Nurturing a Productive Lifestyle

a productive lifestyle it's okay my name

is David Needham I am a developer

advocate at Pantheon the thing that I

really love about being a developer

advocate is that I get to well first of

all come to camps and comes just like

this but also it means that my job is to

help developers find success to have

more pleasant sort of responsibility to

their job when possible automating

things that are really difficult or

tedious and so basically my job is to

help developers be happy with their jobs

which so makes me happy and then I also

have a few other things up there that I

enjoy including biking playing board

games and volunteering whenever possible

so about a year ago I presented here I

think it was actually in the room right

next door here on the Ivy Lee method and

it was the the session name was peak

productivity with Ivy Lee real quick who

was here for that session last year okay

good

so a few people were here this is not

that session there are some similarities

but I want to give you an update on

what's happened since I presented on

that last year before I do that though

let me start just by telling you a

little bit about Ivy Lee and the Ivy Lee

method I'm not going to go into as much

detail as I did last year so if you if

this kind of resonates with you if you

want to learn more if you want to hear

the actual story of how Ivy Lee's method

came to be but I highly encourage you to

check out the sessions last year where

I'd go into much more detail so the

whole point of the Ivy Lee method is

that you should write down the six most

important things that you need to do

tomorrow you write those down at the end

of your workday you then sort those

things in order of priority so that when

you start your day you you start at the

thing that's most important and kind of

work through the list that's the very

next one you just kind of go through the

list from start to finish working on

just the first one into the stomach

just the second one until it's done and

then at the end of the day you move any

unfinished items to a new list you

consider who's still important and you

start over and you basically just keep

going every single day so a year ago

when I presented this I honestly felt

kind of the best that I've ever felt

about my level of productivity about my

job satisfaction about how I was

accomplishing my task and it wasn't part

of it was actually mostly because it

behind me Lima the method was working

for me it was really good and as a

result I was getting more things done

but it eventually it failed and for me

when it failed

it feels pretty hard when the I believe

for me broke down I was depressed I had

anxiety because I reached the end of my

workday and I did not do the things that

I knew that I was supposed to be doing

that day and I I was you know crank here

with my wife and kids I was really

there's all sorts of repercussions that

come from just not being kind of getting

those things down that I knew that I

need to get done but I wouldn't blame

the Ivy Lee method The Ivy the method

was working I changed something about me

in the way that I was approaching it was

different and I didn't have a plan in

place actually address that I I did not

have a contingency plan and what will

happen when this stops working for me or

if I change or if my life changes and so

part of this is part of it is that not

having a contingency plan in place then

part of it is also it's difficult to

consistently make myself do the things

that I know that are important to me so

let me let me do a quick quick thing I

would maybe write these up on the board

but then you'd be lost on the recording

and all that stuff so let's just maybe

shot some things out what are some

things that that you guys know that are

important to you that you want to do

every day or every week they're like

pretty big things

it don't have to be a big batch there

could be even small things like flossing

every day you read one reading a book

what off

exercising it's very good on

ticking along yeah yeah yep that's very

good calling friends you've been talked

to a lot

yes honoring commitments that are lower

priority that's a very good one

yeah there's a lot and they vary a lot

from person to person to a few more are

like I mentioned like brushing and

flossing like going to the gym or like

doing yoga on a regular basis or

whatever that is for you for me like

prayer is really important to me it

helps me and kinda stay centered for

other people maybe meditation or

something like that to help your hope

you make sure that you're in the right

place studying for a test if you're a

student or even if you're if you're not

necessarily student but also like the I

was trying to think of like what the

monitoring like my version of studying

for a test was B and I realized it's

sort of like balancing your budget

nobody really likes to balance their

budget some people do but but something

we all know that we should do we just

don't also when I used to work for

myself for whatever reason I don't have

an explanation I found it really

difficult sometimes to actually invoice

for the work that I've been doing yeah

yeah I know some people I don't know

what it is like getting paid is

obviously a really good thing but for

some reason like it's just not something

I ever looked forward to so um another

thing that's a little bit more emotional

is being willing to ask for forgiveness

like when you know that you've done

something wrong to someone actually

going out and telling them that you did

something wrong and asking to that also

what if you have a strained relationship

being the first person to break that

silence to to reach out and reestablish

those relationships so so these are some

of the things that have kind of talked

