Lifelog

Part 5 of tiny yet cool Twitter hacks that I’m slowly accumulating over all the daily practice and observing how others do it:

Read [Part 1](https://golifelog.com/posts/tiny-twitter-hacks-i-learned-and-love-1640567252125), [Part 2](https://golifelog.com/posts/tiny-twitter-hacks-i-learned-and-love-part-ii-1642293081196), [Part 3](https://golifelog.com/posts/tiny-twitter-hacks-i-learned-and-love-part-iii-1645066528768), [Part 4](https://golifelog.com/posts/tiny-twitter-hacks-i-learned-and-love-part-iv-1656294820581).

- **Occasional profile page face-lifts**. I recently updated my Twitter profile bio into [indie solopreneur](https://golifelog.com/posts/im-an-indie-solopreneur-1659662395379). It felt more authentic, and gave visitors something more about why they should follow me. It gave a small boost in new followers.
- **It's ok to walk away.** I took a break for 2-3 months but continued with daily scheduled posting. But I replied a lot less. And mostly didn't care about the app on weekends. Engagement and impressions suffered, but it's not too hard to build it back. If I'm in this for the long game, this is but a small blimp.
- **Shit-posting is a viable strategy.** Just like how @dagorenouf got big using startup memes. Not to mention, it's just so much fun, and a good way to cull my following of folks who don't get my humour. If you can't find what I find funny funny too, maybe we're not in the same tribe.
- **Write only when inspired.** I now write my indie hacking tweets only when inspired. Spending just a few minutes on it. But it's all queued up to a consistent publishing schedule. The best of both worlds from consistency and inspiration!
- Caveat to the strategy of reply thoughtful replies to big accounts: **You don't have to reply to big accounts** if you don't have anything good to say or if it's no fun that they don't reply to you. Just shut up and learn from them. Replying to peers is more fun.
- **Build your best self in public.** My latest take on building an audience = Surrounding myself with people who help me build my best self in public (inspiration, accountability, influence). Build an informal mastermind of peers on Twitter. [Build an audience and it builds you back](https://golifelog.com/posts/build-an-audience-and-it-builds-you-back-1661390959486), and I should stick to influence from people who are actually a good influence.
- **Tweet about your product without tweeting about your product, by actually doing the thing with your product.** I stopped tweeting writing-related content + plug about my product, and just tweeted single building in public tweet + screenshot of longer form Lifelog post, followed by a reply tweet to the link to the Lifelog post. No more daily asks to get people to my product. It ended up working slightly better - I had more sign-ups using this indirect strategy than direct asks. Instead of talking about writing, just write and show how it's done.
- **My latest form of engagement list is a list of @mention account names in a DM to myself.** I stopped using Twitter Lists because of too much noise (it showed replies). I used Chrome bookmarks to open >20 profile pages of everyone on the list, but that was a pain - it just hung my Chrome for a while before I can use it. Now I use a 'bookmarks' list in a DM to myself, open the desktop DM picture-in-picture window, and click through to open up profile pages. No more having to switch windows/tabs, open them all.
- **Tweeting about my family.** This isn't about using family or kids as a tool. It's about being authentic and just sharing what really moves me as an indie hacker. I recently [tweeted](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1562801975967641601) this out, which I consider one of my most personally significant tweets I ever posted. It didn't go viral, but that wasn't the goal. It felt right, because that's increasingly what drives me, what gives me happiness to what I do.

*What other tiny Twitter hacks do you know?*

Happy to announce that after more than 2 years of sleeping at 8-9pm and waking up 4-5am, my body clock had finally settled into that routine. Maybe my circadian rhythm had switched over for some time already but I didn't realise it until I had to change my routine.

Because recently when I had to work and sleep later than usual (past 10pm), when I sleep out of routine like this, I wake up feeling like I have a hangover. 😵

Like literally:

- Head feels heavy, groggy
- Tension in the forehead
- Feeling sleepy by late morning
- Fatigue even though I sleep more for 7.5h
- Not alert unlike my usual alertness at 7.5h sleep
- Thirsty

I used to just wake up at the same time anyway on weekends even if I sleep late, at the expense of sleep quantity. Not sleeping in might be better for your heart, at least. A University of Arizona [study](https://twitter.com/steveonspeed/status/1497798849129107457) showed how for every hour your sleep shifts on the weekend, you're 11% more likely to develop heart disease. So consistent sleep keeps you alive.

