The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman (Working With Yourself)

September 4, 2012

Devon Sampson Business, Human Psychology , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments


 

To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 
“Monoidealism is the state of focusing your energy and attention on only one thing, without conflicts. [Also known as a 'flow' state] (229)

The first key to achieving a monoideal state is to eliminate distractions; Kaufman claims that it takes roughly 10-30 minutes of uninterrupted time for your mind to become fully absorbed in the task.

If you feel an inner conflict about doing your work, explore it rather than repress it – your mind is often trying to tell you something important.

When you’re really feeling resistance, try the Pomodoro Technique: set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on a single task for the entire duration of the time, then take a 5 minute break when it’s done.

“If you eliminate distractions and Conflicts before you start your dash, you’ll naturally transition into a Monoideal state a few minutes into the work period.” (231)

Kaufman also recommends meditation as a way to become resistant to distractions.

“While many people assume [multitasking] makes them more efficient, Monoidealism and multitasking are complete opposites. Neurologically, it’s impossible for your brain to multitask. When you’re trying to do more than one thing at a time, you’re not really parallel processing – you’re rapidly switching your Attention from one thing to another.”

“Every time you switch the focus of your Attention from one subject to another, you incur the Cognitive Switching Penalty. In order to take action, your brain has to ‘load’ the context of what you’re doing into working memory. If you constantly switch the focus of your Attention, you’re forcing your brain to spend time and effort thrashing, loading and reloading contexts over and over again.” (232)

In order to avoid mentally demanding context-switching, batch similar tasks together, i.e., have a block of time where you do all of your creative tasks.
 

The Four Methods of Completion

1.) Completion – doing the task completely; this is the option most people think about, but it should only be used for important things that you can do particularly well.

2.) Deletion – eliminating the task; use this for tasks that are unimportant or unnecessary. “If it’s not worth doing, it’s not worth doing well or quickly” (233)

3.) Delegation – assigning the task to someone else; used for important tasks that someone else can complete almost as well as you can (or even better).

4.) Deferment – putting the task off until later; effective for tasks that are somewhat important, but that certainly aren’t critical.
 

“Saving noncritical tasks for later is a good way to keep your attention and energy focused on what’s most important…Periodically reviewing this list when you’re looking for something new or exciting to do is quite useful.” (234)

“A Most Important Task (MIT) is a critical task that will create the most important results you’re looking to achieve. Everything on your plate is not critically important, so don’t treat everything on your task list equally…At the beginning of every day, create a list of two or three MITs, then focus on getting them done as quickly as possible.” (235)

Some other points about MITs:

  • keep your MIT list separate from your other to-do list
  • use self-elicitation questions such as “What are the two or three most important things that I need to do today?” to help you generate the list of MITs
  • combining the MIT technique with Parkinson’s Law by setting an arbitrary deadline for your MITs, such as 10:00am, is extremely effective
  • all of this will help you maintain a monoideal state

    •  
    “For best effect, your Goals should be under your control. Goals like ‘losing twenty pounds’ are soul crushing because they’re not directly under your control – losing weight is a result, not an effort.” (237)

    Kaufman distinguishes between States of Being (such as happiness) and goals: the former shouldn’t be seen as a fixed achievement, but rather, a measure of the quality of your present experience. States of Being make for great decision criteria, but they lead to frustration if seen as a fixed goal to be achieved in the future.

    “For best results [in behavior change], focus on installing one habit at a time. Remember, you only have so much Willpower to use each day, and overriding your default mode of action depletes it quickly…Focus on installing one habit until taking action feels automatic, then move on to the next.” (240)
     

    Out of the available options, which experience do I want to have?

