Tag: February

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Minimum Effective Dose – What I Learned Feb. 2018

Minimum to understand, keep testing

I started a new job this month.

As the senior product manager, my job description focuses on the externalities of the product a team creates.

Except, it isn’t that.

What I do is create alignment for the product, the consumer, and the team building the damn thing.

And as the defacto head of marketing, understand the process so that those who end up working for (content, production, design, social)  and around (recruiting, product, sales) can work from that alignment without having to consult me.

So, this month and theme have been pretty fortuitous for me.

Why?

Everything I do in this position requires a minimum effective dose to be effective, quickly.Writing about the work of testing, understanding risk, and falsifiability has helped me communicate it through action.

This work has helped me resist the temptation to “go all in” to feel effective, because I know I can’t “afford” it. I can’t afford to go all in on anything because, as a startup, everything (including me) is new.  Resources are tight, time is tighter, and in this environment, you cannot afford to move without trust.

Every movement is a test, not to be liked, but to be effective.

Think of it as a “pen test” instead of a business plan.

Small is significant, and thrashing is a must.

Move forward.

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Priorities Matter – Lessons From Feburary 2017

Set, and then reset your direction

We have an impulse to “go.”

I think it is important to build the muscles to “ship.” Far too many people talk about doing things and don’t ever make it happen.

However, if you are reading this, that may not be a problem for you. The big problem is,”how do I make sure I’m doing the right thing.”

That’s hard.  Setting the right priority is hard. No one tells you how to do it in school. It’s a skill that you have to gain through experience.

The good news is, once you get good, a ton of doors open for you because you keep your sword sharp. You stop your inner critic from treating you so bad. It’s easier to forgive yourself.

Being able to breathe and not let that impulse win opens a lot of doors.

So, take a moment, and set your priorities.

It will make everything else easier.

Books – My Goodreads Account

  • Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
  • The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy
  • SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient – Powered by the Science of Games
  • The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
  • The Chomsky Reader
  • All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
  • The Knowledge: A Too Close To True Novel

Newsletter – Subscribe Here

Did you know I send a newsletter out every Sunday? It is more personal than the blog, combining my personal stories with an overarching theme.  I also throw in some great links that I’ve found on the internet.

Life As Usual Video Blog

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I created a video blog that delivers these lessons in a visual medium. Curious? Subscribe above and get a notification as soon as they come out.

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Our Willpower Is Limited, Best To Not Push It (Thoughts on Feb. 2016)

Intentional Scarcity is Difficult

The biggest thing I realized this month is that saying no, even when you want to, is hard. Saying no when you don’t want to is almost impossible, unless there are the right conditions. We have limited willpower and we often underestimate the limit we have.  Also, each option and decision we have saps the supply of willpower. So, it is incredibly important to pick your spots because unless you don’t have a choice, you will fail if you try to change too much at once.  If you do fail, its important to manage the failure, understand what happened, and move forward.

I also learned that starting with nothing is best. The more tools you buy, the more monumental the task becomes. Even buying something like running shoes adds expectations to the task. That expectation adds pressure, and unless you are directing that pressure (accountability practices) you want to avoid as much of it as possible.  So, keep things simple, especially when you want to start something drastically different.   If you want to write, just start a Tumblr or WordPress. If you want to do videos, just shoot them on your camera and upload them to YouTube. Start working out with just one push-up.  By being intentionally scarce you remove pressure and increase the chance that you will follow through.

Biggest Lesson – Saying no is extremely difficult when your willpower is low, so pick your targets and take away options when you can.

My Correct Assumptions

  • There is a cap on Willpower

My Incorrect Assumptions

  • Defaulting to abundance with free time, I default to nothing, and that is helpful.
  • I should start a new habit by buying things first.

Important Posts

Videos

Books

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So, Lets Hold Off – February Is About Intentional Scarcity

 

I noticed my website was slow

The site got tremendously slow. It was getting difficult to update. I appreciate speed when it comes to “surfing the web.” So, I decided to strip everything down to its basic form today. I removed all the plug-ins, and voilà, the site got fast once again. It was a great introduction to this months theme, intentional scarcity, or the idea that I am creating constraints to improve. I ran across this idea when I read the book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, (on the reread list this month) and have used it in an ad-hoc fashion to improve certain aspects of my life. This month I want to take advantage of the 29 days (leap year!) and try to see, with focus, how I use intentional scarcity to make things better in a systemic way.

This month’s theme ties into abstinence

At the end of last year I wrote a post that resulted in me picking 5 themes for 2016. They are the guiding light (strategic)  for my ideas. Each month on this blog, I break things down into the practical (tactical). This year I want to tie them together, so each month, I have to write the reason they connect.

Intentional scarcity ties into abstinence because I am abstaining from the thrills and frills that most people assume they need. It forces me to say ‘no’ to comfort and ultimately, make me more productive.

Reread candidate

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir – This is a textbook for intentional scarcity, as it provides both research and case studies on why it works.

Other candidates

Don’t Make Me Think 

Questions

What questions will I ask this month when it comes to Intentional Scarcity. I think it’s important to think about the month’s theme, and the best weapon to generate thought comes from questions.

  • Why do I need this?
  • How does it work without it?
  • What made me think I needed this in the first place?
  • Is it because someone else said I needed to do it? Why do they think that?

Subthemes

What are some of the subjects that come to mind when it comes to Intentional Scarcity that need some extra leg work.

  • Bare bones – How do things work at the root of it?
  • Pavlok – I bought a Pavlok device. How does this factor into my intentional scarcity?
  • Free time – I have a lot of free time.  I default to abundance, how it this going to work?
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