The 5-minute life hack used by Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn and Mimi Ikonn

Life hacks are everywhere. From the obvious getting a goods night sleep to become a morning person to the exotic placing your phone in a glass cup to maximize its alarm each comes with the same promise: Life doesnt have to be so hard.

But is it possible to hack your life in just five minutes a day?

Productivity genius Tim Ferriss, the king of passive income Pat Flynn, and social media influencer Mimi Ikonn think it is. And thankfully, theyre willing to share how.

Tim Ferriss: Focus

New York Times bestselling author and self-proclaimed human guinea pig Tim Ferriss has spent his career hacking the rituals of uber achievers.

As he explains in the introduction to his new book, Tools of Titans: Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits. With over 100 million downloads on his podcast, upon which the book is based, Tims advice has reached gospel-like adherence among some people.

Morning rituals like making his bed and preparing titanium tea form a major part Tims productivity. One of those rituals, which he recently pulled back the curtain on, is the The Five Minute Journal. Composed of three straightforward questions, its the second that Tim credits with guiding his focus in one strategic direction: The now.

If you’re stuck in the past, explains Tim, that’s depression. If you’re stuck in the future, that’s anxiety. Rather than becoming obsessed with pushing the ball forward as a Type-A personality, journaling is, in his own words, a therapeutic intervention.

Of course, even in journaling, present focus doesnt happen by accident. We all struggle with resentments from the past or fears about the future. And certainly theres a great deal we can glean from both perspectives. Past mistakes are easily our best teachers, and imagining possible futures is crucial for setting goals.

Unfortunately, all too often we over emphasize those perspectives at the cost of living in the now. Focusing on the present allows Tim to not only get more done during the day but to also feel better throughout the entire day, to be a happier person, to be a more content person which is not something that comes naturally to me.

So start small and ask yourself, What would make today great? Your answers dont have to be earth shaking. In fact, as well see next, small, seemingly mundane wins for Tim Stretch (or not) lead to huge mental shifts.

Pat Flynn: Gratefulness

Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur extraordinaire. His site, Smart Passive Income, is home not only to Pats podcast, blog, course materials and monthly income reports, but a host of business experiments along with ruthless reflections on their results.

Perhaps most famous for the line, The riches are in the niches, Pat brings that insight to bear on his personal life during his morning practice. Small tweaks (the niches) reap big rewards (the riches).

For Pat, his life-shaping habit is all about gratitude.

In his own words, I use it immediately when I wake up. Thats been incredibly eye-opening for me: To wake up and think about the things that Im grateful for and reflect on those. Gratefulness, Pats discovered, is capable of making him not only more content, but more productive.

Its no secret why.

Gratitude has been shown to have profound physiological benefits. It lowers depression and stress, improves the cardiovascular and immune systems, lengthens and improves sleep, increases self-esteem while reducing envy, resentment, aggression, and regret, and raises relational satisfaction, perceived partner responsiveness, and positive emotions. Whats more, gratitude has also been proven to positively and measurably impact business growth.

Whether you follow Pats template doesnt really matter. What matters is that front-loading your day with gratitude whether at the small scale or by revelling at length in the love-producing details is one of the most potent and life-altering disciplines we can cultivate.

Mimi Ikonn: Positivity

Mimi Ikonn, lover of style and people, is the star of MimiIkonn.com where she sports everything from winter get-ups to maternity outfits. Her rabid social media following totals over 2 million across Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest, which puts her in the top 0.1 percent of lifestyle influencers.

One of her core principles is that happiness can be cultivated. In other words, happiness isnt something passively experienced, but something practiced and honed.

An advocate of intentional positivity, Mimi explains why Intelligent Change, a company she co-founded, created the Five Minute Journal: Its the simplest, most effective thing you can do everyday to be happier, and the best part is it only takes five minutes a day.

But Mimis more than just an advocate. Shes also an avid user:

In the positivity vein, the third morning reflection Daily affirmations. I am are potent. At the risk of getting all Stuart Smalley on you Im good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me. self-talk is, in fact, rooted in science. As psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains in The Happiness Hypothesis:

Depressed people are caught in a feedback loop in which distorted thoughts cause negative feelings, which then distort thinking further. . . . [Y]ou can break the cycle by changing the thoughts. A big part of cognitive therapy is training clients to catch their thoughts, write them down, name the distortions, and then find alternative and more accurate ways of thinking.

The good news is this negative feedback loop also works in reverse. By training ourselves to think, speak, and write positive affirmations we can reshape our mental defaults. And actually, its a practice I use myself.

Small investments, big changes

Take note (pun intended), using a specific tool like The Five Minute Journal isnt the point.

Tim Ferriss, for instance, augments his practice with both morning meditation (10 to 20 minutes) and another journaling approach called Morning Pages. Similarly, Pat Flynn uses apps like Muse to meditate and Sleep Time to wake up. Plenty of other apps and tools exist as well like Happify and my other personal favorite, Dan Sullivans WinStreak. Each enable you to hack your mind, productivity, emotions, and life often in less time than your favorite YouTube video.

So what is the point?

Few of us devote intentional time to (1) focusing on the now, (2) cultivating gratitude, and (3) changing our self-talk. The truth, as evidenced by these two kings and one queen of life hacking, is that small investments in ourselves not only make us more successful but profoundly happier. Now theres a life hack worthy of the name.

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