Day 559 - I'm not successful because I'm not lazy enough - https://golifelog.com/posts/im-not-successful-because-im-not-lazy-enough-1657679632654
I’ve been frustrated with my lack of results lately. The success I seek seems to elude me. It’s been years. I try patience. I try to reframe my perspective. It provides temporary relief. But this frustration—turning into annoyance, at myself—always returns.
And I’ve got a working hypothesis that I’ve been toying with in my head, why it’s that way:
I’m not successful because I’m not lazy enough.
The reason why I’m not hitting my goals for my products is because I’m too working hard.
I’m too willing to work hard on everything—things that matter and don’t matter—that I spread myself too thin.
I’m greedy and hard-working, want to do it all, and feel confident to be able to do it all through just working harder, so I lose focus.
I’m the sort who enjoys feeling competent, so even if I’m not good at the skill, I’ll force myself to learn it.
I’m not using enough leverage to help me succeed—like tools, automation, capital, partners, freelancers, VAs, systems, templates—so I end up doing and achieving less.
I’m great at forming habits and applying consistency, discipline and a never-say-die attitude to my work, so that blessing brought to the extreme ends up being a curse (when I just hunker down in hard work without results).
I’m too much of a workaholic that I forget that rest is required for optimal productivity.
Essentially, the very virtue called industriousness had turned into a vice, because it had blinded me to what I need to do to be effective.
I was just being ultra efficient, but not effective.
To be effective, I need to be lazy.
In some aspects, at least.
I should really start practicing selective indolence and strategic incompetence.
I need to be willing to not treat my industriousness as the hammer and every problem as a nail.
I need to be open to doing more work upfront to automate, create systems, templates and using other tools to scale and amplify beyond the bottleneck that is myself.
I need to start considering how I can bring others in to help me, complement me, free me up to focus on things I’m more effective in.
To be successful, I need to learn how to be lazy.
Laziness is not a vice per se. It can be a virtue, if used appropriately.
Lazy on the things that don’t matter.
Industrious on the things that do.
And I’ve got a working hypothesis that I’ve been toying with in my head, why it’s that way:
I’m not successful because I’m not lazy enough.
The reason why I’m not hitting my goals for my products is because I’m too working hard.
I’m too willing to work hard on everything—things that matter and don’t matter—that I spread myself too thin.
I’m greedy and hard-working, want to do it all, and feel confident to be able to do it all through just working harder, so I lose focus.
I’m the sort who enjoys feeling competent, so even if I’m not good at the skill, I’ll force myself to learn it.
I’m not using enough leverage to help me succeed—like tools, automation, capital, partners, freelancers, VAs, systems, templates—so I end up doing and achieving less.
I’m great at forming habits and applying consistency, discipline and a never-say-die attitude to my work, so that blessing brought to the extreme ends up being a curse (when I just hunker down in hard work without results).
I’m too much of a workaholic that I forget that rest is required for optimal productivity.
Essentially, the very virtue called industriousness had turned into a vice, because it had blinded me to what I need to do to be effective.
I was just being ultra efficient, but not effective.
To be effective, I need to be lazy.
In some aspects, at least.
I should really start practicing selective indolence and strategic incompetence.
I need to be willing to not treat my industriousness as the hammer and every problem as a nail.
I need to be open to doing more work upfront to automate, create systems, templates and using other tools to scale and amplify beyond the bottleneck that is myself.
I need to start considering how I can bring others in to help me, complement me, free me up to focus on things I’m more effective in.
To be successful, I need to learn how to be lazy.
Laziness is not a vice per se. It can be a virtue, if used appropriately.
Lazy on the things that don’t matter.
Industrious on the things that do.
Got 1 new free trial sign-up, after 1-2 months of drought!
Day 558 - Problems that Lifelog solves - https://golifelog.com/posts/problems-that-lifelog-solves-1657592032459
I realised I’ve never written down all the problems that Lifelog solves, because I assumed those were clear for those coming from the old writing platform.
But @Chance_Smith used Lifelog as an example to apply this framework that @dickiebush had. This is Dickie’s framework:
Bad copywriting:
• Here’s my product
• Here’s what it does
• Here’s what’s so good about it
Good copywriting:
• Here’s your problem
• Here’s the benefit of solving it
• Here’s why what you’ve tried has failed
• And by the way here’s a product that will help you solve it
And this was Chance’s list of problems that Lifelog solves:
Problems LifeLog solves
- never starting to write
- solo writing
- inconsistent writing
- over ambitious writing goals (1k words/day)
- not self-aware (cloudy pov)
- not goal focused
Somehow reading the list of problems felt refreshing because I’ve never listed them down before. And when crafting my Learn More page I went straight to the benefits without ever demonstrating I got a good empathetic understanding of the problems my potential users faced.
Huge face palm moment. 🤦♂️
OK so let’s build on Chance’s list and try to add on all the problems my customers have:
Problems LifeLog solves
- never starting to write
- (loneliness of) solo writing
- inconsistent writing
- over ambitious writing goals (1k words/day)
- not self-aware (cloudy pov)
- not goal focused
- poor progress on goals
- lack of deliberate practice (on writing, clear thinking)
- insufficient emotional expression
- lack of confidence
- lack of sense of belonging to a like-minded community
- overwhelming fear of failure, perfectionism
- flow: find it hard to express thoughts to words
- ability to communicate well in writing, i.e. communication skills
- lack of clarity on your ideas/thoughts
- lack of career progression, opportunities
- lack of discipline and consistency in other aspects of life
- better writing skills in general
Anything else I missed?
But @Chance_Smith used Lifelog as an example to apply this framework that @dickiebush had. This is Dickie’s framework:
Bad copywriting:
• Here’s my product
• Here’s what it does
• Here’s what’s so good about it
Good copywriting:
• Here’s your problem
• Here’s the benefit of solving it
• Here’s why what you’ve tried has failed
• And by the way here’s a product that will help you solve it
And this was Chance’s list of problems that Lifelog solves:
Problems LifeLog solves
- never starting to write
- solo writing
- inconsistent writing
- over ambitious writing goals (1k words/day)
- not self-aware (cloudy pov)
- not goal focused
Somehow reading the list of problems felt refreshing because I’ve never listed them down before. And when crafting my Learn More page I went straight to the benefits without ever demonstrating I got a good empathetic understanding of the problems my potential users faced.
Huge face palm moment. 🤦♂️
OK so let’s build on Chance’s list and try to add on all the problems my customers have:
Problems LifeLog solves
- never starting to write
- (loneliness of) solo writing
- inconsistent writing
- over ambitious writing goals (1k words/day)
- not self-aware (cloudy pov)
- not goal focused
- poor progress on goals
- lack of deliberate practice (on writing, clear thinking)
- insufficient emotional expression
- lack of confidence
- lack of sense of belonging to a like-minded community
- overwhelming fear of failure, perfectionism
- flow: find it hard to express thoughts to words
- ability to communicate well in writing, i.e. communication skills
- lack of clarity on your ideas/thoughts
- lack of career progression, opportunities
- lack of discipline and consistency in other aspects of life
- better writing skills in general
Anything else I missed?
Day 557 - Loving speech on yourself - https://golifelog.com/posts/loving-speech-on-yourself-1657497472901
I’ve seen this pop up several times over the last week, so I take it as a sign, a synchronicity, that I should write to think about it.
