EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,018 words- 0:00 – 2:02
Life Hacks 201 kickoff: in-jokes, pop culture, and “season two” setup
- CWChris Williamson
It is Life Hacks. This is kind of like the second season.
- JOJonny
I really hope there's somebody listening to this episode who's not got any of the weird references so far-
- CWChris Williamson
Oh, don't, absolutely.
- JOJonny
... and just thinks we've all got Tourette's.
- YUYusef
Have you seen the Alan Partridge thing where he's talking about how to wash your hands in a train toilet without touching anything? So he's like, "Elbow, elbow, soap, soap, tissue, tissue, down, kick the door, open, done, out."
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
It's like that, (laughs) that's how my morning feels.
- CWChris Williamson
Yusuf, why have you put Kermit the Frog behind you on your...?
- JOJonny
He's, he's back again. Can you, can you just tell me when he goes away?
- CWChris Williamson
I cannot, I cannot believe- It is Life Hacks time with Jonny and Yusuf from propanefitness.com. How are you doing, gentlemen?
- YUYusef
Good.
- JOJonny
All very good.
- YUYusef
Good.
- CWChris Williamson
Are you doing the Macarena?
- JOJonny
I don't think it's like that, is it? It's that.
- YUYusef
That looked more like a mime artist pretending there was a glass wall.
- JOJonny
Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
Pretending to do the Macarena? (laughs)
- JOJonny
I'm, I'm not very up to date with my like '90s dance.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs) '90s dance moves, yeah. If it-
- JOJonny
Vengaboys.
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah, if it was anything after-
- JOJonny
That's, yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
... Vengaboys or Craig David's debut single, that's, that's your most current music, isn't it?
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- JOJonny
(laughs)
- YUYusef
It's like how Yusuf has like-
- JOJonny
Really good.
- YUYusef
... a se- one series and one film to talk about when someone's like, "Do you watch any Netflix?" He's like-
- CWChris Williamson
Within each decade, yeah.
- 2:02 – 7:34
Hack: Stack “dead time” into productive micro-chores (kitchen ballet)
- CWChris Williamson
A new frontier. Uh, so hot potato. Jonny, you are up. What have you got for us first?
- YUYusef
So mine are split between physical and digital. (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs) The OGs will know.
- YUYusef
(laughs) Yeah, if you get that joke, congratulations. Congratulations. Which one to pick? That's the thing. That's the question. Here's a really basic one-
- CWChris Williamson
He's not got any.
- YUYusef
No, I've got none, yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
Uh, but something I've been doing recently, so I re-read Atomic Habits. We all like Atomic Habits, don't we?
- JOJonny
Adore them.
- CWChris Williamson
Yusuf's not read it yet, but we all like it.
- JOJonny
I'm reading it.
- CWChris Williamson
You're reading it? Congratulations.
- JOJonny
I'm, I've got, I'm reading two books currently, Traffic Secrets and Atomic Habits.
- YUYusef
What a set, what a set-up. So I basically have, I mean, this is a, not, not, not that relevant, but I've started eating breakfast. So while things are cooking in the pan in the morning, I basically do all of the, like, chores in the kitchen. So I'll like take the bin out, empty the dishwasher, wipe the surfaces. And then I kind of forget it's happened, and you go back in the kitchen, you're like, "Oh, this is clean, this is tidy." So it's just you... Uh, oh, 'cause otherwi- I previously, the first couple of times I was doing it, I was just like standing looking at the pan, like waiting for it to warm up. So just using dead time like that, and there was another example. Mm... Can't remember now.
- CWChris Williamson
A good example of that from an old one is when you were flossing your teeth in the shower, Yusuf.
- YUYusef
Yeah, exac- so exact- so that sort of thing. Goddamn it, I have another-
- CWChris Williamson
So you know when-
- YUYusef
Oh, I do, I do have one. Yep, sorry.
- CWChris Williamson
Um, you know when it's a really good life hack when separately we haven't talked about it, but yet I do the same thing as you?
- YUYusef
Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
So I have, on a morning, my housemate makes fun of me because we've been getting up at similar sort of times during lockdown, and there's this weird ballet that I do around the kitchen when I'm making my food. 'Cause I'm prepping my whole food for the whole day and I'm also washing up. And I'll wash all of his stuff 'cause I don't mind and I've got my podcast on, but I'm like going, like, cooker, sink, pirouette, microwave, freezer. Da da da da da da da. Yeah, it's like this-
- YUYusef
Yeah. (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
... elaborate dance thing where I'm moving-
- JOJonny
Have you got like '50s like Mary Poppins music playing in the background?
- CWChris Williamson
It's Ben Shapiro's podcast usually, which is, actually makes you move a lot quicker. Yeah.
- JOJonny
(laughs) Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
Diggidigdigdig, uh, what was the other-
- YUYusef
So if you-
- CWChris Williamson
... what was the other example?
- YUYusef
If you seen the Alan Partridge thing where he's talking about how to wash your hands in a train toilet without touching anything?
- 7:34 – 12:10
Coffee convenience vs coffee craft: bags, kettles, and microplastics paranoia
- JOJonny
So mine is coffee bags. I have discovered this recently by... Oh, Johnny's really upset. This is probably a very like absolute philistine thing to say for coffee aficionados like you guys.