But that's at the expense of sleep debt/deprivation. So to be honest, I'm not sure what's worse:

**Sleep debt or sleep hangovers**

Something to learn more about on this sleep biohacking journey!

Now that my body had settled into that 5am routine, next goal is to be able to wake up naturally on my own at 4:40am without an alarm.

Onwards!

Marketing is simple:

Give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give, ask.

Give 10x, ask 1x.

That's it!

It's funny how I've always known this, but I realised I've only scratched the surface of what it means and how it applies to me.

***What if I made things to simply give away?***

Tools, templates, apps.

Not just content to impress or to establish myself as an authority.

A few reasons why I think giving as marketing works super well for me:

- I enjoy giving, helping others.
- My personality tends towards altruism (I started my career in non-profit, charity sector).
- I've always made pro bono stuff already

Thinking back, this is exactly how it worked out with [Plugins For Carrd](https://pluginsforcarrd.com) - my free plugins are a loss leader but converted so many customers. I also enjoyed helping others with their Carrd problems on Reddit, Facebook and Telegram.

That's how it worked out for my consulting too. I gave more value than I charged. Over-deliver. Always top up with something valuable that the client never asked for.

Maybe that's why my marketing didn't work out for Lifelog - I wasn't giving enough, or giving ten times before an ask. I was trying to "create content" *just because*.

Giving as marketing might just be the path for me. Not sure why I took this long to realise!

Just show up leveraging on my strengths:

- helping others
- creating things

A strengths-based approach, onwards!

My one goal in September:

**Go all in and do well for my consulting gig.**

The ironic thing is... I've once wanted to transit out of consulting badly. I wanted to stop doing it. I wanted instead to go fulltime on my indie products.

But—here's a BIG but—from a neutral, business point of view it didn't make sense.

I'm good at it. The clients I serve are my tribe (especially non-profit folks). It's meaningful. It scales for social good. It pays well. I do enjoy working on it.

If you look at the famous ikigai framework, it checks off all the circles.


Why did I ever think I would want to stop doing this over some internet product that just has 10x less scale, revenue, meaning and social good?

It's weird. I wonder if it's influence from social media, from the exciting digital nomad lives I see. Perhaps that made more sense when I was single. But my life stage situation had changed. More stability and routine might actually be beneficial for the family.

That's why I recently set an intention for my consulting service have a permanent place in my portfolio of projects. Not just something that pays the bills while I try to grow my indie products. Not something that I transit out of once I make enough MRR. But as a lifestyle, career choice.

I admit, sometimes I still get inwardly drawn to the fulltime indie path.

But I can have both.

I can consult, and also work on products and travel in the off season.

Either/or is a false dichotomy.

Current MRR: US$109 (all from Lifelog)
One-off revenue: ~US$345↑ (vs ~US$281 in Jul)
Total revenue: ~US$454↑ (vs ~US$390 in Jul)
Total profit (excl. salary): ~US$414↑ (vs ~US$350 in Jul)
Tweet impressions: 254k
Engagement rate: 4.2%
New followers: 254

It's no secret that I'm trying to build a brand and an audience on LinkedIn. It's been about 6 months since starting in late March this year. So am pretty happy to hit 888 followers there! (Only locals will understand the significance haha)


Here's some learnings and thoughts:

- Started with 600+ followers in late March, so I grew about 200+ over 6 months. Not crazy growth, but steady at the least. Got a handful of viral posts (>10k impressions) but nothing regular. Most days my combined impressions are ~1k or less.
- But since starting, I've received more opportunities to consulting and training gigs. My current project was something that came via someone messaging me on LinkedIn! Another training opportunity with a non-profit institute also came from LinkedIn. My regular posts gave visibility, made my presence more top of mind, and at the right time, they remembered me and the skillset I provided.
- As always what's most surprising to me was how posts have longevity here. No 24h algo like Twitter. Some of my posts get impressions and likes even after weeks.
- Being a content creator on LinkedIn is still uncommon. There's still lots of leverage to be had in these early days. You get more exposure, less competition.
- Posts with images of interesting designs and some commentary on it seems to do better than text based posts.
- Experimented with different posting timing (8am, 11.30am) but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
- Memes have a place on LinkedIn too. What works: funny, work-related, nothing super outrageous. People in employment are often too worried to post memes. You'll stand out.
- Photos of my past projects seems to be well-liked too. Which was surprising to me since I thought no one would care.
- Unlike Twitter, there's still a market gap of LinkedIn tools. Writing editors (to count the number of characters before the truncation), carousel generators, analytics, etc.
- Hashtags still work in LinkedIn, unlike on Twitter where it's mostly dead as a tool for reach. I get people outside of my LinkedIn connections liking my posts.
- The "reply guy" approach that work on Twitter works on LinkedIn too, but I'm not spending much time doing that. I really should, since just 1 post per day won't be enough.
- Know who your audience are. My audience on LinkedIn are: designers, local in Singapore. But because many indie hackers are starting on LinkedIn, I end up connecting to them as well and liking their posts. Which doesn't help me with my brand- and audience building on LinkedIn (it shows up on your activity feed, and LinkedIn algo sometimes also shows what you liked to your connections/followers, which I don't want). So I'm experimenting now with engaging with fellow designers and locals more.
- It's been pretty hectic building 2 different audiences for separate niches. Even with batch scheduling and all, it's been hectic, and big time suck. I need to find more tools and systems to make it easier.

