Option Generator

When you want to buy something and you aren't sure what you want to pick, you try and check out the options before you make up your mind. You tell the shopkeeper, show some t-shirts in red or blue.

When you want to start your day, what do you pick? What all do you pick? From what all options do you pick whatever you pick? How much time does it take for you to figure what all options are available?

Yesterday offers you great options for today. When you put pen to paper, it is rather quick. And very very relevant. Try and you'll discover.

QTDTW

Q = questions
T = thoughts
D = decisions
T = talk
W = walk

Mission begins in the earnest

Finally a method, a rule, a habit, a technique that ticks a lot of boxes for me.

I call it YT.

YT for clarity.

These two lines sum up the method or technique:

When you write what you did or didn't do yesterday
You can see clearly what you'll do today!

Of course, clarity is scary. And liberating too at the same time. Try with caution and thrill.

A trophy for you

Meaning of atrophy, in short, if you put a query on Google:

gradually decline in effectiveness or vigour due to underuse or neglect.

Biceps atrophy. Brains atrophy. Minds atrophy too. Still don't get it? Here are a couple of pics to understand.

While biceps and brains are physical muscle-groups (and so can be represented visually), what constitutes a 'mind' is open to interpretation. Even so, it can't be difficult to see how minds can atrophy.

Since our 'work' or 'profession' or 'office' consumes so much of our waking life, and how well our mind works depends in a significant way on the 'work' we engage ourselves in, you might be able to counter mental atrophication with the Cockpit Planner. Try it.

Friends say...

Whenever I've got a chance to talk about this thing that we've created, I've mentioned that Cockpit is a positive accidental product. I devised it for myself over time to make my work smoother, more efficient.

Thankfully, it evolved satisfactorily and intuitive enough for me to share with everyone around me. In fact, earlier if someone showed interest in using the same, all I did was go to the photocopy-shop and get it compiled into a 'planner' for that person.

Try it. I am pretty sure it'll make doing things a lot easier and systematic for you.

Don't set goals in 2014. Create a system.

So what are you going to do next year? The question emerges out of nowhere as soon as one year comes to an end and the other's about to begin.

I am picking this little bit from Shane Parrish's blog post where he discusses 10 take-aways from Scott Adams' latest book.

Systems trump goals.

This was fascinating. I’ve long thought that the balance of organizational thinking towards goals versus systems is in need of some reflection.

Adams has looked for examples of people who use systems versus those who use goals. In most cases, he’s discovered that people using systems do better and they are more innovative. “The systems-driven people have found a way to look at the familiar in new and more useful ways,” he says in the WSJ.

If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.
…
[O]ne should have a system instead of a goal. The system-versus-goals model can be applied to most human endeavours. In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.
…
Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre-success failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.
…

Goal-oriented people mostly fail. If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, you will constantly think that you are not at your goal until you reach it. If you fall short you’re still a failure. The only way to reach your goal is to lose the 20 pounds. It’s a state of near perpetual failure.

What you really want is a system that increases your odds of success. Even if that system only improves the odds a little it adds up over a long life. In organizations this means, for example, you should care more about the process by which you make decisions than analysis. It also means that you should focus on building a system that evolves, improves, and survives ego. Systems increase the odds of getting lucky. Or, if you want to put it another way, they reduce stupidity.

Goal seekers optimize whereas systems thinkers simplify.

Cockpit is a system. A system which puts you into a cycle of getting the important little things done one after another after another.

The Technology of Cockpit

Let me start with an analogy. Thomas Hughes writes in Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (science * culture)

Landscape architect Anne Whiston Spirn’s definition of landscape in The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (1984) suggests a way of thinking about technology. For her, landscape connects people and a place, and it involves the shaping of the land by people and people by the land. The land is not simply scenery; it is both the natural, or the given, and the human-built. It includes buildings as well as trees, rocks, mountains, lakes, and seas. I see technology as a means to shape the landscape.

Cockpit is a technology to shape the landscape of mind to lead us to a good work-day. Yes, wire-bound sheets of paper printed in a certain format containing just 11-phrases/words (which we call prompts). And we all think it's bloody difficult, is it?

