Design Is Just Asking “How Do I Maximize Pleasure?”

Posted on June 9, 2011 by AJ Kessler

For a long time, the electronics and computer industry asked “How do I make this work?”  This is understandable.  In any nascent industry, getting something that works out the door is priority number one.  But, even after the functionality hurdle was cleared, nobody asked “How do I maximize pleasure?”  They asked things like “How do I make this faster?” or “How do I make this cheaper?”  If you look at the tech giants, even in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, many of their products focused on maximizing measurable output.  Intel & AMD battled over clock speeds, Canon & Nikon battled over megapixel count, ISPs competed solely on connection speeds and price, etc. etc.  As these improvements were going on though, most technology remained a real bitch to use if you didn’t grow up with it.

As processing power more or less caught up with the tasks we threw at it, as notebooks and handhelds became powerful enough to do basic office tasks and cameraphones captured images good enough to make 4×6 prints, we saw a shift.  Good design became the next goal.  When designing the iPhone, Apple didn’t ask “How do we make this as fast and cheap as possible?”, they asked “How do we make this the most pleasurable experience for the user?”  Sleek and solid case, nice screen, intuitive OS, good internet interface, decent battery life, and a closed universe so the user can’t fuck it up.  They didn’t go the early Windows phone route: lets make it as powerful as possible so you can do everything with this brick!  They maximized pleasure, which required them not to maximize functionality.

But in other areas, maximizing functionality is exactly what will maximize pleasure.  Take a look at the following videos.  Both feature tiny living spaces.  The first was designed to not just to be tiny, but to be as functional and pleasurable as possible.  The second was just designed to be tiny.  Tell me there’s not a world of difference in how each owner describes their living space.  The first seems excited.  The second seems like she’s trying to convince herself her life doesn’t suck.


 

Instead of simply stopping after you can affirmatively answer the “does this work?” question, ask “Is this as pleasurable to use as it can be?”

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Style | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Barely Hanging On? Count Backwards to Success

Posted on June 8, 2011 by AJ Kessler

The explosion came from out of nowhere. Flames surround me. I couldn’t see through the glowing white light of burning magnesium.

That’s how the “second half” of Dan Ariely’s life began.  After sustaining third degree burns to over 70% of his body during that magnesium explosion, Dan had years of painful recovery to look forward to, that is if he could make it through the excruciating treatments required to save his life.

Dan, now a behavioral economist, bestselling author of two books, and head of the fittingly titled Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke, shares many insights in his harrowing account of hospital life as a burn victim, particularly on the subject of pain management.  One that I found most interesting was the use of the countdown.

Excruciating Pain

After the accident, Dan’s arm began to swell to the point that the tissue was cutting off the circulation to his hand.  The swelling was so bad that most of the surgeons wanted to amputate the arm.  Instead, one physician decided to make a series of shoulder-to-wrist incisions, to literally bleed the arm, in order to reduce the pressure.  Because of Dan’s weakened heart and lungs, the cuts had to be made without anesthesia of any kind.  The pain was so Dan was screaming, crying, and pleading with the physician to stop. Then Dan receives some encouraging news:

He tells me to count to 10 and that when I reach 10 it will be over. I start counting as slowly as I could bear. 1, 2, 3… Time seems to slow down. The pain captures every aspect of my being. All I have is the slow counting. 4, 5, 6… The pain moves up and down my arm as a new incision was made. 7, 8, 9… I still remember the tearing flesh, the excruciating anguish, and the waiting… as long as I could… before yelling… TEN!

They stop. I feel like an ancient warrior confronting his suffering with brave nobility. I also feel exhausted. “Very good,” the physician congratulates me.

Later, Dan reasoned that knowing that a treatment would end a specified point not only reduced the patient’s overall pain, but prolonged the period of time the treatment could be endured.  Dan also said that the knowledge of the end point provided some feeling of control, even though he surely had none in this instance, and reduced fear and dread, both of which were tremendous benefits.