through and thought through about like

things that we know that we should do it

that we don't want to do and for some

reason the things that we know that we

should be doing the things that we know

that are important to us are just really

hard to do consistently and I don't

claim to have all the answers but I have

some ideas

why so some reasons why we actually let

me turn over to the audience real quick

see you guys what are some reasons why

you may not

one of those things we just mentioned

that are really important to you

distracted by work emergency

yeah distracted by work emergencies good

tired habits or not haven't have it yep

people either either one conversation

people very frequently in its place your

first response is I don't have time and

then they say you have to make time then

you know that that's true but in the

flow of the day like I'm not even

thinking about that I'm just like

putting out one fire after another and

at the end of the day I'll realize you

know what I don't think I got up from my

chair for more than five minutes yep I

can definitely relate to that too

yep so I've come up with some categories

and I I don't think that this is quite

everything but for me most of the things

you talked about Fitness in these

categories um one of them is having the

wrong priorities on so for this this is

kind of a little bit what you were

saying like I'm too busy to do this

thing I don't have time for this thing

that's really important because I have

this work emergency or and this other

thing that I'm doing I would also love

being too tired into this because if you

are too tired it's probably because

you're not prioritizing sleep or not

prioritizing rest or whatever mental

recharge time over the things that you

can go too busy to do and in the sort of

inverse of that is procrastination if

you're procrastinating than your

priorities and I feel a little out of

whack

um the next category is shame or fear

and this is a little bit where the get

the emotional you know part of it like

asking for forgiveness and things like

that and so the other day I was having

that not a great day it was kind of

stressful and it was we're kind of

reaching the end of the day and I was

with my family and my daughter and she'd

been working hard kind of going through

her chores non-stop and at the end of

the day I her when I was angry with her

not because she did anything wrong just

because I was not in a great place at

the time and like as she was going to

bed like and she wasn't happy and I

wasn't happy and I realized what some

friends said you know kind of reassured

me with insults with and anything like

it's important that I go out and

actually apologize like admit fault just

not only for me but also for her to have

that sort of example and so it was

really really hard but but I I went and

talked to her and she wasn't done

honestly because I wasn't talked to

horizons hey I'm sorry and I explained

and she said she forgave me and it was

all a very good very great feeling but

but there's there is shame there's some

fear about that and also a little bit of

fear of generally a furyk change his

change can be really scary you know what

happens if you change like what happens

if you you've actually changed like that

just the surface level change but you

actually you as a person change that's

really scary now and then also people

might notice if we show some weakness

from admitting guilt or fault or if we

take responsibility for something there

can be some sense of like what if this

what if I get fired

what if so-and-so sees me it's not as

strong as I need to be or something like

that there's also forgetfulness and and

part of this is forgetfulness

like not remembering to do you can just

simply not remembering to do something

but also not remembering why something

is important to us so so for me when I

was doing the Ivy Lee method when I had

the system down that really worked I was

getting up at 5:00 a.m. when I was

trying to jumpstart back into the high V

Lee method and kind of restart something

for me I I felt like it was important

for me to get up at 5:00 a.m. because I

got a lot of stuff done in the morning

and it led to a much more productive day

but I couldn't I I would set my alarm

for 5:00 a.m. I'd wake up and I'd be

like okay why am i up at 5:00 aunt like

can I just go back to sleep and if I

can't think of the reason why I'm

getting up at 5:00 and in the next three

seconds I'm gonna turn off my alarm and

go to sleep

I lump that under forgetfulness I'm not

keeping a present when I present mind

why I'm doing the things that I'm doing

and then also there's a maturity I'm

using this is sort of a catch-all

because it for me the situations where

you don't have any logical explanation

for why you don't necessarily do the

things that you want to do yep sometimes

that's there's no explanation for it

what I've shared with some friends and

tried to like talk through some this

stuff they've shared that like a

similarity to like oh I can't I don't do

this thing consistently so I the over

time like it's easier with you know as

you grow and as you work on it so

immaturity as we mature as you grow as

you keep at it and establish hobbits

those things will get better and easier

alright so next up we're going to talk a

little bit about the Pareto principle so

we're not going to go into this into a

ton of detail but the Pareto principle

is the kind of like the 80/20 rule if

you've ever heard of that the gist of it

is that feretto

noticed all around him that in many

cases 20% of one thing leads to 80% of

the other things so for example I think

he was in it in his garden he was grown

Peas and he knows 20% of the peas he was

growing was responsible for 80% of the

growth for some reason the small segment