If you only did something once a year, does it still count as a hobby?

Not sure about you but I'm taking it as a hobby. Especially when it comes to mooncakes.

Mooncakes are a specialty pastry that's given and eaten during mid autumn. It's a Chinese ethnic custom that dates way back. Right now it's more of a commercial festival, kind of like Christmas.


But there's something about mooncakes that I'm particularly passionate about. My annual mooncake pilgrimage to the [old school store Tai Thong Cake Shop](https://www.taithongcakeshop.com/) in Chinatown that's been around since the 50s. Buying this gives me sooo much joy.

The hollow sounds of the wooden mooncake moulds.
The yellowed posters from the 80s.
The smell of glorious bakes.

I’m like a kid in a candy store there.


I'm fascinated by the heritage craft behind it. That it's still made by hand to this day at the shop is an achievement in itself – most mooncakes are now factory made, even the brands that are so-called heritage brands (looking at you Tai Chong Kok). It's just not the same. The taste simply isn't as good. The browning on the crust is too even, under-baked. The sweet lotus paste and salted egg tends to be dry and crumbly, unlike freshly baked ones which are oily and moist. The shops are revamped to a modernized look to appeal to younger folks. There's no much soul.

What's the most precious about these heritage, hand-made mooncakes is how it's a disappearing trade. The masters are old. They have no successors. If there were successors, they modernize the business and the old flavours get lost. Within the past decade, I've seen 3 heritage pastry brands lose their soul to modernization.

My heart breaks when I see that.

I love my heritage pastries with a passion, and also hate that fake modernization with a passion.

So I guess this qualifies me as a mooncake hobbyist?

All the elements of a hobby are there: passion, interest, delight, loving it for it's own sake.

I'm a mooncake hobbyist.

There I said it.

+$10 to MRR, bringing total MRR to $109

Are expectations ever useful?

Because if you expect something and didn’t get it or got less, you get disappointed.

If you expect something and got it exactly how you expected it, you feel neutral.

Only when you got way more than expected, you’re pleasantly surprised and delighted.

So imagine if you had lower expectations, or little to no expectations at all… wouldn’t your surprise and delight be through the roof?

Some might object to this, saying that without expectations, we wouldn’t work as hard, put in effort, or play the part. And we’ll more likely end up with nothing. Expectations makes us rise to the occasion, they say.

I disagree. It’s mutually exclusive. It can be. If I enjoy the process; if I like putting in my best effort anyway, then I’ll be motivated to work just as hard. Just without the weight of expectations.

Jason Fried (https://world.hey.com/jason/tossing-a-key-87b91f17) recently wrote this, which inspired this reflection:

"We land where we land. Trying too hard narrows the desirable outcomes.

Expectations are the enemy here — they limit the number of great landing spots, and make the idealized one impossibly hard. Relax your expectations, and hundreds of positive possibilities open up.

When you don’t go in with expectations, you almost always come out ahead. It’s better to have a wide gaze, point in a general direction, do your best, and just see what happens."

The distinction is subtle, but it’s there nonetheless. Don’t try to run a business, just run a business.

Indeed. Instead of expecting results in exactly the way I want it, perhaps it’s time to retire that unrealistic need and just land where I land.

If I’m not always looking ahead for what I expect, perhaps then I can be more aware of where I am right now, the opportunities available, the landscape around me, in order to leverage everything better.