To test this theory, Dan later asked 60 gym-goers to hold, using their dominant hand, a 5 pound weight, with their arm outstretched to the side of their body, weight parallel to the floor, until exhaustion.  Once this time was recorded, Dan asked each participant to perform the same test with their non-dominant hand, but to do it for 30 seconds longer than they did with their dominant hand.  To one group, Dan said nothing.  To the second group, Dan counted up from 0-30 after they had reached the dominant-hand time.  To the third group, Dan counted down from 30-0 after they had reached the dominant-hand time.

The first group failed, holding the weight for less time in their weak hand than they could with their dominant hand.  The up-counting group held the weight in their weak for 5 seconds longer than they did with their dominant hand.  But the down-counting group held the weight in their weak hand 25 seconds longer!

Waiting For The Subway

The use of the countdown isn’t limited to pain management.  If you live in a city with a subway, chances are you’ve seen signs installed within the last few years that display the ETA of the next train.  These were installed for much the same reason Dan’s physician had him count to ten: they make the pain more bearable.  Waiting for the subway isn’t quite as bad is surgery without anesthetic, but in some cities it’s close.  Why does the knowledge make such a difference?

In 1996, two Hong Kong researches determined that, when customers learned of the wait time, they actually overestimated what that wait would be like to endure.  This added feeling of control has a huge positive effect on customer satisfaction.

Takeaways

Countdowns are effective mind hacks.  Whether it’s an egg timer or a calendar, use a countdown system to help you reach your goals, especially if you’re having trouble meeting them. 

If you provide a customer experience that involves a lot of waiting, or your phone center leaves people on hold forever, and for some reason you don’t want to do anything about these problems, at least use a countdown.  You almost certainly won’t lose as many customers.

Posted in Advice, Business, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Persuasion, Productivity, Rationality | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Did Boredom Make Species Survival Possible?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Boredom may not be unique to humans, as it seems polar bears and other animals experience some kind of boredom, but did it help our species survive?

Boredom is a fascinating thing.  It’s so familiar to people that the dictionary built into my Mac doesn’t even have an entry for it.  Some guy called C.D. Fisher defines it as “an unpleasant, transient affective state in which the individual feels a pervasive lack of interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity.”  We all know what it feels like, even if we can’t define it.  That creeping urge that whatever we’re currently doing sucks, but no clear idea as to what else to do.

One of the things that is so interesting about boredom is difference between what makes us bored and what doesn’t.  It’s tough to be bored when we’re confronted with a new situation or problem.  Even if we’re uninterested or unequipped to handle it, we don’t get bored.

Things we’ve already seen or done don’t let us escape boredom when it sets in, except for a few things that, luckily, we never seem to get bored with, like breathing.  Or sex (hopefully). Clearly that’s an evolutionary advantage: we wouldn’t have made it very far if people got tired of breathing and kicked off in their apathetic teen years, before that overwhelming desire to fuck kicked in.

On one side, our brain lets us do incredibly repetitive things, like blink and breath, literally billions of times without thought, without getting bored.  On the other side, many people get bored of Careless Whisper after one listen, or get bored when they play the same Donkey Kong level more than one time.  Why?

Let’s look at boredom like any other trait.  From an evolutionary psychology perspective, boredom, like anger or strength, must be prevalent because it increased the inclusive genetic fitness of our ancestors.

How boredom did this, I’m not exactly sure.  I haven’t found any good research that points to a solid answer.  But, intuitively, when people get bored, they search for ways to cure that boredom.  They explore, they build, they attempt, they create.  Because novelty is a cure for boredom, maybe invention is the natural byproduct of boredom.  Put another way, maybe boredom is the driver of curiosity.

This thought is a bit counter-intuitive, because those who are creative never really seem bored, but maybe the whole purpose of boredom is merely to serve as a trigger.