of his peas were just booming he also

looked at his land and notice Oh 20% of

the people in the land in his country

owned 80% of the actual farmland and

Alaska I mean he saw this happening over

and over again it does happen over and

over again and part of this has to do

with amendment my biggest takeaway from

from this 8020 rule is that continuous

improvement is something that can give

you a significant advantage over over

other people all over competition over

I've kind of yourself and whatever goals

you're trying to meet and the

interesting thing about continuous

improvement is that you don't have to

you don't have to jump into a

significant you have to go from like you

know 20% efficiency up to 80% efficiency

you just start with like 4 cents or 1/2

you just do a little bit and you do it

in criminally every day overtime and it

builds upon itself and becomes something

that is significantly better than the

other option so some examples of how you

see this in the real world

plants compare compete for the same

resources so the whole thing with the

peas he noticed when and you can see is

that other like trees in the forest for

example that are growing a tree that

suddenly grows just a tiny bit more than

the other trees has slightly more

surface area on the leaves it's slightly

more Sun which leads exponentially to

slightly more growth which gives them

even more advantage so that's why you

end up with trees in the forest you know

if the plants are growing some of them

will be a little bit taller and the

other ones around it will be shorter

that's that's the 8020 rule and

continuous improvement in place also

politicians competing for the same votes

once a politician is elected into office

people know the name of the politician

they're much more likely to get

reelected regardless of if they were

good or bad a no-name is is better in

this case

authors compete for the bestseller list

once a best-selling author becomes a

best-selling author they do better at

selling books and as a result they sell

more books just from simply being able s

and these things happen over again you

know athletes competing for the gold

medal companies competing with the same

client and once you can win a client bid

you get four resources all all these

things you can put it to your on your

portfolio and leads to more people

coming to you TV shows competing through

the same power on TV you probably all

have a favorite TV shows been canceled

at some time in some cases you know

there might be a really crappy show on

at the prime time but some new show

that's really interesting at that time

that's not peak hours and so people

don't watch it so ratings are low so

it gets catching me so the there's this

quote here by Aristotle this is actually

my favorite quote Aristotle says we are

what we repeatedly do excellence

therefore is not an act but I have it so

the reason why this is my favorite quote

is because it reminds me that I need to

have patience it reminds me that I need

to trust in incremental improvement over

time it's it reminds me that it's not

possible to just become an expert in

something overnight or to become better

at something instantly if I could help

mentally to kind of like look at this

I'm actually going to remove the word

excellence and and fill in the blank

what what do you want to become you know

if someone asked me hey are you guitar

player I could say sure guitar and I

don't go ahead and play guitar but hey I

can play guitar but if I practice the

guitar every day even if it's just you

know 10 minutes doesn't matter how much

it is I will continually get better and

better and so we all repeated Li do

becoming a good guitar player therefore

it's not an act but a habit you could

say the same for being a developer or a

project manager or

losing some weight or whatever the

things that are important to you

whatever those things are it's not about

finding the secret strategies it's not

about finding the buying the latest

products or the get rich quick scheme or

the diet pill all right you know any of

those things it's about everyday doing a

little bit that gets you a little bit

closer and improves and get you closer

to the the goals that you're trying to

achieve so one step towards us is

actually using one of the other

strategies I talked about the Seinfeld

strategy so the whole thing with the

Seinfeld strategy and again I go into a

long story about how all this came to be

in my talk last year you can go watch

that if you want to

you learn more about how this came to be

but basically you set out to do

something everyday whatever this thing

is this new habit that you trying to

establish once you have defined what

that is you get a big calendar

you know big wall calendar sort of thing

you put it up on the wall and you get a

sharpie and every day that you do that

thing you go to the door you go to the

calendar and you put a big X on the day

that you you did it and you do this day

after day after day and then the whole

point that this becomes not breaking the

chain so you will you'll go through and

will do it and you might clickable

misses and that's okay but eventually

you'll reach a point where you've got a

week you have you have a streak that's a

whole week of check of the X's on your

calendar and then you get two weeks and

then the game becomes not I really need

to do this thing today because it's

important me it's like I don't want to

break this chain the visual reminder

that you can see up on the board and

help motivate you not just because it's

important to you but because you're

almost kind of tricking your mind at

that point into gamifying it and

becoming a important thing it helps you

also measure your your progress towards

meeting or your goals and being your

establishing the habit

[Music]

