WAYS TO GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME

 

In my last post (https://bit.ly/3D9poL2) I shared the concept of 10X Rule from Grant Cardone's book. The essence of 10X rule can be understood from this equation-
10X Rule = 10X Goals + 10X Actions

It has to be a worthy marriage of goals and actions that drives progress. It doesn't take any special knowledge to comprehend that vision without execution is a daydream.

I recall from one of the podcasts where Nandan Nilekani shared his insights on Thinker-Doer continuum. In a world obsessed with ideas, execution often does not get as much spotlight as it should. Nandan says-
"If you do just thinking without execution, then you become just a futurist. You would simply be writing articles.
You also have to ask- what does that mean in my actions today?
I toggle between thinker-doer thing. I have a thinker-doer toggle. I think about something, get it done and then go back to thinking. Thinker-doer thinks strategically and then do it.
Thinker-doer asks what can I do today to get there?"

Peter Thiel too captured the essence of 10X execution when he remarked in his interview with Tim Ferriss- “How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?”

The challenge then becomes- how can you get more done in less time? especially when all of us have same 24 hours at hand.

Amantha Imber in her HBR article "4 Ways to Get More Done in Less Time" https://bit.ly/3ClQTjz shares some relatable ideas that are worthy to consider and inculcate in your daily routine. Few of them as under:

1. Align the work that requires your most intense brain power with your energy peaks.
2. Plan your day the night before.
3. Think about the main categories of work you do. Develop different rituals for different types of work.
4. A fully blocked day can give you a false sense of productivity. If your calendar looks full, deliberately schedule time to do nothing.

Catch the summary in my sketchnote.

What are your personal productivity hacks ? Please do share in comments.

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_ways-to-get-more-done-in-less-time-in-my-activity-6864881616943235072--I4S/

CUSTOMERS DON'T NEED 1/4-INCH DRILL, BUT A 1/4-INCH HOLE

 

Most of us have possibly heard the above phrase or a variant of this- "people don't just buy ice cream, but also celebration and bonding." These phrases covers the essence of "Jobs to be done" approach to building products.

To build on this, let me first share a story, the simplicity of which always amazes me.

Late Clayton Christensen (creator of disruptive innovation theory) once tried to improve the sales of McDonald milkshakes. He tried to make them sweeter, offered them in different tastes,& slightly increased the size of the cups. Nothing worked out, until his team started observing the customers. They found out that the job the customers hired the milkshake for was in fact to make their morning car ride to work less boring. The big benefit a milkshake has is that it is a thick drink that lasts longer than any other drink and stuffs the stomach. This was the real problem; the customers had no idea about it. In the end, Christensen and team came up with the solution to make the milkshake even thicker, which led to an increase in sales numbers.
(Hear it in Clayton's words here: https://lnkd.in/gPCMNZXG)

The traditional way of increasing milk shake sales might have required segmenting the customers, looking at the preferences of each and then arriving at a strategy that works. But Clayton looked at the problem from the lens of "Jobs to be done" framework.

Conceptually, what is the "Jobs to be done" framework and how does it work. Some insights below-

1. A job can be a problem to solve (e.g., “repair my car,” “make my morning ride less boring”) or a goal (e.g., “run a marathon,” “get into college”). 
2. When jobs arise, people are motivated to seek products, services, or experiences to “hire” to perform those jobs.
3. "Jobs to be done" approach provides a lens to define a business from the perspective of what’s at the heart of any company’s success: its ability to create value for customers. 
4. “Innovation can be far more predictable—and far more profitable—if you start by identifying the jobs that customers are struggling to get done”- Clayton Christensen

This framework, apparently is behind the success and turnaround of Twitter post 2015 onwards as is outlined in this HBR article https://bit.ly/3bPEoSc (summary in my sketchnote)
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey recently said-
“We intend to build an ecosystem of connected features and services focused on serving three core jobs: news, which is what’s happening; discussion, conversation; and helping people get paid,”

The application of "Jobs to be done" is far and wide from building products, market, to strategy.

Where else do you think "Jobs to be done" framework can be applied in work context ?

(Further recommended read on Steve Blank's ideas on using this approach to find a market https://lnkd.in/g44j_qFG )

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_customers-dont-need-14-inch-drill-but-activity-6863078342543982592-ydoy/

WHAT REALLY IS METAVERSE ?

 

I recall it was in the year 2005 or 06 that I got to experience an application called as Second Life. True to it's name, it allowed people to create an avatar for themselves and experience the life in an online virtual world. The term metaverse wasn't a thing then but this was my first experience to a concept which was projected as something that could become big in future. This experience actually turned out in disappointment. Though I could make an avatar, go into the alternate reality with a never-ending real-estate but the slow performance killed the experience (thanks to nom ideal bandwidth, limited hardware capabilities back then). It looked fancy but with limited utility.

