Arhiva: iulie 2020, în engleză

I was 14 or 15 when, finally, a martial arts club opened in the city I lived in. All of a sudden, we could go and become Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan or Jean Claude Van Damme. Of course, it didn’t work like this, but something stayed with me since then: the belt system. A system of quick (sort of) wins that would keep you on your track of mastering martial arts.

I mean, isn’t it easier when you get a yellow belt after 6-12 months, showing your progress, rather than waiting years without any external sign of improvement?

I always thought quick wins are a cheap trick to keep you motivated. I thought you should be able to find intrinsic motivation in whatever you are doing and you shouldn’t care about anything else.

I still have the same belief: what you do should give you enough intrinsic motivation so that you can do whatever it is you’re doing even when it’s not as easy as you’d like. I changed my mind when it comes to quick wins, though.

You should make getting quick wins part of the process for your work (or any other activity). The quick wins shouldn’t be the purpose, but they DO help in tricking your brain to focus on work when you don’t feel like it.

How I do it?

During my normal work process I use some AGILE principles: I have daily and weekly targets.

What I do a little bit differently is having at least one of the weekly tasks (even daily, if possible) a fun one. Something I truly enjoy, even if it’s not the most effective use of my time.

The purpose of a quick win is not to move things forward, but to keep you moving forward.

Image from Canva

A lot of people pride themselves on being efficient. And this is not bad. Unless you’re efficient about the wrong things. Which means you’re not being effective.

Take this: you have a business selling a hat. And you devise the most efficient marketing plan for selling the hat. But truth is, the hat is bad. SO BAD! And you just spent 3 months creating the best and smoothest marketing plan. And you don’t sell anything. Because people can see that your hat is bad.

Effective = successful in producing a desired or intended result.

Obviously, what you need to do is make a better hat and THEN create the best marketing plan. And, I know, sometimes it’s not that clear.

Basically, what you need to do is to become effective instead of efficient. You’re being effective once you move things forward, once you put your energy in the RIGHT things. Like improving your product. Or creating a great marketing plan ONCE you have the right product.

To sum up, effectiveness is the combination of good efficiency and good prioritizing.
It’s being efficient about the right things.. Once you have these, all you need to do is put in the work.

Anytime you hear someone saying “I’m very efficient” ask “what about?”. Because you want effective people around you. Those that are efficient about the right things.

n example from my own history was when we tested if people wanted to play Solitaire Arena in a very efficient way – time and money wise.

Image from Canva

This post was previously published on my personal blog.