Food? Check
Shelter? Check
Protection? Check
Sex? Check
…Boredom sets in…
Hey, what’s this fire stuff? Lets harness that!

Those who were the best provided for (i.e. fittest) had the most idle time.  Of those with idle time, those who got bored were triggered to explore or produce or innovate.  Those who innovated or produced more were likely rewarded with the opportunity to mate more.  Thinking about it this way, boredom may have contributed significantly to the survival of our species.  A simple explanation, sure, but it is logical.

And even if it this theory proves to be false, it doesn’t make it any less useful in our modern lives. 

Treat boredom as a trigger.  If you feel that sense of boredom creep in, use it as a reminder to jump to the next project, to explore something you’ve been meaning to try, or to try to create something totally new.

Maybe your boredom can solve one of the world’s big problems.

(Note: if anyone has found any research in this area that provides more definitive answers than the hackneyed theories I’ve provided, please drop me a line.  I’d love to read more about it.)

Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

There Is Always An Excuse

Posted on June 6, 2011 by AJ Kessler

“I had a bad day, I deserve this.”

“I had a great day, I deserve this.”

“Well, I’ve already done X.  Y won’t hurt.”

“Well, I haven’t done X yet, so I can do Y.”

Your mind is disturbingly capable of twisting logic whichever way necessary to justify whatever action you want to take.

Don’t let it.  Set your goals.  Stick to them.

Posted in Advice, Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems?

Posted on June 5, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I’m unabashedly pro-wealth.  I think the recognition of personal freedoms that allow capitalist systems to function has done more to benefit mankind than any other development since humans discovered how to wield fire.  That said, I’ve thought and written much about money and happiness lately, and much of what I’ve been reading and thinking about indicates that money, at the personal level, can cause quite a bit of unhappiness.  This, and the other posts before it, are not meant to dissuade anyone from creating, or even desiring, money.  They are just things to be aware of as you do.

Luxury Begets Self-Interest

Interesting research out of the Harvard and London Business Schools:

mere exposure to luxury goods increases individuals’ propensity to prioritize self-interests over others’ interests, influencing the decisions they make.  [In one experiment] participants primed with luxury goods were more likely than those primed with non-luxury goods to endorse business decisions that benefit themselves but could potentially harm others.

A bit scary.  As we become more successful, we get more decision making power, and most of us tend to surround ourselves with more luxurious stuff.  Whether it’s a nicer office chair, or nicer clothes, or a nicer car, or a nicer house, these are ways most successful people spend some of their hard-earned money.  But, those luxury items, the things we get because we worked hard and presumably helped other people, can make us behave badly toward other people.  Weird, but definitely something to keep in mind.  Makes super luxurious corporate offices seem like an even worse idea.  Perhaps a spartan “decision making center” could help.  Q & A with one of the researchers here.

Wealth Prevents Us From Enjoying The Roses

There seems to be quite a bit of evidence that wealth prevents us from enjoying the little things.  This makes a bit of sense, intuitively.  If you’re used to flying in a private jet, flying coach is going to be that much more miserable.  But, studies also suggest that if you’re used to luxuries like flying in private jet, you start failing to appreciate all sorts of smaller things, like sunsets or roses.

So, are we doomed to be constantly underwhelmed once we get rich?  Maybe it depends what you spend your money on?

Buying Experiences, Not Possessions, Leads to Greater Happiness

A new study shows that satisfying higher-order needs leads to greater happiness.  Spending money on dinner at a nice restaurant or theater tickets satisfies our need for social connectedness and vitality, whereas spending money on clothes or housing satisfies our need for protection and shelter.

Experiences also led to longer-term satisfaction. “Purchased experiences provide memory capital”, Howell [the author of the study] said.  “We don’t tend to get bored of happy memories like we do of a material object.”  This was shown to be true regardless of the cost of the experiences or the income of the participant.

Very interesting, and makes complete sense.  We are social animals.  We are creatures of memory.  Even when it comes to possessions, I’m more attached to things I’ve had, or the memories of those things, than I am to things I still currently own.