And ironically that might end up helping me get to the success I want faster.

Offered to refund via email but no reply for 2 weeks 🤷‍♂️

Let’s settle the debate:

Many small bets, or one big bet?

What are the factors and context that helped you decide which to choose?

I tweeted that question out and was blown away by the nuances in the replies. Here’s me trying to do justice to them all and summarizing it:

It’s not binary, it’s a spectrum
----------------
Many small bets versus one big bet is a false dichotomy. In between there’s many shades of grey. It can look like this:

• Many many small bets (5 or more?)
• Many small bets, with 1 more in focus (like 80:20)
• Many small bets, but work on them one at a time serially
• 2-3 small distinct bets, in different markets
• 1 big bet with 2-3 spinoff related small bets in same market amplifying each other
• All-in on 1 big bet

For different stages of the journey
----------------
• Small bets for learning (when uncertain about market or problem space), place big bet when more certain after learning
• Small bets as a means to get to a big bet - this is a common approach. Try many bets, see what sticks and go all in on one
• Small bets as a safe-fail if big bet fails - as Plan B of the prior point. Do small bets to learn how it’s done, go big on the one with most potential, but if it fails, go back to small bets
• Small bets for fun in itself - this is for makers who might not be after monetization.

Other factors to consider
---------------
It’s about discerning probability of success, which we’re notoriously bad at estimating but do so anyway:
• Growth stage (pre-revenue, pre-PMF vs post-PMF) - makes more sense to adopt more bets at early stage.
• Market demand, competition - if there’s established demand, presence of other competitors, less need to make small bets to test and learn
• Personality - I get bored if I just do one project for years. I enjoy variety and it suits me. Others prefer a focused, craftsman path on just 1 thing.
• Product type, niche - some products simply need more time/depth to build, or need more support/maintenance, hence need more focus (i.e. 1 big bet). More technical SaaS with machine learning could be an example. Ebook, digital downloads are on the other end, and a small bets approach are more likely to succeed.
• Cash runway - this determines the approach. Basically, the longer your runway, the longer you can focus on 1 big bet without payoffs.
• Family situation - if you got many mouths to feed, less chance you can have a long enough runway to focus on 1 big bet for a long time. Sprinkling it with freelance work while working on products is a common path here.
• How fast you can ship - if you can ship fast, there’s less opportunity cost to make many bets
• How enjoyable - similar point to personality. Do you enjoy making many bets or just one? Besides cash, attention and motivation are scarce resources for a solo indie hacker.
• End goal (unicorn vs lifestyle biz) - if your aspiration is to build a typical VC-funded unicorn startup and have a grand exit, then 1 big bet is the obvious way. For lifestyle-business solopreneurs, you have a choice of both.
• Risk appetite/assessment - one big bet means big win or big disaster. So lower risk appetite means you could go for many bets. Higher risk appetite more likely to go for 1 big bet.
• Full-time vs part-time - if you have a full-time job, going all in means taking a leap of faith and quitting. But holding a full-time job and doing side hustles part-time is like having a few bets going on.
• Scarcity mindset - going for many bets might mean a scarcity mindset. A desperate grab at whatever the comes. Good to reflect if that’s the case.
• Shiny object syndrome - does going for a portfolio of small bets a good business strategy for you, or are you just using it as a front for a deeper, shiny object syndrome?
• Distraction - more bets can mean more distraction, stress and time/energy suck. Depends on ability to manage and context switch.

It’s too confusing. Give me a silver bullet.
-----------------
Sorry no silver bullets. Whatever advice you follow, understand that that advice represents only 0.00000000001% of reality, yet it’ll be expressed as if it represents 99.9999999999% of reality, as absolute truths. Classic survivorship bias here. So, a possible, less sexy way through this jungle that I imperfectly practice is:

• Ask about their context, back story.
• Discern if your situation is similar to others based on the non-exhaustive considerations listed.
• Cherry pick and intuit the best ones that suit your context.
• Experiment, collect data, analyse and reflect, iterate or pivot. Make decisions based on reality not ideals, predictions or advice.
• Whatever the bet size, it should be pulling you forward. Overall trajectory should be upwards. Indicators/metrics may differ.
• Don’t be dogmatic on any one approach. Strong opinions, loosely held. Always be open to even challenge yourself.
• Act accordingly.