It’s always some version of this:
Don’t speak badly about yourself. Don’t say things like “I suck. I’m terrible at X. I hate this part of me.” A part of you—your subconscious, your inner warrior, your spirit, whatever—is always listening. It can’t tell the difference between it being said in jest or seriously, because it’s the same energy.
Perhaps I’m just seeing what I need right now.
Going through a period of creative burnout and low esteem, perhaps my inner voice, my self-talk in my head haven’t been the most kind to myself. Maybe it’s the cause, maybe it’s a symptom. I don’t know. I do know it’s there.
Some ways I speak badly to myself:
“It’s been years. Why are you still not earning enough money from your indie hacking?”
“Everyone’s doing well. Even folks who started later than you are enjoying more success. You’re not any less smart than them. Why are you not achieving what you want?”
“Why do you make it so hard for yourself? Just go do the thing and win.”
“You’re not being a good enough dad. You should be more involved. You should do more. Spend more time with your son. Time will pass you by much faster than you realize. Why work so much?”
“You’re not being a good enough husband. You should plan more dates, do more sweet things. Serve your wife more. Marriage takes effort too, you know.”
“You’ve not been spending time with your parents. They’re old, and time with them is limited. How many more years will you have with them? Seize it.”
Writing them down was nice. I realized I have a strong paternal inner voice, always coaching me in my head.
The first step to recovery is recognition. The second step is to speak differently, using loving speech.
“Easier said than done,” my inner voice went.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
It’s always some version of this:
Don’t speak badly about yourself. Don’t say things like “I suck. I’m terrible at X. I hate this part of me.” A part of you—your subconscious, your inner warrior, your spirit, whatever—is always listening. It can’t tell the difference between it being said in jest or seriously, because it’s the same energy.
Perhaps I’m just seeing what I need right now.
Going through a period of creative burnout and low esteem, perhaps my inner voice, my self-talk in my head haven’t been the most kind to myself. Maybe it’s the cause, maybe it’s a symptom. I don’t know. I do know it’s there.
Some ways I speak badly to myself:
“It’s been years. Why are you still not earning enough money from your indie hacking?”
“Everyone’s doing well. Even folks who started later than you are enjoying more success. You’re not any less smart than them. Why are you not achieving what you want?”
“Why do you make it so hard for yourself? Just go do the thing and win.”
“You’re not being a good enough dad. You should be more involved. You should do more. Spend more time with your son. Time will pass you by much faster than you realize. Why work so much?”
“You’re not being a good enough husband. You should plan more dates, do more sweet things. Serve your wife more. Marriage takes effort too, you know.”
“You’ve not been spending time with your parents. They’re old, and time with them is limited. How many more years will you have with them? Seize it.”
Writing them down was nice. I realized I have a strong paternal inner voice, always coaching me in my head.
The first step to recovery is recognition. The second step is to speak differently, using loving speech.
“Easier said than done,” my inner voice went.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Day 556 - Do the opposite of the 99% - https://golifelog.com/posts/do-the-opposite-of-the-99percent-1657409667885
An interesting all-round technique to get ahead of the pack, in life:
Just do the opposite of what 99% are doing.
OK caveat: Obviously this rule doesn’t apply to fundamental laws of physics things like jumping off a building or putting your hand in fire. Do as the 100% does in those things yes. But for the rest:
"How to get ahead in your 20s:
Look at what 99% of people in their 20s are doing
Do the opposite"
– @WrongsToWrite
For most important things in life that are valuable—career, business, entrepreneurship, money, relationships, happiness—these aren’t things that are clear cut. It ain’t black and white, it’s all grey. There’s definitely more than one way. Context matters in these cases. And being opposite gives sharp contrast, helps one stand out, distribute your message, sell your product. That’s when being contrarian is game-changing.
I see this all the time everywhere. The contrarian hot take on Twitter goes viral. The unconventional growth hack gets millions of users. The weirdos win.
"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
That made me think – what have I done or can I do differently from the 99% of creators and indie hackers to get ahead? What are some of the norms and rules that everyone says to be true, but you learned you can do otherwise? What do I believe in that 99% don’t, that it’s a hill that I’m prepared to die fighting on?
A few popular rules/behaviours and how I do the opposite of the 99%:
❌ Hard work alone is sufficient for success
✅ Learning to lean more on being able to spot opportunity and leverage chance
❌ Going all in on one big bet thing, be known for just one niche, is the only way
✅ Go for a portfolio of bets intentionally, be known for many different things
❌ Sharing mostly wins to shape how successful you look. Even when sharing losses and failures, framing it to show how brilliant/good one is to overcome it
✅ Being vulnerable in public, openly sharing failures, struggles, worries with no heroic ending
❌ Hustle hard, succeed fast
✅ Commit a decade to it
❌ Anytime someone says this is the ONLY way to do it
✅ Always think, “It depends.”
Question to myself: What else can I do differently from the 99%, in business and in life?
Just do the opposite of what 99% are doing.
OK caveat: Obviously this rule doesn’t apply to fundamental laws of physics things like jumping off a building or putting your hand in fire. Do as the 100% does in those things yes. But for the rest:
"How to get ahead in your 20s:
Look at what 99% of people in their 20s are doing
Do the opposite"
– @WrongsToWrite
For most important things in life that are valuable—career, business, entrepreneurship, money, relationships, happiness—these aren’t things that are clear cut. It ain’t black and white, it’s all grey. There’s definitely more than one way. Context matters in these cases. And being opposite gives sharp contrast, helps one stand out, distribute your message, sell your product. That’s when being contrarian is game-changing.
I see this all the time everywhere. The contrarian hot take on Twitter goes viral. The unconventional growth hack gets millions of users. The weirdos win.
"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
That made me think – what have I done or can I do differently from the 99% of creators and indie hackers to get ahead? What are some of the norms and rules that everyone says to be true, but you learned you can do otherwise? What do I believe in that 99% don’t, that it’s a hill that I’m prepared to die fighting on?
A few popular rules/behaviours and how I do the opposite of the 99%:
❌ Hard work alone is sufficient for success
✅ Learning to lean more on being able to spot opportunity and leverage chance
❌ Going all in on one big bet thing, be known for just one niche, is the only way
✅ Go for a portfolio of bets intentionally, be known for many different things
❌ Sharing mostly wins to shape how successful you look. Even when sharing losses and failures, framing it to show how brilliant/good one is to overcome it
✅ Being vulnerable in public, openly sharing failures, struggles, worries with no heroic ending
❌ Hustle hard, succeed fast
✅ Commit a decade to it
❌ Anytime someone says this is the ONLY way to do it
✅ Always think, “It depends.”
Question to myself: What else can I do differently from the 99%, in business and in life?
Day 555 - 1300 Makerlog streak - https://golifelog.com/posts/1300-makerlog-streak-1657327551086
I just hit 1300 day streak on Makerlog!
It’s been 3.5 years, one of the longest streaks I’ve ever maintained.
Some thoughts and recollections:
HOW I STARTED
The year was 2018. It’s a rainy December in Ubud, Bali. I was digital nomading and working on my products, and decided to finally try Makerlog, right about the same time I started a daily writing habit. 7 Dec was my first writing post, so I presume it’s also my first log on Makerlog. I thought, ok since I’m going serious into indie hacking, this community might be fun to join. I’ve been logging every task I do and every small win for all my products since.
