Would you like lower stress, increased focus, improved memory, faster learning? Sounds good? There is one simple 5 minute daily habit that can help. It will also make you a better communicator. It might be worth a test?
There are 3 major benefits of keeping a written journal.
Writing slows down time
The past is a great resource, but only if well documented
A journal is a good life habit, increased mindfulness and awareness of the patterns around you
How about 5 minutes a day for the next 30 days? Have a go. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, burn the pages and send me an email requesting (politely) the return of the 150 minutes that were “wasted” in this endeavor.
I write in a paper notepad with a biro. This works best for me. There was a 2 year period where I wrote on a Palm Pilot (1997-1999). Others write on a computer or iPad.
Do you have a journal? Would love to know how you do it – what tool do you use? do you do it at a regular time? what are the positive benefits that you have seen from journaling?
Does the Fat Smoker not know the deal? Is his strategy clear? Is his mission die young? Or does he really not know what the doctors are saying?
I think the Fat Smoker knows the same as you and I. It is not the strategy, it is the execution that is flawed.
Execution is more than knowing what to do. It involves the critical step of actually doing it – consistently, day after day after day, until done.
Jim Rohn tells us that success or failure is not due to one single cataclysmic event; failure is a couple of poor decisions repeated daily, success is a couple of good habits repeated daily.
The Fat Smoker knows the same things as you do. They know the strategy. They just take a few poor decisions every day.
Just because you can measure it doesn’t mean it is more important.
Quantity or Quality?
More connections does not mean more connected. Connected is a factor of quality and regularity over sheer quantity. However, I do believe that there are ways that online can be a powerful amplified of connection.
The danger is that humans have some inbuilt senses of “progress” or not “progress” and it doesn’t fully work with some of the new tools. When we are sat watching TV, most of us know that we are not being productive. Even a young kid knows that they are skipping out on doing their homework. However, I have a tendency to feel that most stuff on a computer is “progress” – even though I know writing a blog post is far better use of my time than scanning and poorly responding to 100 emails.
Increasing connections is easy. Increasing connectedness is hard.
Increase connectedness rather than number of connections.
I read an interview with Kathy Button Bell in the NY Times yesterday. She is Chief Marketing Officer at Emerson.
She talks about being coached by the U.S. Olympic Lacrosse coach during her time at Princeton:
Kind and Tough, How a Boss should be “She just knew how to inspire you to do more. The thing she always tried to teach me to do is not say I’m sorry. I was so painfully polite, and if I missed a pass or something I’d apologize. She said, “You need to get over that.” She was kind and tough, which are maybe the two best things that a boss could be.”
And on focus:
Just do the top three things “The mistake people make is they try to do everything. Dave Farr, our C.E.O., says that if you have a to-do list of 10 things, rip it and do three. Just do three.”
Have a great day. What are your three things for the day?
Peter Shallard says that the currency of Human Potential is willpower. Willpower is a finite asset. It is like a budget that you can choose to spend as you like – but (unlike EU nations) this budget must balance.
I disagree.
No amount of willpower is strong enough to overcome our unconscious impulses. No amount of willpower alone can create strong, healthy, disciplined habits in my life.
It is not about willpower.
It is about gaming your environment so that the decisions in the margins lead to the positive choices.
A diet succeeds or fails in the supermarket. Once the chocolate is in my house, I will eventually eat it.
Design your Environment
If I put my running shoes on first thing in the morning, I am more likely to take the decision to run.
If I leave a pen and open notebook on my desk, I am more likely to note down ideas, tasks, people to thank, quotes.
If I leave my email program open, I am more likely to check it regularly.
If I leave my mobile next to my bed, I am more likely to check email first thing before I get out of bed. (I saw somewhere that 65% of people with blackberries check email before getting out of bed).
If I leave the remote control next to where I sit on the sofa, I am more likely to switch on the TV “just to have a quick look at what is on…” why not put it further away and put a book where your remote lives now?
If I program my mum’s phone into my speed-dial, I am more likely to call my mum.
How do you game your environment? Do you feel that you have no willpower? Maybe you have an environment that encourages the wrong actions?
I just came across a talk from Derek Sivers to the class at Berklee school of Music. He shares “6 things I wish I knew before starting”. Powerful stuff. It applies to anyone currently at or going to a college or university:
Focus, Disconnect and Do Not be Distracted – don’t let the casual ones tell you to relax. They will live casual lives, have casual skills and will not amount to much. Practice matters.