Speaking of being social, money also plays an important role in relationships:

Insecurity in Relationships Bind People to Possessions

Humans are social creatures with vulnerabilities. Close relationships affords protections. For examples, infants wouldn’t survive without other people. But material possessions also afford protection and security. Humans need food, clothing and shelter to survive. So, it takes a mix of things to make you feel secure. But, if you heighten one source of security, people feel less concerned about the others.

We conducted two studies, and the basic finding in both is that if you make people feel interpersonally secure, they’ll place a lower monetary value on possessions.

So, when people don’t feel loved and accepted by others, the importance they place on material items rises.  Be wary if your significant other cherishes that pair of shoes just a little too much.

Finally, some good news.  I think.

Money Isn’t The Root of Most Divorces

Jan Anderson, associate professor at CSU Sacramento, says that “As a predictor of divorce, money problems are … so minor.  If we look at all the causes of divorce, financial problems can only account for 5% of the effect.”  In fact, recent studies of the causes of divorce have rarely ranked money problems higher than fourth or fifth, with other causes — incompatibility, lack of emotional support, abuse and sexual problems — typically ranking higher.

Anderson hypothesizes that it may simply be easier to blame money, rather than take a hard look at your own flaws, that accounts for money ranking even as high as it does.  At least one therapist agrees: “It’s always what the money represents: dependency, control, freedom, security, pleasure, self-worth”.

Conclusion

So, getting rich doesn’t mean you have to be unhappy and get divorced.  But if you don’t keep these things in mind, money could very well lead to unhappiness, and it might make a great scapegoat for why you got divorced.

 

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Advertising Works On You

Posted on June 4, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Advertising makes you buy things.  It makes you like things.  It can even makes you remember things.  Things that never actually happened to you:

It turns out that vivid commercials are incredibly good at tricking the hippocampus (a center of long-term memory in the brain) into believing that the scene we just watched on television actually happened. And it happened to us.

This comes, via Jonah Lehrer, super interesting author of How We Decide and a contributor to Wired magazine, from a new study published in The Journal of Consumer Research:

The experiment went like this: 100 undergraduates were introduced to a new popcorn product called “Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Fresh Microwave Popcorn.” (No such product exists, but that’s the point.) Then, the students were randomly assigned to various advertisement conditions. Some subjects viewed low-imagery text ads, which described the delicious taste of this new snack food. Others watched a high-imagery commercial, in which they watched all sorts of happy people enjoying this popcorn in their living room. After viewing the ads, the students were then assigned to one of two rooms. In one room, they were given an unrelated survey. In the other room, however, they were given a sample of this fictional new popcorn to taste. (A different Orville Redenbacher popcorn was actually used.)

One week later, all the subjects were quizzed about their memory of the product. Here’s where things get disturbing: While students who saw the low-imagery ad were extremely unlikely to report having tried the popcorn, those who watched the slick commercial were just as likely to have said they tried the popcorn as those who actually did. Furthermore, their ratings of the product were as favorable as those who sampled the salty, buttery treat. Most troubling, perhaps, is that these subjects were extremely confident in these made-up memories. The delusion felt true. They didn’t like the popcorn because they’d seen a good ad. They liked the popcorn because it was delicious. [emphasis added]

Read Mr. Lehrer’s more detailed write-up of the experiment here.

Very interesting, and a bit scary.

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The Tyler Durden Self Help Method

Posted on June 3, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Who is Tyler Durden?

All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.

– Tyler Durden

Tyler Durden, if you’ve never seen Fight Club, is the alter-ego, the fictional creation, of Edward Norton’s loser protagonist.  Sleepwalking through a life he doesn’t want,  with a job he doesn’t like, and an apartment full of stuff he doesn’t need, Norton’s unnamed protagonist creates Tyler Durden to change his life.  You can too.  Minus the schizophrenia.

