Likely a lot. And now is probably a better time to think about it than tomorrow.

You are in search of water. What you have is a cold room with -15 degrees, a radiator and a big chunk of ice. When you turn on the old radiator, it increases the temperature in the room by one degree each day.

For the first 14 days, you see no progress at all. The ice cube sits there, no water. On the beginning of day 15 you see it starts to slowly change form, and at the end of the day the ice cube is completely gone and you have your desired water.

A lof of things in business and life works like this. You keep hammering on without seeing the result you are looking for, when suddenly it pops and you see a lot of outcome with what seems like minimal effort.

Don’t make the mistake to believe that your work is effortless even if you don’t see immidiate results. Be persistent. And find a way to measure relevant efforts.

How can you track the temperature of your business?

It’s easy to disagree with someone. To point out a better way to do it, to point out flaws in details, to show that you know things.

We often disagree over politics, over policies and principles. We disagree over the best way to achieve a goal. But rarely about the goal itself.

If we keep arguing about how to drive the bus it’s easy to forget that we are not even in agreement of where we are going.

Before you start arguing about what way to take, make sure you are aligned on the end goal.

We rarely get shot if we cross them. In fact, most deadlines we create are artificial, there to instill accountability and a sense of urgency.

I know that setting deadlines can be great for creating accountability. But once you’ve crossed them and realized you didn’t get shot, their power disappears.

Playing with deadlines should be done with great caution. If people see that nothing happens when they cross them, they will pay less and less attention to them in the future.

Be restrictive with deadlines – save them for when it really matters. 

The fast world of today draws us towards click-friendly headlines and polarized stands. And when we take this mindset with us to work, we are stuck in heated debates with simplified answers to questions that are complex and likely don’t have a one correct answer. These questions benefit from open discussions with a diverse set of people and skill set.

Few things in this world is black and white. Most live on a continuum, and this often forgotten line between two polarized alternatives holds unseen opportunities.

Next time you find yourself debating two alternatives, write the two options on a piece of paper. Now draw a line between them.

Can you see any other valid options along this line? Or perhaps even outside of the line?

When you excercise, you know that you need to stretch your limits to improve. You push through the last mile, run a little bit faster, lift a little more weights. That way, your body will adjust to handle the load next time. And so you stretch your limits again, and slowly increase your strength and endurance. We learn that difficult and getting tired is a positive thing for us, something to help us grow and get stronger over time. 

What if we started treating our mind in the same way. In order for it to grow, we must stretch it’s capabilities from time to time. Do something we’ve never done before. Take on a task that feels impossible. Have a difficult conversation. Stand up in front of an audience despite our fears.

Few people fear excercise, still they don’t treat their mindset as something they can stretch and grow.

Will you?

If I ask you for an example of a good decision you’ve made in the past, I am likely to hear about one where you had a successfull outcome.

We often get clouded by potential outcome when it comes to decision making. This combined with the fact that we dislike losing significantly more than we enjoy winning, skews our decision making toward status quo.

Something I find helpful is drawing a simple decision tree. It forces me to quantify my desired outcome in some shape or form and to think about probabilities for different scenarios. It usually shows me a ton of scenarios that I had not considered before, and it painfully highlights that most of what drives the outcome is out of my control.

I cannot predict the future, and neither can you. What we can do is structure our thinking to make calculated decisions and be prepared for a range of different outcomes.

Now go, make a decision.

It has been known for social psychologist for a long time that we humans seek to rationalize our irrational behavior*.

I see people extend the same behaviour to justify their behaviours to others, even though it is not asked for or even expected. People spend a large amount of time and energy thinking about what story to tell their boss/colleague/partner/kid/friend that justifies their actions. From time to time I see people acting against their own intent if they can’t find a matching story to tell others.

One of the hardest things to do without a matching story is to say no. No, I cannot do that. No, I cannot prioritize this just no. No, that does not align with my long-term goals. No. 

Start saying no to things, and see how often you are asked to justify your no. I bet you it is less often than you think.

 

---

* Two excellent reads on the topic is Dan Airelys Predictably Irrational and Daniel Kahnemans Thinking, Fast and Slow.

An expert is someone who learns a skill and then repeat it with precision. Once you’ve learned surgery, you keep practicing it to get better at surgery.

As an expert in the new world of knowledge work, you produce something not produced before – and you never repeat it.

If you successfully launched a product at a small startup you don’t repeat the same steps at IBM and expect the same results.

 

Curiosity and creativity are two skills to grow for becoming an expert in the new world.

When I started this blog, I set a goal for myself to publish two posts every week for the rest of 2019, with no exception. I filled in the Shipit Journal, setup a daily habit of writing and made concrete times on when to publish.

Then came summer. For over five weeks I have spent time with the family, travelling and spending a lot of time outdoors. This summer I did a deliberate downscale on digital, inspired by Cal Newports new book on the topic. No computer, no 24h-tracking of my heartrate and sleep, phone left in the cabin/room most of the time.

That was a choice I made. It obviously made it much harder for me to fulfill my goal of this blog, but somehow that insight didn’t reach me until I had missed quite a few of my planned blog posts. A growing feeling of letting someone down. Letting myself down. I still feel bad for it, even if I am the only one who cares about that goal.

I had a clear goal (publish to this blog), and yet jumped on another shiny new thing (Digital Minimalism) without much reflection of how one would affect the other. I see this behaviour in myself and others, both in individuals and in organisations. Yes, we are doing A. And now we will also start doing B.

In retrospect, I should have spent some time reflecting over my decision to experiment on digital minimalism over the summer. Can it be be done while pursuing my other goals? Do I need to adjust my current goals and priorities? Can I change some of my habits to keep my current goal while also doing this? I did nothing of this, I just started.

Regardless of the decision, I would have been clear on priorities, spending my days without that nagging feeling that I failed. That would have been worth a lot.

 

Reviewing your project list regularly and adjusting it to reflect your priorities is a great way to stay clear about what is important and avoid the busy work that does not move you towards your goal(s).