Episode 14: The Power of the Checklist (And Why Your Brain Loves It)

Routines sound boring — but they might be the missing piece holding everything together.

In this episode of the 1% Better Podcast, Josh breaks down how building simple checklists and habits has helped him reduce overwhelm, beat decision fatigue, and stay consistent — even on imperfect days. From flossing (yes, flossing) to sleep, movement, and planning, this episode shows how small, repeatable actions build confidence, momentum, and real results over time.

If you’ve ever felt like your days run away from you, this one’s for you.

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of the 1% better podcast with your host, Josh Williams. Happy to be back on today with another episode, another topic, and hopefully something that will help you become 1% better and to change your life. So today I wanted to talk to you about the power of routine, the power of habits. And this may sound basic to some people. Like, yeah, I know that. I get it. But do you? No. And this kind of struck home to me really

Time Audit And Overwhelm

SPEAKER_00 0:31

recently. I've I've uh really been working hard on my routine, my time efficiency, which has been really great in helping with overwhelm, you know, anxiety, decision fatigue. And I've been in a really strong groove for, you know, going on probably four or five weeks right now. And it's it's the simplest things that that kind of get you going and keep you accountable. So for me, it was taking action on after, you know, kind of doing a time audit, what I'm spending my time on and how to be more efficient. And then it's like, how do I get to be more efficient? Well, of course, I need to do the planning as I've spoken about in the past. And how do I

Checklists, Rewards, And Spreadsheets

SPEAKER_00 1:14

do that? And that's the power of building a checklist and building a routine and also building a reward system that you are excited to do. So what I decided to do, I've used pen and paper for a while, but I decided to get a little nerdier and build a Excel spectry, or in this case, I believe it's sheets with Google. And essentially I just mark it off, but it I get a little bit more dopamine from it. And the reason being is because I color-coordinated it. So if I hit it, it's green, which is sweet. If I didn't, it's red. And so it's very black and white. Either did I do it or did I not do it. And it has been such a huge game changer with me. So one of the habits I chose was was flossing. Very, very, very basic, something I've always struggled with, you know, pretty good a couple times a week, especially if you had, you know, something meatier. But man, I've I've crushed it, you know, every day. Just checking that little box, getting a little green box. And it's been really fun with some of my habits and building uh my habits and which kind of just forced me to build this morning routine where I can just check off a bunch of them in like the first five, 10 minutes of my day. So I wanted to go and share this with you, and hopefully

Tiny Habits And Morning Rhythm

SPEAKER_00 2:25

you all will take action on it. Because it sounds so basic that you pretty much just don't want to take action on it, but it's so powerful, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed, you feel like your day gets away from you, you didn't have time to get the things you wanted to in or to prioritize, that constantly keeps happening. Then I would really, really encourage you to build some kind of habit checklist that helps you. So let's get into okay, the why. Why do we want to do this? Well, routines

Why Routines Reduce Decision Fatigue

SPEAKER_00 2:56

matter the easier it is for us to not to think. So, like this idea of winging it's actually quite uh tiring because you're probably getting this uh decision fatigue. Should I do this? Should I not do this? One should I do this, this, this. Versus if I have a habit, if I have a routine, I'd say I do this, then I do this, then I do this, then I do this. And you did all these things that maybe at one point were tiring, they're no longer tiring because it's autopilot. I go in, you know, I got my coffee, drink my bottle of water, floss my teeth, go down and sell, read, do, do, do. So you as you build these, it becomes more and more of this rhythm and this pattern. And it becomes easier and easier to do. And what happens all is we we get confident that we can wing it. Maybe we do it for two or three days or a week, and we're like, ah, we don't need it. Or, you know, yesterday I had a really off day, and it was like, man, I'm so behind on my checklist. And then today, it's like I have to get back onto it, have to get back on track and doing it again because it's so easy to be like, ah, what's the point? So fighting that, but there's also really big power in this idea of the dopamine hit that you get from using a checklist and then seeing that checklist over a period of time. Um, and for me, it's like seeing green,

Dopamine, Proof, And Identity

SPEAKER_00 4:15

or it might be like, okay, I missed one day, but the next day it's always green again. It's like, okay, I get right back on the horse on it. And there is a little dopamine that you get for accomplishing that. The brain loves routine and it likes to reward that. So the also the other part of this is it builds proof, it builds belief in yourself that I can do this. I am the type of person that does do this. And that's so changing the thoughts in your head and what you're telling yourself. And ideally, that story of, well, I can't do this. I always fail to look, I have proof that I I am doing this. And yeah, every once in a while I do slip up, but I get right back at it. And so you can start changing that story in your head, which is very powerful, the words that you are saying to yourself.