I once wanted my products to earn $1,000,000/year

Now I'm happy with this:


I [tweeted](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1562801975967641601) this out as a reminder to myself. It's a tweet that's special and close to heart. A emotionally significant one, more than any viral tweet I had.

That life is made of memories not money.

Not achievements. Not any of my entrepreneur or indie hacking goals.

Yes, money, career goals and all are important things to me. They feed me, fulfil me, give me a sense of purpose in my work. But more and more I feel like they are just enablers for other even more important and urgent things. Like being present to my son, creating memories like this with him, together with my wife.

Sure, money, goals create memories too, but I doubt I will recall how my product got #1 on Product Hunt on my deathbed.

Agree, money does buy happiness to a certain extent, and money is needed for survival, and feeding the family is critical, but such memories are free to create.

*What's life's endgame, ultimately?*

Give me a ball pit with my son anytime, over a viral tweet, a grand exit, huge revenue.

"Build an audience" they say, but I realised the audience builds me too.

I'm no influencer (*cringe), but the influencer isn't just influencing but is also being influenced.

Because if I "double down on what works" and follow the validation loops to the extreme, I might end up becoming a person I don't want to be. I don't want to turn into [Nikocado Avocado](https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/the-perils-of-audience-capture).

But of course, the blowback can't be 100% bad. An audience might not always be a [prison](https://golifelog.com/posts/the-prison-of-an-audience-1659570063818) – yeah I'm revising my perspective.

It can be a vicious feedback loop where you lose your way. Or it can be a virtuous loop where it helps you grow.

So build an audience that will help you build your best self in public.

I WANT THAT.

That's the only way this game can be played in the long run. For me. I've been trying out a new way to be on Twitter.

I used to watch my likes, replies and follows like a day trader watching the stock market. But no longer. Most days now I don't even look. I just reply and enjoy the conversation.

I'm tweeting more off-the-cuff, inspired moments kind of tweets. And definitely way more shitposting. It's just way too much fun. If my audience are those who don't find my shitposts or jokes funny, maybe they shouldn't be part of my audience haha.

I also changed my [Twitter bio](https://golifelog.com/posts/im-an-indie-solopreneur-1659662395379) recently to reflect more authentically who I am, not just what I want to sell. That felt great. And guess what? I got a slight boost in followers and email newsletter subscribers. And I wasn't even watching.

The Universe always seems to work that inverse, perverse way. Stop wanting it, let it go, and it comes flooding back to you.

Lame. But that's reality.

This is a tough question. Something I’ve been thinking hard about.

Thing is, I enjoy learning collectively, from others. Learn from the mistakes of others so that I don’t have to make the same mistake too. Lessons and insights might provide new opportunities for me. Above all, from learning collectively, we form connections, make friends, build relationships.

It’s hard to hate on learning from others.

Yet there’s downsides.

You form narrative and perspective of how things should be, where there might be none, or where it doesn’t apply to you. Success stories and the factors that led to it, might not be applicable to my context. Survivorship bias, recency bias, lack of data, hype – all contribute to a narrow perspective becoming all-defining view of the world. Like my post about how the indie maker playbook is dead. If we didn’t observe reality close enough, I would assume the playbook still works as influenced. Yet the meta kicker is, it’s from learning from someone else’s experience that I learned this new discovery.

It’s a tough balancing act for sure.

On one hand I would love to continue learning from others. On the other hand, I want to have independent thinking, be discerning and selective, and not be overly influenced.

HOW?

It takes a lot of effort basically. It takes energy to not accept a cool idea or hack at face value, and consider the nuance and do the research. Anything that’s either/not or polarized are likely too simplistic – those are easy to tell. When it appeals to what I already like, or suits my personality is when it gets harder to be discerning. Worst of all, if it comes from an idol or someone you look up to, or someone with power or authority. Being around people who practice mindful speech, nuanced thinking, healthy skepticism is also great reminders. Above all, test every idea through my reality, my context, before accepting it into my worldview.

A self-aware, mindful gatekeeping thoughts, perceptions and narratives going in and coming out from the mind is the best way perhaps, of being able to benefit from learning from others yet be independent thinker.

Reading Jakob Greenfeld's [blog post](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/money-ads) "Why the indie maker playbook is dead (or how I learned to spend money on ads)" got me seriously thinking if the indie methods I've been using are no longer as effective.