the most important thing at this point

is to make sure that you do this thing

this continuous improvements a little

bit of whatever this thing is and I was

in Duane's

the session yesterday and you had this

slide I had to take a picture of it if

you can't measure it you can't improve

it and I'm in a second his a disclaimer

that I don't know if that actually came

from from for him Lord Kelvin our or not

but it's a appropriate quote nonetheless

if you can't measure the things that

you're trying to do then you're not

going to have any way to tell if you

actually improved it or not and so the

Seinfeld strategy the checking the boxes

shows you over time how you're doing are

you actually accomplishing the things

you set out to do for the day so let's

start by asking yourself and coming up

with these important things you know

what are the most important things to

you what what do you want to do every

single day so you go through you create

this list and you ask yourself a few

questions and these can help define our

help you prioritize this list and decide

which things are gonna make the cut for

your final list and which things may be

well it was not worried about right now

so you can ask yourself why is this

important thing actually important you

know why is it important that I floss my

teeth every day

girl ask yourself what will this thing

change for the positive or the negative

you know if I start taking time out of

every day to plan the next day what good

things will come from this start

thinking about those you know write

those things down also the negative well

any negative repercussions come from

this change is important thing happening

to you how will this change actually

affect other people you know if you

start setting out to do these important

things but will other people say or

think or feel or how will these affect

other people and then what we actually

do when you meet your goal but whatever

your this important thing is will you

actually do when you get there and

becomes something you do on a regular

basis one of my colleagues Sean liver

mom is a project manager at Pantheon and

he pushes back on me a lot when we're

setting out to start a new project or

defining the goals of a project one of

the things that's really stuck with me

that he asks is this question basic like

what what will actually happen if we do

what we say we're going to do or what

will actually happen if the user that's

going through this process does but we

ask them to do and at the end of the day

if the answer is not really anything

it's it's not going to do anything

different it's not going to cause any

significant change one way or the other

then it's probably not worth our time

actually doing it this comes up more

often than you might expect but it's

important to think about this as you're

going through these things that are

important because maybe it's important

to you

but when you think about it if it

doesn't actually cause any change at the

end of the day then it might be worse

removalist

so once you've defined some of the

things they're actually important to you

next you can start to think about a

habit in this case I am

through advocating for a single new

habit it's one thing that you can

establish as they have it to do every

day that will just sort of encourage the

things that are important to you to

happen

so it helps of course if the things

you're that are important to you are

sort of related in some way or something

but that's not always the case so for me

if we go through some of the important

things to me as I was going through this

process as I was recovering from falling

from the Ivy Lee method just as it was I

started thinking about these things that

are important to me and some of them I

carried over from the Ivy League but the

the first thing is just getting up at

a.m. I got some work in before my wife

and kids woke up as a result I felt like

I kind of ahead as I was going

throughout the day it just made me feel

really good getting up and my morning

coffee the next one here is reading my

Bible and praying I'm a Christian and I

noticed as I was going through the days

that I did this it helps me to be better

prepared for the sorts of stresses and

things that came up throughout the day I

felt like I was able to respond to

anxiety and all the different things

that came up for you they could be very

different things could be meditation or

something else I actually didn't

experiment at what's up on some of my

colleagues tonight I told my friends an

experiment so it's okay um but I asked

them to take I forget now if it was five

minutes or ten minutes but but take

let's just say five minutes turn off

your phone turn off your computer sit in

a room where you're not gonna have any

interruptions

just like quiet and just try to

like clear your mind a little bit it

sounds a little like meditation II like

but but if you just try to clear your

mind but you have a notepad next to you

with a piece of paper and pencil or

something like that and be willing to

sort of if things come to mind just

