Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

I used to look up to people who could work all day. 10, 12, 15 hours a day. The non-stop grinders.

You probably know who I’m talking about. The real hustlers.

For some reason that’s what society praised — or at least the part of society that I came into contact with.

So I wanted to be one of them

Often times I got really motivated on some project and would work on it non-stop for a couple of days. Until I eventually got tired of it and quit entirely.

I didn’t want it enough apparently. Otherwise I too would keep working these ruthlessly long hours day after day.

This back and forth of trying new stuff, going all-in, and quitting because it felt unsustainable eventually led to me not doing anything at all for quite a while.

Slowly but surely I started to think about this bizarre cycle in my life.

Was this the way it was supposed to be? Maybe I haven’t found my passion yet. Maybe I’m not designed to do this. Maybe I’m the problem. Am I the problem?

I found out that this was a common occurrence with countless others as well. Surely we can’t ALL be the problem. There had to be something else.

This led to lots of research and experimentation. But after about a year I ended up right here on Twitter where I started writing.

No longer did I believe that working 80-hour weeks was the most admirable thing to do.

No longer did I believe you had to sacrifice your relationships, your youth, your time, and above all your happiness if you wanted to be successful.

No. I could build my business while working less than 3 hours a day.

Why longer isn’t better

Some of you might be wondering, “Alex you have far more time, why do you limit yourself to only working 3 hours a day?”.

And well that’s because it’s optimized this way.

Let me explain.

Parkinson’s law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Aka. If you were to give yourself 5 hours to do something. It’d take 5 hours. Give yourself 3 and it’d take 3. More isn’t necessarily better.

To add to that. People often measure their productivity by tracking the time spent working.

Which is a flawed metric. If I complete 3 tasks in 1 hour. Am I less productive than someone completing 1 task in 3 hours?

Of course not.

This is where you have to reframe your own beliefs about work.

What matters is not how long you spend working. What matters is the quality of the work you do. For the informed readers, yes I’m going to talk about Deep work.

Deep work refers to the ability to focus without distraction on a complex task. It gets you into a flow state. Your creative energy and mental power is at its maximum. Performing deep work gives you the best results.

But there’s a caveat. Most people can’t perform more than 2–3 hours of deep work a day. Most highly trained professionals can’t perform more than 4 hours a day.

In short: working longer than 3 hours would be less optimal. And you also need to give yourself rest to recover your mental capacity and perform as best as possible the following day.

Meaning that working longer hours isn’t only less optimal. It’s counterproductive.

My personal system

So how do I structure my system?

As you might know by now. I’m not a big fan of very complicated systems and complex stuff in general. I like to keep everything as simple and minimalistic as possible.

Yes I might be able to optimize certain aspects of my life even more. But why should I? There’s always a pay-off. Let us stop overcomplicating the world and enjoy the simplicity of everyday life.

With that in mind, my system is straightforward. I start off by writing for the first 2 hours of my day. Every day.

I wake up. Maybe drink a glass of water. Look outside. Get some sun in my eyes — if there is any. Turn on my PC and start writing.

What I write depends on what day of the week it is.

Monday: write Tuesday’s thread
Tuesday: free to choose
Wednesday: write Thursday’s thread
Thursday: work on a product/giveaway
Friday: free to choose
Saturday: write my newsletter (this one)
Sunday: write & schedule my tweets for the next week

The most important parts of my system are the weekends.

The newsletter is the foundation of my content. This gets my brain thinking about different perspectives and potential ideas to expand upon.

And Sunday is when I write out all of my results, experiences, thoughts, ideas, and discoveries that I’ve made throughout the week. Condense them down into the core message. And convey them as best as possible in an eye-catching format limited to 280 characters.

That’s why my content might differ from week to week. It reflects what I’ve been working on that week. Which is another added layer of added authenticity and a great way to work if you ask me.

The moments where I’m free to choose what to write about can be for everything. I could help my future self out by already making an outline for my newsletter. Or I could work on some copy for my landing pages.

Whatever fits me at that moment in time.

“But what about the other hour Alex?”

Yes what about it? This is for the other parts of the business.

Engaging with other tweets
Replying to comments
Responding to DMs

That type of stuff.

Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes. Sometimes an hour. But never longer.

Sometimes I skip it entirely for a day. Crazy right?

And that’s about it.

I fill the rest of my day reading books, learning new skills, talking to friends & family, enjoying the weather, working out, and just trying to enjoy my life as much as possible.

If you want to be someone online, you have to be someone offline as well.

I hope getting to know my system helps you gain some useful insights to create your own.

In case you still have some uncertainty and want to discuss it with me in more detail. Don’t hesitate to schedule a clarity call with me.

I’m always happy to help you develop a fully functioning system/routine according to your needs.

Cheers.

Alex “don’t overcomplicate it” Van Dromme.

P.S.

If you’d like more help, I’ve got your back:

Hop on a Clarity Call with me: Remove any and all uncertainty you might have. Get clear on what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how. Let’s get you on the right track to achieving the freedom you deserve.
Download all my products for FREE: Ranging from every resource I ever read to everything I know about content creation. It’s all waiting for you to claim it. Start your journey to financial freedom the right way.

And if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this edition of Ascend 101.

Send me a quick message – I reply to every email!