Month: Aug 2021

My first week of living by Noah Kagan’s advice has drawn to an end. I decided to start small with my testing – and so far, so good.

The key things that I tested were:

• Morning Routine
• Nightly Note-Cards
• Following Through
• Goal-setting.
• Action-biased.

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Morning Routine:

Noah’s morning routine is pretty simple and highly effective: Make your bed, Do Pushups, Journal, Learn Something, Read yearly goals and personal mantra, and daily gratitude.

This routine has been really effective – and on the day that I did miss it, I noticed the significant difference.

I think the key is in the balance, you’re getting a great blend of accomplishment, mental and physical movement, motivation and get a chance to clear your mind before the day begins.

Nightly Note-cards:

If you struggle with knowing what to do with your day – especially if you’re stuck doing online university at the moment – a nightly note-card / index card can be a great way to move forward.

Doing it the night before prevents any worry in the morning and helps me prioritise what my targets are through the day. I limit myself to the 5 most important items for the next day.

The nightly-note card is best used with the next point: following through.

(As a side note, I have also been using the website, committo3.com, with my friend Elijah who recommended it – which allows me to prioritise even further. Basically, we both set 3 things each day and check them off on the site when we complete them. A great way to keep accountable.)

Following through:

Noah has mentioned this several times, most notably in his millionaire habits video. I’m starting small with this one and trying to build it into a habit. Quite simply, just follow through on what I say that I am going to do.

To really kick-start this habit, my rule has been to ensure that each of the five items on my notecard are completed that day – no matter what obstacles I encounter.

The benefits to it are great:

1. Develops momentum.
2. Reduced stress – I worry less about the tasks since I know that I am going to get them done, no matter what.
3. Prioritising more – Knowing that I might have to force myself to get something done means I have only been putting down my highest-importance tasks.
4. Clearer intentions – This one is quite simple, but I have taken away any ambiguity with my directions. I know exactly what I need to do so I can get it done quicker.

The only drawback to this has been if my day gets busy and I find myself up late working to complete the tasks. Definitely be paying greater attention to Noah’s advice on time-management and productivity next week.

Goal-setting:

I completely redid my goals when I started this experiment. I’ll share them at a later date but the system I adopted came from a couple of Noah’s videos (here and here).

A few of the key things that stood out to me

• Have a Yearly Word. This helps make decisions, goals and plans far more effective and in line with what you’re trying to do.
• North Star Metric. Noah spoke about the power of having a North Star Metric for business to ensure you’re heading in the direction that you want. I’ve applied this to my personal goals as well.
• Deadlines + Rewards = Fulfilment. That’s a very simple formula that I am adopting. All of my goals have the same deadline but different rewards. It helps add motivation to each and every one of them.
• Categories. For me, I broke mine into Work, Personal, Health, Relationships and University. It helped me ensure that I was achieving a balance moving forward and actually aiming for the things that I want to achieve in each area.

Action-biased:

This is more of a mindset than a strategy or tactic. Noah is HUGE on Action and it makes sense – there is no progress without action. Kyle, author of the Pocket Guide to Action writes, ​​“Inaction is the cancer that will eat away at your soul until it is gone. That’s scarier than anything.”

For me, I started adopting it by launching this experiment before I was ready. I wanted to spend a lot longer planning and researching (read: procrastinating). To counter that, I sent an email to Noah Kagan, and once he gave his greenlight for this idea, I launched straight into it.

I am planning on using this action-based process for any other projects / ideas I pursue throughout this experiment.

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That’s all for Week One. Overall thoughts? It’s definitely been great – my productivity has increased and I’m really looking forward to testing more and more over the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading.

I am going to be doing a new self-experiment / challenge that I will be tracking here on the blog. Eventually, I might move the content to a new site, but for now It will all be recorded on here.

What’s the experiment?

For the next 100 days (I’ll explore why I chose 100 days below) I am going to be living by the advice of Noah Kagan.

If you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s the Founder of Sumo Group, including AppSumo, and has a pretty awesome track record of successful companies and products. You can learn more on his Youtube, or from his Blog.

What will the experiment involve?

There will no doubt be iterations and changes throughout – but they’ll all be based around my overall goal: Live by the advice of Noah Kagan.

For me that involves:

• Launching a business using his advice – found on his Youtube and Monthly1k course.
• Attempting to grow an audience and improve my content using his tactics.
• Read and implement the books that he most recommends.
• Employ his advice in other areas of my life.

The Law of 100

This is something that Noah Kagan suggests to ensure that you stick with something. Dedicate yourself to 100 attempts at it – for example, a Youtube channel must put out 100 videos.

In this case, I will be applying the Law of 100 twice. First, I will be living by his advice every day for 100 days. Second, I will test 100 pieces of advice from him.

This helps us prevent

What now?

I will be providing frequent updates about my progress, goals, whats working and whats not. If you’re interested in following along and getting a summary / curation of his content, subscribe to my newsletter in the link below:

sendfox.com/thezachariahlewis