Fast forward to Aug 2021, Fortnite (an online video game by Epic Games) hosted a Ariana Grande's music concert in it's video game universe, which was attended by millions of viewers (or should i say their online avatars!) live. Welcome to an evolved version of metaverse! Catch the concert video here https://lnkd.in/gDyxYDt3 If the popularity and stickiness of such concerts with the Gen Z audiences gives any signal, it is that the metaverse is the future of online experience.

With the recent announcements by Facebook and Microsoft, it is safe to state that metaverse is an idea which is fast approaching fruition. Jaspreet Bindra in his enlightening article on the subject https://bit.ly/2ZSXl3D throws a light on various aspects of this up and coming trend. Catch the summary in my sketchnote.
Some of my notes here:

1. You can think about metaverse as an embodied internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at (which is what we do now).
2. It's a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces.
3. It is a space where digital and physical spaces will converge.
4. Metaverse will bring together a lot of ongoing technology trends like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Digital Twins etc.
5. Shaan Puri in his popular twitter thread https://bit.ly/2ZNphGh equates metaverse with time and says that "The metaverse is the moment in time where our digital life is worth more to us than our physical life."
6. In the years to come, metaverse is expected to touch almost all the aspects of our lives- including work, economy, education, entertainment and more.

What do you think about how this trend will impact our lives in the years to come ? Do you consider it a right time to start reimagining your products for metaverse ?

Please do share in the comments.

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_what-really-is-metaverse-i-recall-it-was-activity-6862196508943642624-BgkS/

WHAT IS YOUR NORTH STAR METRIC ?

Noah Kegan was employee#30 at Facebook. He was a keen, curious and a creative employee. Back in the year 2005, Noah took Mark Zuckerberg into the conference room and shared an idea that he considered as a genius idea. At that time, Facebook's business model was evolving and it was not earning in billions of dollars as it today. Noah was concerned that Facebook wasn't making enough money and his idea revolved around revenue generation but apparently it missed a point. Mark listened to him and then moved to the whiteboard wrote the word, “GROWTH.” He proclaimed he would not entertain any idea unless it helped Facebook grow by total number of “users.”

That was the maniacal focus Mark had on the metric that mattered the most- The North Star Metric (NSM).

Alex Garcia in his comprehensive twitter thread https://bit.ly/3nQmXXy breaks down the concept of north star metric (the summary in my sketchnote). Alex says-

The north star metric is the core metric of your business's growth. It's one metric, but it’s two-fold:
- The value you provide to a customer
- The direction of the company’s long term growth
If your NSM grows, your company grows.

This number best reflects the amount of value that a company brings to your customers. The core idea is that if your company brings more value to your customers, then the growth of your company has to go positive.
A few well-known NSM examples are:
Spotify = ‘Time spent listening‘
Airbnb = ‘Number of nights booked‘
Facebook = ‘Monthly active users‘
Slack= 'Daily active users'
(Source: https://bit.ly/3w9Dr0F)

While difficult to nail down in one go (and takes a few iterations), NSM returns focus, transparency and customer orientation to the team executing the business.

What do you think is the north star metric of your work ? Can the concept of north star metric be applied to one's life goals ?

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_what-is-your-north-star-metric-noah-kegan-activity-6861622348777443328-69pS/

A FEW TRUTHS ABOUT FINDING YOUR PASSION

Andre Agassi's autobiography 'Open' was launched in the year 2009 and I distinctly remember it causing quite a stir, being one of the most authentic accounts of his life. One of the things that stayed with me for long was Agassi saying-

"I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have." 

Later in an interview with Vijay Amritraj, he reaffirmed- “I just happened to be good at the sport which I completely hated.”

Wait, what's happening here- A top player, former Tennis world no. 1, 8 grand slam titles, a career slam, an Olympic Gold- someone managed to achieve all this while not particularly loving what they do. What's happening here ?- you might be wondering, as I was as well.

As the author Cal Newport prefers to call it- "Passion Hypothesis"- is about first figuring out what you’re passionate about, and then looking for a job that allows you to use this passion. And Cal questioned this notion in his book- "So Good They Can't Ignore You". He opines that the path to passion is far more complicated than saying "this is what i want to do and here is the path to it." This approach arguably makes people unhappy about their jobs.

Cal's research on this subject revealed that many people who end up doing well in their careers didn't have preexisting passions. Instead, over a period as they became good at what they do, their passion grew.

It turns out why people are passionate about what they do is that they routinely experience these 3 traits-
1. Creativity: Opportunity to improvise your work and implement your ideas
2. Control: Having some say on how, when and where your work gets done
3. Impact: Work has a positive impact on people.