BENEFITS
• I use these logs to do my monthly reviews, track progress for each product. It’s great! I often do more than I think I did every month, and the logs are a great reminder for that.
• The product pages are also a great way to look back at the progress for each product.
• Surprising developer benefit - the logs also serve as developer/versioning notes. I get really granular and share my thought process behind each feature I created (especially the important features that were hard to develop, like say the streak algorithm for Lifelog). That way if I forgot how the function works, I can still look back and refresh my mind.
• Overall, the Makerlog community had also been great for learning, connecting and support as an indie hacker. The hype and high energy in the chat group and community had somewhat died down after 3 years, but everyone’s still plugging at it, making products and commenting on one another’s launches.
• It’s a funny thing to say, but around and after the 2 year mark it became more about the benefits from logging than the streak. Yeah I’ll probably get sad for a few minutes if I lose the streak, but the benefits I get from capturing my progress is still there. And I’ll still keep doing it.
LEARNINGS
Will I hit 2000? 10000? I don’t know.
What I do know: My approach is “one more day”. I know I’ll try one more day tomorrow…
Just one more day.
It’s been 3.5 years, one of the longest streaks I’ve ever maintained.
Some thoughts and recollections:
HOW I STARTED
The year was 2018. It’s a rainy December in Ubud, Bali. I was digital nomading and working on my products, and decided to finally try Makerlog, right about the same time I started a daily writing habit. 7 Dec was my first writing post, so I presume it’s also my first log on Makerlog. I thought, ok since I’m going serious into indie hacking, this community might be fun to join. I’ve been logging every task I do and every small win for all my products since.
BENEFITS
• I use these logs to do my monthly reviews, track progress for each product. It’s great! I often do more than I think I did every month, and the logs are a great reminder for that.
• The product pages are also a great way to look back at the progress for each product.
• Surprising developer benefit - the logs also serve as developer/versioning notes. I get really granular and share my thought process behind each feature I created (especially the important features that were hard to develop, like say the streak algorithm for Lifelog). That way if I forgot how the function works, I can still look back and refresh my mind.
• Overall, the Makerlog community had also been great for learning, connecting and support as an indie hacker. The hype and high energy in the chat group and community had somewhat died down after 3 years, but everyone’s still plugging at it, making products and commenting on one another’s launches.
• It’s a funny thing to say, but around and after the 2 year mark it became more about the benefits from logging than the streak. Yeah I’ll probably get sad for a few minutes if I lose the streak, but the benefits I get from capturing my progress is still there. And I’ll still keep doing it.
LEARNINGS
Will I hit 2000? 10000? I don’t know.
What I do know: My approach is “one more day”. I know I’ll try one more day tomorrow…
Just one more day.
Day 554 - Always winning is actually losing - https://golifelog.com/posts/always-winning-is-actually-losing-1657238367178
A gem from James Clear’s newsletter today:
"If you’re always right, you’re not learning.
If you’re never failing, you’re not reaching.
The objective is to be right. The objective is to succeed.
But if you’re always winning, you’re undershooting your potential."
– James Clear
That puts a counterintuitive but so-damned-true point of view on winning and being right, isn’t it?
The key word here is “always”.
Nothing wrong with winning or being right, per se.
But if you winning 100 out of 100 times (or even 99 times out of 100), then it very likely means one thing:
The game is too easy for you. You’re not really taking risks, not really pushing yourself, not getting out of your comfort zone.
The winning thus gives a false sense of success. There’s actually little progress to be said, zero growth to be had. The worst kind of success you’d want, actually. Because it lulls you into a false sense of superiority where there’s none. It creates a mirage that you don’t actually live in.
Of course it’s not to put failure and losses on a pedestal and start giving trophies out to every loser. That’s affirmative action for the wrong reasons. Also if you’re failing 100 out of 100 times, the game is too hard for you too. You need to change the game, change who you play with, or change the rules.
The key seems to be finding the right zone of challenge versus competency.
Maybe 60:40 fails to wins? I can live with that.
Tl;dr - Always winning means you actually losing.
"If you’re always right, you’re not learning.
If you’re never failing, you’re not reaching.
The objective is to be right. The objective is to succeed.
But if you’re always winning, you’re undershooting your potential."
– James Clear
That puts a counterintuitive but so-damned-true point of view on winning and being right, isn’t it?
The key word here is “always”.
Nothing wrong with winning or being right, per se.
But if you winning 100 out of 100 times (or even 99 times out of 100), then it very likely means one thing:
The game is too easy for you. You’re not really taking risks, not really pushing yourself, not getting out of your comfort zone.
The winning thus gives a false sense of success. There’s actually little progress to be said, zero growth to be had. The worst kind of success you’d want, actually. Because it lulls you into a false sense of superiority where there’s none. It creates a mirage that you don’t actually live in.
Of course it’s not to put failure and losses on a pedestal and start giving trophies out to every loser. That’s affirmative action for the wrong reasons. Also if you’re failing 100 out of 100 times, the game is too hard for you too. You need to change the game, change who you play with, or change the rules.
The key seems to be finding the right zone of challenge versus competency.
Maybe 60:40 fails to wins? I can live with that.
Tl;dr - Always winning means you actually losing.
Day 553 - One more day - https://golifelog.com/posts/one-more-day-1657150768967
Instead of setting grand visions and ambitious goals, do just one more day.
Examples:
“So are you planning on staying sober for the rest of your life?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to stay sober for one more day…”
“How much are you willing to commit to this business? A decade?”
“I don’t know… but I’m going to stick to it for one more day…”
It’s an interesting motivation hack, for sure. Especially useful for infinite games. Because with infinite games there’s no end point, no destination (except death perhaps). Your goal—even if you have one—is never done done. Like sleep, health, mental fitness. Like being an entrepreneur, a creator, a maker.
It’s a lifestyle, not an exit.
When there’s no end, it’s hard to feel motivated to keep pushing, isn’t it? Or when you have a vision for how success should look like, it can feel overwhelming or frustrating that you’re currently so far off from it.
All these are about becoming disembodied from the present and getting lost in a future that had yet to arrive… if ever.
The solution? By just focusing on the next step to take. By being present. Being embodied, in the present.
By saying, “Just one more day.”
Honestly… I don’t know if I can stick to this creator-entrepreneur journey long enough to hit my goal of $5k per month, or if I can ever achieve my dream of making a good living from indie hacking for me and my family. It sucks that there’s no results after so many years.
I don’t know, but I’ll do it for just one more day, tomorrow…
Examples:
“So are you planning on staying sober for the rest of your life?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to stay sober for one more day…”
“How much are you willing to commit to this business? A decade?”
“I don’t know… but I’m going to stick to it for one more day…”
It’s an interesting motivation hack, for sure. Especially useful for infinite games. Because with infinite games there’s no end point, no destination (except death perhaps). Your goal—even if you have one—is never done done. Like sleep, health, mental fitness. Like being an entrepreneur, a creator, a maker.
It’s a lifestyle, not an exit.