    -Steve Pavlina’s “tiebreaker” question when making a difficult decision

     
    “The Next Action is the next specific, concrete thing you can do right away to move a project forward. You don’t have to know everything that must be done to make progress on a project – all you need to know is the very next thing you can do to move the project forward.” (246)

    “One of the quirks about how your mind works is that it handles information from outside your head better than the thoughts that are rattling around inside your head.” (248)

    “There are two primary ways to Externalize your thoughts: writing and speaking. Writing (or drawing, if you prefer) is the best way to capture ideas, plans, and tasks. Not only does writing give you the ability to store information in a form you can reference later, it gives your mind the opportunity to examine what you know from a different angle. Challenges and issues that seem insurmountable while they’re bouncing around in your frontal lobe can often be solved surprisingly quickly after they’re put on paper.”

    “If you want to be productive, you must set limits. Juggling hundreds of active tasks across scores of projects is not sustainable: you’re risking failure, subpar work, and burnout.” (260)

    “Limits always have consequences – if you’re not prepared to handle the consequences, it’s not really a limit.”

    “Like all biological organisms, humans need to rest and recover for peak performance. Taking a break isn’t a sign of laziness or weakness – it’s a recognition of a fundamental human need…Sleep deprivation results in a prolonged down cycle, which gets in the way of getting things done.” (262-3)

    “The more Attached you are to a particular idea or plan, the more you limit your flexibility and reduce your chances of finding a better solution…If you become too Attached to the visions you have in your head, you’ll have a hard time adjusting to the inevitable twists and turns of life.” (270)

    Kaufman recommends putting a small percentage of your monthly income into a “Personal Research and Development (R&D) Budget”, money you can use (guilt-free) to purchase books, courses, conferences: anything that will help you improve your skills and capabilities.

    How to Maximize Your Retention When Reading Non-Fiction Books

    May 16, 2012

    Devon Sampson Human Psychology , , , , , 2 Comments

    Recently, I came across a book titled 10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale that has changed the way I look at reading non-fiction.

    I was relieved to find out that I was already using some of her strategies, such as taking notes and eliminating environmental distractions, but mostly, 10 Days to Faster Reading made me acutely aware of the various mistakes I was making – and how to correct them so I could increase my reading retention.

    For example, we humans have a tendency to subvocalize – sounding out each word in our heads. It turns out that this is much slower than when our minds just take in words as thoughts (without subvocalizing). The latter process is what we do when we’re truly “in the zone” – subvocalizing only serves takes us out of the zone.
     

     
    The book also emphasizes the importance of context when reading non-fiction; having a specific idea about what you’re looking to learn in a particular book will make relevant content stand out much more. Using the book’s index (if it has one) is another way to find relevant content more quickly as well.

    Ultimately, the point of reading non-fiction is not to finish the book cover-to-cover, it’s to learn specific concepts that you can apply to your daily life, so make sure that you’re doing that as efficiently as possible.

    Josh Kaufman does an excellent job summarizing the 10 key ideas in 10 Days to Faster Reading, you can skim it in about 10 minutes and get all of the important concepts.
     
    10 Days to Faster Reading – Personal MBA summary

    Rework – 37signals (Productivity)

    April 7, 2012

    Devon Sampson Business , , , , , Leave a comment


     
    “When you put off decisions, they pile up. And piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out.”

    “Sometimes abandoning what you’re working on is the right move, even if you’ve put a lot of time into it. Don’t throw good time after bad work.”

    “Interruption is the enemy of productivity…interruptions break up your work day into a bunch of work moments.”

    “You can’t get meaningful things done when you’re always going start-STOP-start-STOP”

    Getting into a flow state of productivity is like going into REM sleep – it doesn’t happen as soon as you fall asleep. It takes a certain amount of uninterrupted time for true productivity to take place.

    When collaborating with others, use passive forms of communication such as e-mail whenever possible; this way, people can respond when it’s convenient for them instead of having to drop everything at unexpected times.

    Meetings are toxic because:

  • they’re primarily about abstract concepts rather than real things
  • they get off-topic far too easily
  • the agendas are often so vague that no one is quite sure of the goal

    •  
    Meetings are also black holes of productivity. If you have a one-hour meeting and you invite 10 people, you don’t just lose 1 hour of productivity, you lose 10 hours because each of those people lose an hour that they could have spent on actual work.