Step One: Create Your Own Tyler Durden

Who do you want to be?  What traits does that person have?  Is he more outgoing?  In better shape?  Funnier?  Quieter?  A better listener?  A guitar player?  Someone who isn’t afraid of water?  There are no limits here.  Your Tyler Durden can be anyone you want, whether that’s a raging psychopath who starts a worldwide organization based on spreading mayhem or just a confident guy who isn’t afraid to talk to a girl at a bar.

Step Two: Think Like Tyler Durden

Change takes planning.  Lists can be very helpful here.  List out things you could do to acquire the traits your Tyler Durden has.  If you want to conquer your fear of water, something like “1) take swimming lessons; 2) train to swim across lake/ocean/canal/river; 3) complete swim; 4) reward self with surf trip to California.”  If you want to be more outgoing or get good at talking to girls, your list would probably be more extensive.  Maybe something like “Week One: 1) talk to ten random strangers at mall; 2) lie down on in the middle of a shopping mall for 5 minutes; 3) attend 1 improv class; 4) sing one song at karaoke bar; 5) buy one drink for a girl at a bar.  Week 2: . . . ”

Step Three: What Would Tyler Durden Do?

The best laid plans of mice and men go awry.  If you freeze up at the bar when you’re about to approach that girl, ask yourself, “What would Tyler Durden do?”  Imagine the guy who has all the traits, confidence in this case, that you want.  Act like him.  She rejects you?  What would your Tyler Durden do?  Probably not stammer and get red faced and walk away.  Maybe he’d smile, say enjoy your evening, and move on.

No matter what your goal, acting like someone else can be extremely helpful.  When you insulate your ego a bit, any rejection or obstacles you face are a little easier to handle.  Schizophrenic or not, this ego shrinking can help you accomplish your goals.

It’s also easier to run behind someone else than it is to set the pace yourself.  Setting some objective standard for yourself can help pull you towards your goal, even if that standard exists only in your head.

HT to Kevin Engle, who used this technique to overcome his social anxiety.

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You’re Always Gonna Be Scared

Posted on June 2, 2011 by AJ Kessler

We’re all scared.  The difference is whether you’re gonna keep moving.

An inspiring talk about fear by Merlin Mann: (starts slow, but it’s worth pushing through)

 

What are you scared of?

Posted in Creativity, Food For Thought, Inspiration, Productivity, Quotes, Rationality, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Want To Live Longer? Move

Posted on June 1, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Steven Johnson, successful, middle-aged author and thinker, is moving from New York to San Francisco.  His main reason for moving is to slow down time:

Another old friend — my oldest, in fact — wrote an email to me after I told him the news of our move. We’ve both been in New York for two decades, and we are both watching our kids growing up at lightning speed. “Change like this slows down time,” he wrote. When you’re in your routine, frequenting the same old haunts, time seems to accelerate — was it just four years ago that our youngest son was born? But all the complexities of moving — figuring out where to live, getting there, and then navigating all the new realities of the changed environment — means that the minutes and hours that once passed as a kind of background process, the rote memory of knowing your place, suddenly are thrust into your conscious awareness. You have to figure it out, and figuring things out makes you aware of the passing days and months more acutely. You get disoriented, or at least you have to think for a while before you can be properly oriented again.

Interesting, right?  Well, according to David Eagleman, it turns out Mr. Johnson’s thinking may be well supported by our biology:

One of the seats of emotion and memory in the brain is the amygdala, he explained. When something threatens your life, this area seems to kick into overdrive, recording every last detail of the experience. The more detailed the memory, the longer the moment seems to last. “This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older,” Eagleman said—why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.

Read more of this New Yorker article here

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a few people who have done a ton of different things in their lives.  They’ve had a slew of wildly different careers, mastered a dozen different hobbies or skills, sampled countless more, traveled and lived all over the world and produced a lot of stuff.  These people are constantly picking up something new.  These people also seem much younger than they actually are, and much younger than their friends who haven’t lived the same kind of life.  I’m sure the constant change and learning has a lot to do with it.