When there’s no end, it’s hard to feel motivated to keep pushing, isn’t it? Or when you have a vision for how success should look like, it can feel overwhelming or frustrating that you’re currently so far off from it.
All these are about becoming disembodied from the present and getting lost in a future that had yet to arrive… if ever.
The solution? By just focusing on the next step to take. By being present. Being embodied, in the present.
By saying, “Just one more day.”
Honestly… I don’t know if I can stick to this creator-entrepreneur journey long enough to hit my goal of $5k per month, or if I can ever achieve my dream of making a good living from indie hacking for me and my family. It sucks that there’s no results after so many years.
I don’t know, but I’ll do it for just one more day, tomorrow…
Day 552 - Stagflation of creativity - https://golifelog.com/posts/stagflation-of-creativity-1657089665742
Stagflation is when slow economic growth and joblessness intersects with rising inflation. Basically: Your future money shrinks, your current money also shrinks.
Worst of both worlds.
That’s what’s happening in the external world.
I feel I’m going through a stagflation too as a creator.
Creative stagflation.
Slow product growth, personal growth stagnation intersecting with motivation inflation.
Product growth had definitely slowed. Lifelog sign-ups had stopped. Sheet2Bio too, and so had my other products. Only my Carrd plugins continue to move onwards on its own.
They say, your product grows as fast as a founder grows as a person, as an entrepreneur. I think it’s true. I feel so. That means I’m stagnating in inner growth.
If motivation is the currency of inner growth and thus outer growth, then I’m definitely hit by inflation. Somewhat same motivation but I do less, achieve less with it.
What can I do?
How does one get out of a creative stagflation?
- Building 100% useless but 100% fun projects. To kickstart a ailing engine with new fuel by lowering the bar of builds to the lowest.
- Building my way out of my burnout is one. More projects but slightly more serious ones to keep the creative fire burning.
- Meanwhile learn to play more defense. Survive at all costs. Don’t incite more frustration by seeking to thrive when creative stagflation happens. Do the bare minimum to keep maintain your current lifestyle or creator flywheel. Look out for the opening where I can break through the stalemate.
What else can I do?
Worst of both worlds.
That’s what’s happening in the external world.
I feel I’m going through a stagflation too as a creator.
Creative stagflation.
Slow product growth, personal growth stagnation intersecting with motivation inflation.
Product growth had definitely slowed. Lifelog sign-ups had stopped. Sheet2Bio too, and so had my other products. Only my Carrd plugins continue to move onwards on its own.
They say, your product grows as fast as a founder grows as a person, as an entrepreneur. I think it’s true. I feel so. That means I’m stagnating in inner growth.
If motivation is the currency of inner growth and thus outer growth, then I’m definitely hit by inflation. Somewhat same motivation but I do less, achieve less with it.
What can I do?
How does one get out of a creative stagflation?
- Building 100% useless but 100% fun projects. To kickstart a ailing engine with new fuel by lowering the bar of builds to the lowest.
- Building my way out of my burnout is one. More projects but slightly more serious ones to keep the creative fire burning.
- Meanwhile learn to play more defense. Survive at all costs. Don’t incite more frustration by seeking to thrive when creative stagflation happens. Do the bare minimum to keep maintain your current lifestyle or creator flywheel. Look out for the opening where I can break through the stalemate.
What else can I do?
Experimenting with adding atomic essay screenshots into my writing tweets where I share the link to a Lifelog post
Example:
Day 551 - Giving up - https://golifelog.com/posts/giving-up-1656978121067
All these lack of results from my products is making me want to give up. But not the giving up you think.
It's making me give up on things I used to do that I thought helped but not really.
It's making me give up on ideals and narratives I had how about things *should be* done.
It's pushing me to re-examine what I thought success looks like, to reimagine what it really is.
'Shoulds' like:
- Being impatient and expecting 'immediate' results (within months, or 1-2 years). Recently I said to myself that I'll commit a decade. It was a huge relief and provided perspective.
- I saw having monthly recurring revenue as the only way to success, but I'm giving that up and now I'm open to one-time revenue.
- I only wanted to earn money from my products and drop my consulting, but now I see that anything that allows me to keep going as a solopreneur is fair game. Survive first, not thrive before surviving.
- I wanted to succeed by building SaaS products, but even that I'm giving up now. It's okay to earn from info products, digital downloads, freelance. My Plugins For Carrd had been the huge opportunity right under my nose for the longest time, yet I continually neglect it for my SaaS. No more. I’ll follow where the money and opportunity is.
- I disliked the whole trend of maker making products for other makers, so I avoided it on moral high grounds. But that's just an egoistic position. A product that's useful is useful is useful. Why so pretentious? I don't get extra credit for being so idealistic and elitist...
- Building a product for Twitter audience. Similar to the makers makings for makers trend. Since I'm on Twitter, I know the needs of the people using Twitter fairly well. So why not make something for it?
- Giving up on the nice-to-have habits like daily affirmations, $2 jar. It's simply not moving the needle for me even though it feels like it would. Now I just wake up, and get to work.
- (Over-)crafting tweets that I'm proud of. The past few months I've spent maximum effort on writing tweets I can take pride in, frequently spending hours crafting and tweaking the tweet over multiple rounds. But I learned that the effort:reward ratio didn't make way I play worthwhile. For ephemeral content that disappears after 1-2 days, I should be just spending minutes on it, not hours. Spending hours follows the curve of diminishing returns. Also leaning on the point about committing a decade, I'm in this Twitter game for the long run, so no need to over-compensate all that effort upfront. Sure, I should still ensure some level of quality. But adjust accordingly. Same reasons why I started batching my tweets 1 week ahead instead of scheduling it on a per day basis - it's just not worth the effort.
- Avoiding LinkedIn as a marketing channel because it's "cringe". It's not, and just like Twitter, it's mostly about following the right people, curating your feed, and engaging the way you want.
Question to myself: What other 'shoulds' should I give up?
It's making me give up on things I used to do that I thought helped but not really.
It's making me give up on ideals and narratives I had how about things *should be* done.
It's pushing me to re-examine what I thought success looks like, to reimagine what it really is.
'Shoulds' like:
- Being impatient and expecting 'immediate' results (within months, or 1-2 years). Recently I said to myself that I'll commit a decade. It was a huge relief and provided perspective.
- I saw having monthly recurring revenue as the only way to success, but I'm giving that up and now I'm open to one-time revenue.
- I only wanted to earn money from my products and drop my consulting, but now I see that anything that allows me to keep going as a solopreneur is fair game. Survive first, not thrive before surviving.
- I wanted to succeed by building SaaS products, but even that I'm giving up now. It's okay to earn from info products, digital downloads, freelance. My Plugins For Carrd had been the huge opportunity right under my nose for the longest time, yet I continually neglect it for my SaaS. No more. I’ll follow where the money and opportunity is.
- I disliked the whole trend of maker making products for other makers, so I avoided it on moral high grounds. But that's just an egoistic position. A product that's useful is useful is useful. Why so pretentious? I don't get extra credit for being so idealistic and elitist...
- Building a product for Twitter audience. Similar to the makers makings for makers trend. Since I'm on Twitter, I know the needs of the people using Twitter fairly well. So why not make something for it?
- Giving up on the nice-to-have habits like daily affirmations, $2 jar. It's simply not moving the needle for me even though it feels like it would. Now I just wake up, and get to work.
