The Curation by Nour Hassan

Nour Monday Monologue [MM]: Level Up Your Life Pt.2 and Become Magnetic

• Nour Hassan

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Ready to transform your life but feeling overwhelmed by endless social obligations and digital distractions? This episode reveals the counterintuitive secrets to genuine personal growth that nobody talks about.

The most powerful life upgrades often come from what you subtract, not what you add. Discover why "leaving early" has become my personal mantra and how the LIFO method (Last In, First Out) has revolutionized my approach to professional events. You'll learn why protecting your social battery isn't selfish—it's essential for creating the mental space needed for meaningful work and personal development.

In this solo episode, I share the counterintuitive strategies that helped me truly level up—starting with why subtraction, not addition, leads to growth.

From leaving events early (my “LIFO” method) to curating a digital space that serves your vision—not your social circle—you’ll learn how to protect your energy, master deep work, and say “no” without guilt.

We’ll talk boundaries, phone-free rituals, finding movement you love, and clearing out anything—or anyone—that drains you. If you’re ready to reclaim your time, focus, and personal power… this episode is for you.

Follow @thecurationpodcast for more!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Curation, a show for the culturally curious. This is your host, noor Hassan. Each week, I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art, fashion, design, culture, luxury, wellness, tech and more. This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas, untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world. There's no gatekeeping here, so sit back, tune in and let's discover only the best together, together.

Speaker 1:

Okay, guys, today I'm going to talk to you about a topic I really like and I talked about it on a podcast I think it was like last year or something like that and that is the topic of leveling up your life. So I have a couple of notes on my laptop that I'm going to look at. I'm just going to glance at it and, essentially, here are the top tips I have for leveling up your life. My first tip is something that's a little bit controversial, for, most specifically, I'm going to get into it and I'm just going to try and be as clear as I can. The first tip is the idea that we have a million events to go to during the week. Okay, if you work in this industry, if you work in this field, you're getting invited to I don't know minimum three events in the middle of the week. Okay, if you want to level up your life, you can all be going out three, four times a week to events and staying out late and draining your social battery completely with so many people and in the end, you end up having zero energy for your actual work, your dreams, your I don't know, whatever it is, your day, your workouts. So my number one tip for leveling up your life is leaving early or learning to say no, and it took me like years to master guys, years, okay, but essentially, the hard truth is this You're not going to be at the Tuesday night, at wherever, until 12, 1am. You're going to leave early. Okay, you're going to do what Shtad guy talks about, which is the lifo method I think it's called that. So you're the last in and you're the first out. This is a method that I did not get from him, while I mean I had. Actually, it's just something I've been doing, which is I make sure to be at a place for work. I show up, I dress up, I get there, I take the images, I do any press or PR and then I leave early.

Speaker 1:

Why is this important? Because it will change your life. You have to make sure that you get home in time to set up whatever evening routine it is that you need. The idea is that you leave early. You leave early to level up, and this is in my bio. My, my literal bio on instagram says leaves early. This is something everyone knows about me and it's a fact. It's just a fun fact. If you meet me at an event 11 pm, I'm gone. So that's actually one thing that I think really can change your life.

Speaker 1:

It means that you socialize only to the extent where you really need to within the work capacity, and then everything else is a plus um. Another thing is learning to say no taban. This is part of the curated podcast, so you're learning to select only to go to the places and appear at the events that you really need to be at. This is so important because it changes everything. In my 20s I used to. Literally, it was kind of like a yes era. If you go to every event and you're there and you're socializing and you have so much more energy, I think. But it's not just that. It's not about energy. It's about making sure that you're allocating your time correctly. So you leave, leave early, you level up Number two. Number two is actually a bit of a controversial one, but it's called, basically, boundaries on social media. But this is a whole episode in itself that I'll do next week.

Speaker 1:

But the mute button, the block button, they're your best friend. Why? Because, essentially, you cannot be consuming all of the content that you're consuming and thinking into. You're filtering out your character for the end. You need to make sure that, essentially, you are only consuming, following and paying attention to the people that really inspire you. You need to curate your following. You have to curate not just the events you attend, but also your following on social media. Who are you following? Why are you following them? And, if not, you block. By the way, the block button is a serious, serious tool, guys, but I really think it's important to understand that, generally, your social media is not for your friends. Your social media is for you. It's for your work, it's for your dreams, it's for you to share something valuable so that the people who need you can find you. It's not for your family, it's not for your ex-boyfriend, it's not for your mom. It's for your passions, and the minute you treat it like that is the minute that you're really gonna level up.