- YUYusef
Instant coffee. You just put it in the cup, you pour hot water in it.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- JOJonny
It's really quick. Um, no, so it, it, it's the same niceness as proper coffee, 'cause it is just in a, like a bag that's more permeable than a tea bag. Only discovered this by accident because my girlfriend went to buy some coffee, knew that I didn't have all the right coffee kit, so she bought some coffee bags, turned up and realized that they were decaf, got really upset and was like, "You just keep them. I'm not touching those horrible things." Brilliant. So now I've got a box of coffee bags in the house.
- CWChris Williamson
You-
- YUYusef
Is that what you were drinking, your big cup?
- JOJonny
This was actually a mushroom cocoa. I think on your recommendation, Johnny, secondhand. I got it because of hearing you talk about it on previous life hacks, and now I had some as a filter down.
- YUYusef
Stuff like that makes me feel uneasy, 'cause it's like Mike, without me knowing, has listened to something I said a while ago, has gone out and done something, and now you've got it in a mug. It's a relaxant though. You are aware of that. It's like an evening blend.
- JOJonny
Th- there's, there's two. One, one is the chaga, and one is cordyceps. So this morning I was training my cordyceps and then I had some of the mushrooms.
- YUYusef
Then you had a chaga.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
Right?
- JOJonny
Big, big chaga.
- CWChris Williamson
What's your, what's... I, I, I could see in your facial expression that you had a criticism about coffee bags, Johnny. What's your...
- YUYusef
So, so one of mine is, um, Becca bought me a temperature kettle. Now you might think surely all kettles do temperature. How is this different? Um, it's a, it's a kettle that you set the temperature and it, it boils up to a certain, it's got a special spout on it that allows you to pour water into a, a filter funnel, where I'm, I've been using the 4-6-6 method to brew coffee. So it's quite, very manual, very slow, but delicious. So just contrast that to... So that was one of my life hacks. Contrast that to Yusuf's coffee bags.
- JOJonny
Just dunk it in a bag.
- YUYusef
You've got, you've got the full spectrum.
- CWChris Williamson
Wow. What's, what is the 4-6-6 method? You might as well go again.
- YUYusef
Um, it's... So you, you... I mean, I'll probably get some of this wrong, but it's a, I think Japanese coffee prep method where you weigh out 20 grams of beans, grind them, put them into a filter paper, um, beans, and then, uh, you pour an initial amount of water on it. Then you wait for the bloom, which is the, the carbon dioxide being released from the beans, and then you wait, and then you pour more water, wait, pour more water in a 4-6-6 pattern.
- CWChris Williamson
Wow. Oh, my God.
- YUYusef
So rather than me going through like a full prep. So it's, it's very... It- it's, it's like a, um, a real c- craft process to make a coffee.
- JOJonny
Isn't it amazing, the, the branding of Japan? Like if you say anything is, "Oh, it uses a Japanese method," everyone's like, "Whoa."
- CWChris Williamson
Ooh.
- JOJonny
Must be so like systematic.
- YUYusef
It's like this, this isn't-
- CWChris Williamson
Artisan.
- YUYusef
... just any bread roll and butter. This is Icelandic bread and an Icelandic piece of butter.
- CWChris Williamson
It's Icelandic butter. It's 9,500 pounds.
- YUYusef
And you're like, "Well, of course it's nine grand." (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
Discounted down to 9,000 pounds.
- 12:10 – 20:23
AirPod Pros as a high-leverage purchase (and workflow automation)
- CWChris Williamson
Making you, making you full of estrogen. Okay, so coffee bags, four six six method for coffee. Uh, my first one, which we haven't covered, AirPod Pros. So they've been out for a little while.
- JOJonny
Surely we've covered these, like, every episode.
- YUYusef
No, I don't think we have.
- CWChris Williamson
Nope.
- JOJonny
I think we have this conversation all the time.
- CWChris Williamson
I've just written, I- I've just written an entire life hacks-
- JOJonny
We go on about them. We have covered AirPods.
- CWChris Williamson
Got it. Look, AirPods was on the first ever episode. AirPod Pros. So I got them the day they came out. I drove to the metro center to get them on the evening that they came out, and I got my buddy who works there to reserve a pair for me, which was good, and then-
- JOJonny
Fabulous.
- CWChris Williamson
... four months later, Johnny and Jordan from Modern Man Big Dicks Group got ahold of a pair and started extolling the virtues and telling me about just how great they were.
- YUYusef
(coughs)
- JOJonny
You were like, "Told you so."
- YUYusef
"Chris, have you, Chris have you seen these?"
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
"Chris, you should get some of these."
- CWChris Williamson
They're just, if anyone that's listening, if you've got £240 to spend on a pair of headphones, if you use them a lot, you, you literally can't get better. They're the same price as any other pair of noise canceling headphones. The noise canceling in them, you might think, "Oh, why do I need noise canceling? Is that, doesn't sound very interesting." It, it is just you existing inside of your own mind as opposed to you being within the world. It's so good, you can afford to have the sound turned down at a much lower level because the ambient noise coming in is competing with it much less, which means if you had problems with old AirPods or wired headphones in a loud place like the gym or when you're driving or something else, it's just, it's a wonderful experience. Battery life is still very strong. I've had mine for probably eight months now, I guess, since they came out, and, uh, I, I don't regret buying them at all. One thing I would say is buy the AppleCare+, which extends the warranty for a couple of years, and I think is maybe £30. So all in you're looking at about £270. But they're, they're just amazing. If you list- if you're listening to this podcast presumably you consume a lot of audio content. The old AirPods are perfectly acceptable, but if you've got the extra £100 to spend, it is worth it. That's wonderful.