- (Over-)crafting tweets that I'm proud of. The past few months I've spent maximum effort on writing tweets I can take pride in, frequently spending hours crafting and tweaking the tweet over multiple rounds. But I learned that the effort:reward ratio didn't make way I play worthwhile. For ephemeral content that disappears after 1-2 days, I should be just spending minutes on it, not hours. Spending hours follows the curve of diminishing returns. Also leaning on the point about committing a decade, I'm in this Twitter game for the long run, so no need to over-compensate all that effort upfront. Sure, I should still ensure some level of quality. But adjust accordingly. Same reasons why I started batching my tweets 1 week ahead instead of scheduling it on a per day basis - it's just not worth the effort.
- Avoiding LinkedIn as a marketing channel because it's "cringe". It's not, and just like Twitter, it's mostly about following the right people, curating your feed, and engaging the way you want.
Question to myself: What other 'shoulds' should I give up?
Finished scheduling 1 week's worth of tweets
Day 550 - Travel - https://golifelog.com/posts/travel-1656906605679
It’s been too long since I last travelled. That got me thinking: Where would I go if I could leave right now?
Bali
Few places restore me as well as Bali. In particular, Ubud. The lush green, the peaceful locals, the daily prayers. I used to take solo year-end retreats there annually. Just calm, great food, nature-bathing, and scooting around in a scooter, for one month. It was divine. Much needed now, after two years of living through a crisis.
Japan
If I had a past life, it would be in Japan. Even though I speak no Japanese, there’s no other place where I felt more at home being myself than in Japan. Especially Kyoto. People keep to themselves but respect others. Craft and craftsmanship is still deeply valued. Tradition meets modern. A blend of polarities, a contradiction, an irony yet it exists.
Iceland
There’s no other place where I felt the Earth being more alive than in Iceland. The ground upon my feet wasn’t just some inert, passive, quiet thing – it burped, it hissed, it moved. The lava landscapes were alien to me. If you take me away blindfolded and dropped me on Iceland, I’d think we were on the moon perhaps. The air of fairy magic makes me almost expect elves and unicorns to jump out behind boulders and trees. It’s inexplicable.
India
I’ve been to India for yoga retreats. And not gonna lie… India is hard. I’ve got a love-hate relationship with my experience traveling there. There’s so much to it, yet it’s really challenging to dig deep enough through the surface to get there. The smog, the crazy traffic, the infrastructure, the crowds. All stand in between you and the wisdom that India has to offer. But perhaps that’s the whole point.
I can’t travel to these places yet…
But wishful thinking is always nice.
Bali
Few places restore me as well as Bali. In particular, Ubud. The lush green, the peaceful locals, the daily prayers. I used to take solo year-end retreats there annually. Just calm, great food, nature-bathing, and scooting around in a scooter, for one month. It was divine. Much needed now, after two years of living through a crisis.
Japan
If I had a past life, it would be in Japan. Even though I speak no Japanese, there’s no other place where I felt more at home being myself than in Japan. Especially Kyoto. People keep to themselves but respect others. Craft and craftsmanship is still deeply valued. Tradition meets modern. A blend of polarities, a contradiction, an irony yet it exists.
Iceland
There’s no other place where I felt the Earth being more alive than in Iceland. The ground upon my feet wasn’t just some inert, passive, quiet thing – it burped, it hissed, it moved. The lava landscapes were alien to me. If you take me away blindfolded and dropped me on Iceland, I’d think we were on the moon perhaps. The air of fairy magic makes me almost expect elves and unicorns to jump out behind boulders and trees. It’s inexplicable.
India
I’ve been to India for yoga retreats. And not gonna lie… India is hard. I’ve got a love-hate relationship with my experience traveling there. There’s so much to it, yet it’s really challenging to dig deep enough through the surface to get there. The smog, the crazy traffic, the infrastructure, the crowds. All stand in between you and the wisdom that India has to offer. But perhaps that’s the whole point.
I can’t travel to these places yet…
But wishful thinking is always nice.
Day 549 - Omission is 10x more effective than addition - https://golifelog.com/posts/omission-is-10x-more-effective-than-addition-1656813509939
I've been doing analog weekly recaps for a few months now. Just physical notebook, a real pen, and coffee in a nice, quiet cafe, writing to these question prompts:
What's adding energy?
What's draining energy?
What moves the needle?
What to reduce/remove?
But over the months I've began to observe a pattern. The 4 questions are not created equal. One works 10x more effectively than the rest. Guess which one?
It's #4 "What to reduce/remove?"
That's surprising to me. I assumed it would be #1 or #3, the questions that affirm the positive, that add to life. But ended it it's the question that aims to decrease or omit things that work. I realised after every weekly recap, I'll go and remove/reduce exactly what I wrote. Week on week, I'll do that and it's gone. And I'm significantly better off. Every single thing I wanted to remove, I did, as I flip back to reread past recaps. The contrast here is the things that added energy and moved the needle, I didn't always follow through. I always assumed it would have been more intuitive and natural otherwise.
Which kind of makes sense, because as humans we're simply hardwired to loss aversion more than rewards. We fear losing what we have a lot more intensely than we look forward to what we want. It's definitely a great way to sustain motivation on something for sure. Removing pain is always easier to keep at it than to gain a benefit.
The other plus point is what Nassim Taleb talks about in *Antifragile* - the *via negativa* approach. It's much easier to get to a life you love by removing what you dislike versus trying to add more of what you like. Subtract what you hate, and you make space for the things you like to enter your life. Life abhors empty space, just as Nature abhors a vacuum.
I wonder if this is also a good approach to my creator journey, to making products.
Just remove or reduce what I hate about my products, or what I hate doing for my products. To give space to let the good things enter – revenue, profit, users, traffic, page views.
Instead of pursuing a grand vision for my SaaS, look to removing tiny to big things that me and my users hate. This gets me to keep working on it, and seems more impactful to users.
Via negativa for products!
What's adding energy?
What's draining energy?
What moves the needle?
What to reduce/remove?
But over the months I've began to observe a pattern. The 4 questions are not created equal. One works 10x more effectively than the rest. Guess which one?
It's #4 "What to reduce/remove?"
That's surprising to me. I assumed it would be #1 or #3, the questions that affirm the positive, that add to life. But ended it it's the question that aims to decrease or omit things that work. I realised after every weekly recap, I'll go and remove/reduce exactly what I wrote. Week on week, I'll do that and it's gone. And I'm significantly better off. Every single thing I wanted to remove, I did, as I flip back to reread past recaps. The contrast here is the things that added energy and moved the needle, I didn't always follow through. I always assumed it would have been more intuitive and natural otherwise.
Which kind of makes sense, because as humans we're simply hardwired to loss aversion more than rewards. We fear losing what we have a lot more intensely than we look forward to what we want. It's definitely a great way to sustain motivation on something for sure. Removing pain is always easier to keep at it than to gain a benefit.
The other plus point is what Nassim Taleb talks about in *Antifragile* - the *via negativa* approach. It's much easier to get to a life you love by removing what you dislike versus trying to add more of what you like. Subtract what you hate, and you make space for the things you like to enter your life. Life abhors empty space, just as Nature abhors a vacuum.