My cousin felt guilty

Yes, she said she felt guilty looking at Cockpit Planner and trying to use it for a couple of days! She also said that she knew that the prompts given in there are just what needs to be done.

On days when my biological clock isn't quite in rhythm and I hardly come to do anything that I can term 'work' and then I open Cockpit, I feel that same emotion. Guilty. And I banish Cockpit out of sight and sulk more. The next morning though, when I feel alright and Cockpit just throws the same prompts back at me, I am glad I'm on the job right away.

Feeling guilty is important. Like wikipedia states:

Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has compromised his or her own standards of conduct or has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation.

Not doing anything is also a kind of doing that ends up a violation. We know it. Cockpit will prompt you to make things happen. Every day. And it's alright to feel guilty at times.

Puppy pic source: http://healthychicks.wordpress.com

Soul Sharing - Gmail and Cockpit

By now, most of the Gmail users would've enabled the tabbed inbox configuration.

For emails, I conceived of a somewhat similar (though technically and practically I must admit, it could be tougher) arrangement quite a few years (more than 6 years) back. We would all agree, Gmail team has done this job beautifully though it's 2013 :).

While we couldn't execute the email stuff back then, what we've done with daily planning for an individual is very much the same as Gmail's execution of tabbed inbox. Care to find out the soul-sharing? Order a copy of Cockpit now! 814 000 2228.

The 4A'es of Planning

That's a hoax I could perpetrate.

Actually it's RCPS.

Those are the broad stages in the order given - top to down - that the mind would follow if it gets down to planning really really meticulously.

Also the thing is, for us to schedule, it becomes imperative consciously or unconsciously to pass the 3 stages. Without that, scheduling could often be a real pain and it often is.

Interesting point also is that the typical 'calender', 'to do list' diaries and apps, and the annual dated planners directly ask you to schedule. Really speaking, they haven't figure out how to make us recall and categorize. Obviously, if it's difficult to recall, it's difficult to prioritize anyway. If you can't prioritize what's the point of any schedule. In essence, work still happens rather haphazardly.

With Cockpit, the first two stages become so obvious and simple. Recally and Categorizing. Once the first two stages are crossed, you'll see that Prioritizing and Scheduling also become very easy to pull off.

No one took you seriously, any idea why?

Everyone wants a good laugh. That's tough but it's also difficult to believe you are serious.

That's the problem with execution. Your intention, conviction, seriousness - all these are difficult to believe for the other person. Forget the greatness of your idea. Some guys would respond only if you really showed the persistence to follow up like mad. Your madness proves that you are serious.

On the other hand, for quite a few of us, following up with some one is kind of embarrassing. Perhaps if following up once isn't so, doing that twice or thrice, definitely so. In effect, the (assumingly hurt) ego serves as a good barrier to show really that you are serious.

Cockpit offers a space and a mechanical framework which strips the process of following up of its emotional embarrasive charge. By making it mechanical, Cockpit sort of spurs you to follow up like crazy, once, twice, thrice, today, tomorrow, day after and prove yourself mad and dead serious about what you are up to.

It is when you are believed to be serious, execution begins.

Ontology of Daily Planning

It's easy to recall things which have a form. Visible form.

What's the form of 'doing' in the context of work? We have words for those forms because we utter them day in and day out. And yet, when it does come down to planning the day early in the morning, those words don't appear on paper so obviously. And those forms are strangely elusive. Of course, the form of 'doing' is so often invisible, unless actually performed.

Cockpit is an answer, a visible form for that invisibility.

Sustaining the execution loop

Loop isn't a seat on a merry-go-round seat that you climb onto a seat and then it takes you round and round and round and then you climb out and say, "It was fun".

When we execute anything, unless we are endowed in the godly ways, we have to work with or take help of others. And that requires getting into the loop of conversation.

Business being business, and people being people, it takes effort to stay in the loop of conversation. Sometimes, others don't do enough to stay in the loop. You've to gather them and push them enough to stay a part of the loop.

