To work on a system that makes us work

It's needed but it's kind of weird.

Let's say we need to prepare for the preparation! The same thing can easily go like we need to prepare to prepare for the preparation. It's a strange loop, no?

Yesterday I was sitting with our neighbor-entrepreneur Hirenbhai. And while showing the Cockpit Planner to him I uttered, "We can't keep working on the system that makes us work!" And he gave an instant nod of acknowledgment. He added, "That's precisely the problem. We have a CRM installed but to work on the CRM itself requires too much of work."

Having shared the above however, I must also say, that we indeed have to build a system that makes us work. It is just that we can't be spending disproportionate time on building the system of work. Otherwise who'll do the 'work'. Yes, that's the quandary we often find ourselves in.

Cockpit Planner is a system that might work for you if you are looking for a work-system. It is self-explanatory. Fast. Covers all aspects of a typical work-day.

And if you are gifting, you might want to consider this. Bulk orders will be priced accordingly.

You can buy here. Or you can get in touch +91 814 000 2228. Call or Whatsapp, either way is fine.

What is blank paper?

When you search Google images with those two words, you get images like this:

A blank screen is also somewhat similar. Except we'll rarely find a ruled screen.

Now look at a standard page of what we call a 'business organizer' (in other words, a page of what is popularly known in the US as Franklin Planner).

 

Nice blue color. Numbers denoting the time of the day. That's it. Yes, that is it. And they call it 'planner' and supposedly claim to 'empower' us. How different from a blank page? Oh sorry, it surely is an appointment page! Is that what a work-day comprises of? Is our work-day all full with just appointments?

If appointments are all there is to a work-day, even if on a real mad day I grant that, what's there in this wonderfully embellished page to make us sure of listing our appointments without forgetting, and with good precision?

And we've been sold this year after year after year after year! Am sure a lot of us have bought this. And still buy. I just visited the big stationers nearby and this is all that every 'planner' has to offer.

Now check a daily page from the Cockpit Planner. After all the abuse that the word 'planner' has been heaped with over the years, I prefer a more representative term 'work-system' for what I have to offer. So here's the page:

Why don't we keep promises?

Every time we end a conversation, we say something to the other person. I call them little promises that, if kept, make things happen. Couple of examples... I'll call you tomorrow. I'll send you the proposal. And then?

You forget calling. You forget sending the proposal.

You might feel guilty. If you don't feel guilty, the other person might hold you guilty. May be it just isn't deliberate. It's natural to be forgetful. If this is believed, it's a universal condition. Forgetfulness is universal.

The sickness can be remedied. If it's Cue-dependent Forgetting, then what can be the solution? Cues! Cues like the ones we've presented to you in Cockpit.

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