In the last post, I threw down a challenge:
“When you have a ball in your hand, before launching it back up into the air, take an extra two seconds to think intentionally about what you do with it. Should you toss it back into the air right now or can you place it specifically to set yourself up for success next time you come across it.”
Let’s dive into that.
The Clown Again
As the Clown named “Life” keeps chucking balls in our general direction, we need to first evaluate whether the balls are worth our time and effort to catch. This depends in part on whether they are glass balls or rubber balls. The glass balls require more care and attention, but you can let the rubber balls fly.
Not only is the Clown throwing balls at you, but you are juggling a handful of balls right now. These could be a project at work, a crisis at home, or your desire to start up your exercise routine again. As you juggle these mental burdens, your mind is dividing its attention in an effort to keep everything airborne. When one issue comes crashing down, you have to spend more attention on it, reducing your efforts in the other areas and putting them at risk.
The American Way is to see how many balls we can keep in the air simultaneously.
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could modify your life-juggling routine to only have one or two balls airborne at any given time? What would that look like?
Your mind would be free to effectively process and handle the most important problems.
5 Tactics that help me ‘set the ball’ intentionally:
- Consistent Routines
- Schedules
- Go one step farther
- Seek to set your people up for success
- Brain dump your open loops
Consistent Routines
As humans we are innately creatures of habit. Even those who are ‘spontaneous’ have habits. I can guarantee, wherever you have success in your life, there is a habit or a routine associated.
A routine is simply a series of habits. Routines are powerful because they ensure you accomplish your priority tasks even when “life” keeps throwing things at you.
My weekday morning routine is my most intentional success-habit. Below is the outline.
0530 – Wake and dress for workout (10-15mins)
0545 – Workout (~35mins)
0620 – Stretch (~10mins)
0630 – Scripture reading (~15mins)
0644 – Prayer (10mins) / Meditation (3-5mins)
0700 – Writing (30mins)
I have designed my morning specifically to accomplish my high-priority daily actions. When I walk into work in the morning, I am proud of the mental and physical exercise I’ve accomplished. My morning routine prepares me for my day.
Nearly as important as the morning routine, I have an evening routine that ensures I get to bed on time, prepared for the following day.
My ‘get home from work’ routine ensures I don’t lose my wallet or car keys.
Having consistent routines set you up for success. They ensure you take the actions necessary to grow.
Note: do not expect to create a routine and follow it everyday for the rest of your life. Routines can and should be semi-fluid. What works now may not work when you get married or have a child. A priority today may not be a priority next year.
ACTION: Start today. Take a minute to write down a few priority habits you want to accomplish in the morning. Organize them into a flow that makes sense for you. Tomorrow morning, execute on that routine, then assess whether it worked. Revise the flow as needed. Start small, you can always add on later.
Schedules
I am not referencing calendar use here, although that is important. By ‘schedules’ I mean an extension of routines. A routine of routines.
What is a routine of routines? Here is an example: I have a specific workout for each day of the week. When I wake up on Monday morning, there is no question about what workout to do. I simply put my head down and get the Monday workout done.
Another example is with my writing. I write every morning, but I have a schedule of what to write about. Whenever I sit down to do my writing, there is no question about what project to work on. I can get right to work.
What is the benefit?
The benefit of this system of routines is twofold. #1- it sheds the mind of some decision-making burden. When I wake up and put my workout clothes on, I don’t have to sit there and decide what workout to do. I have a set system that works for me and ensures I get well-rounded exercise at the magnitude that I need.
#2- I don’t lose motivation to workout while contemplating what exercise to do. The long I go deciding what to do, the more likely I am to not do anything. My system of routines ensures I get a good workout in and stay motivated throughout the week.
ACTION: Find one area of your life to implement a schedule of routines. It could be your exercise, your personal development, or your house cleaning schedule. It could be your first hour in the office. It could be your monthly meeting schedule. Having a schedule of routines creates an expectation for yourself and anyone else who is involved. Humans thrive on consistently met expectations.
Always go one step farther
A good friend of mine shared a workout tip that I think is brilliant.
“When doing a multi-set workout for time, always do at least one rep of the next set before pausing for a break.”
This concept is great for intensity workout, and it applies to the rest of life as well.
Here is an example of how I use this concept at work. The other day I received an email from a contractor working on a project I am managing. He asked for a time to set up a phone call to discuss an aspect of the project.
At this instance I had three options: ignore the email and let it get lost, schedule a time immediately, defer scheduling the call until a later time.
