You fail only if... | Motivation level | Productivity measure
Every week we curate 3 ultra-focused ideas to reduce life complexity. On Saturday we share them with you via email.
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Failure is a falsified hypothesis
Avni Patel Thompson has to shut down her company, Poppy. She doesn't allow herself time to grieve.
The endless checklist of duties towards partners, employees, and customers keep her occupied. And not just that, she's planning the launch of her new company.
Then one day she is invited at a lecture on failure. A famous coach is also participating. He asks her his signature question: "Are you ok?"
That's when it strikes her: no, she is NOT ok. The burden of suppressed emotions explodes and sweeps her away like a 6-foot wave.
But when she gets to that coach's podcast, her pain is over. Thinking like a scientist has been the solution.
In a scientific experiment, you start from a hypothesis. It is a new idea. You want to test it. It seems promising. But maybe the experiment will prove you wrong. You have to avoid excessive attachment to your idea.
A business idea is like a scientific hypothesis. You feel your product or service will help your audience. You put it on the market as best as you can. Then you analyze the results. Does it sell? Does it satisfy the customers?
In this light, shutting down a business is not THE END. Most of all: it doesn't make you a failure.
It demonstrates that your initial idea didn't work. Or that the peculiar way you implemented it was wrong.
Did you do your best? This is success.
Armed with this new knowledge, test a new idea. You fail only if you stop.
Adapt your behaviors to the level of your motivation
Change: you want it, but it's always TOO hard
Think about:
the drag of learning a new language,
that dreadful diet banning all of your beloved foods,
the excruciating workouts you desperately need before the summer.
You need a hefty dose of motivation to keep at it.
BJ Fogg is a master in simplifying hard behavioral changes. He teaches his system in his book, Tiny Habits.
TLDR: reduce a new behavior to its tiny counterpart, and practice it every day. So you'll stick to it.
Struggling to floss every day? Start with only one tooth. In time you'll build the momentum necessary to floss all of them.
In his interview on The Knowledge Project podcast, he adds an original and helpful trick. Adapt your effort also to your current level of motivation. Even for an already established behavior.
Maybe you're already consistent in your routine, but it remains hard. It's inevitable. Your motivation waxes and wanes, with your internal and external context.
So, you dial back the habit, based on your current motivation level. Feeling sluggish? Go back to flossing one or two teeth for a couple of days.
Perfect is the enemy of done. Don't break the chain chasing an impossible result. Improvement comes from habits, not from unrealistic perfectionism.
The Right Way to Measure Productivity (and Why It’s Harder Than it Seems)
Do you track productivity by the hours worked? Your employees will try to stay longer. But are all those hours productive?
Do you focus on sales, instead? You will get more of them in the short term. Are your salespeople cutting corners and hurting future sales?
Whatever you track as a measure of productivity becomes an incentive.
Every system is hackable and has its downsides. Sticking to one is comforting. You have your routine. The team knows how to please you. But it's effective only in the short term.
Every tracking system needs a deadline.
In the beginning, it's effective and optimizes the efforts. After a while, it loses its steam. Why?
Because situations change. And the people involved in the system adapt to a particular measure of productivity. They know how to hack it. It's not malice. Their brains focus on something else. And they go on autopilot.
Relax ⬆️. Productivity ⬇️
That's when a deadline comes into play. You test a productivity measure for a limited period. At the end of it, re-evaluate. Is productivity slowing down? How? Are there unintended consequences because people focus only on that productivity measure? Then set a new tracking system AND a new deadline.
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Until next week,
Samuele & Alberto
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