    If you NEED to have a meeting, at least follow these guidelines:

  • invite as few people as possible
  • set a timer and conclude the meeting as soon as it rings
  • have a clear agenda
  • begin with a specific problem
  • meet at the sight of the problem instead of a conference room
  • end with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it

    •  
    If it’s good enough to get the job done, do it. You can always turn “good enough” into “great” later.

    “Just because you’ve got a list of things to do doesn’t mean it’s not done.”

    “The way to build momentum is to finish one thing and then move on to the next. No one likes to work on an endless project with no finish line in sight.”

    “If you absolutely have to work on long-term projects, try to dedicate one day a week (or every two weeks) to small victories that generate enthusiasm.”

    “Long lists are guilt-trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it. And at a certain point, you just stop looking at it because it makes you feel bad.”

    Break your lists down into smaller lists. By breaking down a list of 25 items into five lists of five items, each item you finish completes 20% of the list instead of just 4%. Don’t you feel better?

    Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 6: The Resistance)

    March 17, 2012

    Devon Sampson Business , , , , , , Leave a comment

    In order to be an artist, you have to ship. The only point of starting something is to eventually finish it; as Godin puts it: “Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world.” (103)

    “Thrashing” – brainstorming and adjusting; amateurs do this near the end of a project, professionals do it early. Have the discipline to get your thrashing done early and then be stubborn near the end when it’s time to ship.

    Our creativity, what the Greeks called the Daemon and the Romans called “the genius”, stems from the neocortex – the newest part of the brain.

    The part of us that just wants to survive, even at the expense of our art, is our lizard brain.

    The lizard brain is newer and stronger than our neocortex; when both are fully activated and pitted against each other, the lizard brain usually wins.

    “The challenge, then, is to create an environment where the lizard snoozes. You can’t beat it, so you must seduce it. One part of your brain worries about survival and anger and lust. The rest of it creates civilization.” (109)

    “If we go down the list of behaviors that are highly valued because of their scarcity, almost all of them are related to bringing a conscious and generous mind to the work, instead of indulging our lizard brain’s reflexes of fear, revenge, and conquest.” (112)

    (After explaining how even just simple eye contact can cause gorillas to go crazy at the zoo) “Eye contact, all by itself, is enough to throw your lizard brain into a tizzy. Imagine how scary it must be to set out to do something that will get you noticed, or perhaps even criticized.”

    The lizard brain loves school – he can postpone putting himself on the line in the real world, and he’s fine obeying authority figures as long as they help him survive.

    “A well-defined backup plan is sabotage waiting to happen. Why push through the dip, why take the risk, why blow it all when there’s the comfortable alternative instead? The people who break through usually have nothing to lose, and they almost never have a backup plan.” (116)

    In order to be creative and come up with good ideas, you need to be willing to have terrible, and even dangerously bad ideas.

    Your lizard brain hates the prospect of coming up with an idea so bad that others will laugh at it. But realize that this is an inevitable part of the idea-generating process, and that this process is the only way that you can ever come up with brilliant ideas.

    A sub-title Godin uses in Chapter 6: “You Don’t Need More Genius. You Need Less Resistance.”

    Your resistance is always comfortable with low expectations.

    The less freedom you have in a given field, the less resistance you face. This is why it’s feels so natural to do a job where all you have to do is follow instructions.

    “Our economy has reached a logical conclusion. The race to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities is almost over. We’re hitting an asymptote, a natural ceiling for how cheaply and how fast we can deliver uninspired work.” (123)

    As a society, we’ve tried to establish an entire economic system where one can go through the motions, give in to their resistance (by doing menial jobs), and still be supported – but it’s just not working anymore.