Naturally, I did not want to simply ignore the request, although that would be the easy button option.
I couldn’t schedule the call immediately because my week was full and I did not know my schedule for the following week.
This left the third option; defer scheduling the call until a later time.
So I replied that I would set a time for the call later in the week when I knew my schedule.
But I went one step farther. I put a reminder into my task management system (Todoist) to remind me to schedule a call the following Monday.
I went one step farther. I copied down his phone number in that reminder so I wouldn’t have to search around for it when the time came to schedule/make the call.
When you go one step farther, you set yourself up for success. Often (if not always), taking the extra step saves you time and mental energy down the line. Developing and using your task management system allows you to shed that open loop from your mind because you know it will resurface at an optimal time.
ACTION: Take the extra 5 seconds to go one step farther.
Seek to set your people up for success
You are a leader. No matter where you are in life, you are a leader right now.
Here are a few groups of people who you lead:
- Yourself
- Your family (spouse, children, parents, siblings etc.)
- Your community (friends, neighbors, random people you bump into)
- Your co-workers (peers, subordinates and even your managers/bosses)
Leadership, by definition, is influence. To varying extents you have influence over everyone in each of those groups. Therefore you are a leader.
As a leader, you are called to set your people up for success to your best ability with the goal of accomplishing the mission.
This entire post (and my website / the Vector Mastermind) is all about setting yourself up for success.
For your family and community, first determine the mission. What is the larger strategic goal you want to accomplish, and what are the smaller more tactical goals to be achieved?
My wife and I are potty training our daughter. We have focused many aspects of our day to help achieve that goal. I set my daughter up to be successful by being interested and involved, encouraging when she is successful, and teaching when she is not. We place her in situations that promote the behavior we are attempting to teach her.
At work, the applications of this concept are endless, and this should drive every action and decision. Setting your people up for success does not mean to do their work for them. Rather, it requires you to anticipate their needs and give them the tools and training to accomplish their mission.
Always leave the lines of communication open and inviting. When your people know they can initiate a dialogue with you about their work, they are more likely to ask questions and complete their mission.
ACTION: Find an opportunity today to set your people up for success. In conjunction with the previous point, take the extra five seconds to ensure your people have the right tools and the right instruction to succeed.
Brain dump your open loops
An open loop is any train of thought that has not reached closure.
It could be the fact that the grass is long and you need to mow it. Maybe you’ve been focusing on a project at work and there is one piece you can’t figure out. An email from your cell service provider that your bill is due is an open loop.
An open loop is your mind nagging you to get something done. When the next step is undefined, your mind will continuously remind you about it in an effort to make sure it is not forgotten.
As the number of open loops increases, the overall burden on your mind magnifies. Eventually you won’t be able to keep all of the open loops in the foreground and they are forgotten.
I have a technique that I use to shed open loops. This shedding process ensures my mind is clear, allowing me to focus my full attention on the task at hand.
During my morning routine, I spend three to five minutes in silence, with my eyes closed. I simply breathe.
Inevitably, a thought pops into my head. When it does, I analyze whether the thought refers to an open loop. If it qualifies as a recurring burden, I take a mental note of it. Depending on the nature of the thought or open loop, I will ask myself, “specifically, why is this thought bothering me?” I peel back a layer of the onion. If required, I’ll ask a similar question again to focus in on what is going on with the open loop. Again, I make a mental note about the thought.
However, if the thought does not refer to an open loop, I will consciously push it out of my mind, returning to silent breathing.
In the three to five minutes, I may find a handful of open loops. I immediately write down the top three. Often, the first open loop to weigh on my mind is the one that is most pressing.
Now that I have a roster of the top open loops, I go through each one and define the next step.
There are three next step scenarios with the open loops:
- It is actionable today. In this case, I put it into my task management system for today.
- It is actionable at a later date, but not today. I will still input the next step to my task management system, dated for the most appropriate time.
- It is currently out of my hands. I have a choice: I can either follow up with the appropriate person, or simply be content that I need not worry about it.
I have found that by doing this a few times a week, I am far more focused and productive.
ACTION: Schedule a brain dump of your open loops for this week. Better yet, do it right now. Close your computer or put down your phone, set a timer for 3 minutes, and identify your most pressing open loops.
Conclusion
You will never have as much time as you do now. Life continues to become more complicated and complex. Use these five methods to set yourself up for success. Intentionally deal with the balls “Life” throws at you.
Get after it. Live on purpose.
