Hey guys! Welcome back to Products Worth Talking About — the show about disruptive physical products and the people who built them. 

In today’s episode, we talk about some of our favorite productivity products from that little store called Amazon. As business owners and entrepreneurs, we’re always considering how we can better utilize our time and efforts, enabling us to focus on the things that matter most. Anything that helps us in that regard is worth exploring — assuming that they will get the best results and give you more time to do what you love.

We chose Amazon because it’s a treasure trove of products to explore. We each picked three products to buy that we felt solved a problem that we have, and in this episode, we broke down how they do that and shared their pricing.

But before we begin with the reviews, do you know about Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA)? They teach you how to take your product and modify it to create a better product! It’s part of their commitment to smaller businesses solving issues like storage and distribution.

Amazon also has a Launchpad, where they elevate smaller brands and provide customers an opportunity to discover unique gift ideas, innovative products, and inspiring stories. 

It is incredible to think how much amazing stuff we can hear about from friends, in a meeting, or a show like this – just hit “Click and Buy,” and it gets there in two days.

Now that you know about the amazing services Amazon has to offer, let’s start the review, beginning with RT’s favorite products!

RT’s Favorite Productivity Products

#1: Miracle Cube 

Somebody mentioned this in my last mastermind meeting, and I bought it immediately. There were 50 of us on that call, and I wouldn’t be surprised if 30 people bought it too. 

The Miracle Cube is a timer that looks like a dice with 5, 15, 30, and 60-minute times to select. Instead of setting timers on your phone, you can choose the minutes you want (no programming needed), and the countdown starts. A blinking red light indicates the timer is on, and a digital counter shows the time remaining. The alarm is loud and unmistakable when the countdown has finished. If you need to reset it, simply face the white panel upwards.

The Miracle Cube is great for things like timing how long it takes me to post on Instagram. Or to see how long it takes me to get through editing this document or video. It’s a great tool to hold yourself accountable for your time goals. I know my girlfriend uses it to remind her to drink water and even stand up from her desk to take a break, mainly because she works from home. You can use it for all kinds of different things, but I love how simple it is.

It’s $18 on Amazon.

#2: Aqua Notes

I use Aqua Notes every day! It was a gift from my girlfriend (she knows me so well) — I have my best ideas in the shower!

It comes complete with a notepad and pencil (both waterproof), each with its own suction cups to stick inside the shower or on the door. This product is great for people like me — I have great ideas while I’m sitting in the shower while everybody’s yelling at me because I’m still in the shower after 30 minutes — it’s because I’m solving the world’s problems on this note pad! I’ve had all my best ideas in the shower.

When my shower is over, I rip it off, take it with me, and I can put it in my wallet. I can even make my to-do list for the day on it.

It’s $9 on Amazon. It’s a no-brainer for me. Their tagline is no more ideas down the drain — brilliant!

Our most significant question is, do you think the guy who invented this thought about it in the shower?

#3: Knock-Knock Notes

Not all my ideas are in the shower, and I know I’m the type of person that if I don’t write it down, I forget it. I’m always on the lookout for funny or quirky notepads, and these notepads are called knock-knock notes. The first one I bought is called “WTF am I doing?” and has four sections below it labeled:

• Today,

• Tomorrow,

• Next week, and
• With my life.

It’s a to-do list breaking down my big goals into actionable steps into these four sections.

The second pad is called “Make sh!t happen.” This pad breaks it down into three sections:

• Today’s goals and sh!t (the big stuff),

• Next steps (the sh!tty gritty) and,

• Some Random Sh!t (the small stuff.)

It’s similar to a to-do list — a “don’t forget to do these things” pad.

It’s an excellent way to make sure you don’t forget anything. They have 20 different kinds of these notepads. These two were the funniest to me. The company is called Knock-Knock, and their other products include fun office supplies such as sticky notes. Their slogan is never forget anything. Just write it down, and you won’t forget it.

These are $11.95 on Amazon.

Tyler’s Favorite Productivity Products

Tyler used a slightly more analytical approach; he looked at productivity products with Jungle Scout‘s aid, the leading all-in-one platform for finding, launching, and selling products on Amazon. Jungle Scout helps make data-driven decisions, which showed him the most popular products that people were buying.

#1: SideWinder

I sought this one out because computer cords and my backpack are a total disaster area. The cord for the iMac becomes all tangled up with my protein bar and phone charger. That’s where SideWinder comes in — it coils the whole cable right up neatly in under five seconds and ready to use next time.

