Tag: starting small

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Ignition + Vision = If You Complete the Mission – Lessons from July 2016

Starting small delivers big value

This month began as a mystery to me. “Starting small” is a general term. I mean different things to different people. This month, I engaged with that generality and got some interesting conclusions.

First, however, is what I knew coming into the month:

When preparing those ideas, I realized there were several aspects of “small” that which we have to deal.  Things, like the small chunks of time that happen between meetings, the little mistakes that we ignore, and a little context all affect us.

These things change us in ways we don’t imagine, both for better and for worse.   Taking the time to think about and prepare for these events don’t just make us feel better, but make us smarter for doing so.

We aren’t alone, nor are we robots. We get in our way. We don’t know everything.

But, through working on what we do, and taking things one day at a time, we can do great things.  All it takes is patience, and the ability to breathe. 

From there, much is possible. Two minutes is enough to start. 

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Your Ignition is the Inverse of Your Initial Commitment

Don’t commit too much to new ideas

New ideas are great. It means that there is a project on the horizon, and shipping projects feel good.

The newness of an idea is fun. The hard part, though, is turning that curiosity into something finished. That involves a process.

My old process might sound familiar to you. It included slicing large blocks of time out of my calendar where I was going to do the work. From there, I would sit down, and try to do 5 to 10 hours of work on this one idea.

Sounds good in theory, but it was awful in practice. The amount of time wasn’t an issue. The amount of pre-allocated commitment was. I made a promise that was too hard to keep to myself.

When you run into promises that are too hard to follow, it’s easier not to start on the project then fail to hold your “word.” I didn’t know it at the planning stages, but just by committing that amount of time to that idea in huge chunks: I sowed the seeds of the project’s defeat.

A lot of promising things didn’t ship because I over-committed.

o I recently discovered a process that allows me to take on ideas, and ship them with a higher completion rate. It requires going the other direction, promising less time.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but committing to something small makes starting much easier.

If I plan on working on something for two minutes, well, it’s that much easier to get going.

So, committing to small is an excellent ignition point – what about sustaining that little commitment better and how do I make sure that I don’t work on it forever?

Well, over the next two days, we will talk about just those topics.

For now, think about how you can lower the amount of time commitment to the ideas you have. A smaller commitment means more tasks complete.

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You Don’t Know and I Don’t Know

It’s fine, but don’t hide.

It’s easy to run with a new project when you’ve gone through something like it before.

Working through the unknown is much harder.

We use strategies:

  • Asking for more “research.”
  • Trying to “figure it out.”
  • Faint, open-ended requests designed to either give us the answer/shift blame.

All of these are strategies to hide from the work.

This post isn’t telling you not to do those things. Those bullet points are due diligence, and each one is necessary.

But, if you keep coming back to those points, ask yourself, “Am I hiding because I fear the unknown?”

If yes, start.

 

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Priorities and Boundaries Concerning Meetings – The Small Decisions That Affect Them

Don’t forget the small decisions

I am a big fan of calendaring these days. 15 to 30 minutes on Sunday allow me to keep track of the incoming and outgoing quite efficiently.

With that said, I noticed something when I started keeping track of the meetings and my lateness (by paying for everyone’s food/drink. If you want to remember something add a pain point). I realized that small decisions made after the meeting created more tardiness than any other decision.

  • More than the train
  • More than getting up late
  • More than making sure I complete my habits

What is a small decision post-meeting?

It’s the little discussions that happen after the meeting finishes, after “closing remarks” that keep it going.

Some examples:

  • Follow up details for the next meeting
  • Clearing up misunderstandings
  • Goodbyes

All of these things are critical to maintaining a relationship, and all of them quietly add a few minutes. It takes a meeting from 4 – 4:30 and makes it 4 – 4:45.

So, when scheduling a meeting, make sure you either:

  • Establish boundaries before the meeting and state that there is a hard out earlier than necessary to get out
  • Add padding to your schedule to account for it (if you didn’t set the meeting)
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That Moment Can Go Boom!

There is a moment where our emotions take control.

It’s not wrong.

Don’t blame your emotions. Don’t try to shut them out. It’s a normal occurrence.

You aren’t a robot. Trying to shut down your emotions like a robot has awful consequences. They don’t just go away; they just hide elsewhere.

So, feel free to experience them at the moment. But only in that moment.