- JOJonny
So actually one, one thing to add on that as well is, um, if you've got £10 to spare and you're not a twat, then, um, you can, uh, you can get these, which are the Anker £10, uh, Bluetooth headphones. You can actually get 30 pairs of these before you have to buy one set of AirPod Pros.
- YUYusef
Did you say, "If you're not a twat?"
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- YUYusef
I think what you meant to say was... (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
If you li- if you want to import your headphones via Yemen-
- YUYusef
Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
... you can... (laughs)
- YUYusef
I was in, I was in Topshop with Becca in Eldon Square, and I walked past, this is when I still had, uh, you know, back in like 1999 when I had my normal AirPods, and uh, I was, I walked past and I saw, like, the box on the window and I was like, "God, oh, they look really nice." And I'm like walking around Topshop like, "This is boring." And I was like, "I'll ju- oh, I wonder whether there's any reviews, like, you know, non-biased reviews about AirPod Pros." You Google it and it's just like page after page of, "These are the best headphones ever produced." So I was like, "I'll just be back in a moment." I bought some AirPod Pros.
- JOJonny
Oh. It's, it's the sign of a great product when you see the advert and then you're like, "Oh," and like in a bit of pain.
- CWChris Williamson
There's a visceral reaction because you don't own them. Yeah.
- YUYusef
It's, yeah, Apple do this thing to me where I imagine you both probably have the same thing, where they release something and you think, "That looks pretty expensive," but you kinda know that at some point you're gonna buy them. It's just a matter of time. It's like there's a planet-
- CWChris Williamson
You see them on the horizon.
- 20:23 – 22:50
Focus audio tools: Brain.fm, binaural beats, and placebo pragmatism
- YUYusef
Um, have I mentioned Brain.fm before? I don't think I have.
- CWChris Williamson
Yes, but we can go, we can go through it, just 'cause I don't think you went in very deep.
- YUYusef
So it's, it's something that... So I've tried lots of these services in the past. I've tried, like, Focus at Will, um, there's another one, I can't remember the name of it. Like, they play binaural beats, they play, like, noise to try and help you focus. Um, Brain.fm is one I've tried more recently, and it, uh, I mean, I, I think Yusuf's tried it and doesn't notice anything. There's a few other people I've mentioned it to who have seen a huge boost in, in, like, focus and concentration. So Bra- they do, like, a three-day free trial, I think. So Brain.fm, they have like a focus playlist, a relaxation playlist, a nap playlist, a meditation playlist for different types of, um, binaural beats basically. There's quite a lot of research behind what they're doing. Like, they produced a white paper behind all of the, the s- the s-, the research they're doing. And they sponsor, like-
- CWChris Williamson
What's it by?
- YUYusef
It's, well, it's free for three days and then it's like £10 a month or £5.99 a month, something in that range.
- CWChris Williamson
That's fairly expensive, then, for binaural beats.
- YUYusef
It i- it is. It is. So you have, so that's why I think, like, get the trial, see if you notice anything. But Ben's even said things like he noticed he started procrastinating and then realized that the procrastination had started at the end of his, like, 30-minute focus music window and stuff like that. So I think try... Some people like it, some people don't. I get a lot out of it, but try it for yourself. They also have a, it's a web, there's a web version as well, which I really like.
- CWChris Williamson
Ben-
- JOJonny
It is quite nice from a musical quality perspective as well, like, it's unobtrusive, and I think the music's designed not to be, like, surprising. It's all just very, like-
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- JOJonny
... ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. And I, I think, like, I, I'm not up to date with the data on binaural beats. Last time I checked it was very inconclusive, but that was, like, a few years ago, so-
- YUYusef
They probably still are.
- JOJonny
... I'm open to.
- CWChris Williamson
As with most of this stuff though, if you believe in it sufficiently that, like, the placebo effect-
- YUYusef
That's the idea.
- CWChris Williamson
... is the most reliable effect in all of pharmacology, isn't it? If you could bottle the placebo effect-
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
... you'd have a panacea.
- YUYusef
Oh.
- CWChris Williamson
Um, so, uh, Ben Greenfield, Ben Greenfield loves Brain.fm. He says that-
- YUYusef
Does he? Right.
- CWChris Williamson
... it's part of his daily, part of his daily routine when he has his nap. I don't think he says, he didn't mention that he uses it as part of work, but he uses it for his naps. So if it's good enough for Ben, it might be good enough for everyone else. I like, is there a referral code? Have you got a referral code or anything like that?
- YUYusef
I probably do, yeah. I just send you-
- CWChris Williamson
Just give me the link. It'll be in the show notes below. Everything that we talk about, AirPod Pros, uh, whatever coffee bags I manage to find and all that stuff, they're always linked in the show notes or in the description on YouTube. Yusuf, what you got?