To uncoil, pull both cables ends to the desired length, and to wind the cables back up, hold it in one hand and twist it clockwise with the other hand. The SideWinder allows you to adjust the cable length from one foot to 12 feet while staying organized.

This product is $30 on Amazon, and they have a couple of different connections, so make sure you get the right one for your computer! I’ve used it about ten times, but it probably saved me three to four minutes a day.

#2: Panda Planner

I’ve never been a planner kind of guy, but some light research led me to Panda Planner’s website, and I was hooked! Not surprisingly, because they’re known for their conversion tactics.

I always use a notebook. I create my plan for the week on a new book, sketch it out, even whiteboard it. And then I break it all down per day. Panda’s planner has day or week projects, a section for habits I’m developing, and each one of these days has goals. I thought it was a small notebook size-wise, but it’s enormous! I surprised myself, though, as I’m enjoying it so far.

The planner category must be one of the toughest ones to stand out in; just on Amazon alone, there must be 10,000 different planners.

Panda Planner set itself as a disruptive industry leader using scientifically-designed tools to invite us to reclaim our happiness with their products, empower us to take back control of our lives, and flourish in every way.

The daily planner pages are spacious, giving you plenty of room to list tasks, priorities, and two daily check-ins. Panda planner is part agenda, part gratitude, part journal planner, part schedule, part goal planner, part life organizer, all productivity. It’s all in one and will help you get more done and feel happier — or they’ll give you your money back!

They are used by over 700,000 people worldwide! That’s quite a conversion.

They’re $19.97 on Amazon, but be sure to check out their website, which gives excellent details on planner comparisons and a great blog that is everything to do with building habits.

#3: BS Button

My third was going to be a good cookbook. We both do meal prepping for the week, and I thought it would be a great productivity tool. There’s a cookbook out there that is great for planning out the week’s meals, but then I thought it was kind of boring (sorry cookbook junkies). Instead, I went with the BS button!

It talks the talk, lights up, flashes, and even includes multiple hilarious background sound effects. It’s ideal for the office, dorm rooms, liars, office gadgets, stocking stuffer for adults, jokes, pranks, college dorm rooms, adult birthday gifts, adult Christmas gifts, adult prank, gag gifts, and even the kitchen table.

It features five hit-the-floor-laughing BS phrases — our two favorites are “Ah, ya gotta be kidding me! That’s three gallons of bullsh!t in a two-gallon bucket!” and “Oh no, you didn’t! That’s some bullsh!t!”

It’s a new spin on an old product that was called the easy button back in 2005.

The BS button is $12.99 on Amazon.  It’s an excellent gag for the office (remember those?) or coworking space. Imagine having this on the corner of your desk for anyone to walk by and press. Extra points for using this in a team meeting!

Our Top Tips for Creating Productivity Products!

On Products Worth Talking About, our mission is to give you reliable information on disruptive products and valuable insight into what makes great businesses successful! In this episode, we both had several takeaways that we plan to apply to our own businesses. These are our top five takeaways from today’s show:

• Aim for productivity and avoid the “being busy” trap. There are plenty of productivity hacks out there, possibly causing more conflict and less productivity. Make sure you are aiming for something that’s going to give you results.
• Take an outdated product and make it better. The most interesting thing about going through this process of buying products on Amazon has been learning the process, the flow, and the packaging for a quality customer experience.

• Solve a simple problem, and people will buy what you’re selling.
• Goofy sells!
• You should be selling on Amazon!

One of the reasons we did this episode is because we often get questions from people saying, “I don’t have an idea for a product” or, “Where do I find ideas?”  Many of you know you want to do your own thing but don’t feel that you have a great idea yet. Worse, you think all the good ones have been taken! 

This is not true. Get on it! Look on Amazon, and download Jungle Scout’s free Chrome extension to browse their incredible products and get ideas. It’s a great way to start getting the creative juices flowing.

Is there a disruptive or nifty product on Amazon you think we should do an episode on? We love to hear about it!

We hope you enjoyed reading this post. If you learned something today, we would love to hear from you. Take a screenshot of the episode and share your most significant takeaways with us on Instagram, @productsworthtalkingabout. And if you love the show, make sure to subscribe on YouTube so that you can get new content delivered to you directly! Let us know what products and brands you want us to review!

Lastly, if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to build a product-based business, check out our business plan that literally writes itself! Within no time, you’ll be ready to pitch to investors and start the company of your dreams. 

Thanks for reading! Until next time —

RT and Tyler