Monk Mode: Laser focus on the work that gets results 🏆

GM Friends 👋

Hope you’ve had an awesome week.

This week I’m keeping it short while I stay in Monk Mode.

In this episode I’ll cover what Monk Mode is and the benefits I’ve experienced so far.

Let’s jump right in.

If you’re looking for a job in Web3, click here 🔗

💪 Monk Mode: How it started & How it’s going:

Last week I experienced a happy accident.

In my first time ever as a content creator, I got shadow-banned ☠️

It wasn’t 100% clear why, my friend Bubits told me that it was probably because I was going HAM on the replies.

And so for the first time in 1.5 years, I was forced to do something I don’t normally do…

Take a break from Twitter.

At first, it was kind of daunting.

“F*ck, weeks of work building momentum now pushed back to zero.”

But after the first day of the shadowban, I had a moment to think about it…

"This is an opportunity.”

As an entrepreneur, over the past few years I’ve constantly found myself coming back to the phrase:

“The obstacle is the way”

Which is a phrase from Stoic Philosophy that essentially means, that which gets in the way is forcing you to develop and evolve.

So that’s what I did.

Instead of starting my day opening Twitter, being active in replies, checking in constantly throughout the day, and replying to 100 DMs,

I was able to take a moment to give myself not only my time back, but also my entire attention and focus to the work that matters most.

Each day since, I’ve been able to think with much greater clarity, and blast through work that has been sitting in my backlog for weeks.

This forced pause was an opportunity. And I’ve loved it so much that I’m extending it by 21 days.

So, what have I noticed since starting Monk Mode?

1️⃣ When I come back, I can be much more efficient & effective in the way that I use Twitter.

From taking a step back I’ve been able to see the wasted time in my processes, and which areas I should focus on.

A couple examples include: Shrinking the lists that I engage with, turning Twitter off throughout the day, and adding more ‘behind the scenes’ content that aligns with my marketing goals.

2️⃣ Attention & energy are as important as time.

Twitter doesn’t take a lot of time to be active on, but it does take a lot of attention (and energy).

As an Australian, I’m usually active in the mornings to catch Europe & the US nights / afternoons, which makes it harder to get in a flow for core work afterwards.

Even though this is challenging to fit into my natural working rhythm, I’ll definitely keep being active in the mornings when I’m back online,

But during this Monk Mode period I’m taking full advantage of my pure work mornings.

3️⃣ You need to be clear on your goals when you’re on Twitter and analyse if you’re achieving them.

Is it follower growth? Is it a funnel for your business? Is it relationships?

Don’t do all Twitter activities for the sake of ‘being active’ or because ‘that’s what someone else is doing’

Take a step back and align your activities with your goals. This will give you back a few hours each week to focus on the important work.

4️⃣ Everyone needs an elimination phase.

What’s an Elimination Phase?

It’s a moment to look at the work you are doing, the types of calls you are taking, and the unconscious habits that you’ve built up and ask yourself:

‘Do I need that?’

I’ve now created categories of calls that I won’t take anymore.

5️⃣ Time to be ‘bored’ is important. Give yourself thinking time.

Hand in hand with the elimination phase,

If you can eliminate unnecessary work / inefficient uses of time,

Without adding new work,

You get more time to think through what you’re working on and pay attention to the finer details.

Do you ever catch yourself bouncing from task to task, call to call, Twitter space to Twitter space…

Without actually thinking about why you’re doing that work…

OR

How you can do it better.

This has by far been the biggest benefit that I’ve experienced so far.

🧗 Started from the bottom now we’re here…

^{If you’re new here, one of the core principles of the content I share is that a newsletter is the most linear and simple business you can start in Web3. It has high sponsorship revenue and can go from being a side hustle to a full-time business in under a year. I am building this newsletter in public, to share the progress each week so that you can be a part of the journey. Now let’s get into it 👇}

This Week:
Subscribers: 3,576 (+2 Subscribers)
Open Rate: 41.5%

Tracking my goals:

🚂 Improve the graphic design of this newsletter: Paused until 4,000 subs.

🚂 3,576 / 4,000 Subscribers: In Monk Mode this will go slower.

✅ Update the welcome email for new subscribers: (Complete)

Have an awesome weekend 🏆

— Alex

Thanks for reading this week’s episode of Grow Faster ❤️

I’ve been in Web3 for 8 years, ETH since $45 and am building on my NFT project Bricktopians every single day.

If you want to join my world, and be a part of a project that grows with me.

Grab a Bricktopian NFT and let me build for you 💯

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