I wonder if this is also a good approach to my creator journey, to making products.
Just remove or reduce what I hate about my products, or what I hate doing for my products. To give space to let the good things enter – revenue, profit, users, traffic, page views.
Instead of pursuing a grand vision for my SaaS, look to removing tiny to big things that me and my users hate. This gets me to keep working on it, and seems more impactful to users.
Via negativa for products!
Day 548 - Creative seasons - https://golifelog.com/posts/creative-seasons-1656730358961
It’s summer now. But I feel like I’m going through a creative winter. Much like the crypto winter, or the bear market, or bears going into hibernation.
It’s easy to want to fight this season. But over the years I noticed a pattern. That seasons are a necessary process for creativity.
We’re human beings, not machines. Nature has seasons, machines don’t.
(Though huge confession: Sometimes I daydream of being a machine. You can do so much more.)
Nature pulse and pause. The flurry of life in the spring, eventually gives way to the dying down of life in winter. The calm before the storm, and the calm after.
If creativity is a lot more similar to Nature than machines, then we can expect seasons, pulsing and pausing, living and dying, highs and lows too.
I get it. The lows are difficult to get through sometimes. Give me the heat of the summer over the biting chill of winter. But often the best way to get past the valley is by letting it be low.
Acceptance.
I accept my creative winter. Say that out loud. Say that one more time.
I accept my creative winter.
I’ll dwell in my winter till it’s time for spring.
For as long as it takes. For as long as it needs to take.
After all, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
It’s easy to want to fight this season. But over the years I noticed a pattern. That seasons are a necessary process for creativity.
We’re human beings, not machines. Nature has seasons, machines don’t.
(Though huge confession: Sometimes I daydream of being a machine. You can do so much more.)
Nature pulse and pause. The flurry of life in the spring, eventually gives way to the dying down of life in winter. The calm before the storm, and the calm after.
If creativity is a lot more similar to Nature than machines, then we can expect seasons, pulsing and pausing, living and dying, highs and lows too.
I get it. The lows are difficult to get through sometimes. Give me the heat of the summer over the biting chill of winter. But often the best way to get past the valley is by letting it be low.
Acceptance.
I accept my creative winter. Say that out loud. Say that one more time.
I accept my creative winter.
I’ll dwell in my winter till it’s time for spring.
For as long as it takes. For as long as it needs to take.
After all, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Got payout of $0.13 from Medium! 😆
Day 547 - July goals - https://golifelog.com/posts/july-goals-1656639761953
I took a goalless June to rest and to just be. Do whatever inspires me, whenever.
I definitely did more rest than doing, and it was good for my creative burnout.
But I feel like I can rest some more, but yet, starting to feel kind of restless to start moving. Not moving as in getting after business targets, but to just move. To move on something, anything…
Anything other than nothing.
I talked about my burnout builds as a way to create and feel alive again. That’s a good way to restart my momentum again, to start moving again.
But the build list I had consisted of many practical, useful stuff. I can do that but i want to start even lower down the bar. Maybe I can start by building something 100% useless but 100% fun. Totally zero stress, no expectations, ultimate play.
Taking inspiration from funny/fun sites like:
• istheshipstillstuck.com - joke site about that ship stuck in Panama Canal
• burgers.dev - a rivalry about burgers between 2 devs
• codingweekmarketingweek.com - is it coding week or marketing week?
So fun projects it’ll be.
Onwards!
I definitely did more rest than doing, and it was good for my creative burnout.
But I feel like I can rest some more, but yet, starting to feel kind of restless to start moving. Not moving as in getting after business targets, but to just move. To move on something, anything…
Anything other than nothing.
I talked about my burnout builds as a way to create and feel alive again. That’s a good way to restart my momentum again, to start moving again.
But the build list I had consisted of many practical, useful stuff. I can do that but i want to start even lower down the bar. Maybe I can start by building something 100% useless but 100% fun. Totally zero stress, no expectations, ultimate play.
Taking inspiration from funny/fun sites like:
• istheshipstillstuck.com - joke site about that ship stuck in Panama Canal
• burgers.dev - a rivalry about burgers between 2 devs
• codingweekmarketingweek.com - is it coding week or marketing week?
So fun projects it’ll be.
Onwards!
Day 546 - June wrap-up - https://golifelog.com/posts/june-wrap-up-1656569858170
📈 MRR: $109
💵 One-off revenue: $367
👀 Tweet impressions: 304k
💬 Engagement rate: 4.4%
📣 Profile visits: 69.9k
🏃🏻♂️ New followers: 217
—
Goalless June was a success. I succeeded in doing nothing. Probably the only time I pass with flying colours lol. Seriously though… taking intentional downtime had always been difficult for me. So I consider this a win.
June had been hard though. Lots of minor ailments here and there. Health isn’t great. Sleep was poor. It was my birthday month – I turned 43, yet the month didn’t quite feel quite celebratory. It felt like… just another month. Just another month struggling to keep up with everything.
The month passed by in a blink. The days are long, but the months are short. I guess that’s the life of a new parent, a clueless new dad? Just making it through to bedtime often feels like an achievement in itself.
Sometimes it feels like I’ve already won juggling these many roles and challenges. But yet, I don’t feel victorious.
Much to reflect on.
💵 One-off revenue: $367
👀 Tweet impressions: 304k
💬 Engagement rate: 4.4%
📣 Profile visits: 69.9k
🏃🏻♂️ New followers: 217
—
Goalless June was a success. I succeeded in doing nothing. Probably the only time I pass with flying colours lol. Seriously though… taking intentional downtime had always been difficult for me. So I consider this a win.
June had been hard though. Lots of minor ailments here and there. Health isn’t great. Sleep was poor. It was my birthday month – I turned 43, yet the month didn’t quite feel quite celebratory. It felt like… just another month. Just another month struggling to keep up with everything.
The month passed by in a blink. The days are long, but the months are short. I guess that’s the life of a new parent, a clueless new dad? Just making it through to bedtime often feels like an achievement in itself.
Sometimes it feels like I’ve already won juggling these many roles and challenges. But yet, I don’t feel victorious.
Much to reflect on.
Jason Leow
Author
I hear ya, Daniel. When sleep is no good, everything else is tough. What seems to be the issue? Are you having difficulty falling asleep or something else keeping you up?
Jason Leow
Author
@poppacalyse thanks Carl! Yeah the numbers are just a way for me to compare myself to myself on a month on month basis… tbh i have no idea if the figures are any good compared to others! How can I tell?
Day 545 - Perils of a standing desk - https://golifelog.com/posts/perils-of-a-standing-desk-1656463476380
I did it again.
Overstrained my Achilles tendon by standing on one foot for too long while working at my standing desk.
Made worse because I'm usually barefoot so there's no cushion to reduce repetitive stress on the ankle. Made even worser because when I work I get into disembodied, focused mode and become less aware of any sensations in the body. The worst of all: I think standing is 'healthy' or at least healthier than sitting.
Fatal combination of work-from-home practices and mindsets.
What can I do then?
- First, heal. Rest. No exercise. Ice the swollen tendon. Use painkiller patches in interim. Go to traditional Chinese medicine doctor for resetting if it gets worse.