    “Don’t listen to the cynics. They’re cynics for a reason. For them, the resistance won a long time ago.” (126)

    The resistance/the lizard brain exists “to make you safe, which means invisible and unchanged.” (127)

    Signs that the lizard brain is at work:
    -Procrastination
    -You excessively criticize the work of your peers, thus unrealistically raising the bar for your work
    -You criticize anyone who is doing something differently. If they succeed, it means you’ll have to do something differently too.
    -Having an emotional attachment to the status quo
    -Inventing anxiety about the side effects of a new approach
    -Believing that it’s about gifts and talents, not skill
    -Announcing that you have neither
     

    A great tactic to combat resistance is to announce it out loud: “I’m doing this because of the resistance.” The lizard brain will retreat in shame.

     
    “The difference between a successful artist and a failed one happens after the idea is hatched. The difference is the race to completion. Did you finish?” (136)

    Anxiety is just a pointless form of fear, it’s fear about fear. The resistance is really anxiety; real fear is a response to actual threats and it’s a perfectly healthy response.

    Reality is the best antidote for anxiety.

    “You can’t make a useful map when you’re busy exaggerating the downside of every option.” (139)
     

    The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking, or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint. When we sprint, all the internal dialogue falls away and we focus on going as fast as we possibly can.

    You can’t sprint forever. That’s what makes it sprinting. The brevity of the event is a key part of why it works. (143-144)

     
    It’s easier to work downhill than uphill. So take the time to build a better platform for you to launch your ideas from – this seperates the hard work of preparation from the sometimes scary work of creativity.

    The War of Art (Part 2: Combating Resistance – Turning Pro)

    December 8, 2011

    Devon Sampson Motivational Psychology, Spirituality , , , , Leave a comment

    My notes from Part 2 of Steven Pressfield’s modern classic The War of Art.

     

    It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.
    -Telamon of Arcadia

     

    “Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. ‘I write only when inspiration strikes,’ he replied. ‘Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’ clock sharp.’” (79)

    The Principle of Priority – you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and you must do what is important first.

    The first movie Steven Pressfield ever wrote was horrible and was a commercial failure. However, in retrospect Pressfield has an interesting perspective on it; “That was when I realized I had become a pro. I had not yet had a success. But I had had a real failure.” (87)

    Pressfield argues that being overly emotionally invested in your work is more characteristic of an amateur than a professional. Regardless of your enthusiasm for the project, Pressfield insists that an in-it-for-the-money mindset produces the professional attitude necessary to get things done: the “lunch pail-mentality”, the “hard-hat state of mind” that shows up no matter what and slugs it out day after day.

    “The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself from flaming out in each individual work.” (90)

    “(The professional) respects Resistance. He knows if he caves in today, no matter how plausible the pretext, he’ll be twice as likely to cave in tomorrow.” (95)

    “The professional knows that Resistance is like a telemarketer; if you so much as say hello, you’re finished. The pro doesn’t even pick up the phone. He stays at work.”

    “(The professional) understands that the field alters every day. His goal is not victory (success will come by itself when it wants to) but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can.” (97)

    “The student of the game knows that the levels of revelation that can unfold in gold, as in any art, are inexhaustible.” (100)

    “(A professional) does not identify with (their) instrument. It is simply what God gave her, what she has to work with. She assesses it coolly, impersonally, objectively.” (101)

    “We cannot let external criticism, even if it’s true, fortify our internal foe. That foe is strong enough already.” (102-3)

    “Humiliation, like rejection and criticism, is the external reflection of internal Resistance.” (104)

    In a situation where you are the recipient of some negative external force, Pressfield urges us to “maintain our sovereignty over the moment.” (107)

    The War of Art – Steven Pressfield (Part 1: Resistance – Defining the Enemy)

    December 4, 2011

    Devon Sampson Motivational Psychology, Spirituality , , , , , , Leave a comment

     

    The War of Art is one of the greatest self-help books of all-time. In it, Steven Pressfield characterizes the force within us that doesn’t want to get things done, the force that holds us back from reaching our potential, and gives it a name: Resistance. In Part One, Pressfield makes it his mission to explain just how deadly Resistance can be. Part Two elaborates on how we can defeat it. Part Three attempts to motivate us but gets far too spiritual and religious for my tastes. Nonetheless, despite my distaste for the final third of it, The War of Art’s first two parts contain so much motivational precision that it still ranks among the all-time great self-help books in my eyes.

