You should really share the things you found to be force multipliers! You spend a lot of time explaining how hard they are to find and then you don’t even share yours :)
One thing that I suspect has been a force multiplier for me: I have a digital notebook, and I managed to train myself for a bunch of the pages to “hook in to my life” at certain situations. For example, I have a page for when I get home from work, for when I get up in the morning, for when I go to sleep, etc. And also pages for when I encounter specific failure modes like being insufficiently alert, needing to take a break, etc. (As a way to train this habit, I suggest training the proto-habit of writing down a description of any failure mode you notice yourself entering for later review.) Then whenever I read about a new technique that seems worth using, I figure out the specific situations where it’s worth using and put it on the appropriate page. Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Most self-improvement interventions seem to fade away eventually, but one that has stuck for quite a while for me is a Chrome extension I wrote to block the “related links” sections you see on webpages. This seems to have substantially cut down on the amount of time I waste online. (The key may have been to change my “oh, that looks like an interesting link” habit in to an “oh, I should add another rule to my extension to block this kind of link” habit.) I was interested in it specifically because it seemed like a painless way to make myself more productive that would not reverse itself, and that has turned out to be the case so far (have been using it since late January). I’m quite interested if people have other ideas for these sorts of not easily reversible capacity gains. And if enough people are interested in my extension I could probably release it. (You can view the code here but at this stage you’d probably have to read the source to get it to work. It also does lots of other things aside from blocking “related links”. My overall objective was to add enough drag to my internet use in various ways so that I would make everything I did online intentional instead of mindless.)
Better nutrition, exercise, and sleep are also arguably force multipliers.
The systems mindset. Almost everything we do is a repetitive task, and for every repetitive task we have a process. It’s tempting to think that a lot of what we do is complex problem solving that is not repetitive, but that’s not true. We still follow a process to solve seemingly complex problems, even if we don’t initially realise it or it initially seems complex. That means most of what we can do can be described and documented. If it can be documented, then it can (a) be systematically optimized and improved, (b) act as a guide for us to follow to ensure quality control, (c) reduce the required mental energy to perform the task, due to not wasting energy on thinking about the process, and (d) have someone else (with any necessary requisite knowledge) complete the task.
Hiring excellent people for very little money. People are motivated by much more than just money. You can pay people a lot less by giving them much more in the other areas. An easy way to get started is with outsourcing. If you can afford to pay someone $4/hour there’s no reason for anyone not to have a virtual assistant. This obviously pairs very effectively with documented systems.
People skills. This is a large area but the 20⁄80 is to read and take notes on How to Win Friends & Influence People, and turn it into a 1 page cheatsheet to follow when interacting with anyone.
Idea extraction. This is a term that was coined in a business course I did, the idea being to identify business opportunities by interviewing people to uncover their business problems, and continuously drill down to their root causes. But it has much wider application. The ability to uncover other people’s root causes is incredibly helpful in sales, customer development and all kinds of situations.
Journaling. Whenever I am faced with uncertainty (constantly) I turn to journaling, and it is incredibly effective in problem solving and raising my self-awareness.
Learning. This is one I’m still working on, but understanding how we learn has been very helpful in creating personally effective methods for learning and memorization.
Productive downtime. Another one I’m still working on, but is based around the idea of pursuing tasks that are enjoyable but are still beneficial, as opposed to time wasters like watching tv, playing computer games etc.
Productive downtime. Another one I’m still working on, but is based around the idea of pursuing tasks that are enjoyable but are still beneficial, as opposed to time wasters like watching tv, playing computer games etc.
Another approach is to try to increase the quality of your downtime rather than increase its productivity. For example, do deep breathing meditation. Laughter has been shown to restore willpower depletion, and I’ve found watching cartoons like The Simpsons to be much more rejuvenating than watching stressful live-action TV shows.
Seconded. This feels somehow similar to purchasing fuzzies and utilions separately? Basically figuring out what value you’re getting out of what you already do in your down-time (relaxation, making social connections, etc) and try to get more of it. A possible failure mode for productive downtime would be doing things that are to-do-list productive but don’t leave you feeling like you’ve had downtime.