- Add a foot cushion. There's many anti-fatigue foot mats for standing desks to explore for future use, but in the meantime I'll make do with a cheap yoga mat cut up to the width of a foot mat, overlaid with an actual foot mat.
- Wear bedroom slippers for additional cushion for now.
- Move more. Don't just sit or stand. Work 30min, get up, move about, get a glass of water. Not great for deep work, but good for health.
- Future prevention:
• Exercise more. Walk more. I already do heel raises but can do more through the day
• No more standing on one foot to work! Set alarms? Pomodoro timers?
• Get better, anti-fatigue, ergonomic foot mats - these ones from [Fully looks promising!](https://www.fully.com/accessories/standing-desk-mats.html)
What else can I do/get?
Overstrained my Achilles tendon by standing on one foot for too long while working at my standing desk.
Made worse because I'm usually barefoot so there's no cushion to reduce repetitive stress on the ankle. Made even worser because when I work I get into disembodied, focused mode and become less aware of any sensations in the body. The worst of all: I think standing is 'healthy' or at least healthier than sitting.
Fatal combination of work-from-home practices and mindsets.
What can I do then?
- First, heal. Rest. No exercise. Ice the swollen tendon. Use painkiller patches in interim. Go to traditional Chinese medicine doctor for resetting if it gets worse.
- Add a foot cushion. There's many anti-fatigue foot mats for standing desks to explore for future use, but in the meantime I'll make do with a cheap yoga mat cut up to the width of a foot mat, overlaid with an actual foot mat.
- Wear bedroom slippers for additional cushion for now.
- Move more. Don't just sit or stand. Work 30min, get up, move about, get a glass of water. Not great for deep work, but good for health.
- Future prevention:
• Exercise more. Walk more. I already do heel raises but can do more through the day
• No more standing on one foot to work! Set alarms? Pomodoro timers?
• Get better, anti-fatigue, ergonomic foot mats - these ones from [Fully looks promising!](https://www.fully.com/accessories/standing-desk-mats.html)
What else can I do/get?
Jason Leow
Author
And you got many years leg training in F&B haha. I realised working from home through covid the past 2 years had shrank my fitness and muscles. That's why even standing desk get injured! I should try a good pair of home slippers - what brand/model do you use?
Scholl from Mustafa 😄 I think you just have to try them out and as long as your arch feels supported, should be good to go!
😔 –$10 MRR - one subscriber cancelled. But thanks for all the support, Hakim!
Current MRR: $109
At this rate, doubt I'd hit my goal of $200 MRR by end 2022.
At this rate, doubt I'd hit my goal of $200 MRR by end 2022.
Day 544 - Growing a community slowly - https://golifelog.com/posts/growing-a-community-slowly-1656382032031
New lesson about growing communities: Grow slowly.
Fast growth is like the holy grail of the startup world. But that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes fast growth can backfire. Especially when it comes to community building. Just learned this the hard way from growing the 5am club for creators.
What happened - I took more than a year to grow the Telegram chat group to 100 members. Because I posted my 5am wake times on Twitter every day, people would discover it occasionally, and 1 or 2 new members would join every few days or so. It was drip growth. A slow growth approach for sure.
But as it grew, I also realised people started chatting more. The first 6 months was just 90% me posting. Soon after, it started to have more discussions. More sharing of wake times and all. Promising!
Then all that engagement got wiped out when my article about the 5am club went viral on Indie Hackers in April. There was a rush of new members, and within 1-2 months I doubled the size of the community to near 200. It was nice and all to grow so fast, but the influx created a lot of ‘low value’ or spammy messages (like notifications of people joining, welcome messages etc), which probably turned off the regular commenters, or got them to switch off notifications.
Engagement plummeted even though membership rose like a rocket.
And after the viral growth spurt, it’s like back to a quiet room, again with me posting through April to May. Only recently in mid-June did the conversations start coming back.
So which was better:
An engaged community with slow growth, or
A disengaged community with hyper growth?
I’m leaning more to option #1 now. In fact, I’ve stopped tweeting my wake times on Twitter to intentionally stop growing for a while, so that we can refocus on the community again, and give it some breathing space to pick itself back up again.
Sometimes slow growth isn’t just a ideal that lifestyle businesses favour. It can be for very practical reasons too, like this.
This made me reflect on growing this community here too on Lifelog. I like the growth rate so far. The revenue is dismal yes, but we’re having new people in at a rate that’s not spammy or noisy. It still feels small and cosy, where everyone knows everyone. I value that experience way more than growing it fast, to be honest. People join for the writing, but stay for the community. The relationships and the interactions are what matters.
Fast growth is like the holy grail of the startup world. But that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes fast growth can backfire. Especially when it comes to community building. Just learned this the hard way from growing the 5am club for creators.
What happened - I took more than a year to grow the Telegram chat group to 100 members. Because I posted my 5am wake times on Twitter every day, people would discover it occasionally, and 1 or 2 new members would join every few days or so. It was drip growth. A slow growth approach for sure.
But as it grew, I also realised people started chatting more. The first 6 months was just 90% me posting. Soon after, it started to have more discussions. More sharing of wake times and all. Promising!
Then all that engagement got wiped out when my article about the 5am club went viral on Indie Hackers in April. There was a rush of new members, and within 1-2 months I doubled the size of the community to near 200. It was nice and all to grow so fast, but the influx created a lot of ‘low value’ or spammy messages (like notifications of people joining, welcome messages etc), which probably turned off the regular commenters, or got them to switch off notifications.
Engagement plummeted even though membership rose like a rocket.
And after the viral growth spurt, it’s like back to a quiet room, again with me posting through April to May. Only recently in mid-June did the conversations start coming back.
So which was better:
An engaged community with slow growth, or
A disengaged community with hyper growth?
I’m leaning more to option #1 now. In fact, I’ve stopped tweeting my wake times on Twitter to intentionally stop growing for a while, so that we can refocus on the community again, and give it some breathing space to pick itself back up again.
Sometimes slow growth isn’t just a ideal that lifestyle businesses favour. It can be for very practical reasons too, like this.
This made me reflect on growing this community here too on Lifelog. I like the growth rate so far. The revenue is dismal yes, but we’re having new people in at a rate that’s not spammy or noisy. It still feels small and cosy, where everyone knows everyone. I value that experience way more than growing it fast, to be honest. People join for the writing, but stay for the community. The relationships and the interactions are what matters.
Day 543 - Tiny Twitter hacks I learned & love, part IV - https://golifelog.com/posts/tiny-twitter-hacks-i-learned-and-love-part-iv-1656294820581
Part 4 of tiny yet cool Twitter hacks that I’m slowly accumulating over all the daily practice and observing how others do it:
• MRR. Joined for monthly recurring revenue, stayed for the monthly recurring relationships
• Not overthinking each tweet. I used to spend hours over a single tweet, first drafting it, then editing it multiple times. The nature of Twitter, its effort:reward ratio, just doesn’t work that way. That if you put in more effort means you get more likes, followers, conversions. Just put out cool ideas and move on. “If you’re spending more than a minute on a tweet you’re doing it wrong. Editing is for stuff that lasts.” – @getpaidwrite
• Committing to Twitter growth for the decade had been such a gamechanger in terms of how I feel about the work. Then the immediate highs and lows of likes and engagement will drop away. Not much likes on a tweet? That’s ok. try again tomorrow. And tomorrow.