The Seinfeld Chain Mentality

SPEAKER_00 5:00

And one of the beautiful mindsets of anytime you are tracking, you know, one of the stories was Jerry Seinfeld. He would a prolific, you know, comedian, very funny, had a show and all that, Seinfeld. Uh, you guys probably already know that. But one of the things is he wrote every single day. He or I don't know if he still does, but he was known for writing every single day and not breaking that chain. Every day something has to be written. And very similar should be the mentality of your habits and your checklist. And every day this needs to get done. And then if you do break the chain, it can happen, but the goal is to not, but to get right back on that. And so, you know, it's a couple of things.

What To Track And How To Start

SPEAKER_00 5:47

You might be like, okay, what should I be, what should I be tracking? What can I be doing? Well, it can be small things, simple things. Typically, if I'm getting into it, I'm gonna pick some basic things like routines that are really short and quick to do that I just haven't been doing. So one of them I picked, like I mentioned, was like flossing. So I was like, man, I really need to get in a better habit of doing this than I just never have. So let's do that. It's something that will literally take, you know, a couple of minutes to do. You know, I also have a my personal tracker, is so something like planning the next day. So I make sure, hey, I look for my schedule, I plan my next day. I know that has huge impact for me. I also have reading, some time for meditation, Bible reading as well, as well as I am tracking, you know, my protein intake each day. I'm tracking if I did 30 minutes of movement, so that could be a workout, exercise, or sorry, run it, run or walk. So exercise, breathing drill. So I have these breathing drills for for my back, just from I kind of go into a common habit posture. So I have these PT exercises that work amazing when you do them. And so that's been awesome as well. It's again something that takes five minutes, but I just don't do it a lot to prioritize it. And so, I mean, I right now have about 16 things that I'm tracking. I've slowly kind of added to it as I've become

Gamifying With Colors And Constraints

SPEAKER_00 7:04

comfortable and building that routine. I started like with five and then slowly added, like, oh man, I really like to get good at this as weeks have gone by. And so now a lot of times my my morning routine is uh because I'm also tracking water, would be I'll wake up, I'll get my water, you know, I'll I'll typically uh uh floss my teeth, go down cellar where my basement is, where I read. So I'll do my reading there, I'll do my breathing drills there, and then it kind of kicks off my day. So I just got a bunch of check marks, pop, pop, pop, pop. Oh man, I'm feeling good. I got a lot of green on my sheet, and that's kind of the power of habits. And it can seem daunting, and that's why I would pick something simple. Again, it sounds silly, but me taking the time to put it in a sheet that has colors to it has really helped. Because I used to track some of this stuff, pen and paper on a on a check mark, but there's something about having it churn from I have it set to yellow as incomplete to having it set to that yellow to turn to green. And I want as much green as I can. And then if I, of course, I didn't do it, then I have to put like a zero in there and it turns red. And it's like next day, how do I do this? And there's there's some days, like especially the exercise one for me. There's been some days where it's like, man, I'm not gonna get 30 minutes and it's it's late. I can't ask my wife to go down and sell her because she's watching

Adaptive Wins And Progress Over Perfection

SPEAKER_00 8:23

the kids all day and uh she she needs me. But then I'll be like okay, what can I do? She has to do something like, okay, let me go do some some stretching or just some movement or something like that in instead. And so it's got me thinking like, no, I can't necessarily mark that off for the day, but what can I do to just help me a little bit towards that goal on that end? So what we call it called the action of the day, what are one or two routines that are really easy? Like sometimes I'm taking maybe one minute or two minutes, you just haven't been doing. Start tracking it. There's plenty of apps out there as well.

Sleep, Energy, And Long‑Term Benefits

SPEAKER_00 8:54

So if you're not really tech savvy or I guess spreadsheet savvy, you know, use there's plenty of habit tracking apps out there that'll give you that little dopamine hit or pen and paper works or something that's visible. So what I liked about the sheets is I just have it on my phone. I can pull it up anywhere I go. It really just becomes this game for me, that gamifying habits. And then the goal is long term is you start seeing the fruits of those habits. So when mine is sleep, I typically used to get anywhere between five and six hours. I've been getting closer to seven now, which has been awesome. And seeing that over time and start seeing the benefits, like, okay, I have more clarity, I have more energy in the morning, I'm more focused, I'm less stressed at the end of the week because I got more done or more accomplished, or even accomplishing the things that you wanted to do that before were just kind of tasks that you didn't really want

Final Call To Action And Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 9:40

to do, but you know they're beneficial. And so, similar with like exercise, you know, I want to do it, I like doing it, I just prioritize a lot over it. So now that it's a checklist item, motivates me to want to check that off on that end. So, call to action. What are one or two things that you can do this week to get started on a checklist and building that streak is what I would take action on. And they can be anything. Uh pick ones that you're most excited about. And over time, as you build that confidence, like, okay, I can do this and making that a game, then you add some other things over time where it's you know, ideally, these are all pointing to a goal, whether that's health, whether that's time management. I mean, it could be financial. I have I have one on there that I added, no extra spending. So how many days in a row can I go without, you know, buying a coffee or or something that wasn't planned spending? So you can you can do with it what you want, but it's been so powerful. And I encourage you all to uh join me on the checklist journey. And I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week.