- 22:50 – 25:07
Style upgrade hack: bring a friend clothes shopping for objectivity
- JOJonny
So as you know, mine are split into-
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- JOJonny
... different categories. Um, this one is a social one. Chris, it was you, um, is to ask a friend to take you clothes shopping. I think you get a layer of objectivity. No matter how good or bad your sense of style is, like, mine was terrible, but the T-shirt I'm wearing right now, in fact the shorts I'm wearing now as well, plus everything you're seeing here, beard, nose ring, tattoo, it's all just Chris and a friend of mine called David, who I think are both equally attractive men but on different ends of the, the male style spectrum. And they both had a concordance with what they were recommending that I do image-wise and fashion-wise, and s- and it s- started with, "Burn those horrible green loafers and every purple cardigan that you've got-"
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- JOJonny
"... get rid of your tracksuit bottoms and just let me bloody take you shopping." And Chris kindly took me to the metro center and just went through top to toe, sorted me out, and that's lasted for years now. I've just been re-wardrobed thanks to Chris.
- CWChris Williamson
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's a really good way to do it. Like, asking a friend to do anything that's kind of, like, if, "What do you think about this as a haircut? What do you think about this as a, uh, as a potential style change?" Or whatever, you know, like, getting that third party perspective's good, but especially with clothes shopping. I don't have massive amounts of style and I appreciate the fact that you've, like, put me across as some sort of style guru here, like fucking Gok Wan, but um... (laughs) ... uh, you are right. Like, just having someone there who can go, "Um, maybe, maybe not that maroon cardigan, mate. Not, maybe not, maybe not another one." Um-
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- JOJonny
A, a, well, that's it. As, as long as your friend a- you know that your friend has your best interests at heart-
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- JOJonny
... and they're not just trolling you. I think Jonny felt as though we were trolling him with, by trying to get him to wear a top knot.
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- JOJonny
But as much as we try and convince him we were 100% dead serious-
- CWChris Williamson
Mm-hmm.
- JOJonny
... that he would look like a Samurai.
- CWChris Williamson
The absolute bad- bad ass Samurai. I told-
- YUYusef
It's just whether looking like a Samurai is, is, the desire, is like an outcome you would like, or... I mean, sure, I would have looked like a Samurai. It's just, is that a good thing or not?
- CWChris Williamson
I told-
- YUYusef
I'm sure if you're trying to be a Samurai, it's the best thing.
- CWChris Williamson
I told Dave Rubin-
- YUYusef
But-
- CWChris Williamson
... that he should get a top knot because we tried to get you to get a top knot and he didn't do it either. So (whimsical music)
- YUYusef
Smart man, D.
- 25:07 – 34:37
Gym gear that actually matters: training shoes, squat shoes, and ‘gear vs idea’
- CWChris Williamson
Next up, next up from me, the new Reebok Nano X's. So I've used Reebok's CrossFit training shoes since the eights came out. The eights were phenomenal, the nines were phenomenal, and the X's are even better. Like, they're just ridiculously comfortable. They look better than most fashion trainers do. They've finally managed to nail the colorways in them. So if you're in the gym regularly, if you're training, especially if you're doing anything plyometric, any squats, anything that requires you to drive force through your feet, you need a stable pair of shoes. Now, you can get away with a pair of low Vans or Converse. They're okay. But the number of times that I see people in, like, classic Nike running shoes, you know, like, just, like, a, a soft, floppy pair of Nike running shoes that you can fold in half like this, which are comfortable for wearing around day-to-day. But when you watch someone squat in those shoes, you see the outside, the edge of their feet starting to peel the in- the inner, um, arch of their feet off the ground. And you're like, "Mate-
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
... there's not many degrees of freedom left between you and just snapping your shit." Like you have-
- YUYusef
Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
... to be able to have a shoe which is stable and is able to... It allows you to push into the ground. Um, the Nano X's, they're absolutely amazing. I can't... Uh, if you go to the gym, stop wearing Nike Huaraches. Like they're not even shoes, let alone training shoes. Stop wearing VaporMax, which are those, uh, things with the little bubbles on the bottom of them. They're also... Why would you wear those? Like why would you choose to lift in these things? It's always... It seems to me to always be the guys that consider themselves really serious gym goers. They're the ones that have got like a three-piece fully coordinated Nike outfit with the headband on and the sweatband. And I... Right, okay. You obviously have taken a lot of time to think about this.
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
What's happening, what's happening with the shoes? Like there's no... Anyway, Nike Nano X. Uh, Reebok Nano X's. You need a pair.
- YUYusef
It's a- it's better than the person who wears, like, um, construction boots and a tank top and straps to come in and do like heavy shrugs and leave.
- CWChris Williamson
That's a very Newcastle thing to do.
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
That's a very Newcastle thing to do. How many times, Yusuf, in Gold's Gym have you had to brush plaster dust off the bench before you've been able to get down onto it?
- JOJonny
Oh, I'm, I, I'm out of place for wearing gym clothes.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs) Really?
- JOJonny
Like, because I'm not in high vis and paint stains.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
I mean, that... I kind of respect the guys because obviously like you've come straight from Graft.
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
You haven't even had the time to get changed out of the clothes you wore at work. So presumably your day must be so strapped down to the second that you couldn't even go into the changing room to decide-
- YUYusef
Efficient guys.
