Recruiting Animal: Productivity

Focus on Process Not Results

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.

"After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain."

You'll notice that Seinfeld didn't say a single thing about results.

It didn't matter if he was motivated or not. It didn't matter if he was writing great jokes or not. It didn't matter if what he was working on would ever make it into a show. All that mattered was "not breaking the chain."

How to Stop Procrastinating

Top performers in every field are more consistent than their peers. While most people get demotivated and off-track after a bad day, top performers settle right back into their pattern the next day.

The Seinfeld Strategy works because it helps to take the focus off of each individual performance and puts the emphasis on the process instead. It's not about how brilliant your work is that day. It's just about "not breaking the chain."

Mar 01, 2014 in Productivity, Success | Permalink | 0 Comments

Bad Plans Cause Procrastination

From: Study Hacks (edited)

Judging plans is an automatic, unconscious function of the brain. If your brain evaluates a plan and decides it's not sound, you're not going to want to do it.

What does that feel like? Complex planning is a pre-verbal evolutionary adaptation, so you're not going to hear a voice saying “plan rejected!” Instead, chemicals are going to be released that make you feel unmotivated in order to steer you away from a bad decision.

If this idea is true, then you would expect people with good plans to struggle less with procrastination and, that's what Cal Newman found when he studied elite undergrads: they were hyper-organized and only a few reported procrastination as a serious problem.

So, he believes that procrastination is not a character flaw but the manifestation of an evolutionary adaptation. It's simply a sign that your plan needs more work.

Procrastination and Fear

Cal insists that fear is not the cause of procrastination but I believe that he's wrong. A bad plan can lead to disaster so his idea about a natural aversion to bad planning fits neatly with the idea that the procrastinator backs away from action out of fear. He, himself, gives a good example to prove it.

Let's say an early man comes up with two plans to attack a mammoth. First, he sharpens a spear and plans to charge the elephant. Then, he realizes that he can sharpen a spear and throw it from a distance. The first plan would be rejected because it is dangerous and dangerous plans generate fear.

Here's another point about fear: it's often irrational. So, you might have an exaggerated fear of a perfectly rational plan. For instance, it might be wise to cold call people for business but you might feel that if they don't like you, you are going to die. The thing you need to work on there is your irrational vision of danger not your plan because that's the source of your procrastination.

Continue reading "Bad Plans Cause Procrastination" »

Feb 25, 2014 in Productivity, Self-Management | Permalink | 0 Comments

Rigid Rules For Productivity

FROM: Study Hacks (edited)

1. Choose a schedule that provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation.

2. Take drastic action to avoid violating this schedule.

You may have to dramatically cut your number of projects, change your daily habits and upset people.

Example:

I have two types of project so I have two project lists. At any one moment I’m only working on the top project from each list. When I finish one, I move to the next. No time is wasted switching between many projects.

When a new project appears I estimate when it will get to the top of the list and promise a delivery date. People will accept a distant due date if you deliver.

If my queue is too crowded to get a project done in time, I turn it down.
If a project starts to take too much time, I drop it.

If something very important comes along, I drop the less important project. No one really cares about small scale efforts. You are judged on your important projects.

I work where no one can find me.
I start early. Sometimes real early.
I don’t tolerate procrastination.

I check and respond to email only a few times a day. I always respond within a reasonable timeframe and get things done so people adjust.

Habit-based schedules: I do regularly occurring work at a fixed time on a fixed date. For instance, I write blog posts on Sunday morning.

See also:
Procrastination Tips
Focus on Process Not Results
Do Bad Plans Cause Procrastination
Rigid Rules For Productivity
The Virtue of Short Term Goals
How To Succeed Without Willpower
20 Minute Rule for Productivity

Feb 25, 2014 in Productivity, Self-Management | Permalink | 0 Comments

The Virtue of Easy Short Term Goals

FROM: Jimmy Clear (edited)

If you’re a coach, your long-term goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day. If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week. If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.

I never set a long-term goal for my writing. I focus on my system -- writing one article every Monday and Thursday.

From: Scott Adams (edited)

Going to the gym 3-4 times a week is a goal. And it can be a hard one to accomplish for people who don't enjoy exercise. And when you associate discomfort with exercise you are training yourself to stop doing it because It feels like punishment.

Compare the goal of exercising 3-4 times a week with a system of being active every day at a level that feels good. Before long your body will be trained to crave the psychological lift you get from being active every day. It will soon become easier to exercise than to skip it. That's a system.

From: Scott Adams (edited)

Losers have goals and winners have systems.

The other day I put on my workout clothes and drove to the gym. But when I arrived I didn't feel like working out. I ate lunch in the snack bar then drove home. Did I fail at my exercise goal?

It's a trick question. I didn't have an exercise goal. What I do have is an exercise system. My system is that I attempt to exercise five times a week around lunchtime. And I always allow myself the option of driving to the gym then turning around and going home.

I've discovered that the routine of preparing to exercise usually inspires me to go through with it even if I didn't start out in the mood. This particular day, my body wasn't going to cooperate. No problem. I didn't have a trace of guilt about driving home. If I had a goal instead of a system, I would have failed that day and I would have felt like a loser. That can't be good for motivation.

That failure might be enough to prevent me from going to the gym the next time I don't feel 100%, just to avoid the risk of another failure.

COMMENT: What these guys call systems are just short-term or loose goals. But even with misleading wordplay, what they are saying makes sense. Small goals put less pressure on your mind and that makes them easier to achieve.

Feb 18, 2014 in Productivity, Self-Management, Success | Permalink | 0 Comments

How To Succeed Without Willpower

FROM: Cartoonist Scott Adams on How to Build Willpower for the Weak | TIME.com

My favorite guilty pleasure is potato chips. If I open the fridge and see nothing that looks tasty, 10 seconds later I’m on the Ruffles like a dog on a preacher’s leg. It isn’t a pretty sight. But if my fridge contains, as it often does, some cucumber slices marinating in white vinegar and water, mmm-mmm. I don’t need willpower to salt those bad boys and pop ’em in my mouth.

In my experience, anything that requires a lot of willpower isn’t sustainable. That’s why I use a number of tricks to avoid situations that pit pleasure against deprivation. The cucumber trick is just one of them.

I also like to train myself away from using willpower the way Pavlov trained his pooches.

After a workout at the gym, I always treat myself to a delicious protein shake and 20 minutes of unstructured chilling out in the snack bar while reading interesting tidbits on my smartphone. The combination of the cool-down, the delicious shake and the free time with my thoughts and the Internet is deliriously pleasurable.

Now when I think about going to the gym, I don’t imagine the boringness of the exercise in isolation. I think of it as a package deal that includes the wonderful 20 minutes that follow.