    Note: page citations are from the digital copy of the book.

    _______________________________________________________________

    “Most have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” (16)

     

    The enemy is a very good teacher.
    -The Dalai Lama

     

    Any act that delays immediate gratification in favour of long-term prosperity will elicit Resistance.

    Resistance does not come from outside factors, it is generated and perpetrated from within.

    “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, it that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.” (26)

    The more important an action is to our personal progression and evolution, the more Resistance it will elicit. This is not entirely bad – we can use Resistance as a compass towards what truly matters.

    Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher sphere. So if you’re working with the Mother Teresa Foundation but you decide you want to become a telemarketer, Resistance will be nowhere to be found.

    Resistance is most powerful at the finish line. The danger is greatest once we approach the end. Knowing that we’re about to beat it, Resistance hits the panic button and hits us with everything it has a desperate last effort.

    When you start to overcome resistance, it will recruit allies – other people’s Resistances. These other people will try to sabotage you because your success becomes a reproach to them. (m3taphysics: They have no interest in being inspired because that would force them to face reality, which means facing their own shortcomings.)

    “The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.” (37)

    Resistance distracts us with cheap, easy fixes like sex (sometimes manifesting as a preoccupation with sex). The barometer is how hollow you feel afterwards; the more empty you feel, the more likely it is that your real motivation was Resistance rather than love or even lust.

    “Creating soap opera drama in our lives is a symptom of Resistance.” (42)

    “Sometimes entire families participate unconsciously in a culture of self-dramatization. The kids fuel the tanks, the grown-ups arm the phasers. It’s more fun than a movie. And it works: Nobody gets a damn thing done.”

    “Sometimes, if we’re not conscious of our Resistance, we’ll pick as a mate someone who has or is successfully overcoming Resistance.” (46)

    “If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.” (57)

    “Grandiose fantasies are a symptom of Resistance. They’re the sign of an amateur. The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.” (60)

    “Any support we get from persons of flesh and blood is like Monopoly money; it’s not legal tender in that sphere where we have to do our work. In fact, the more energy we spend stoking up on support from colleagues and loved ones, the weaker we become and the less capable of handling our business.” (68)

    “Seeking support from friends and family is like having people gathered around your deathbed.”

    “(When you have a powerful, inspiring dream or you experience any sort of motivational epiphany), don’t talk about it. Don’t dilute its power. The dream is for you. It’s between you and your muse. Shut up and use it.” (69)

    Resistance’s greatest weapon is rationalization.

    “But rationalization has its own sidekick. It’s the part of us that actually believes what rationalization is telling us.” (71)

     

    It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.

     

    However, if Resistance couldn’t be beaten, there would be no great symphonies, no great plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and no great works of architecture like the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Rework – 37signals (Summary)

    November 30, 2011

    Devon Sampson Business, Motivational Psychology , , 2 Comments


     
    (Ed: You can now find more detailed notes about “Rework” in The Vault)
     

    Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you’ll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don’t need outside investors, and why you’re better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don’t need to be a workaholic. You don’t need to staff up. You don’t need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don’t even need an office. Those are all just excuses.

    What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You’ll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

    -Amazon.com description (excerpt)
     

    The “real world” that most people talk about when shooting down ambitious ideas isn’t a place, it’s an excuse.

    When facing a difficult, overwhelming idea, ask yourself: “What can I do right now that’s good enough?” Not only does this inspire immediate action, it gets the ball rolling for you to do the bigger thing later on.