- CWChris Williamson
... to get out of the paint and plaster covered rigger, rigger boots and stuff that you wore during the day. Or, or maybe that's a performance enhancer that none of us have ever seen and rigger boots are actually the best squat shoes that you can find.
- YUYusef
So there's definitely some-
- JOJonny
So, so these guys are operating on really high level. They're either like bastions of like efficiency-
- CWChris Williamson
Performance.
- JOJonny
... or it's... Yeah. It's a drug, but in a better way.
- YUYusef
They're just rad- they're Radatomic Habits. That's all. It's all about environment design. But there are definitely some people who put those, those boots on for the purposes of training.
- CWChris Williamson
You're kidding.
- YUYusef
A- a- absolutely. There's... I've seen some.
- CWChris Williamson
What?
- YUYusef
There's some in a gym that we've all been to. A few people.
- 34:37 – 41:57
Customer service time-savers: GetHuman callbacks and sending letters online
- JOJonny
This is an app called GetHuman. I don't think we've discussed this in the previous ones. This is where you will save hundreds of hours where if you're on the phone to like customer service or whatever trying to like upgrade a service for something or tech support, and you're put on hold listening to the same 10 seconds of Craig David, um, that's where you can use GetHuman, and it holds the call for you and calls you back when a human answers the phone. It's not 100% reliable because it involves the per- the operator like pressing a button as well, and then it calls you back. But rather than having to sit on the phone and wait on hold, it's pretty good.
- CWChris Williamson
That's ... I mean, so I, I don't actually mind the, the concept behind it. I have to say that if ... Is it free?
- JOJonny
Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
Why, why are they doing this? I don't understand what's in it for this model.
- JOJonny
So, it's, it's because that there are many ... I think they run on advertising. There, there are many companies that have a automatic callback service.
- CWChris Williamson
Mm-hmm.
- JOJonny
But I think, and I, I'm convinced of this, that a lot of companies' customer service and tech support, particularly during COVID, is deliberately obstructive and deliberately difficult to act as a deterrent so you don't call them up. The same way that if you try and like speak to a customer service rep for like one of the budget airline companies, you're just not getting through to anyone.
- CWChris Williamson
What if it's, you, you, you get the dark patterns on the backend of the customer support thing.
- JOJonny
Oh, yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
"Do you want to submit ... Do you want to check out our like forum where other people have submitted answers to your question?" Well, I don't want to go and search for other people asking the same question that I've asked and not getting a response. I just want a man.
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
This is why-
- JOJonny
I just want a man.
- CWChris Williamson
This is why Bulb-
- JOJonny
It's why I love Bulb.
- CWChris Williamson
Bulb Energy.
- JOJonny
Yes.
- CWChris Williamson
That's it. That's why Bulb Energy 'cause you can-
- JOJonny
It's, it's amazing. You just call them up and they're like, "Hello? Bulb?" And you're like, "Uh, whoa, uh, wasn't ready for that. Um, I've, I've, I've got a problem." And they're like-
- YUYusef
If you call Apple-
- JOJonny
So Apple initially, I was like, there's a, a, there's a bot that says, "I am a automated bot, I can handle any plain text sentence, just say what you need." And you're like, "Okay. Say a sentence." And then a couple of seconds later, it's like, "Hi mate, through to Apple." And it's clearly-
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah, the Apple call back.
- JOJonny
... just a guy at home. Like, it, just a, he was like, "I have got this question. All right, all right, no problem. Yeah, how, how can I help?" What the fuck? Like-
- CWChris Williamson
Whoa.
- JOJonny
... th- this, this international company, trillions of things happening, (laughs) right? And yet they've just got a bloke who probably lives on my road-
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- JOJonny
... to help me out.
- CWChris Williamson
I had a, I had an Irish girl pop up a, with a assistance that I needed for GarageBand. I was like, I couldn't work out how to turn off midi metronome summing, summing, and did exactly that. I can't remember there being me just saying a thing. I think I might've submitted it online-
- JOJonny
They explained about it.
- CWChris Williamson
... and then they rang me.
- 41:57 – 49:28
Diet adherence hacks: exercise to blunt hunger, brush teeth early, sleep earlier
- CWChris Williamson
If Moonpig just pivoted and added that service in, I reckon they'd, they'd kill it. Right, I've got, I've got three in a row that are all kinda the same thing. So I'm on a-
- JOJonny
Okay.
- CWChris Williamson
... I'm on a cut at the moment and dealing with hunger, working out the best way to try and not break my diet and stuff like that has been something I've enjoyed playing around with over the last three months during lockdown. So, first thing I've got, this is taken from Ben Bergeron, which is if you get the hunger pangs during the day-... do a small amount of exercise, so like 30 press-ups, 30 squats, um, eh, go for a, a light walk or a light jog or something like that, because that actually switches off the rest and digest system, and it changes the way that you sense hunger. So if you do, I promise you, if you feel hungry and you do 30 press-ups, you don't feel that hungry anymore. It makes a marked impact on how hungry you feel, so that means that you're less likely to break your diet. Next thing, another Ben Berger-ism which is so clever, if you tend to cheat on your diet on an evening time or on a nighttime perhaps just before bed, clean your teeth immediately after eating your last meal of the day, because you don't want to then try and have food on top of clean teeth. It's just-
- JOJonny
You feel like a bit of a twat, like after, you feel like, "Oh, I want to, ugh, I should brush my teeth." I want to enjoy this crumpet.
