Running AppSumo, a book, and relationship
Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ Íâ A question from a [Million Dollar Weekend]( reader: == âHey Noah - How do you manage running a successful business, writing a book, and having a long-distance relationship? What are your life hacks for getting it all done?â == The short answer? Not well :) The long answer? Itâs a challenge - and itâs a work in progress. The truth is thereâs never a moment of perfection. Itâs a practice of improvement. Today, Iâm going to break down 7 key things I do to stay productive. Letâs gooo⦠1- Clarify your Top Priorities Right now - if I asked you, âWhat are your top 3 priorities in life?â How would you answer? For me - my top priorities are: - My relationships
- [AppSumo](
- And [Million Dollar Weekend]( I had a painting laying on the ground in my house for 3 months. It irritated me every day but it wasnât on my priority list. So I left it there until I hired someone to take care of it. The problem most people face is they get bogged down by unimportant and non urgent tasks. If you donât know what your priorities are, everything seems urgent. 2- Color Code your Calendar How do you know if your behavior is aligning with your priorities? You look at the colors on your calendar. I have a color for each priority in my life: Blue = Work Green = Health Red = Personal Yellow = Travel At any time - I can look at my calendar and see which areas of my life arenât being paid enough attention. [image] Two key points on how to organize your calendar: 1. Set up an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Before my book launch I was doing interviews whenever and wherever. I packed in 3 a day for 4 days straight when I visited LA and Las Vegas. I even flew 10 hours to Nashville to see Brandon Turner. But post book launch I worked with my Chief of Staff at AppSumo, [Anna Notario](, to define when and who Iâll do shows with. Now, I only do larger shows with over 100 episodes and 100 reviews during a 3 hour block on Thursdays and Fridays. If a show doesnât meet this criteria - I wonât do the show. A few more SOPs: - Meeting Hours - Only during 12-5pm CT.Â
- Breaks - 10-15 min between meetings, so â1 hourâ meetings are actually 50 minutes long.
- Front Load Priorities - Schedule the most important work on Monday or Tuesday.
- Recurring Meetings - Move weekly to monthly and monthly to quarterly if possible. 2. Create automatic blocks for your key habits. Here are my non-negotiable habits that everything else (meetings, interviews) revolve around: Time with girlfriend, Bike rides, Gym, Reading, and Sauna These are recurring time slots that I donât have to think about, eg. every Thursday at 8:30am is sauna time. By automating, you reduce the mental load of deciding what to do for the week. 3- Work with Accountability Partners Every single week, I email my priorities to my accountability partner [Adam Gilbert](. Iâve done this for 15 years! Hereâs an example: [image] At the end of the week, we review how everything actually went. Adam will hold me accountable for things that I didnât do or could have been improved (and vice versa). Then I write out my priorities for the following week, and cc [Sunday at followup dot cc]( to get the email back every Sunday. It helps to have someone holding you accountable. As the African proverb goes, âIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.â (As a bonus, it's a super cool archive to look back on what you were doing years ago.) 4- Use the Index Card System Every morning, I list my 3 most important tasks on a â3Ã5â card. I keep this card handy and refer back to it to stay focused throughout the day. Hereâs my list from 2/27/24: [image] Instead of guessing what I should be working on, I can just check my notecard and get straight to work. Also, the satisfaction of physically crossing things off a list is tantalizing. ð 5- Hire CEOs for Projects Years ago - my friend Hiten Shah said, âreal CEOs donât do work.â It took me a decade to understand that. What he meant was the job of the CEO is to find the people that help execute that work. So I hire âCEOsâ to run the operations of each important project: â¢Â AppSumo - Seann Stubbs and Ilona Abramova essentially run the day-to-day of the business â¢Â YouTube - Jeremy Mary has been the director of the channel for 2+ years â¢Â Book - Hired Tahl Raz to help craft the book with me. And Tommy Dixon to help facilitate all things book marketing. If youâre just starting out, this may not make sense for you to do right away, but keep it in mind as you scale. 6- Hire an Assistant One day years ago I was at my friend Ramit Sethiâs house. I recommended a book to him. He got the Amazon link and sent it to his assistant to purchase.  âWhat are you doing?!â I asked him. âItâs literally one-click to buy it.â He looked at me and said, âEverything I do is about staying focused. I hire assistants so I can keep doing the things that matter to me and let them do the rest.â It was a simple but powerful lesson of the leverage and time you can gain back by hiring help. Hereâs who Iâve hired so I can stay in my zone of genius: - A Chief of Staff at AppSumo
- An Executive Assistant who helps with scheduling and personal tasks
- A property manager
- A cleaning person for my house There are services like [hiremymom.com]( or Fiverr that make hiring assistants more cost-effective than you might think. If youâre new to business, this is also a great way to learn to delegate. 7- Review your Week A core saying we have at AppSumo is âFeedback is a gift.â And often the best feedback you can get is from yourself. Every Friday at 3pm, an automatic Slack bot notifies me to do a 3-question weekly review: - How was your week? (rate 1-5)
- Were you consistent? (rate 1-5)
- What are the top three things you want to focus on next week? [image] The form also goes to my Chief of Staff and EA to improve for the next week. Now, you may be thinking, âNoah, you spend more time organizing and reflecting than doing. Couldnât you be spending that time making progress toward your goals?â Yes, I could replace my time planning and reviewing with more doing. But the truth is, itâs not about doing more, itâs about doing fewer things better. If you donât plan and review, youâll end up making a lot of motion but little progress. To recap: - Clarify your Top Priorities
- Color Code your Calendar
- Work with Accountability Partners
- Use the Index Card System
- Hire CEOs for Projects
- Hire an Assistant
- Review your Week Catch ya next Thursday, Noah PS. Did you buy [Million Dollar Weekend]( and leave a [review](? If SO - Reply to this email and Iâll send you an invite to our private Slack group. Sumo Group Inc. 1305 East 6th Street Suite #3 Austin, TX 78702 USA
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