On the other side, I can definitely see how a guy who goes to a plant, or a postal sorting center, or a factory every day for 30 years, doing the same thing over and over and over again, can look up one day and wonder where his life went.  That’s terrifying.

Shunning familiarity doesn’t require constantly moving residences.  Any experience that is new or unfamiliar or simply not part of your routine, can accomplish the same thing.  Make an effort to eat at different restaurants, or in different parts of town, or explore parks or museums or whatever in your city that you’ve never been to.  Take on a new project.  Learn some new skills.  Do different stuff.

This is also my newest (and best?) excuse to travel.  In addition to all the other benefits (having your perspective changed, meeting people, sharing experiences, trying new things, etc.), travel means I get “more” time on this planet?  Sign me up.

Posted in Creativity, Inspiration, Quotes, Rationality, Self-Improvement, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

More Shit Won’t Make You Happy

Posted on May 31, 2011 by AJ Kessler

We often hear that having money doesn’t make you happy.  I don’t think most people really believe that though.  Maybe it has something to do with the source.  Most people that say that seem to either not be rich, or they seem like very unhappy rich people.  What about generally happy people?

Highlights:

Success and money, and the accumulation of material objects, do not really bring you that much happiness.  What happens is, you get too much shit, and you end up chasing your life.  Before you know it, you’re just kinda fielding calls on shit that you never really enjoy.  Its sort of like if you had a bunch of kids that you sent off to boarding school, and you never got to hug ’em or kiss ’em or hang out with ’em, but you kept getting calls from their principal saying “We need money, and one of ’em put a cherry bomb in the toilet, and the other one’s failing out of history class.”  You just start juggling all of this shit.

I have a shitload of cars.  With each new car I get, I love the rest a little bit less, including the new car.  And you know who loves their cars the most?  The guy who has the one car.  And it doesn’t have to be anything special.

I went from zero, my entire life, to having a bunch of money and not really giving a shit about it, really just chasing the next thing . . . when you get 14 cars, it’s just 14 problems now.

So then, if accumulating things just turns into a pain in the ass, how do get rich and still have fun?  Accumulate less?  I think that would certainly help.  I think restricting yourself would also help.  Don’t indulge every desire you can afford to indulge.  Leave something to look forward to.

I would say the best and most exciting part of my life was when things started happening, and I bought my first BMW M3, that was used, but it was still more car than I had ever had in my life, and now it would be my 15th favorite.

Now, when I go to nice restaurants, I don’t enjoy myself like I used to enjoy it, because it was a novelty, because it was a rarity.

The lack of novelty seems to be a recurring complaint of the rich.  It also seems to perpetuate the cycle of looking forward.  Once you fly everywhere on a private jet, it’s your new reality.  It’s no longer a luxury or a rarity.  Now, you start chasing the bigger jet, and you appreciate what you have even less.

This is a tough cycle to break.  Scheduled, deliberate reflection and forced appreciation can probably combat at least part of the new-toy-effect.  Meditation or seeking advice from sources like Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, seeing how others have dealt with far bigger concerns, can probably combat at least part of the constant desire for more.

Posted in Advice, Food For Thought, Future, Inspiration, Quotes, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Conquering Fear

Posted on May 30, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Most people have irrational fears of some sort.  Whether it’s of flying, or confined spaces, or water, or people, the best method is always facing those fears head on.  Click here for an amazing write up of someone who overcame their crippling social anxiety with clinical help.  TL;DR version: the psychologist forced the clinic participants to go out into the real world and get over their fears by interacting with people.  Turns out real people aren’t that scary and he got over his fears.