- YUYusef
Yeah.
- JOJonny
But actually I've got minty fresh teeth, or whatever it might be. Um, and also it's, going back to James Clears, it's part of the system of getting ready for bed, right? Like, you don't usually eat after you clean your teeth. Therefore, clean your teeth earlier. And the final hack I've got is, just go to bed earlier on an evening time. Like, if I cheat on my diet, it always happens at night. So if I make sure that I'm in bed with teeth cleaned maybe half an hour earlier, that's it. I, I, like, I'm not going to get back, you know, get out of bed to go up and then make a bowl of cereal to then get back into bed. So- So the, this is all increasing the dickhead factor of any, of any, like, defaulting on it. So it's the fact that you have to then go out of your way and then you, as you're doing it, you've just got this big flashing light in your head that's, "Dickhead, dickhead." And you're like, "Oh, hang on, I can't do that, so I'm just going to go back to sleep."
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's it, man. And the, the press-ups when hungry thing, like, I couldn't believe it. Also, I've gotten into the routine of doing, uh, press-ups just before a podcast just to try and get a little bit more awake, 'cause mine tend to be on an evening time. And I guess that's similar to the ... (breathing rapidly)
- YUYusef
It puts you in like a, like a, a peak state almost.
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah. Peak state.
- YUYusef
Peak state. (laughs)
- JOJonny
So, um, there's, there's a similar strategy which one of our clients use. So Ricky, great, uh, great suggestion on this one, was, it's also called the five pound dickhead strategy. We've got a video on it, which is that he keeps a five pound or a 20 pound note in his back pocket, and if he's ever gonna buy food when he's out and about, so like, eating out or, um, you know, doing something that's off his targets, he has to pay for it in cash and physically hand it over. And then, like, just to minimize the kind of contactless payment, not thinking about the whole thing, process.
- CWChris Williamson
Mm. I like that. It's the, uh, increase in friction. There was that study done where they asked people, uh, on the, out, uh, the exit of a supermarket, "How much do you think your receipt was?" They took the receipt off them and said, "How much do you think your receipt was?" And the difference in how people that had paid cash, people that had paid card, and people that had paid contactless-
- JOJonny
Oh.
- CWChris Williamson
... was insane.
- JOJonny
Yeah. I, I, I couldn't tell you. Like, if I pay contactless, it's just like, I don't know.
- YUYusef
'Cause cash makes it real, doesn't it? Like, having to count the money out makes it feel real. Whereas if you just have to touch your phone on something, you're like, "Oh, well that didn't happen."
- CWChris Williamson
Do you do that thing-
- YUYusef
"I'll deal with that later."
- CWChris Williamson
... if it's at self-service, do you do that thing in Asda, I try and do this, where I'll pay and then beding, and then I'm trying to be out of the door before it prints the receipt. I'm like, right, that's it. Bag, phone, pocket, AirPods, transparency mode off.
- JOJonny
Pirouette.
- CWChris Williamson
Da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, yeah. Spin.
- JOJonny
I can't do self-service. It-
- YUYusef
Really?
- JOJonny
It just, oh, it's so frustrating. Unexpected item in bagging area, and then you have to go and get the litter person to come and help you, you know. I'd just rather get someone to do it.
- YUYusef
Do you know what I've noticed about those, right? There's, the more expensive the shop, the, the better and the more trustworthy the self-service system is.
- CWChris Williamson
You shop at Waitrose and Marks as well?
- JOJonny
The Waitrose ones are good.
- YUYusef
I don't, I don't shop at Waitrose, but I have shopped at Waitrose, and if you do use it at like, at Waitrose and M&S, the, the, like, you can, you can stick whatever you want in the bagging area, it doesn't really notice it.
- CWChris Williamson
But mate, that's, that's because-
- JOJonny
It's got like an AI machine learning system.
- 49:28 – 56:39
GTD tooling debate: OmniFocus, reviews, and stopping ‘fake due dates’
- YUYusef
This one might upset Yusuf.
- CWChris Williamson
Good. Good.
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- JOJonny
Thanks, Chris. (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
Good.
- YUYusef
OmniFocus.
- JOJonny
Doesn't upset me. I, I want to love OmniFocus-
- YUYusef
Okay. Then it's easy.
- JOJonny
... 'cause I know how complete it is.
- YUYusef
All you have to do is start using it. So I, I listened to a guy descri- So does everyone know what OmniFocus is? Do you humans not know?
- CWChris Williamson
Tell them, tell them, tell them.
- YUYusef
It's a, it's a to-do list app, so it's like Things or TickTick or Todoist or any of those things. It's a bit... It's, it's got fewer, um, sort of fancy features on it, but it's designed for GTD, getting things done. And if you've been, if you've done what Chris said and has listened to, listened to all the episodes leading up to this, you'll have heard David Allen talk about getting things done and why that's such a complete methodology.
- CWChris Williamson
David Allen is on this podcast this week.
- YUYusef
Again?
- CWChris Williamson
No, I haven't said.
- YUYusef
Or are we in the, we're in the time loop?
- CWChris Williamson
We're in the time loop, yeah.
- YUYusef
Oh.
- CWChris Williamson
So this is going to go out-
- YUYusef
Podcast land.
- CWChris Williamson
... after, after I've recorded with him-
- YUYusef
Got it.
- CWChris Williamson
... but before I publish it. Um, yeah.
- YUYusef
Perfect then. Perfect. So, so if you, if you're wondering, "What's Getting Things Done, Johnny?"
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- YUYusef
You'll find out-
- CWChris Williamson
Later this week.
- YUYusef
... soon.
- CWChris Williamson
Yeah.
- YUYusef
Um, so OmniFocus how, it, it, one of the things that I think is something you'll probably hear David talk about is how important a review habit is. So lots of people have a list, lots of people look at the lists, but then it's... So something I've written down here is like, one of the, one of the best places to get yourself to is feeling okay with all the things you're not doing today, or all the things you're not doing right now. So knowing that all of the stuff in your world, like all the projects and the things you need to remember and all the reminders are in something that you will see again at a regular time or at the right time. And OmniFocus basically makes that, makes the review f- feature, the review habit very, very easy.
- 56:39 – 1:00:58
Quick fitness + training principles: Foundation Series, unilateral order, and rep matching
- JOJonny
Quickies. Final one. So, the Foundation Series. This is similar to the Stu McGill Big Three, and it's by a guy called Eric Goodman, um, and it's a 12-minute training sequence to improve your posture and improve lower back pain. And the reason that I fall out of the habit of doing it is not that it doesn't improve my back pain, but just that it's hard. And so what I've done now is I've just used it as a chance to listen to, um, 24 minutes of an audiobook, 'cause two times speed, um-
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- JOJonny
... out in the morning, especially when it's sunny, just out in the yard, doing the, doing the program. Uh, it's a free video on, it's on YouTube, it's called The Foundation Series, um, Founder or something. 12 minutes, very unpleasant, but you feel like your glutes and your hamstrings are just on the rest of the day, and your lower back just goes, "Ah, I'm not having to carry the load of all this."
- YUYusef
Why is it better or different to the Big Three stuff?
- JOJonny
It's, I think you can do it in addition to the Big Three, um-
- YUYusef
Okay.
- JOJonny
... but it's more of a, it's more of like a, a sequence. Um, so you can turn the Big Three into like a, a, a pre-workout or morning thing that you do.
- CWChris Williamson
I, I have, so I, I, I have my Big Three done by the, by the second, so I know at four minutes and 40 seconds that I've completed my modified curl-ups. I have 20 seconds to transition myself into my side plank, side plank.
- JOJonny
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
And then I've got a cat cow, like a one minute and 20 second cat cow transition into the ... And then at 15 minutes and 40 seconds, I'm done. So you're right, you can turn anything that you do sufficiently frequently, the ba- the ballet of the kitchen is essentially kind of like a sequence, right? Like it's now it's the microwave, now it's the oven, now it's this thing. Um-
- YUYusef
(laughs) So is this a, is this a, uh, injury prevention thing? Or is this bec- do you guys do this because of back problems?
- JOJonny
Th- that's, that's why I do it.
- CWChris Williamson
Okay.
- JOJonny
I, I, I put up a tweet the other day saying like, "What is this weird new wave of people that are doing hours of prehab in the absence of injury?" And how has that, how has that become a new training style?
- CWChris Williamson
Where have you seen this?
- JOJonny
Where have I ... Well, just, just everywhere. You see, I, I think I missed a memo between now and, like 2015 and now-
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- JOJonny
... that like has suddenly made people not actually train for anything and just do prehab as their workout. Um-
- YUYusef
I haven't seen this, man. I haven't... Uh-
- JOJonny
We, uh, we, I, I think we're just subscribed to the wrong, the wrong people. Like, like, a lot of the PTs on Instagram and stuff are just doing like, it's not pilates, it's not specific injury rehab, it's just like stuff for the point, for the sake of it. And people who don't look like they lift that are spending hours training every week without a specific purpose or outcome. And I think if you're gonna be doing that stuff, it has to be with a goal in mind.
- CWChris Williamson
What's the end goal? Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. Um, so my next one, which I've been doing for years and years and we've never mentioned, is start with the weakest side in a unilateral movement in the gym. So if you're going to do curls and you're right-handed, start with your left hand. Or if you're going to do, um, a single-legged, um, uh, like a Romanian, uh, single-legged box squat or something like that, whatever it might be, start with the weakest side first. Reason being that there will be some sort of degradation to your CNS. You're also going to, even with a bicep curl, a seated bicep curl, you have to turn your midline on at least a little bit. So you have to presume that if you're fresher in abs, in being able to brace, in being able to do all this stuff, you will give your weaker side a sometimes minor, sometimes perhaps even major advantage, which will help to bring that imbalance back up. And I've always done it, I've always started with my left, because my left's so much weaker than my right. And, um, still not managed to balance that imbalance out, but I'm gonna guess you guys do more-
- JOJonny
So one, one thing you can add to that is, um, you start with the weak side and then you match the reps with the strong side rather than trying to do more on the strong side until they equilibriate.
- CWChris Williamson
Mm-hmm.
- JOJonny
So let's say you can do eight reps with the left arm, ten reps with the right, you just match eight on the right as well.
- YUYusef
I see. So you get slightly more muscle, muscly on one side for a bit.
- JOJonny
(laughs)
- NANarrator
(laughs)
- YUYusef
I get it.
- JOJonny
Slightly more muscly.
- YUYusef
But less, less muscly on the side that's already more muscly.
- 1:00:58 – 1:08:20
Better watching habits: subtitles for immersion, and a trusted ‘watch queue’ list
- YUYusef
Uh, watch s- a subtitled film to help to combat with, like, two screening or make it a more immersive experience. So I've had... I get really frustrated, I don't know why, but when Netflix upload, like, f- or- originally foreign films, so aren't, they aren't in English and they're dubbed and it's really badly dubbed, so like the voice just doesn't fit the situation, like the, the intonation, the expression makes it, like, unwatchable.
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- YUYusef
Becker and I watched this film called Parasite the other week, which is Korean, I believe, um, subtitled in English. And I had really low expectations. I was like, "It's really frustrating." It's like read- I'm gonna have to read the entire thing. It's amazing how t- e- 10 minutes in, you've almost forgotten about the fact that it's subtitled, but you're completely engrossed in the film, because you can't even look away from it for five, five minutes, 'cause you, you completely lose track of what's happening.
- CWChris Williamson
You don't know what's, what's happening. So this only works-
- YUYusef
So like i-
- CWChris Williamson
... this only works with foreign films, because there's no reason-
- YUYusef
Yeah. Yeah.
- CWChris Williamson
... to continue watching.
- YUYusef
Exactly. Yeah. So I th- so I think there's a lot of good foreign cinema, a lot of good foreign series in cinema. A lot of them are dubbed, which c- I think makes everything worse, 'cause you're actually less likely to pay attention. But if you get the, get like the version that's foreign and watch it with the subtitles, often they're, they're pretty good. Um-
- CWChris Williamson
I mean, I'm... I like that. Have you seen The Platform on Netflix? It's about-
- YUYusef
I've heard, I've heard about it.
- CWChris Williamson
And so... The concept's so cool. It's people locked in kind... it looks a little bit like this prison, and there's two people per level and like 50 stories and a huge, big hole in the middle. So you can imagine that the people live around the outside of a square, and in the middle of the square, there's this big hole, and this elevator goes up and down. But it was Fr- I want to say French or something like that. And, um, I just, uh, went on, started watching it with the British d- dubbing, overdubs or whatever it's called-
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
... and it was unwatchable. So I was like, "I'm not gonna bother. I'm not gonna bother doing it." Um, I, but if I watched it with subtitles-
- YUYusef
It's such a shame.
- CWChris Williamson
... ruined it completely.
- YUYusef
'Cause it's like, it's-
- CWChris Williamson
"Hey, please don't kill me."
- YUYusef
That's it.
- CWChris Williamson
"Oh, okay." You're like, "Ugh."
- YUYusef
Because like you think, "Well, you know, the actor's been picked for the role for a reason," right? Like it's not like... You don't want the actor acting and then someone else not in the situation speaking without the right tonality.
- CWChris Williamson
Wait. More than just that as well, because they, they have to do the work to get the acoustics of the sound to match where they are.
- YUYusef
Yeah. (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
Because like if you're in... es- especially with that, The Platform film, it's a very unique acoustic environment, you know?
- YUYusef
Mm-hmm.
- CWChris Williamson
It's this very long, uh, brick walled thing, and it's gonna have specific ways that the sound bounces. It's so much less immersive, like, that, that's it, it's the im- immersion that you've got in it goes through the floor.
- YUYusef
If someone's on a beach, but like the audio sounds like someone in a soundproof room, um-
- CWChris Williamson
Which it, which it is.
- YUYusef
... which it is... (laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
(laughs)
- 1:08:20 – 1:09:30
Final rapid hacks: Siri ad-skipping, paper planners, Sidecar, induction stands, and wrap-up
- CWChris Williamson
Um, so this is my favorite hack that I've developed. I've already mentioned it on isolation hacks, but I'll put it in properly here. Um, for listening to podcasts that have mid-roll ads, if you're on iPhone, you can simply say to your iPhone, "Hey Siri, skip forward by 60 seconds" or "Hey Siri, skip forward by 90 seconds." For instance, if you're listening to Ben Shapiro, I know that his- by doing this, that his agreement deal with his advertisers is a minimum of a 60 second mid-roll ad.
- YUYusef
(laughs)
- CWChris Williamson
Um, but he always says, "We'll get to that in a second, but first," and as soon as he goes, "but first," if I say, "Hey Siri, skip forward by 90 seconds," I land just as he comes back in and-
- YUYusef
That's your- that's your insider knowledge, isn't it? That's your- your- you can see the matrix.
- CWChris Williamson
You'll get there. You'll get there event- like True Geordie, it'll be everyone, every advertiser that you listen to, every podcaster will be 60 seconds, 90 seconds or 1:20, and most mid-rolls aren't going to be that. Um, but especially with someone like Rogan, you know that you can skip forward probably by six or seven minutes to catch the start of his guest intro. Um, "I'm speaking to Bret Weinstein today and we're talking about blah, blah, blah."
- JOJonny
So philosophically, how is that miss ali- how is that different to having Spotifree?
Episode duration: 1:38:10
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Transcript of episode YgfLTq3geAA