They start small, but those emotions grow if you let them. If you do let them, they also have terrible consequences.

Think of it as a fuse to a stick of dynamite.

It’s no problem if it burns for a second, but if you let it go long enough…

BOOM!

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What’s Stopping You?

What is it?

When you look at yourself in the mirror every morning, is there a nagging thought?

So, have you ever explored it?

If you haven’t, there is an opportunity each time you catch yourself going to that place.

Write it down.

Keep a notepad in your room and write that thought.

Don’t do anything else. Just write it down.

The thing about our mind is, that “thing” travels with us and inside of our mind all day. So, it hides among other thoughts, waiting for an opportune time to show up.

The idea can’t hide in the open.  Therefore, when you write, you snatch it’s hiding spot.

 

 

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Late but…

Doing something is better than nothing

The alarm clock is going off.

This sounds regular, but this time, you have a sinking feeling. This feeling doesn’t feel right. You look at the clock.

Suspicion confirmed, late again.

You kick off your blanket and swear like it could slow down the clock.

After you tumble into the shower, you grab your toothbrush and start to multitask as if your life depends on it.

From here, you have two options:

  • Run out the door as soon as possible
  • Do the rest of your morning routine, but in a rushed and shortened way. 

Your best bet for having a smooth day lies in the second, counter-intuitive option.

You are late. 5 – 10 more minutes late won’t end the world.

Use that time to find a center with your routine.

It’s not perfect, and you won’t cross all the T’s or dot all the I’s, but your rhythm will fit.

The reason for this is that our brain works on rhythm (or system one thinking) to get through the day. It doesn’t take much for the brain to feel comfortable, merely starting the habit gets the brain where it needs to go.

When you don’t get to the habit, then you spend energy. That’s why the rest of the late day feels terrible; your body is trying to compensate. 

Something is better than nothing at all.

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Being “Seen” isn’t Always Good, Especially When Nothing Comes Back

A glance doesn’t mean an understanding.

On Facebook Messenger, by default, has read receipts.

A read receipt is a notification to the sender of a message that the receiver saw it. While this has some practical applications (say certified mail), having this as a default has a profound psychological result.

When something is “seen” with no response, we create opinions.

“Creating” isn’t good because we default to negative, which means terrible ideas.

Ideas like:

  • That person doesn’t like me.
  • They don’t care about what I have to say.
  • Maybe my opinion wasn’t necessary.

We internalize those ideas, and they turn into feelings.

The negative feelings start small and then grow into something uglier later.

The good news is that by reading this, you are aware.

There are tools to short-circuit the negative response. 

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The Two Minute Rule

We all have two minutes.

When we think about what our next step, we often think “big.”

How are we going to get this project off the ground? How will my parents think about this next step? How do I get this in front of Ben Horowitz?

That leaves us paralyzed and overwhelmed.

A way to combat that paralysis is to use the two-minute rule.

The rule? Do the “next step” in whatever your task is for the next two minutes.

How does it work in practice?

Yesterday, I made my blog post in two minutes.

It isn’t perfect, won’t win any awards, or get the President’s attention.

It does, however, give us something to build on. It stands as an example of this idea, one that we can use to illustrate the point.

We all can find two minutes of dedicated practice in the day.

 

 

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Let’s Get it Going – Starting Small – July 2016

What is the next step?

Do you get that feeling? 

That feeling where the task, project, or dream you have feels like it’s too big?

You feel overwhelmed.

You begin to plan on getting your task done; you find that it’s bigger and bigger.

Instead of this idea you have bettering your life, you look at it as a burden.

At that point, you put it away. After a few days, months, or years you pick it up and do it again.

We all go through it. 

There is a small phrase that can short-circuit this script.

It gets you out of your head and gets something into the world.

That phrase is “start small,” and it’s the theme for this month.

This month’s theme ties into  execution

At the end of last year, I wrote a post that resulted in my picking four 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.

Over two months we discussed communicating and saying no. Those are foundations to put in place. Now it is time to get a little more reckless and start stuff.

Reread candidate

What To Do When It’s Your Turn by Seth Godin– This book is fantastic in getting someone from “zero to one.”  My hope is that we’re all doing that this month.

Assumptions

  • The more experiments are, the better.
  • Our emotions stop us from starting more than anything else.
  • A lot of experiments are free; our mind tricks us into thinking otherwise.

 

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