Alex Heiden shares his productivity system: write down three important tasks each night. He credits daily Bible reading and prayer for staying level-headed through setbacks like a $40,000 payment processor hold and a developer's extortion attempt, arguing that long-term thinking and stress management matter more than hustle.
What are some things that you do or some things that you believe that help you kind of stay on, on this path and not slip into that other path of just going into hustle mode? Like, how do you stay on that track?
So one is like, I need— I realized like I need to have— I used to live my days like completely unstructured because I thought that was like the dream of being able to do like whatever you want, whenever you want on any given day.
Yeah.
And what it was is when you have like absolutely zero structure, then like just nothing gets done. Like I'll spend 30 minutes thinking about what to do.
Yeah, right.
So I'm not like a big, like, guru morning routine, 8-step, like, takes forever type of thing. But like, the one thing that, like, I have to do is I have to write down, like, the night before what I'm going to do the next day.
Right.
In particular, like, the 3 most important things that I have to do. So, like, that's the one thing that's really, really important to me in terms of, like, a productivity standpoint. And then obviously, just like religion helps me a lot in my relationship with God of, like, not wandering off and doing things that I shouldn't be doing. I would say those two things are the biggest things for me. And also just like remembering, like, again, long, long time horizon. Like, yeah, I got a long time left to go. So it's like there's, there's not really a lot of time to screw off. And this is the, the youngest, the most energy I'll ever have. So just really not trying to like waste these years.
What religion do you practice or follow?
I'm Christian.
You're Christian. Have you always been Christian growing up? Have you like always, you know, practiced?
I was raised Christian. More so in the way though of like your parents force you to go to church, but like you just want to like, you know, hang out with your friends. Um, didn't go to church on my own until actually like right after that, right after the exit. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do.
Oh yeah.
And so that was kind of like, uh, it was a very like clear sign to me that that was the direction I should be going in because it was like I had no idea what to do. I go to church for the first time, felt a lot better. Like a week later I blow up on social media and like things were better than I could ever imagine.
Yeah, it's amazing what happens when you let go. Yeah, of how things need to be. Yeah, I think that's where a relationship with God or religion kind of gives you that edge where you're like, hey, all right, it's not all up to me. Like, yeah, I can, you know, I can have faith that things are supposed to happen in the way they are.
Absolutely.
So has your view on religion changed a lot recently? But, you know, from when you were a kid to now, like, has your relationship with God changed? Or—
yeah, I mean, 100%. It's probably the strongest it's ever been. Again, because when I was a kid, it's not— I wouldn't say that I never didn't believe, but it was just like one of those things where it's like, yeah, I was raised to go to church on Sunday, but not like, you know, I wasn't reading the Bible or, you know, really praying or anything like that. Whereas now, like, those are things that, like, you know, I need to make sure that I read my Bible every day and I need to make sure that I remember to pray.
Yeah.
And things of that nature that, again, helps me stay like incredibly level-headed. And I think you hit the nail on the head too. It's like if things are going bad, it's probably the best thing to remember. It's like, hey, this is— this is— it's not all up to me. It's out of my hands. Like, you know, you can have faith and feel a lot better.
Yeah. Um, it's a— it's a very common thing with people that achieve a lot in life to have something to have faith in. I know there's been a lot of times in my life where I could not see the— the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm like, yeah, I don't know how this is gonna happen. This is a dark time.
Yeah.
And it's always in the moments when I surrender, yeah, that things work themselves out. Yeah, it's really powerful. It's a powerful tool to have. Yeah. What is your— what's your thoughts on that? I mean, have you been in dark times where you don't really know what's gonna happen?
Like, um, I mean, honestly, like, the last 6 months was rough to an extent. Um, I had no warning payment processor shut down.
Um, classic.
Had like $40,000 held for like 6 months. I still have money being held. And it was like right after I paid my quarterly taxes. And then I had like a developer like basically like blackmail me to pay him more money to finish a project. And then, yeah, even some like other like smaller stuff that all kind of just like it was like when it rains, it pours. Yeah, it was all within like this like 6-month span where I was like, wow. Yeah, taking a beating right now. But against your point, it's like, hey, I'm not in this alone.
Like Yeah, things are gonna happen the way they're supposed to. It's cool. Like I said, I get to interview people that are much further down the path, occasionally people that are early on their path. And, you know, I interviewed, um, a lady named Lori Van Dusen, um, not too long ago. Uh, she, for, for context, is— was like the Forbes number one financial advisor in the world, like Barron's Hall of Fame, built like almost a $6 billion book of business. Left the biggest bank in the world, started her own firm, got sued by the biggest bank in the world, had all these crazy challenges. And she went through so many ups and downs. But like, now she knows that those challenges like turned her into who she is and would never have traded them for the world.
Right.
Well, when you're in them, yeah, it feels like it's the worst thing in the world.
Yeah.
So it's cool to see, like, you're early on your path, you're learning this stuff and like the challenges only get harder and only get worse, especially as you make more, you know, the more money, more problems thing. Yeah, it's really like more money, bigger problems, or like, um, you know, more money, more to lose. Yeah, so the problems feel more real, or they feel, um, you know, once you've built a certain, uh, level of wealth, you're like, oh, if I lose, I'm a bigger failure than if I lost it when I was down here. Yeah, so going through those things is like the best thing you can do. Yeah, that's—
yeah, that's kind of how I think about it too, where it's like you have to equip yourself with the ability to overcome these challenges that, you know, there's gonna be worse ones later on, probably inevitably. Yeah. Um, and that's also another thing, like, Luca always told me is like, the best entrepreneurs are just the best at stress management.
It's so true. Yeah, because most of entrepreneurship sucks. Yeah, like most of it, not all of it, not like 90% of it, but like a lot of it is like, yeah, you're just like, you know, you feel like you're getting kicked in the nuts like over and over again and you don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, people think it's like all sunshine and rainbows, or it's like all glorious because they see people posting online about their lives, but the truth is it's not easy. Yeah, that's why you get back proportional rewards to the proportional pain that you put in.
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