9/6/2012–Two thoughts on being productive; put yourself in a productive situations and, when trying to form a new behavior, measure quantity, not quality (starting from 0 to 1).
The choice between spending time doing one thing vs another has dominated my free time since moving here. On my days off there are countless restaurants I’d like to visit, several activities I’d like to sign up for, and multiple people I want to hang out with or get to know better; all that is in addition to work tasks on which I could make progress. What I’ve found is after having chosen all of these activities, or staying home and playing guitar or reading, the most productive has almost always been whichever included the most people. So, I plan to follow a guidance of: when faced with multiple options for spending free time, weigh the interaction with multiple people heaviest. Logically, I would’ve thought a caveat of “only if they’re associated with my productivity” would attach. However it turns out any interaction I have is productive–probably because we talk about things important to me, which I then continue to analyze for later use long after we part. This is not to say “alone time” is anything less than vital to health–and therefore productivity. But it is clear that my success is positively correlated to the number of people with whom I interact.
The second lesson I’ve learned is the difficulty of starting a new repeated behavior. I’ve never been as eager to start doing something as I am about giving behavior–based feedback based on a person’s D.I.S.C. profile. However, it will be something I do on a daily basis so I’ll have to get from none to a lot quickly. As a high C my natural tendency is to wait on acting until I have analyzed the info–all the info–so I can do it right. But I’ve learned that instead of going from not doing something ever to doing it perfectly the 1st time just isn’t practical. So just like working out or doing O3s, or performing music, it’s much more effective to focus on quantity at first rather than quality. At least then when I stumble I’ll be moving forward.
QOTW: “Remember: believe 10% of what A.D. tells you; and keep an eye on J.” –Ryan
?FNW: Behind on IDP task. How will I catch up? 9/9 scheduled catch-up w/Liz.
11/14/2017 review–These two rules are still true, the second more than the first. Regarding the first point, about activities that include the most people being the most productive, I can’t say this is always true. Many times, more people aggregate whenever and wherever as little as possible is achieved, that’s often the point (e.g. partying until 3am)! Maybe that’s an indication to find groups that do creative work… Still the second lesson from this entry was absolutely profound. One an individual level, I wrote recently about the inevitable delay between the moment I realize the need to change my behavior and the moment I actually have done so. It takes much longer than I always think it does, but I’ve since used the technique (and others from The Power of Habit) to develop a morning routine and floss regularly. Beyond the personal behaviors, I’ve seen how impossible it is to go directly from zero to perfection, or even to effectiveness. Even now, this lesson is making its way into the mainstream business scene–that is, in the form of “Lean Innovation” this time, but I’d bet money it mirrors something that was around long ago. The principles it teaches help startups and companies alike to develop, test, and prove new business models without wasting money on metrics that don’t matter or perfecting something nobody really will end up buying. After using it during two semester-long Lean projects in grad school, I now see it being deployed where I work. I’m optimistic, if only because it will force me to avoid falling victim to my weakness–the tendency of “ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…”