Speaker 1:

The next point is deep work. Deep work is something that I read in a book, literally by Cal Newport, called Deep Work. This is an insane book, and the summary of this book is that essentially, you need to allocate, مثلا hours or days or times هو بيشرح كذا مودالتي of deep work في الكتاب to sit down and really strategize your career, your life, your next move. But he describes a couple of strategies for this and I'll give you two. I will watch them into. You wake up early and you allocate the morning to deep work. This is called I think it's the journalistic strategy. I could be wrong, but this is where you allocate a part of the day. Another strategy is allocating a part of your quarter to deep work. So I have, like, my deep work month, and then I have my months where I'm like doing everything. Another strategy is called the journalistic, where I'm doing a lot of things and then I specifically have an hour where I'm doing my deep work.

Speaker 1:

Deep work means no distractions. It means no phone, it means no texting, no interruptions. It means that you need to sit down with yourself for like an hour and figure out what am I trying to achieve in the next three months, and this is not your New Year's resolution, this is your real plan, and if you don't do this, according to the book, you're never really going to achieve milestones at the rate or pace that you really need to. Okay, so that's level up tip number three. Number four is don't be a forever student. We're in an age where but not in this, my podcasts, but it's my TikTok but we scroll, we sit for hours and hours and hours consuming content. At the end of the day, guys, there needs to be a point where you start executing on the things you're learning. Okay, and I was like this for a very long time. I would read, and read and read, and be a nerd. I'm not doing what I'm learning. So I decided that I'm going to stop reading books until I apply at least one thing from the book that I read. Okay, don't be a forever student. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Next thing get toxic people out of your life. I just had an episode with Hiba Shambho. She's the incredible entrepreneur and ex co founder of Four Fat Ladies, and she said that one of her best curated tips to curate your life is to get the energy suckers. She called it out of your life. You guys have to listen to her episode. She's amazing.

Speaker 1:

But essentially this means just being aware how am I feeling when I'm around certain people and if it isn't positive, you need to be very careful about spending too much time with people who really drain your energy. So that's my next tip, okay, okay, this tip is really difficult because I don't practice this one and I'm trying to, but it's no cell phone at the beginning or end of the day, so this one is really hard. I scroll, I scroll. It's part of my job. I mean, let's be real. But it is a really bad trait and it's really detrimental to leveling up. Because how can you level up if the first and last thing you do every day is look at other people's lives? It doesn't make sense. And you're not going to let 20 people into your bedroom in the morning, right, like that does not make sense. No one will do that. So you need to really try to get your phone out of your way for at least an hour beginning and end of the day. It's like a sandwich. You really, really, really need to try to do that Because ultimately, to level up, you need that time to pace yourself, and we talk a lot on my podcast about morning and evening routines and essentially this is part of it. I think it's a really important tip.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the next one is exercise, and obviously this is not a new one. It goes along with many other things, but for me specifically, my tip here is to find the type of exercise that will keep you consistent. For the longest time I was a CrossFit girl. We've got the CrossFit didn't really serve my body Like I have a spinal fixation. I have many things that don't really align my CrossFit from Qutb Sharifa but are consistent.

Speaker 1:

But ever since I took my Pilates certifications and started teaching Pilates, I found that this is the most consistent way to get me to exercise because I actually enjoy it, like I actually want to go to Pilates or I want to do it. It helps so much when you love the type of exercise that you're actually doing and guys go to events, take classes, make it diverse, make it different, but make sure it's something that you do constantly, because I think this is potentially the number one thing that will help level up your life, which is exercising consistently, moving your body, being mindful with that, and you can check out my pilates page for that pilates by noor self plug. But essentially you need to find the thing that gets you excited, that doesn't feel like work, doesn't feel like a chore. All right, guys, those are my tips for leveling up. Make sure to leave me your tips and your comments on your level up journeys. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? And I'll speak to you next time. Bye, guys.