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.

Junu Yang and the That Thing project

I found this project by Junu Yang posted on collabfinder, a site that helps one connect with prospective collaborators on interesting projects.

The need's there, Cockpit's already there and a lot aren't aware.

More fun!

You can write to cockpitplanner at gmail or call 8140002228 to order or to find more about this.

15 Years of Silliness

The planner that we have typically received as gift, and sometimes bought, and most often used over the years is called the Franklin Planner. It entered the market in 1997 (details here). Safely, it has been more than 15 years. And very safely, and sillily, we have also used it for years together.

The other day, 5th Oct, I called an old friend on his birthday. He asked me what have I been upto and I shared some details about launching this planner called Cockpit.

His immediate response on hearing the word 'planner', "Annual diary na! Woh joh gift mein milti hai... Woh toh rough-pad ki tarah use karta hoon!"

I couldn't agree more. Personally, while I could never plan with it, I never used it as a rough-pad either. But I've seen a lot of people in my family, and among friends, use such 'planners' as rough-pads. Sometimes, going well beyond the year that it's meant for.

And yet, one has to wonder that, for years, businesses have continued to gift the same thing over and over again. Not their fault, there really was nothing available. The word 'Planner' sounded good. Leather covers looked good. The binding technology has improved. So calling the 'leather-bound papers' a 'planner' seemed perfect, irrespective of the fact that it didn't work like it needed to.

So here's CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF SILLINESS. Cheers!

If you relate to what I have written, you might want to check Cockpit Planner. If you receive planners as gifts you might want to inform your gifter about Cockpit :). And if you buy one every year, like I used to, you've got an option which will do the job for you, every single day.