text replacement shortcuts I have set up. They save me a serious amount of time - I felt like I was going crazy typing in the same stuff constantly...

We will set this up on your computer later. And I'll give you a nice list of recommended shortcuts to use. But for now - let's just get some basic time savers set up. Then you can add to it later (and over time)...

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement

Once you're there, go ahead and set up two basic keyboard text replacement shortcuts...

• Your main email address
  • w@ = [email protected]
  • b@ = [email protected]
  • s@ = [email protected]
  • wm@ = [email protected]
• Your mailing address
  • 100add =My address starting in 100
  • 326add = My address starting in 326
• Your credit card number
  • cc1 = Main Personal Card (number only)
  • cc2 = Main Business Card (number only)

Now try them out! Text message yourself or take a note and try out your new keyboard replacement.

This is a PURE productivity hack. You won't want to live any other way after getting used to this...

More shortcuts to come later in the program. But for now, carry on...

This one will really show you how deeply I believe productivity is about controlling your subconscious...

Most voice-based AI Assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Home, etc) will come with female voices by default. The reason for this is interesting - people simply feel more comfortable giving & receiving orders from females rather than from males...

((( The research on this has actually shown that it has nothing to do with the gender of the person, and everything to do with the pitch & tone of their voice. From childbirth we associate soft light voices with peace and harmony, and deep punctuating voices with assertiveness and confidence. Since most females have higher voices than their male counterparts, this is how it's shaken out... )))

Deep voices are more associated with leadership and authority, and most people are subconsciously intimidated by deep voices (especially when backed with assertiveness). On a level they can't even realize - most people are retreating from true leaders whenever they're confronted...

What does this have to do with productivity?

You're going to achieve incredible things in this life, and you're going to need to boss around some leaders to do that! By changing all your AI voices to men, you'll feel a little less peaceful and you'll become a little more comfortable bossing around men (and others with deep authoritative voices).

Go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Voice

And choose whichever accent you want, but select the MALE voice instead...

I'm certainly not against the use of the camera. The end result of the time spent in the Camera App would be my concern, but I think using the Camera App to capture memorable moments in your life is a great use of your phone as a tool...

I use the Camera app less than most senior citizens at this point. But I still have it set up for peak productivity 😉

Go into Settings > Camera

Here's the settings I recommend -

• Turn Preserve Mode On (app won't default back to photo constantly)
• If you have the storage, max out the resolution as much as you want
• Turn on grid mode if you want to take better pics/vids

Lastly - if you really use the camera a lot, you may also want to consider adding it to your main toolbar. Although you can already access this 3 different ways, if you do use the camera often - there's no reason not to place the Camera there as well...

iPhone's Control Center allows you to quickly adjust & use certain utilities, such as toggle network settings, access & control flashlight, and more. You can access the Control Center on the iPhone by swiping down from the top-right edge of the screen...

1) Enable Control Center Everywhere

Apple only wants this to be accessible from certain areas, but we want this to always be accessible. Simple fix...

Go to Settings > Control Center > Turn ON Enable Access Within Apps

2) Customize Control Center

While you're here, you might as well customize your controls as well. You can see the ones I've decided to keep below...

This setting used to kill your battery and use up your bandwidth. However - everybody's phone has plenty of bandwidth and battery (especially after this guide) to run this setting now...

The idea here is that all your apps will constantly be up-to-date. When you open something like Gmail - you won't have to wait for the latest emails to load in. Your phone will already have downloaded that data in the background (without you even knowing).

Go to Settings > General > Turn ON Background App Refresh

Since we're disciplined with notifications (and what apps we allow on our phone in general), there is no downside to enabled this feature...

Most people have completely unorganized phones, and end up wasting 1-2hrs per month just searching for things...

On the iPhone, most people will have multiple 'screens/pages' of apps. Here's how to organize those -

• Your goal is to have 3 specific pages (and no more)
  • The home screen is for my most frequently used tools only
  • The second screen is all my apps, organized into folders
  • The third screen is for junk that I never want to see (including apps I can't remove)

Within each of those pages, you're going to have a bunch of apps. Here's how I suggest organizing those -

• Home Screen has two different strategies
  • Most-Used: You put your must used apps towards the bottom right, and your least used apps towards the top left
  • Alphabetical: List all apps alphabetically. The reasoning behind this is quite interesting - finding an app alphabetically forces your brain to process information using it's language center (left side), and decreases the likelihood of you opening apps for dopamine hits.
• Second Screen should have all other apps grouped into folders based on FUNCTION
  • I prefer to hide all apps behind a boring app in each folder (described in Step 3). So the first app in each folder is something non-eye-catching, and then the second page has everything else listed alphabetically. 
• Third Screen is all my junk Apple apps that I can't uninstall, along with any new apps I haven't decided on keeping yet. I basically never look at anything past the Second Screen...

