A Learning a Day

A future self idea that inspires me is one where I’d associate myself with clinical execution.

Work gets done when you combine intensity, focus and time. I think time is not so much the issue – I am definitely prepared to put in the time and have been for many years. I have less of an issue with focus these days. A big part of that has been accepting my ADD/natural attention deficit nature and learning to be kind to myself when I find my attention drifting. It has also meant designing a life and a “getting-things-done” system that works well with this ADD.

The toughest nut to crack has been intensity. Intensity, as I define it, is choosing where to focus on. And, I think we can further divide this into making a decision and then executing on it. Over the years, through constant reinforcement and increased awareness about my priorities, I have found myself become better at making decisions that are aligned to my priorities.

However, it is in the execution where I face that demon – procrastination. For instance, I had a 2 hour window yesterday when I knew exactly what I needed to and, yet, managed to find ways to procrastinate. During periods when there is little time to waste, I find such wasted hours frustrating.

So, this is a reminder to myself to begin to focus on banishing procrastination. So, here’s to figuring out an approach to that.

And, maybe, just maybe, I will then be worthy enough to bestow the “clinical execution” adjective on myself. :-)

I’ve found myself saying no a fair number of times this week. For someone who attempts to be available and of help, saying “no” is always a bit of a wrench. I avoided it for years until I realized that I was both compromising on quality by saying yes too much and not taking care of myself. I’ve definitely found myself getting better at it with practice.

One technique that has helped me say no is to not think of it as a partial no and not a complete no. A complete no aims to end the conversation immediately while a partial no keeps it going by offering up an alternative. An alternative I typically end up offering is to continue the conversation via email versus scheduling a separate chat.

A simple example – over the past year, there have been regular requests from folks who found me via one of my “MBA Learning” blog posts asking for 30 minutes for a conversation about business school applications. While I’m unable to do a call justice, I generally send a list of FAQs I’ve compiled and also respond to any follow up questions they might have. It isn’t perfect but it hopefully, at least, covers most of the basic questions they might have.

The principle here is that every non-essential no is an implicit yes to something essential that’s high up our priority list. Focus less on the no and more on what you are saying “yes” to. And, where possible, make it a partial no and offer up a few alternatives.

Once in a while, when you see sparks of greatness, it is only natural to stand up and applaud.

However, if that greatness becomes a daily occurrence, it is only a while before you start taking it for granted. These acts of greatness can be in any sphere – a teammate who scores wonderful goals every time you go out to play, a spouse who takes care of you incredibly well every day, a parent who showers you with unconditional love and affection every time you spend time with them, a friend who is always around when you need her, an employer who takes great care of you at work, or a teammate who never shows up to a meeting unprepared.

This is why managing expectations is not just a good life skill, it is also a key ingredient to happiness. Because, the moment our expectations go up, we lose sight of consistent greatness. We become like the bangle seller in front of the Taj Mahal who doesn’t appreciate the genius in front of him.

And that is truly one of life’s greatest tragedies… because, I would argue that it isn’t really greatness if it isn’t consistent.

And, if we aren’t able to see and appreciate greatness, what the hell are we doing here anyway?

If we want to do build things that matter, we have to build as if you’ll be around forever.

Given how strongly we’re wired to optimize for the short term and seek instant gratification, it is impossible to make good long term choices unless we have an implicit assumption that we’ll be working on our projects in perpetuity.

The difficulty is that there is something inherently scary about the idea of committing to something forever.

But, if there’s anything we should learn from folks who do build things that matter, it is their willingness to do things that few others would.

Channeling Jeff Bezos, however, we also know that it is a sign of wisdom to know when to change your mind and stop.

Perhaps, therein lies the secret to building things that matter – when you do something – even if it is something small and even if it something for a short period of time, do it as if you’d be doing it forever.

In essence, leave everything you do a little better than you found it. That’s how we get into the habit of building things that last.

Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle had this (among many other things) absolutely right.

One of my favorite cartoons growing up (and, to this day) was/is “Justice League.” There’s a nice scene in one of the episodes when the founding members decide to disband the Justice League after a bad mishap. Superman makes the case for disbanding it on their behalf.

As they begin to walk away, Green Arrow – one of the vocal minor characters – makes an impassioned speech asking them to reconsider. They do.

Right after, in what remains a memorable scene, Batman walks over to Green Arrow and says – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

To this, Green Arrow responds – “Who guards the guardians? We got this covered.”

If you’ve always had people you’ve turned to for help, advice or simply to vent and complain, it is worth remembering that being a guardian comes at a cost. Being in a position of leadership of any kind is an inherently lonely place. The more you do and the more you care, the more lonely it likely is. So, every once in a while, check in on your “guardians” and see if you can take care of them. It’ll mean more to them than they can express.

And, if you find yourself playing guardian regularly, make sure you find your Green Arrow(s). :-)

I don’t think the answer is one or the other.

I think the answer lies within the spectrum and depends on the kind of task you’re hiring someone for.

If you want the world’s expect on a certain kind of brain surgery, there are just a handful of those folk out there. And, if all of them have a bad attitude, there’s not much you can do beyond not offering brain surgery as an option in your hospital. Expertise matters.

That said, there are many many jobs that don’t require much expertise. They can be done by anyone above a basic threshold of capability. And, yet, we see job descriptions that list a long laundry list of basic/preferred qualifications. I would imagine they would be better served if they just said – “Need someone with some grit and a very positive attitude.”

I have found myself kicking myself every time I’ve looked for expertise. I’ve almost never been disappointed when I’ve just looked for attitude.

Maybe the way to think about it is – if you really really need expertise, go for it. If not, once folks are above a basic expertise level, default to hiring for attitude.

It just works better that way.

I have written about how critical sleep is to my performance more times here than I count. And, yet, even though I went to bed much later than usual yesterday, I thought it’d be a good idea to sleep less than 6 hours so I could wake up in the morning and get stuff done. Luckily, every part of my body disagreed when I heard the alarm go off this morning. I ended up getting that extra hour and few minutes of extra sleep and, thanks to that, I know I will get a lot more done this morning than I would have if I was sleep deprived.

I took away 3 things from this micro decision moment –

1. Thanks to paying close attention to my ability to focus, I’ve become increasingly sensitive to this. This is because I find myself repeatedly asking the question – “Am I actually going to be effective doing xx now or should I be doing something else?” So, if I feel I’m not getting enough sleep, I go straight back to bed – no questions asked. Feeling focused and alert improves my productivity by a factor of 2-3x depending on the kind of work (more thinking = higher efficiency). So, I can generally replace 3 hours of sleep deprived attempts at work with 1-1.5 hours of focused work. That’s very useful to know.

2. Despite having known (and seemingly internalized) this, I am still susceptible to bad micro decisions. I could hear a voice screaming “bad idea” as I contemplated sleeping less last night. That said, if I had chosen not to listen to myself this morning, I would have found myself sleep deprived, annoyed and unproductive. The difference? Our willpower reserves get recharged after we get rest. And, no willpower = bad decisions.

3. The question that crossed my mind this morning is – this was a minor close call – when will I actually learn this and make better micro-decisions by default? While I don’t know the answer, it does remind me that applying what seems like an incredibly simple concept is really hard.

In graduate school, we often study what companies and people did in the past and find ourselves wondering – how the hell did they make a mistake as dumb as that?

But, as my experiences have taught me, consistently doing simple things right is among the hardest things in the world.