And if you are the one to take initiative, it goes without saying that you have to initiate the loop. And if you have initiated the loop, in all likelihood at least for a while when the natural tendencies propel others to stray off the course, you have to follow up to keep them into the loop. Once, twice, thrice. May be more.

Sometimes, the incessant follow up could be too much to handle and you might've to accept that others do not stay in the loop. Respect your failed effort and move on. Get yet others into the loop.

The Italians surely have a Cockpit-like mechanism in place

Here's a piece of a letter (which forms a part of their book HERE & NOW) J.M. Coetzee wrote to Paul Auster:

I've been to enough cultural events in Italy by now not to be unnerved by the chaos that seems to envelop them. No one is sure exactly where the session is to take place, the man who looks after the sound system cannot be located, the interpreter is up in arms because no one has informed her of the running order, etcetera, etcetera. Yet when the hour arrives, everything goes off smoothly: the audience miraculously knows where to come, the sound system works, the interpreter does a first-class job. The chaos turns out to have been spurious: we can run an event perfectly efficiently, the Italians seem to be saying, without fetishizing efficiency - in fact, we can turn the running of an event into a diverting little comic drama of its own.

Guess, this sounds familiar for a lot of events that we ourselves have arranged or have been a part of.

Strict scheduling format like that of a Franklin Planner for day to day work is over-rated. And we know efficiency resulting out of that scheduling effort surely is way way over-rated. Guess, we've observed and experienced that too.

Before any effort at scheduling for the purposes of efficiency, one ought to recall what exactly it is that needs to be undertaken. One will notice that as compared to Franklin Planner, the Cockpit AIT Planner is far far better at scooping out of our heads what needs to be done.

Understanding the impact of frequency of 'responding'

Source: http://thisisindexed.com

My eyes light up every time someone talks about 'responding'.

Suppose, in the above graph, you replace the word Stimulus with Execution. And suppose, likewise, we also replace the phrase 'rioting in the streets' with 'quality execution at the workplace'. Or perhaps use a bigger buzz-phrase 'innovation in the organization'... Yes, we get how 'responding' affects the execution of plans.

Too much of it, and there's disturbance instead of execution. Too little of it, and there's almost nothing happening.

Cause-Effect mapping to diagnose the effectiveness of a daily planner

Source: funnytimes.com

Every tool, device, machine is structured/designed to deliver something based on certain hypotheses. The structure itself gives us clues about causes and effects which formed the bases for creating the tool in the first place.

Daily Planners are tools. And the most popular planner called the Franklin Planner is based on a certain thinking. And so is Cockpit AIT Planner, which is going to be launched pretty soon.

Here's a cause-effect mapping of both. For you to judge how it works better.

Franklin Planner
You have 9 working hours every day. You divide them every day into hourly or half-hourly time slots so that you can schedule your tasks, and do them one after another according to the schedule.

Cockpit AIT Planner
You have many important tasks, but they are difficult to recall from your memory day after day after day. You refer to certain prompts every day so that you can easily recall and note down the important tasks, and do them during the day, according to a schedule or according to your convenience.

Recalling from memory is a necessary condition. Strict scheduling, not necessarily so. If you can recall, you can schedule. If you can't recall, there's no question of scheduling.

Our take: Time's always there. You have to recall all that you've to do, before you schedule some things that you've to do. 

A Perfect Mess

Franklin Planner, the scheduler which sells in millions across the world (but which doesn't necessarily benefits its users), finds its nemesis in A PERFECT MESS. Or maybe not, because the two products are different. One's a planning diary (more a scheduler, I'd say), while the other's a book on the benefits of disorder. In spirit of course they seem inimical but in material, there's been no option to the Franklin Planner.

As seen on the cover above, the book's premise is 'a little disorder helps more than perfect order'. In the context of planning, in general, perfect scheduling might not be a great way to stay effective at work. Franklin Planner, the way it is structured, tends to impose strict perfect scheduling.