While I’m nowhere near as awkward as that guy, I’ve definitely been known to be a little awkward around people I don’t know.  So, I always like watching things like this, which reinforce how friendly and open just about everyone is, even in mean ol’ NYC:

 

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Don’t Be Awesome, Be Decent

Posted on May 29, 2011 by AJ Kessler

My girlfriend was telling me a story about her friend while we were driving in the car today.  Some unknown person asked the friend for a favor, which she granted.  “What an awesome thing to do!” I said.

In this case, the favor wasn’t a “give me your kidney” favor, or even a “can I borrow a hundred bucks” favor, but it was definitely a small inconvenience and a nice thing to do.

As I was thinking about the favor, especially in light of yesterday’s post about the benefits helping others and showing appreciation, I thought about what would have happened if the friend had done the opposite.  What if she had refused to perform the favor for the person she didn’t even know?

Well, she’d be a bit of a dick.  Again, this favor took a little bit of effort, but it wasn’t that big a deal.  By thinking about the opposite reaction, it became immediately clear that what the friend did wasn’t so much an awesome thing to do, but merely the decent thing to do.  The thing that should have been done.  The right thing to do.

So, new heuristic: when asked for a favor, think about how an objective third party would view your refusal to perform that favor.  If he would think you’re a dick for refusing, it’s not a favor at all: it’s something you should do without hesitation.

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More Hours ≠ More Results

Posted on May 28, 2011 by AJ Kessler

Energy, the capacity to work, is not a finite resource.

I really want to believe this.  I often get exhausted though, or sick of working on something, or drained, or just lazy.  My capacity to work seems fluctuates all over the place.  Depending on my mood, or what I ate, or what’s going on in various relationships, or a million other factors, my energy rarely seems infinite.  Enter, The Energy Project:

Energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals — behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.

Hmmm.  That makes tons of sense.  We try to automate all sorts of things, from the way our software handles our email to the way our cars get built.  It’s efficient.  Why not automate ourselves?  This isn’t about turning our brains off while we plow through some menial task though.  Instead, it’s about automating the things that expand our energy reserves.

Body

We’re only good for about 90-120 minutes of solid effort at at time.  During these periods, our bodies physiologically shift from a high-energy state into a low-energy state.  Toward the end of each cycle, our bodies begin to crave a break.  Knowing this makes things easier: take a real break when you hit the low energy cycle.  Even if it’s only a few minutes, The Energy Project has found that truly disengaging from work, getting up from your desk to go for a walk or talk to a coworker about sports, helps tremendously.  All the traditional advice still applies: get to bed early, work out, eat healthy (smaller meals & snacks, eaten every three hours).

Emotions

One of the most interesting suggestions given by the authors is to ritualize showing appreciation to others.  Set aside a time each day to do something to thank or show appreciation for those around you.  Whether its writing someone an email or a note, calling them, listening to them or helping them, or actually buying them a gift, the act of giving is powerful mood changer.  It really is better to give than receive.

Reframing your emotions can boost your energy quite a bit.  Instead of viewing yourself as a victim, frame situations positively.  Even if you’re doing something miserable, take stock to see what you can learn from it or how it can better you.

Another technique, particularly valuable when you’re feeling overwhelmed, is deep abdominal breathing.  Exhaling slowly for five or six seconds induces relaxation and recovery, and turns off the fight or flight response.  Submerging your face in water will also quickly lower your heart rate and calm you down.

Mind

Multi-tasking sucks.  No matter what kind of work you’re doing, focusing all of your attention on one thing will make you more productive.  A temporary shift in attention from one task to another increases the amount of time necessary to finish the primary task by as much as 25% (aka “switching time”).  So, set up systems to banish interruptions:

  • E-mail: Check only twice per day.  If someone has an emergency, they’ll call.
  • Phone: when all your mental horsepower is needed, get away from the phones.  Go to a conference room to write, or turn your phone off during your brainstorming sessions and meetings.

The breaks from the “body” section also apply here.  Taking a walk or working out, or doing something physical allows your left-brain to take over for a while, which can not only lead to more insights and creative solutions, but also lets the right-side of your brain have a rest.

