Life Hacks 203 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 281
Chris Williamson (host), Jonny (guest), Yusef (guest), Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Chris Williamson and Jonny, Life Hacks 203 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 281 explores shower Notes, State Changes, and Systems: Life Hacks That Stick Chris Williamson, Johnny, and Yousef share a rapid-fire collection of practical and often funny life hacks aimed at improving productivity, training, and everyday convenience.
Shower Notes, State Changes, and Systems: Life Hacks That Stick
Chris Williamson, Johnny, and Yousef share a rapid-fire collection of practical and often funny life hacks aimed at improving productivity, training, and everyday convenience.
They cover everything from capturing ideas in the shower and managing sleep and wake times, to gym equipment tweaks, digital organization, journaling, and using music and movement to change state.
A recurring theme is reducing friction: making it easier to capture ideas, execute important tasks, maintain habits, and avoid being bottlenecked by tools or tech.
Underlying the banter is a serious focus on systems thinking—treating tools as extensions of memory and attention, and taking responsibility for recurring patterns in one’s life.
Key Takeaways
Capture ideas wherever they appear to prevent losing them.
Using tools like a waterproof shower notepad, a pad near your meditation spot, Siri in the car, and a trusted task manager (e. ...
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Use simple triggers to get out of bed and stabilize sleep.
Counting down from ten with rapid breaths, sunrise alarm clocks, and consistent bed/wake times (often anchored by a partner’s routine) help prevent snoozing and set the tone for the rest of the day.
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Reduce friction in your training setup to stay consistent and safe.
Power hooks for dumbbells let you unrack heavy dumbbells like a barbell, opening up safer, heavier dumbbell work (bench and overhead press) and reducing the risk of injury from awkward cleans or setups.
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Treat your tools as a ‘second brain’ and make notes searchable.
Apps like Craft, Roam, or Evernote (legacy), combined with tagging and cross-linking, allow you to store and later retrieve insights by searching likely future keywords—turning fleeting inputs (books, calls, podcasts) into reusable knowledge.
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Use state-change rituals (music + movement) to clear brain fog.
A short playlist of high-energy songs plus five minutes of light movement (press-ups, squats, mobility) and a glass of cold water can reliably boost alertness and mood before demanding work like podcasts or deep-focus tasks.
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Protect certain playlists and routines as ‘sacred’ to amplify impact.
Keeping special songs only for training or PR attempts preserves their emotional punch, while having distinct morning, work, and sleep playlists and routines creates cues that help you switch mental states more easily.
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Plan the night before and break big tasks into next actions.
Choosing one ‘first things first’ task for the next day and decomposing large projects into single, concrete actions (GTD-style) makes it far more likely you’ll start and maintain momentum, rather than procrastinate due to vagueness.
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Notable Quotes
“Turn showers, I reckon, we’ve generated revenue now from my showers.”
— Johnny
“If I get out of bed on time when I said I would, most of the rest of the day goes right.”
— Chris Williamson
“I see OmniFocus as like my RAM on a computer… and Evernote or Craft as your hard drive.”
— Johnny
“The thing that you need to remember is that you are the common denominator in every experience within your life.”
— Chris Williamson
“Find joy today… not presuming that it’s a thing that you get to do in the future once you’ve got today out of the way.”
— Chris Williamson
Questions Answered in This Episode
How can someone new to ‘second brain’ thinking practically start building a trusted capture and note system without getting overwhelmed by tools?
Chris Williamson, Johnny, and Yousef share a rapid-fire collection of practical and often funny life hacks aimed at improving productivity, training, and everyday convenience.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What signs should you look for to know a recurring life problem is actually about you being the common denominator rather than bad luck or other people?
They cover everything from capturing ideas in the shower and managing sleep and wake times, to gym equipment tweaks, digital organization, journaling, and using music and movement to change state.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How do you balance maximizing productivity (planning, first things first, strict routines) with leaving space for spontaneity and joy in the present day?
A recurring theme is reducing friction: making it easier to capture ideas, execute important tasks, maintain habits, and avoid being bottlenecked by tools or tech.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In what situations is it genuinely worth paying more for better tools or faster tech (e.g., internet, Macs, apps) versus just improving personal habits and skills?
Underlying the banter is a serious focus on systems thinking—treating tools as extensions of memory and attention, and taking responsibility for recurring patterns in one’s life.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How would you design an ideal daily ‘state-change stack’—music, movement, environment—to reliably switch from low-energy to high-focus mode on demand?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
Windows computers just don't work.
I have what I think is the best list of life hacks I've ever had. It is a waterproof notepad for the shower.
(laughs)
(laughs)
(laughs)
Someone we know was doing lateral raises with, um, the metal dumbbells, and between reps he just dinked his between the dumbbells.
(laughs)
And that was game over. He just, like, stopped the workout, went home.
(laughs) (whoosh) It is another life hacks episode: tools, tactics, and techniques for a productive and efficient life. We'll be going through some of the life hacks that we've found over the last few months, telling you what we think of them, and then the other two people are going to tear them to pieces. If you like the sound of them, they will be linked in the show notes below, either on Amazon or a website or even just a sentence. So Johnny, I've got a present for you here. I'm not sure if you can see that.
A potato.
Oh, nice.
Oh, yes.
It's, this is a very-
(laughs)
I mean, it's, it's burning my fingers. I'm having to sort of... So if, Johnny, if you can just, uh.
What I, what we all need is a potato prop.
Yeah. Well, you've got one.
And then Dean can make it happen.
Look like a real potato, yeah. But this is a real potato.
So-
You're up first, Johnny. What have you got for us on this episode?
It looks room temperature, but I'm happy to catch it. So I have what I think is the best list of life hacks I've ever had in the history of life hacks.
Big shout.
Are we ready-
Big shout.
... for life hack number one? I think I've already told Yousaf this, but it is a waterproof notepad for the shower.
(laughs)
(laughs)
Oh.
So I (laughs) , I have the most ideas and thoughts that ever occur to me all day happen in the shower. And what I do is, like, try and leave my phone within sort of, kind of touching distance, so that-
Hey, Siri.
(laughs) Exactly.
Hey, Siri.
But that, that doesn't work, because the wa- the sound of the water is louder, or, like, gets in the way, and then you try and make a note on your phone with shower hands, and it's just not gonna happen, 'cause it's like you end up typing the wrong word. So I bought this off Amazon. It's waterproof paper with a waterproof pencil. It's a su- suction onto, like, a tile or glass, and I just write it down, and then when I get out of the shower, I pull the thing off, put it in my OmniFocus, captured. Turn showers, I reckon, I reckon we've generated revenue now from my showers.
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