Moreover, Franklin Planner, though calls itself a planner, surely doesn't help in planning all the necessary tasks because, like we've said earlier, it doesn't go beyond offering scheduling slots. It certainly doesn't aid in recalling stuff that needs to be done.

Converting the criticism into material form, here's an alternative to Franklin Planner. Something that introduces flexibility and that little 'disorder' without foregoing or forgetting the essential tasks needed to be accomplished during a typical workday.

Sure, but that's not a plan

How could I not reblog this entire post from Seth Godin? Talks about what's a plan. Highlight in red, mine.

Sure, but that's not a plan

The most common thing people ask me about is how to get picked, a shortcut to success, a way to spread an idea or build a platform without doing a particularly large amount of hard work.

Getting picked is fine if it happens to you. But it's not a plan. It's a version of waiting and hoping.

We're quick to claim credit for the good fortune fairy when she randomly shows up and picks us. The thing is, the good fortune fairy has to pick someone, and this time, (if you were lucky) it was you. But that's not a plan.

We can't help but amplify the stories of Hollywood and Vine, of being plucked out of obscurity, of the seventeen-year-old with talent who yes, indeed, got picked and cashed out. We blog about and talk about the one in a million YouTube viral sensation, the breakthrough that came out of nowhere overnight. But that's not a plan.

A plan involves steps that are largely under your influence and control. A plan involves the hard and dreary and difficult work of a thousand brave steps, of doing things that might not work, of connecting and caring and bringing generosity when we don't think we have any more to bring.

When your plan works, take a bow. You earned it.

Look at the Cockpit AIT Planner screenshot of the app. Check those steps as represented by the button in the Task Control Panel.

Depending on the profession, service or product, there might be some more specific steps necessary to make a difference. Or perhaps the above universal steps might become yet more specific given the context. But the essence is captured in these prompt-buttons of Cockpit. Repeat these and you get the thousand brave steps.

Planning doesn't mean scheduling

I read this problem description in a mail this morning:

When I plan perfectly for the day ahead, I sometimes find that I am not able to implement all that I had planned for. Things seem to be coming up unexpectedly spoiling everything for me. I am then not able to be happy with what is happening and so find it difficult to do my best in the particular situation.

A solution was given in the same mail:

It is as important to be flexible in my thoughts as it is to be particular about my daily schedule. Flexibility allows me to accommodate the unforeseen situations that come up my way and enables me to make the best use of everything. And so I enjoy everything that comes my way.

The solution might sound simplistic but I sense they are right in emphasizing the importance of flexibility in any schedule. Forget the long term planning, planning 'precisely' on a daily basis like the time-table of classes in a school or an assembly line factory doesn't work for most individuals.

An important aspect of this planner, Cockpit, is that it doesn't make you do precise slotting and scheduling (though the option is always open) but it does aid immensely in listing just the important things you would like to accomplish/execute in a day's time.

Franklin Planner, Frankly Fails

So the usual planner that I happened to use through a big part of my professional and that I still see a lot of people around using is called the Franklin Planner.

It could look somewhat like this:

Image Source: itisamatteroftime.com

Or may be like this:

Image Source: urbanlittlehouse.blogspot.com

Two things about this kind of planner. It assumes perfect memory. That is, you can recall all the tasks at will. And it assumes that you can exactly slot each of the tasks to a particular time.

If recalling at will from memory could be relied upon so well, school exams would be real fun. And besides, whether the time-hours are explicitly mentioned or not, you would slot the tasks anyway during the workday as you deem fit. Human behavior defies time-slotting except when it's vacation time.

It is the assumption of perfect memory that proves a detriment to great execution. More often than not, recalling all the tasks isn't easy. Though something resides in the memory, we don't necessarily retrieve it easily, as and when desired. And without good retrieval from memory, there can be no planning.

Retrieval from memory requires appropriate tools. Which is what Cockpit AIT Planner offers in the form of universal prompts classified under Action, Interaction and Transaction. These prompts aid one to recall easily the necessary tasks and note them down early in the morning. If planning is what your execution is dependent on, here's the right thing to start with.