Spirit

Do something meaningful.  Even if you can’t possibly find a way to make your work meaningful (hint: you almost certainly can), find something meaningful outside of work.  Focus on that thing.

Establish priorities and long-term goals.  Set aside specific time to work on those long-term goals.  Many people prefer to do it first thing in the morning: not only are you fully charged and distraction free, but if a crisis hits and that’s all you accomplish that day, you’ll still feel productive.

Practice reflection.  You don’t have to go all Buddhist monk here, but set aside some time to think about what’s important to you, what you value, how you want to live your life, and what you want to achieve.  Then practice those things.

Conclusion

The short article is definitely worth a read.  The ideas about batching and automating aren’t new to readers of this blog, but there is some solid advice in here.

My favorite is the part about making a ritual out of showing appreciation.  I incorporated a similar version of this in the last version of my time tracking template under the category of “Help Someone”.  The daily goal was simply to reach out and help someone, even in a tiny way.  Most days I was unsuccessful and had to write “No”, but the days I was able to write “Yes” were almost always fantastic days.  Not only did I feel better in general, but looking through the records now, I was also more productive.  I have a feeling “Show Appreciation” will have much the same effect, but will actually be easier to execute on a daily basis.

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Save Money By Being Predictable

Posted on May 27, 2011 by AJ Kessler

A lot of people I know either revel in their spontaneity, or wish they could be more spontaneous.  But, people only value spontaneity in tiny amounts.  If you’re spontaneous 24 hours a day, you’re completely unpredictable.  Best case scenario, you have no real relationships: worst case scenario, you’re in a mental ward.

At the most basic level, humans need security.  It’s why we form groups and build houses and communities.  It’s why we buy alarm systems and life-jackets and insurance.  Stemming from that basic need for security is peoples’ desire for predictability.  Nobody wants to go to the store, or the bank, or the hospital hoping someone decided to go to work today.  They want to know that their train will be there when it’s supposed to be, that their kung pao chicken really is chicken, and that their spouse loves them even when they’re a mess.

When people can’t predict what’s going to happen, they freak out.  If your boss can’t predict which days you’ll show up and which days you’ll blow off work, you’re probably getting fired.  If your wife can’t predict which nights you won’t be having sex with other women, you’re probably getting divorced.  Even if you’re from Utah.

Predictability is good.  Everyone wants it.

Because everyone wants it, and because a lot of the world either doesn’t realize this or simply can’t provide it, predictability is also a bargaining chip.  It’s why you can get discounts for signing up for direct deposit or recurrent billing.

Renting Predictability

The best tenant is the one who sends a check each month and never calls.

~ Chinese Landlord Principle

So, offer predictability.  Take away risk.  This applies to any sort of relationship where payments are to be spread out over time, and its particularly applicable to rent.  Tell your landlord that you’ll set up an automatic transfer to his account every month.  Tell him you’ll do it three days before the rent is due each month.  Tell him you’ll never call unless something really bad happens.

Tell your boss that the project you want to take on can be broken up into chunks.  A chunk will be completed each week.  Each chunk will be valuable in itself.  Even if it fails, you’ve still got a lot of good, valuable stuff.  Increase predictability and take away risk.

And then make good on your promises.

I guarantee your rent will be cheaper than your neighbors.  I guarantee you can apply this principle to a million other situations.

Because everybody wants predictability.

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Giving It Away

Posted on May 26, 2011 by AJ Kessler

I’ve written before about working for free.  It’s still the best way to get into positions or industries you would never have had a chance to get into if you insisted on being paid for your time.  It’s still a phenomenal way to connect with people and build lasting relationships, especially if you’re not a super outgoing person.  It’s still an excellent way to learn and build skills.

If you hate your job, or whatever path your on, consider working for free.  Very inspirational TED Talk on the subject:

 

Posted in Advice, Creativity, Future, Inspiration, Self-Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment