A question from a Million Dollar Weekend reader:

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“Hey 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?”

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The short answer? Not well :)

The long answer? It’s a challenge - and it’s a work in progress.

The truth is there’s never a moment of perfection. It’s a practice of improvement.

Today, I’m going to break down 7 key things I do to stay productive.

Let’s gooo…

1- Clarify your Top Priorities

Right now - if I asked you, “What are your top 3 priorities in life?” How would you answer?

For me - my top priorities are:

1. My relationships
2. AppSumo
3. 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 wasn’t 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 don’t 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 aren’t being paid enough attention.

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 I’ll 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 doesn’t meet this criteria - I won’t do the show.

A few more SOPs:

• Meeting Hours - Only during 12-5pm CT. 
• Breaks - 10-15 min between meetings, so ‘1 hour’ 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 don’t 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.

I’ve done this for 15 years! Here’s an example:

At the end of the week, we review how everything actually went. Adam will hold me accountable for things that I didn’t 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, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

(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 “3×5” card. I keep this card handy and refer back to it to stay focused throughout the day. Here’s my list from 2/27/24:

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. 😁

5- Hire CEOs for Projects

Years ago - my friend Hiten Shah said, “real CEOs don’t do work.” 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 “CEOs” to run the operations of each important project:

• AppSumo - Seann Stubbs and Ilona Abramova essentially run the day-to-day of the business

• YouTube - Jeremy Mary has been the director of the channel for 2+ years

• Book - Hired Tahl Raz to help craft the book with me. And Tommy Dixon to help facilitate all things book marketing.

If you’re 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 Sethi’s house. I recommended a book to him. He got the Amazon link and sent it to his assistant to purchase.  

“What are you doing?!” I asked him. “It’s literally one-click to buy it.”

He looked at me and said, “Everything 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.”

It was a simple but powerful lesson of the leverage and time you can gain back by hiring help. Here’s who I’ve 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 you’re 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 “Feedback is a gift.” 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: 

1. How was your week? (rate 1-5)
2. Were you consistent? (rate 1-5)
3. What are the top three things you want to focus on next week?

The form also goes to my Chief of Staff and EA to improve for the next week. 

Now, you may be thinking, “Noah, you spend more time organizing and reflecting than doing. Couldn’t you be spending that time making progress toward your goals?”

Yes, I could replace my time planning and reviewing with more doing.

But the truth is, it’s not about doing more, it’s about doing fewer things better.

If you don’t plan and review, you’ll end up making a lot of motion but little progress.

To recap:

1. Clarify your Top Priorities
2. Color Code your Calendar
3. Work with Accountability Partners
4. Use the Index Card System
5. Hire CEOs for Projects
6. Hire an Assistant
7. 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 I’ll send you an invite to our private Slack group.