• Batch content. 2-3h within 1 day versus 1h every morning? No-brainer.
• Systems/templates. With batching content means having systems and templates becomes more important (because you’re not tweeting offhand now). You don’t get extra credit for trying to be original every single time and tweeting offhand. You’re also not any lesser of a creator if you use templates/systems.
• Engagement tools. New breed of Twitter tools to help you know who to engage (not scheduling tools) - Engagement Builder and Lab Social. This seems to be the answer to the other part of Twitter growth narrative where they tell you to reply to other accounts as much as you tweet consistently.
• DM approach. DMs means your tweets will be more likely to show up on people’s tweets. So have a DM strategy. But don’t use DMs in a transactional way. Use DMs to build relationships. Be authentic. Make friends.
• Twitter Spaces. Spoke at my first Space last week and I love it! It’s like a podcast but more informal, unstructured and free-flowing. More conversational than most podcasts. Also feels like a great way to build relationships and also just have fun.
• Replies are best tweets. My best tweets are from replies to other people’s tweets. There’s something about being able to interact and bounce off each other’s words that bring out latent content/ideas… So the solution to not having enough content ideas? Be the reply guy.
• Asking questions is one of the best ways to create lots of engagement. But as always, be authentic.
• Have a spiky point of view (ala @MeetKevon style), not just a niche. Provides contrast, makes you stand out, but be real too (don’t just say controversial things for sake of stirring sh*t and getting attention).
• Being entertaining is just as viable a Twitter growth strategy as being educational. Because entertainment is value too. If you also resonated and connected emotionally, that’s value as well.
• Profile page makeovers. When launching a new product, do a complete makeover for banner, profile and bio.
• Birthdays are great excuses to get lots of engagement. Don’t squander the opportunity!
• Restrained distribution. You don’t have to post your link every day. Jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab hook. Give give give give give give give give give ask. Compress the spring before an ask.
What other tiny Twitter hacks do you know?
• MRR. Joined for monthly recurring revenue, stayed for the monthly recurring relationships
• Not overthinking each tweet. I used to spend hours over a single tweet, first drafting it, then editing it multiple times. The nature of Twitter, its effort:reward ratio, just doesn’t work that way. That if you put in more effort means you get more likes, followers, conversions. Just put out cool ideas and move on. “If you’re spending more than a minute on a tweet you’re doing it wrong. Editing is for stuff that lasts.” – @getpaidwrite
• Committing to Twitter growth for the decade had been such a gamechanger in terms of how I feel about the work. Then the immediate highs and lows of likes and engagement will drop away. Not much likes on a tweet? That’s ok. try again tomorrow. And tomorrow.
• Batch content. 2-3h within 1 day versus 1h every morning? No-brainer.
• Systems/templates. With batching content means having systems and templates becomes more important (because you’re not tweeting offhand now). You don’t get extra credit for trying to be original every single time and tweeting offhand. You’re also not any lesser of a creator if you use templates/systems.
• Engagement tools. New breed of Twitter tools to help you know who to engage (not scheduling tools) - Engagement Builder and Lab Social. This seems to be the answer to the other part of Twitter growth narrative where they tell you to reply to other accounts as much as you tweet consistently.
• DM approach. DMs means your tweets will be more likely to show up on people’s tweets. So have a DM strategy. But don’t use DMs in a transactional way. Use DMs to build relationships. Be authentic. Make friends.
• Twitter Spaces. Spoke at my first Space last week and I love it! It’s like a podcast but more informal, unstructured and free-flowing. More conversational than most podcasts. Also feels like a great way to build relationships and also just have fun.
• Replies are best tweets. My best tweets are from replies to other people’s tweets. There’s something about being able to interact and bounce off each other’s words that bring out latent content/ideas… So the solution to not having enough content ideas? Be the reply guy.
• Asking questions is one of the best ways to create lots of engagement. But as always, be authentic.
• Have a spiky point of view (ala @MeetKevon style), not just a niche. Provides contrast, makes you stand out, but be real too (don’t just say controversial things for sake of stirring sh*t and getting attention).
• Being entertaining is just as viable a Twitter growth strategy as being educational. Because entertainment is value too. If you also resonated and connected emotionally, that’s value as well.
• Profile page makeovers. When launching a new product, do a complete makeover for banner, profile and bio.
• Birthdays are great excuses to get lots of engagement. Don’t squander the opportunity!
• Restrained distribution. You don’t have to post your link every day. Jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab jab hook. Give give give give give give give give give ask. Compress the spring before an ask.
What other tiny Twitter hacks do you know?
💳 Received a $10 payment for a one-month extension after the free trial (though subscription was cancelled after)... thanksJosh!
Day 542 - Outsourcing happiness & success to other people - https://golifelog.com/posts/outsourcing-happiness-and-success-to-other-people-1656200324680
Why I’m self-employed and always come back to it even though I was employed in the past:
Freedom.
But unfortunately that word often feels fluffy and grandiose.
It’s not some abstract rebel ideal, though. It’s a lot more practical than it sounds. This tweet by Naval sums it up well:
"Don’t outsource your happiness or success to other people’s decisions." – @naval
That’s totally what I’m doing. It’s also built off my experience being employed, how I felt that there’s always a gap between compensation versus competency, effort and talent. Oftentimes a huge gap. So, someone else’s decision getting in the way of my success. I realised I needed to create my own game rather than play someone’s else’s rigged one. In the end it was just a pragmatic decision. To get to a more efficient competency:compensation ratio.
The best part? Even if I don’t get there, I know it’s my own doing (or failing). It’s within my control. There’s no one else to blame. No what-ifs.
My creator journey is totally showing me this. I have only myself to blame or congratulate. There’s exhilarating highs and depressing lows. It’s not a stable, no-drama life for sure.
But I love it.
Freedom.
But unfortunately that word often feels fluffy and grandiose.
It’s not some abstract rebel ideal, though. It’s a lot more practical than it sounds. This tweet by Naval sums it up well:
"Don’t outsource your happiness or success to other people’s decisions." – @naval
That’s totally what I’m doing. It’s also built off my experience being employed, how I felt that there’s always a gap between compensation versus competency, effort and talent. Oftentimes a huge gap. So, someone else’s decision getting in the way of my success. I realised I needed to create my own game rather than play someone’s else’s rigged one. In the end it was just a pragmatic decision. To get to a more efficient competency:compensation ratio.
The best part? Even if I don’t get there, I know it’s my own doing (or failing). It’s within my control. There’s no one else to blame. No what-ifs.
My creator journey is totally showing me this. I have only myself to blame or congratulate. There’s exhilarating highs and depressing lows. It’s not a stable, no-drama life for sure.
But I love it.
Day 541 - Buddhism in Bordeaux - https://golifelog.com/posts/buddhism-in-bordeaux-1656114573250
I wrote this travelogue article for a local newspaper The Straits Times on 25 Sep 2007, describing my life-changing experience staying in 2 monasteries in France over 4 months practising meditation. I was 28 then. This story represents a pivotal moment in my life where nothing was the same again after. Sometimes people ask me about it, so I’m reproducing it here for onward sharing. I originally titled it “Inner Sanctums” but obviously too cryptic so the editor changed it to “Buddhism in Bordeaux”......