    The common problem that all the idiots have on “Kitchen Nightmares” is that there’s just too much stuff on their menus. When overhauling their restaurants, Gordon Ramsey always starts by cutting back.

    People use equipment as a crutch. But give Tiger Woods some old clubs and he’ll still crush you.

    Put out the necessities now, add the luxuries later.

    The best way to make something great is through iterations. Stop theorizing about what will work. Find out now.

    If we can’t accurately estimate projects that take 2 hours, how can we estimate projects that might take a year? The longer the project, the more magnified that planning errors become.

    There’s no such thing as a marketing division, because everything you do has to do with marketing.

    A great way to gain support is to position yourself as the anti-(business/industry).

    Focusing on the competition makes you more reactionary than visionary.

    “If I had listened to my customers, I would’ve gotten them a faster horse.” -Henry Ford

    Listen to feedback from your customers, but don’t write it down. If it’s really important, it’ll keep coming up and you won’t be able to forget it.

    Don’t hire someone if you don’t need them, no matter how good they appear.

    If employees are forced to constantly ask for permission, it creates a culture of non-thinking.

    Don’t scar on the first cut. Don’t create a policy because someone did something wrong once.

    Inspiration has an expiry date. SEIZE IT.

    Drive – Daniel Pink

    November 28, 2011

    Devon Sampson Business, Human Psychology, Motivational Psychology, Social Dynamics , , , , , Leave a comment

     

    “According to Pink (A Whole New Mind), everything we think we know about what motivates us is wrong. He pits the latest scientific discoveries about the mind against the outmoded wisdom that claims people can only be motivated by the hope of gain and the fear of loss. Pink cites a dizzying number of studies revealing that carrot and stick can actually significantly reduce the ability of workers to produce creative solutions to problems. What motivates us once our basic survival needs are met is the ability to grow and develop, to realize our fullest potential.”

    -Amazon.com description

     

    RSA Animate:

     

    “When money is used as an external reward for some activity, subjects lose intrinsic interest in the activity.”

    Human beings have an “inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore, and to learn.” But this third drive is more fragile than the other two; it needs the right environment to survive.

    “An algorithmic task is one in which you follow a set of established instructions down a single pathway to one conclusion. That is, there’s an algorithm for solving it. A heuristic task is the opposite. Precisely because no algorithm exists for it, you have to experiment with possibilities and devise a novel solution.”

    “The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimates that in the United States, only 30 percent of job growth now comes from algorithmic work, while 70 percent comes from heuristic work. A key reason: Routine work can be outsourced or automated; artistic, empathic, nonroutine work generally cannot.”

    “External rewards and punishments—both carrots and sticks—can work nicely for algorithmic tasks. But they can be devastating for heuristic ones.”

    Stuff like salary, etc., are called “baseline rewards” and are mandatory, otherwise they’ll just focus on the unfairness of their situation and they won’t be extrinsically or intrinsically motivated.

    “Rewards can perform a weird sort of behavioral alchemy: They can transform an interesting task into a drudge.”

    Functional fixedness = seeing an object in a certain problem as only having one function, instead of thinking outside the box and seeing that the object can have many functions.

    When your only motivation is intrinsic motivation, you’ll always reach your goal via ethical means. Extrinsic rewards encourage people to take shortcuts and act unethically (ie: sales quotas for Sears car repair people, Enron)

    “Using extrinsic rewards can cause the presence of such an award seem like the status quo, thus requiring larger awards to be offered to achieve the same effect. In this way, this phenomenon resembles addiction.”

    “The very presence of goals may lead employees to focus myopically on short-term gains and to lose sight of the potential devastating long-term effects on the organization.”

    CARROTS AND STICKS: The Seven Deadly Flaws
    1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation.
    2. They can diminish performance.
    3. They can crush creativity.
    4. They can crowd out good behavior.
    5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior.
    6. They can become addictive.
    7. They can foster short-term thinking.