He talked about how indies were able to create a profitable business without running ads. To the point it became a sort of humble brag on Twitter. Most depend on a personal brand to capture attention, usually by building in public. Jakob also mentioned how the landscape had changed a lot since. You can't launch features on Product Hunt. Twitter algorithm had also had a sea change from social graph to interest-based – so only a very small percentage (less than 10%) see your tweets. The Indie Hackers community feels kind of dead, with too much marketing noise, less people building cool shit.

Is the indie maker playbook really dead?
How can we confirm?
If dead, what's next?

I love how Jakob put words to some hazy suspicions I've been nursing for some time. I've been feeling the efficacy of my indie hacking efforts undergo stagflation too. A 'dollar' of effort seems to 'buy' a lot less conversions and followers these days. Building in public feels harder if I'm only ~4000 following and I'm likely only reaching less than 400 followers. I'm getting only 1-2k impressions per tweet on average. This feels similar to what happened to Facebook. Many influencers found it hard to reach their audience after algo changes, and had to resort to ads (which of course was what the platform wants). Product Hunt seems rigged, full of fake account upvotes, and gone are the days when a solo indie can make it into the leaderboard easily. I don't find the IH forum engaging anymore as well.

Of course, this is just my one person's experience and hard to confirm if the playbook truly is dead from that. But the writing's on the wall, isn't it?

Either evolve and change the playbook, or die.

What's next then? Is it really ads as Jakob said? I've always hesitated using ads, but seems like it's worth a shot.

What else can I do?

Brainstorming a bit:

- Emails. Email newsletters had always been recommended as a hedge against deplatforming. You own your audience's emails yourself, and every email gets sent. No algo comes into between you and the email. Only issue is whether users open it, which you can influence.
- Shift efforts to new features that the platform is actively promoting. E.g. FB/IG Reels get more algo weight when just launched.
- Building in public on video? With the overall trend towards more and more video content on social media, I wonder if moving to Youtube, Tiktok and IG Reels would help...
- Platform diversification - not depending on a single distribution channel for your business. Maybe Twitter starts to fail, but if you're also on LinkedIn, Tiktok, Instagram, you're more resilient to platform shocks. I definitely need to consider diversifying my indie hacking beyond Twitter. I'm building on audience on LinkedIn as well, but that's solely for my consulting biz.
- Diverse portfolio of bets. Again, using diversity as a hedge against risk. Have more than one product. Have different types of products in different industries. Have different pricing models - subscription and one-time. Have different business models - products *and* services.

What else can we do? What would you add to this new indie hacker playbook?

“I’m too busy / I don’t have time for this” is often a good enough reason for not doing something.

This seems plain simple enough, until we realise that when we say that often enough to ourselves, it morphs from an excuse to an illusion of truth. We start attributing not showing up to causes outside of our control… when it’s totally within our control. It’s only understandable. An excuse—a lie we chose to accept intentionally—causes cognitive dissonance. It literally hurts our mind. It’s easier and more comfortable to take it as some sort of subjective but false personal ‘truth’.

"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth." – Joseph Goebbels

“I’m too busy / I have no time for this” is just code for “This isn’t my priority right now”.

No one is too busy to eat food, drink water, sleep or have sex.

We don’t forget to do these things because it’s important to us, it feels good. It’s a matter of survival! And survival is our top human instinct and priorities.

It’s all just a matter of priorities.

We’re never “too busy” to write daily, exercise, meditate. So that next time you catch yourself saying it, rephrase it into:

“I’m not too busy to work out. I’m intentionally choosing to not prioritize this right now.”

The key is the self acknowledge, the self awareness, the intentionality behind it. You’re being clear and transparent to yourself, your ego. “Not right now” is a legitimate reason, and you can always choose to revisit the priority again.

Priority > busy

Sleep really is the first mover. It shapes your moods. And your moods shape how you perceive the world, the work you do, and the quality of life you have.

I’ve been sleep deprived for a while. It all started when the baby arrived. Sleep biohacking was less about optimising sleep but about making sleep deprivation less difficult. It got worse lately when I was burned out, feeling low and lacked energy and motivation to keep up my sleep habits.

And once sleep as a foundation goes down, everything else falls.

It’s like a vicious feedback loop.

I don’t sleep enough, I feel low energy, I struggle through the day, I struggle to maintain good sleep hygiene, I sleep poorly, struggle even more tomorrow, rinse and repeat.

But thankfully somehow something shifted and I decided to get into a 8h sleep rhythm.

I’ve done about a week of 8h, and damned… it’s such a huge difference!

