Time management is killing your Productivity
4 steps to get more done in less time with less stress
I’m about to call out the core belief of ALL time management seekers (myself being in that camp)…
“If I just focus on the problem long enough, I’ll get the solution.”
If that were true, time management would be the gold-standard for improving the quality of decisions.
But I’m curious…
How many time have you tried to solve a big problem.
You turn it over and over, only to get no where.
Hours later, exhausted, you make a decision, unsure if it was right…
A day or two later, while in the shower the perfect (and obvious) solution shows up.
Why?
You progressed through the Four stages of creation (in this case, it was the creation of a solution) as outlined in the book, “mind management, not time management.”
- Preparation — Understanding the problem inside and out (running it over and over again in your head from different angles)
- Incubation — Allowing your brain to recover without thinking of the problem, or attempting to come up with a solution (disconnecting from the problem so your brain can let the “fluff” fall away).
- Inspiration — That moment of flash insight where the answer becomes clear.
- Verification — Where you verify and check the facts.
So instead of being disciplined in our incubation and consistent in our preparation, we put all of our energy into trying to force the moment of Inspiration.
But that leads to shitty results, dramatically higher levels of stress, it takes significantly more time, and to kick it off — it usually leads to second-rate decisions that need to be re-evaluated…
“If I just focus on the problem long enough, I’ll get the solution.”
If only…
Sadly our brains don’t work that way — At least, not efficiently.
“The real work of any entrepreneur is keeping themselves in a state where the work is easy” — Ryan Moran, founder of Capitalism.com
If you’re full of ideas but struggle getting shit done, I have a daily Micro-Newsletter — a 500 character, bullet style email with the top 3 hacks, tips, and ideas on how to Get Shit Done.
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The 4 Stages:
Preparation Stage
The preparation stage is where you turn over the problem in your mind. You learn to look at it from every angle.
Explore ideas from other industries.
Explore topics that might be related.
The goal of the preparation stage is not to produce anything, but to gain a deep understanding of the problem, it’s true causes, and the solutions other people have already tried that failed, as well as why they failed.
If you don’t understand the root of the problem, you’re solving the symptom, not the problem.
There is no pressure to have a deliverable.
The goal is to get a full understanding of the Landscape, the problem, what the problem impacts, and potential solutions.
What will happen here is that we fill up our short-term memory with ideas, and then connect as many of those ideas together so that a deep understanding of the problem and their interconnected issues transfers from our short term memory into our long-term memory.
Incubation Stage
This is the hardest stage for most of us.
This is where we step away from the problem.
Put it out of our mind.
After cramming our brain full of information from the preparation stage, we need to give our brain a chance to relax and take a break in order to let patterns emerge.
There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but I highly recommend meditation.
There are plenty of apps, or even free videos on YouTube, and soundtracks on Spotify and Apple Music.
Taking a nap is also helpful, as is taking a shower.
Anything that you have learned to associate with relaxing.
Take some time, put the problem out of your mind, and relax.
If you’re driven, this stage will take the most discipline to practice (definitely noooot speaking from experience…)
Inspiration Stage
This is where that flash of insight comes in.
Though you can’t put this on your calendar, you can count on your brain coming up with novel solutions after you have thoroughly processed through the preparation and incubation stages.
In my experience, this usually happens in the middle of the night.
I will wake up with the answer in the front of my brain.
I jot it down and then go back to sleep.
I’ve also had it happen in the shower, or while I’m on a walk.
The only time I know it WON’T happen, is if I’m in the weeds trying to come up with the solution.
This is why the Incubation stage is so crucial.
Be disciplined with the Incubation stage, and the Inspiration stage will follow.
Validation Stage
This is where you validate the facts from your inspiration.
- Does this answer meet the specific qualifications?
- Does it satisfy the problem or just the symptom?
- What are the secondary benefits or costs of implementing the solution?
- Is this solution realistically possible?
- What are objections to the solution, and how would you address them?
All of these questions are designed to validate the moment of inspiration.
By focusing less on the quantity of decisions that need to be made and actions that need to be taken, and more on Progressing the highest impact decisions through this for stages, you dramatically increase the quality of your output — which is the ultimate goal of time management.
If you’re full of ideas but struggle getting shit done, I have a daily Micro-Newsletter — a 500 character, bullet style email with the top 3 hacks, tips, and ideas on how to Get Shit Done.
Click the link below to join the micro-newsletter and Get Shit Done today.