Do not accept their speed limit – The classes are set at a pace that the average student can keep. If you are average, that’s your pace. If you don’t want to be average, don’t accept the mediocrity speed. “The standard pace is for chumps.”
Nobody will teach you anything, you have to teach yourself – Its like a library. The teachers will present information to you. It is up to you to use it in your life. University is the best environment for learning, but you have to teach yourself.
Learn from your heros, not just theirs – Teachers will give you rules to follow, heros to be inspired by… but they are their rules, their heros. Take the time to look at your own heroes and understand their lives, and draw your own lessons. “Never think that their heros are better than yours.”
Do not get stuck in the past – “Innovation is needed more than imitation.” High performance people much prefer doing the wrong thing well than the wrong thing poorly. It is scary to innovate.
When done, be valuable – Use university, but use your life. “Making money is nothing more than neutral proof that you are adding value to people’s lives.” It is easy to do it doing things that others’ don’t want to do, a fulfilling life is making money doing things that others’ have not worked hard to be great at.
Derek finishes with a wish for his audience:
Be one of the few clever enough to make money making music instead of pretending it doesn’t matter;
Be one of the few that has the guts to do something shocking;
Be one of the few who takes lessons as starting point and pushes yourself to do more with what you learn;
Be one of the few that knows how to help yourself instead of expecting others to do it for you;
Be one of the few that does much more than is required;
Be one of the few that stays in the shed to practice while everyone else is surfing the net, flirting on myspace and watching TV.
We would achieve much more if we got out of our own way. The difference between the top athletes and the rest is not better physical ability, but an ability to avoid talking themselves into failure at the key moments.
Performance = Potential – Self-Sabotage
I remember Peter Allis commenting on golf years ago. A South African golfer was on the tee. Peter whispers into the microphone “This is the perfect specimen of a golfer… (pause)… big hands… and dumb”.
Thinking too much is not good for performance in the big moments. It might help you learn faster from practice, but you have to find a way to switch it off once the real deal begins.
The lottery is easy. It is not certain, but it is easy.
Many choose an MBA because it feels certain. It is not easy, but it feels certain. Once you’ve got the diploma on the wall… success is inevitable…
There is a spanish word “chollo”. “Un chollo” is a something valuable that you achieve for little cost.
The danger of searching for the Chollo
There is a story about Toyota. Back in the 1980s they implemented an employee suggestion scheme. It was left to each country to decide how to motivate employees to provide improvement ideas.
Toyota USA rewarded outcomes
In the US, the senior management debated and discussed. They decided they would offer employees 2% of the total value of the suggestion once implemented. Wow. This could be big bucks! 2% of a suggestion that cuts $1M in cost from the production line? Take home $20,000. Nice.
The employees liked this idea and spent hours thinking about big changes, big suggestions. On average Toyota USA received 2 suggestions per employee, and about 10% were implemented. I don’t know what the total value of these changes were.
Toyota Japan rewarded process
In Japan, the senior management debated and discussed. They decided they would offer employees a straight up-front payment of $50 for every suggestion.
Employees liked this concept. They didn’t spend too much time thinking, but identified lots of little, incremental, simple changes that steadily improved performance in the factories. On average Toyota Japan received 50 suggestions per employee, and about 60% were implemented.
18 months later the performance at Japanese factories had increased so dramatically that they took all the changes and began to implement them around the world, and in the USA.
What happened? The Japanese employees were looking for simple little suggestions that made life 1% easier. The Americans were looking for the chollos: the big value suggestions.
Incremental improvement always wins in the long run.
Excellent Pottery design
A story from Derek Siver goes that a ceramics teacher told half the class that they would be graded on the total weight of pottery they created during the term; the other half of the class was told they would be graded on one piece of pottery. The weight students produced pot after pot after pot; experiments, prototypes, random ideas, and some magnificent pieces. The quality students spend a lot of time talking about concepts, thinking through ideas, developing a plan… and waited til near the end to actually get their hands on some clay. All of the best pots came from the weight-graded half of the class.
Incremental improvement always wins in the long run.
Could you set up an online business that earns you €50 per month? Could you import a product and find stores to stock it that gave you €50 a month? Could you write an eBook on “how to develop a career in your industry” and sell 10 a month at €5 per download?
In your life are you looking to add 1% per month or are you looking for the chollo? Warning: chollos almost never come… even to win the lottery you have to do some work: buy the ticket, check the ticket, file your claim…
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