People skills. This is a large area but the 20⁄80 is to read and take notes on How to Win Friends & Influence People, and turn it into a 1 page cheatsheet to follow when interacting with anyone.
I used metaphors to encode it into a form that would make it easier for me to remember, so it wouldn’t be of much use to you. The book is a really quick and simple read, and I highly recommend you go through the process yourself.
Money is just 1 small part of the equation. People are motivated by other things such as freedom (ability to work remotely, set their own hours, set their own holidays), the ability to learn, respect (treating them like a partner/integral part of the business) etc. I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard that Drive by Dan Pink[1] does a really good job at explaining this.
The $4/hour part refers to hiring overseas contractors on places like oDesk. Again, you can get some fantastic people here by designing a position that gives them what they want in other areas. For example, contractors on oDesk are constantly looking for work, so giving them a permanent position where they are guaranteed a set number of hours per week is a great way to attract high quality candidates. I also wrote about this on my blog: http://42insights.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant/.
Psychologists now classify motivation as intrinsic vs. extrinsic—are you doing something because you want to, or because someone told you to/offered you something? Importantly, for creative tasks like knowledge work, extrinsic motivators like bonuses are weaker than people’s concern for a job well done. Many studies in a variety of situtations have shown the counterinuitive result that adding bonuses to a task makes people perform worse, give up quicker, and not do it on their own initiative.
The book Drive by Daniel Pink is an excellent walk through the research.
Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Massively downgrade your expectation of your average self to deal with a complex system. Adding complexity to a useful habit should be entered into very cautiously.
The useful habit is what you call using your pages, and you added complexity by adding more and more rules to the pages as well as by making new pages.
Well the habit itself is pretty simple: in situation x, read page y. Arguably each page has its own associated habit; I don’t know to what degree this all could be considered a single habit.
You should really share the things you found to be force multipliers! You spend a lot of time explaining how hard they are to find and then you don’t even share yours :)
One thing that I suspect has been a force multiplier for me: I have a digital notebook, and I managed to train myself for a bunch of the pages to “hook in to my life” at certain situations. For example, I have a page for when I get home from work, for when I get up in the morning, for when I go to sleep, etc. And also pages for when I encounter specific failure modes like being insufficiently alert, needing to take a break, etc. (As a way to train this habit, I suggest training the proto-habit of writing down a description of any failure mode you notice yourself entering for later review.) Then whenever I read about a new technique that seems worth using, I figure out the specific situations where it’s worth using and put it on the appropriate page. Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Most self-improvement interventions seem to fade away eventually, but one that has stuck for quite a while for me is a Chrome extension I wrote to block the “related links” sections you see on webpages. This seems to have substantially cut down on the amount of time I waste online. (The key may have been to change my “oh, that looks like an interesting link” habit in to an “oh, I should add another rule to my extension to block this kind of link” habit.) I was interested in it specifically because it seemed like a painless way to make myself more productive that would not reverse itself, and that has turned out to be the case so far (have been using it since late January). I’m quite interested if people have other ideas for these sorts of not easily reversible capacity gains. And if enough people are interested in my extension I could probably release it. (You can view the code here but at this stage you’d probably have to read the source to get it to work. It also does lots of other things aside from blocking “related links”. My overall objective was to add enough drag to my internet use in various ways so that I would make everything I did online intentional instead of mindless.)
Better nutrition, exercise, and sleep are also arguably force multipliers.
Good point. Here are mine:
The systems mindset. Almost everything we do is a repetitive task, and for every repetitive task we have a process. It’s tempting to think that a lot of what we do is complex problem solving that is not repetitive, but that’s not true. We still follow a process to solve seemingly complex problems, even if we don’t initially realise it or it initially seems complex. That means most of what we can do can be described and documented. If it can be documented, then it can (a) be systematically optimized and improved, (b) act as a guide for us to follow to ensure quality control, (c) reduce the required mental energy to perform the task, due to not wasting energy on thinking about the process, and (d) have someone else (with any necessary requisite knowledge) complete the task.