In terms of what actual folders you should use, I'll leave that up to you. But some of my folders include -

• Investing (Stocks, IRAs, 401ks)
• Home Automation
• Social
• Finance (Banking, Credit Cards)
• Food (Online Ordering and Rewards)
• Shopping
• Education
• Messages 
• Travel (Hotels and taxis)
• Flights (Airlines and related)
• Real Estate (Zillow and related)
• Entertainment (Movies and Events)
• Music
• Local (Yelp and TripAdvisor and related)
• Productivity (RescueTime and Cloud Services)
• Utilities (Calculator and Authenticators and whatnot)

I would also recommend deleting/uninstalling many apps during this process. You'll go through and uninstall more apps in the next step, too...

You should have found a few apps to delete/uninstall during the previous step of this checklist, but now you want to do a deeper dive. The goal is to uninstall any apps which aren't necessary for you to reach peak productivity (and anything that isn't necessary - is BAD).

While I'm always shocked how many apps I end up needing to keep, I always find lots that I can get rid of and never think of again...

1) Just Scroll Through

Since you organized all your apps into folders in the previous step, you probably already did this...

But if not - go ahead and just scroll around and find things to uninstall first.

2) Check Storage Settings

You should buy phones with enough native memory that you never need to think about how much memory you have available. If you spend time cleaning your phone off to reclaim space - you've got a long way to come in your journey to peak productivity...

However - I still use the phone's Storage Settings to quickly find apps I want to delete 🙂

On the iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage

Here you can see all your apps sorted by how much space they take up. Some easy wins might be apps like Garage Band, which Apple is kind enough to install on every single iPhone...

Go through all your apps on this screen and delete any that you don't think are necessary for you to achieve peak productivity. Don't forget - you can always re-install an app in less than 10-seconds (so error on the side of LEAN, CLEAN, and PRODUCTIVE)

3) Check Battery Settings

The last place I'll go to check out apps I should delete is my battery settings...

Go to Settings > Battery

On this page, you'll see some graphs showing your battery & phone usage...

There's no reason to only look at today's data, so click over to the 10-Day View...

Then you can scroll down and check out all the apps that have been consuming the most battery. Look at all your most power-hungry apps and find a few to delete for good!

You should also click 'Show Activity' - which is even more valuable. This shows you which apps you spend the most time using. Lots of potential for productivity improvements here...

The iPhone makes it super simple to share images and data between applications. It's a feature I use all the time...

What sucks about this though - is that any app can place itself on your share bar. So eventually most people's share bars become cluttered with BS...

Removing or adjusting these items is easy. Just scroll all the way to the end and select 'More', and you'll see a menu come up...

You should remove/disable the vast majority of items available on the share bar, and also re-order them based on what you actually use most. Here's what mine looks like - 

Different areas of your iPhone will have different things available on the Share Bar (for instance, sharing a website vs sharing a photo). So you may need to modify & re-order a few different Share Bars as you see them pop up...

Here's what my share bar looks like when sharing photos - 

Your Home Screen is the most important area of your phone. This is where most people allow their subconscious to have full control...

Lots of people literally unlock their phone and just hop around their Home Screen. And this is a normal human behavior - so there's no point in trying to stop. The best thing we can do, is optimize our Home Screen to limit the options available to our subconscious - so we're always trending towards our goals rather than destructive habits...

You should have already done some organization of your Home Screen in the previous step. So let's build on that...

What Should NOT Be On My Home Screen?

Your Home Screen should be focused and streamlined. Everything on your Home Screen needs to be there for a very specific reason. This is some of the MOST valuable 'attention real estate' in your life, so you NEED to protect it and take it seriously.

What's on your Home Screen should be absolutely essential for your productivity. Don't simply pick apps you use often and plop them on your Home Screen. MOST of the apps people spend time in are holding them back from achieving their dreams!

Some apps that have snuck their way onto my Home Screen, that should NOT have been there -

• Find Friends - I don't need this on my Home Screen. If I actually need to know where someone is, I can just swipe down and search for it. When it was on my Home Screen, I would constantly find myself unlocking my phone and looking at Find Friends way too often. Find Friends even has features where I can be notified when people move around - why would I ever want this on my Home Screen?

What Should Be On My Home Screen?

Here's what should be on your Home Screen -

• Apps that encourage deep learning: It's okay to have a few consumption apps on your Home Screen - you're still going to derive enjoyment out of your phone too! Select 2-3 apps that truly encourage deep learning and place those on your Home Screen. Examples would be Audible, Kindle, Podcasts, maybe non-hype financial apps like Seeking Alpha