Productivity apps are popular because people are frustrated at never making progress.
— Sean Blake⚡ (@seanblake26) January 2, 2021
To make progress, you have to know where you want to go.
Inspect your goals before your output.
Tag Archives: work
Do the reps
Repetitions count.
The more we do something, the better we become.
Instead, we look for shortcuts. Hacks.
We must do the reps.
It’s usually quicker to get started the old fashioned way rather than always be searching for the best way to get started.
Start at 1.
I tried and failed
Life would be incredible boring if we knew what was going to happen next.
Failure is totally acceptable if you know why and how to avoid it next time. Actually, most of the things we try in business or life are not guaranteed.
Anxiety over the end result is worthless if you have answers for:
- How you approached the problem
- How you impacted the result
- Why you think you failed
- What you are going to do differently next time
Failure only happens when we can’t answer these questions, because then we haven’t tried to learn or care.
Understand the how before worrying about the what.
Deliver at all costs
Not delivering is the worst thing you can do. It gives me a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.
Sometimes we stall and delay because we’re afraid of showing people our work or being judged on the quality.
But the results are secondary, really. And the benefit of hindsight means we can improve, optimise and learn for next time.
If Amazon delayed delivering a book you ordered because they thought you might just return it, or write a bad review, you’d be mad.
So, let’s keep our commitments. Even if it’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, ship it. Press send. Turn up. Apply.
Then learn from it. Doing nothing is worse than doing something badly.
Working backwards
We usually get stuck when charging ahead, blasting through the steps, until, suddenly, we can’t go any further.
Running full speed our heads down blocks the vision of the end goal. Sometimes we end up off track, with a product nobody asked for or wants.
Another way: do it backwards. Keep in mind the end goal – from the start.
If things go perfectly, what will we end up with? Answer that, and you’ll find it much harder to get lost.
Refresh your thinking
To get the latest news online we press the refresh button. As the screen momentarily turns blank our brain has the opportunity to breath.
We reassess the need for the latest information and possibly choose a new destination based on deeper passions and desires.
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“Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.” – Tim Kreider
What about the other areas of our life?
Too busy
“I work long hours.”
“I’m so busy, you know how it is.”
It can mean 2 things.
They’re a hard worker. Their proud of their work and they need to put in extra time to achieve the quality they set for themselves.
They’re inefficient and easily distracted by various inboxes and impulse tasks. In an attempt to hide it, they work longer, hoping that by doing more people won’t notice they’re achieving less.
Too often I’m the latter. Which one are you?
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Leadership vs management
A good manager gets the job done. They can prioritise, improve the way we do things and even be creative. You can work for them because you both want the same thing.
A good leader will make you think twice. They’ll dream big and share their ideas that will change everything. Their goal is not to be efficient, it’s to imagine a world that’s completely transformed. And to make it happen. You can work with them because they inspire you to imitate their dreams.
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