Hiring excellent people for very little money. People are motivated by much more than just money. You can pay people a lot less by giving them much more in the other areas. An easy way to get started is with outsourcing. If you can afford to pay someone $4/hour there’s no reason for anyone not to have a virtual assistant. This obviously pairs very effectively with documented systems.
People skills. This is a large area but the 20⁄80 is to read and take notes on How to Win Friends & Influence People, and turn it into a 1 page cheatsheet to follow when interacting with anyone.
Idea extraction. This is a term that was coined in a business course I did, the idea being to identify business opportunities by interviewing people to uncover their business problems, and continuously drill down to their root causes. But it has much wider application. The ability to uncover other people’s root causes is incredibly helpful in sales, customer development and all kinds of situations.
Journaling. Whenever I am faced with uncertainty (constantly) I turn to journaling, and it is incredibly effective in problem solving and raising my self-awareness.
Learning. This is one I’m still working on, but understanding how we learn has been very helpful in creating personally effective methods for learning and memorization.
Productive downtime. Another one I’m still working on, but is based around the idea of pursuing tasks that are enjoyable but are still beneficial, as opposed to time wasters like watching tv, playing computer games etc.
Another approach is to try to increase the quality of your downtime rather than increase its productivity. For example, do deep breathing meditation. Laughter has been shown to restore willpower depletion, and I’ve found watching cartoons like The Simpsons to be much more rejuvenating than watching stressful live-action TV shows.
Seconded. This feels somehow similar to purchasing fuzzies and utilions separately? Basically figuring out what value you’re getting out of what you already do in your down-time (relaxation, making social connections, etc) and try to get more of it. A possible failure mode for productive downtime would be doing things that are to-do-list productive but don’t leave you feeling like you’ve had downtime.
Can you give specific examples of things that you systematized/outsourced?
Can I have that cheatsheet please?
I used metaphors to encode it into a form that would make it easier for me to remember, so it wouldn’t be of much use to you. The book is a really quick and simple read, and I highly recommend you go through the process yourself.
Could you expand on this?
Money is just 1 small part of the equation. People are motivated by other things such as freedom (ability to work remotely, set their own hours, set their own holidays), the ability to learn, respect (treating them like a partner/integral part of the business) etc. I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard that Drive by Dan Pink[1] does a really good job at explaining this.
An example of this would be my Hire an Aspiring Entrepreneur strategy, which you can read about here: http://42insights.com/hire-aspiring-entrepreneur/.
The $4/hour part refers to hiring overseas contractors on places like oDesk. Again, you can get some fantastic people here by designing a position that gives them what they want in other areas. For example, contractors on oDesk are constantly looking for work, so giving them a permanent position where they are guaranteed a set number of hours per week is a great way to attract high quality candidates. I also wrote about this on my blog: http://42insights.com/how-to-hire-a-virtual-assistant/.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594484805/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=freeagentnati-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1594484805
Psychologists now classify motivation as intrinsic vs. extrinsic—are you doing something because you want to, or because someone told you to/offered you something? Importantly, for creative tasks like knowledge work, extrinsic motivators like bonuses are weaker than people’s concern for a job well done. Many studies in a variety of situtations have shown the counterinuitive result that adding bonuses to a task makes people perform worse, give up quicker, and not do it on their own initiative.
The book Drive by Daniel Pink is an excellent walk through the research.
Especially on the $4/h part.
Massively downgrade your expectation of your average self to deal with a complex system. Adding complexity to a useful habit should be entered into very cautiously.
I don’t follow. What’s the useful habit and how did I add complexity?
The useful habit is what you call using your pages, and you added complexity by adding more and more rules to the pages as well as by making new pages.
Well the habit itself is pretty simple: in situation x, read page y. Arguably each page has its own associated habit; I don’t know to what degree this all could be considered a single habit.
Thanks for sharing the extension! I’ll try to post a walk through of how I got it working if I do.