While Agassi's reason for not liking Tennis was due to several factors including him thinking that he was forced into playing Tennis but the fact remains that there are only a very few people who find their true Ikigai (intersection of "What you love", "What world needs", "What are you good at", "What you can be paid for"). For rest of us, passion is something that is a result of exploration and our quest for mastery in our fields.

Ankur Warikoo in his twitter thread https://bit.ly/3GxPFF5 beautifully sums up the truths behind finding your passion. I quite loved sketching the summary of these brilliant ideas.

What's your take on the topic of finding your passion ?

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_a-few-truths-about-finding-your-passion-activity-6860021934290300928-dhI2/

INVERT TO UNCOVER NEW POSSIBILITIES

 

In one of the podcasts with Tim Ferris, Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen talks about the concept of Red Teams that Marc uses to test out his investments. The role of red team is to take the stance against investing. With the intention to destroy his investment ideas, they produce strong counter-arguments. If the idea survives this attack, then conclusively it is possibly an idea worth investing.

Legendary investor Charlie Munger once said “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” and he credits the success he and Warren Buffet managed to achieve was by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.

So, what's the point here ? It is that you can achieve success in any endeavor by thinking "what would make it successful" or by simply avoiding "what would cause the project to fail" (or both).
A Tennis player can win a match by hitting winners or simply by avoiding unforced errors (or both).

These examples, in a manner of speaking, are the foundation of an underrated, yet powerful mental model called as 'Inverse Thinking'.

Inversion is about asking yourself upfront "What the ways you can fail" and doing all that's needed to avoid those situations.

In context of thinking Romeen Sheth in this extraordinary thread https://bit.ly/2Zsh7n6 says that one can achieve clarity of thoughts by avoiding cognitive distortions (irrational thoughts) and suggests 10 such distortions. My sketchnote(s) summary of the thread included here. (click on the image to read both the sketchnotes)

e.g. Ambiguity Effect is about our tendency to choose an action in where we know the exact probability vs. not taking the actions where the probability is unknown. We often tend to choose the former path because we tend to to think it's safe whereas most of the times the chances of rewards are more in the (risky) areas where probability isn't as exactly known.
To think better, try and avoid Ambiguity effect and other distortions called out.

What are the ways you think you can use Inverse thinking ?

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_invert-to-uncover-new-possibilities-in-activity-6859304446095171584-t_yG/

WHY BIAS FOR ACTION CAN (SOMETIMES) BE DETRIMENTAL ?

 

There's a story that Prakash Iyer shares in his book "Habit of Winning" which stayed with me ever since i heard it.

The team of scholars in Israel studied 286 penalty kicks from major league football games. A few facts about penalty kicks- a) Goalkeepers get 0.1 seconds to react b) Kick distance is 11 m.
In 0.1 sec, the goalkeeper has to commit to a dive- left or right. The research team tracked the direction of the kick (left, right and center) and tabulated the statistics. And what they found: a goalkeeper's best chance of stopping a penalty kick is if he doesn’t dive and stays put in the center!
Though the probability of stopping a kick is the highest when the goalkeeper did not move, the team found that in 92% of the cases, the goalkeeper committed himself to a dive to the either side. Why then do they dive, when standing still would give them their best chance of success!

Even though 'bias for action' is a desirable trait in most of the situations, it turns out that, in certain situations 'no action' is more effective.

In 2014, Square had built a little card reader and was charging the lowest (at that time) for it's service. Many small businesses were using its reader and were happy. At this juncture, Amazon entered the card reader market by making a slightly better reader that solved one pain-point that Square reader had. It also offered a cheaper card reader. To respond to this existential threat, Square could have change it's reader but didn't do it as they would have compromised one of its core value: beautiful design.

Instead of competing, Square decided to do nothing. Yes. nothing! They preferred to stick to their values and principles. And they eventually prevailed. (Story adapted from the book: The Innovation Stack).

Shreyas Doshi's brilliant thread https://bit.ly/3nlwaXo helps reason the value of 'no action' decision more succinctly. He talks about the difference between busy problem solving and effective problem solving. (summary in my sketchnote as well). In my hypothesis, the cultures than promote ‘bias for action’ (which includes most of the modern companies) implicitly promote busy problem solving.

Effective problem solving may look elaborate and time-consuming but it helps reap long-term rewards. It shuns instant gratification mindset. Strategies based solely on busy problem solving will eventually result in many false positives i.e. you end up solving problems that needn't be solved or could have been deferred.

Not all situations demand us to really commit to an action. Knowing when not to act is an underrated aspect of work and is equally important.

What do you think ?

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