I feel rested, I feel better, I don’t struggle with just getting through the day, that gives me some bandwidth to better manage sleep, I sleep better, and struggle less tomorrow. My moods improved, I feel better, stronger. I exercise more. Work feels less stressful. I don’t feel under attack by the world all the time. I got more presence for my wife and son.

A virtuous loop now.

Onwards!

Every week, I do a weekly recap and reflect on the things in the past week based on these 4 questions:

- What's adding energy?
- What's draining?
- What moves the needle?
- What to reduce/remove?

A few magical things about doing analog weekly recaps so far:

- It's really about the session, not what I write. I give myself space and time to stare out into...space. I drink tea. I dwell. I'm not trying to be productive. I daydream. I listen to music. I listen to myself. It's the me time downtime I deserve and need. It's about intentional self care.

- Everything I write under the category "What to reduce/remove?" gets done done. It's like magic. I would assume I get the stuff under "What's adding energy / What moves the needle?" done more, but it's the acts of omission that I do more religiously than the acts of addition. The funny thing? I don't go out of my way to get it done. I write it down, and I don't even look at it again until one week later. Yet I get it reduced or removed during the week. It's like after writing it down, my subconscious acts on its own accord. And the following week when I look back, I surprised I've removed it. Every. Single. Week.

- It's a good sign when you struggle to find things to reduce/remove. A much better indicator that you're doing something right. You removed all the conditions and obstacles that led to distraction, low energy/motivation, or hold you back. I struggled to come up with one thing to remove yesterday during my recap. Serious. And I kept having new things to add to the category "What's adding energy?" My insight: Remove the barriers, and the blessings emerge on their own.

Honestly, I started doing weekly recaps without expectations. But it's delivering way more than I imagined. Highly recommended.

It's been about one week since I started using this anti-snoring nose device called [Mute](https://mutesnoring.com/), by Rhinomed. [Mouth tape never worked](https://golifelog.com/posts/snoring-tech-1658967156154) for me. I wanted to try this to improve my sleep quality.

How it works: Like nasal strips, but instead of applying the strip on the skin of your nose bridge, you insert the device into your nose that props open your nostril. It’s made of soft plastic, and adjustable. They report that over 70% of users could sleep better, snored less, and snored less severely.


First up, right away upon wearing it, the inner nostril cavity seem to open up and feels like I can breathe better, clearer. But there's definitely a slight discomfort from the adjustable ends, but no pain.

I used size small Mute but it still felt kind of big inside my nostril - I wonder if it considered Asian noses as part of product design? But nothing that's a dealbreaker in terms of the fit. I could wear it through the night fine, unlike taping my mouth.

It seems I could breathe slightly better lying down, but it didn't help with nasal breathing if I laid on my left (the side where I could never breathe nasally properly).

But ultimately, how did it affect sleep quality?

Here's my sleep hours and sleep score since starting on it on 13 Aug:

- 6h, 68%
- 7h, 73% ↑ (started on Mute)
- 7h, 79% ↑
- 8h, 89% ↑ (started 8h sleep)
- 8h, 60% ↓
- 8h, 78% ↑
- 8h, 92% ↑

The problem is, I'm not 100% sure if it led to better sleep quality. The confusion is due to me starting another habit to sleep 8h per night. So I won't know if any improvements in sleep scores came from 8h sleep or from Mute.

Hence, **my verdict: Feels promising, but not 100% sure....yet.**

Next steps:

I need more time using it to observe the longer term effects.

Maybe I should try one night without Mute and see if I feel any different, if the sleep scores differ.

Reading this tweet from @Nicolascole77 (https://twitter.com/Nicolascole77/status/1559699816359272449) about getting more juice out of your writing got me thinking about how we can all get more out of our Lifelog writings.

I’ve always wondered about this. I write everyday on Lifelog, and wished there’s ways to get more out of my writings here and repurpose them on other platforms, than letting it just sit here within Lifelog. One thing

So, brainstorming and adapting his points for Lifelog posts:

• Make your Lifelog post into a concise tweet with a screenshot of the Lifelog post (doing this now)
• Convert your Lifelog post into a thread (doing this now)
• Comment your best Lifelog posts on other people’s tweets/threads (doing this now)
• Compile your best Lifelog posts into a Twitter “Thread of links”
• Turn a series of Lifelog posts about the same topic into Ultimate Guide blog posts
• Turn Lifelog posts into Medium articles, with images and links
• Turn Lifelog posts into Reddit posts for the right subreddit groups
• Break down Lifelog posts into Instagram/LinkedIn Carousels
• Turn Lifelog posts into an eBook
• Read your Lifelog posts writing aloud on TikTok/YouTube, Instagram Live/Story, podcast
• Turn your Lifelog posts podcast episodes into an audio book
• Host a Twitter Spaces talking about one of your popular topics
• Turn 7 of your Lifelog posts into a free 7-day email course (I want this!)
• Screenshot your Lifelog posts and post the images on Pinterest
• Turn parts of your Lifelog post into Instagram images (tried it during #100daysofmarketing, didn’t really work)
• Answer questions on Quora using Lifelog posts (tried it during #100daysofmarketing, didn’t really work)
• Expand your Lifelog posts into a weekly newsletter (planning this for Lifelog using Revue/Substack)
• Compile 12 newsletters together into a book
• Compile 10-20 Lifelog posts together into a book, eBook, or course curriculum

What else can we do to repurpose our Lifelog content?

5 years ago I dreamed about being where I am now, achieving what I have now.

5 years ago, it’s 2017. I’m 2 years into my consulting business. I’m doing well, earning more than I imagined. It was a year where I travelled a lot - Bangkok, Melaka, Saigon, Japan, Bali. Life looked great on the outside. I should be happy. But I was not. I was stressed and tired from my work. A particularly toxic client left me feeling worn out even more. Health was sliding downwards.

And I didn’t have any product.

Even though making products was what I wanted to do when I left my last formal employment in late 2014. More than 2 years since, no product to show for. I was simply too busy building up the consulting business, I forgot about my original dream.

I dreamed of creating products.

But I didn’t know how to code. And I hated coding. It felt like learning math or a foreign language. It felt too technical for my liking. Nocode tools was still unknown then (at least in my circles). I could design some websites using Wordpress. That’s about it.

Even though I hungered to make my own products, I didn’t really think I could do so easily on my own. I was unsure if I could make that dream come true.

Then a few health issues cropped up towards the end of 2017. That was a signal. I took some time off to recover. And by early 2018, I started the 12 startups in 12 months challenge. I went with what I knew—Wordpress—and just made what I can using that. I finished at 8 products – super proud! Most didn’t make any money, and those that did, just made one-time revenue of a few hundred bucks. It was also a time when nocode emerged, and making products got easier and faster. I restarted my Twitter account to tweet about indie hacking.

After that I would have a rebound relationship with coding for the next 2 years. But by end of 2020, I sealed the relationship, stuck to it, and made Lifelog.

Now in 2022 I have a portfolio of diverse products and services. Some with recurring revenue, most with one-time revenue. I earned $11k last year from my products alone.

5 years ago, I dreamed about creating products and had none.
5 years later, I am where I dreamed of.

So much can change in 5 years. You can make so much progress in 5 years, more than you realised.

Had I not took the time to do this reflection exercise, I wouldn’t have noticed that transformation either.

I am now where I dreamed about 5 years ago.

And I am thankful.

There’s only one winner when we aim to be better or the best compared to other competitors, but almost everyone can win if we all aim to be known for our own different niche and personality.

Because who can compete with you being authentically you? You in all your weirdness, eccentricities, personality quirks and manners. You with all your random interests, niche hobbies and funny yet fun curiosities. You and your unique life experiences, upbringing, and things you lived through. Even if you think you or your life is boring, you might be leading an interesting life from someone else’s perspective. We’re almost always the worst judge of ourselves.

Like how there’s once I was obsessed with this Japanese YouTuber who filmed his camping trips on his minivan. No face, no music, no talking. Just him driving to camp site, setting up the inside of his car for camp, and cooking, eating, cleaning, going to bed, waking up. Just the visuals and sounds of being out there in the outdoors. Very ASMR. I wasn’t into camping, but I lived vicariously through the video. Almost as if I was there. It provided some solace especially during the lockdowns.

I can almost imagine him asking himself when he filmed his first video, “Who would be interested in this?” I would have certainly stopped myself if I were in his shoes. Yet, he’s doing well. And he certainly got my attention.

There’s 7.9 billion human beings and there’s just as many unique paths through life. Therefore there’s just as many paths to success.

Being better is good, being best is excellent, but different is better than both.

Positive sum, not zero sum.

Different > better