write them down that process can often

lead to a sense of calm and preparedness

that is pretty good so that's another

technique I think there's probably

something I haven't like researched with

that and the name of that particular

technique is but that can be a technique

that can help people kind of prepare for

the day and make sure they got all their

bases covered the next one here is

saying my affirmation so there's things

that help me prepare for the day to

remind myself to things that are

important to me so why I do the work

that I do at Han Theon the importance of

my family you know things like that that

are just good for me to say out loud and

help remind me of my priorities and my

goals also picking tomorrow's tasks so

this is kind of a carryover from the

high B leave but I get more work done

and I'm more productive when I think

about the things I'm doing tomorrow and

I actually go through a list and pick

them so that those are all these are all

things that are important to me things

that I would like to do every single day

and so I ask myself what is the one

habit that would make all these things

easier

and initially I thought the habit was

getting up at 5:00 a.m. when I get up at

these things that I want to do and so

that's when I went back and said okay

I'm gonna wake up at 5:00 a.m. I wake up

at 5:00 a.m. why am I at the 5:00 a.m.

again nope go back to bed

I tried and tried and tried and failed

continuously to actually get up at 5:00

an and so I took a step back and I

thought okay giving up at 5:00 a.m. it's

obviously not it's not the the goal to

have it that I'm trying to establish so

rather than make that the goal I made a

goal to go to bed at 9:00 p.m. every day

I picked a number that would give me

plenty of time it would set me up to be

able to get up at 5:00 a.m. a little boy

naturally I feel more rested puts my

priorities a little bit in place as well

it helps focus my evening in a way that

I didn't expect also and then it but

before this I'm sort of tight I would be

working or reading or playing or what

game or something like into the evening

often I'd be doing a little bit of just

stuff on my computer or whatever I would

get sort of into a groove oh yeah I'm

doing this good work and stuff and then

before I realize that it would be two or

three in the morning and then my kids

would wake up at 6:00 6:30 regardless

and at that point I have to get up so

regardless of what time I go to bed I

have to get up at 6:00 or 7:00 or

whatever time so going to bed at 9:00

p.m. set me up to be successful and

these other things and put me in a good

position to to get these things done so

when I was thinking about how to do this

how to go through and actually establish

this habit and make it important to me I

thought about another strategy that I've

been working on before there's a book

called the clients now and it's a book

where you go through and it's focused on

business

like sales and marketing in those things

but you basically go through and you

that this is an old chart that this is

this was up on my wall and as far as

like sticking with something goes like I

felt like I I stuck with it for a pretty

long time like this this chart worked

pretty well

it helps me define all these different

things but I'm only really trying to

establish one habit I'm trying to get

better at one particular thing so rather

than this which requires a lot of go

through the book and reading this

chapter in that chapter and writing my

plan out I instead created this chart so

this chart here is broken up into five

week and so it's like you know week one

through five here a habit typically

takes ten weeks or so to like establish

to become automatic in your life so I

thought okay five week

chunks here I'll do two of these charts

and then if I do it every single time

every single week then it's gonna be

automatic I'm not gonna have to think

about it it's just gonna happen and

that'll be easier

so let's actually break this guy let's

take a look up to the top here is the

habit it's a little bit mergency but

there's a section here at the top where

you just write your habit in and then

every day if you go through you either

check it off or you don't

below here you have a section for notes

which i think is useful for reminding

yourself why this is important to you

why are you trying to establish this

habit and then as you go through there

will probably be days where you don't do

your habit or maybe you do and it's

really hard or whatever um this bottom

area here is really just a place to

write in a note to remind you why

something the whole point I was coming

to this thinking like this is gonna be

really flexible like he'll figure out as

I go I'm just gonna go into Excel or

Google sheets and just make this sheet

so I can I can start tracking

um so yet we can go in here add notes I

do whatever you want the bottom section

if a section I'm calling the daily

incidentals so I was going through it I

was blogging about this process I was

going through and then the struggle and

the trying to bounce back into something

new and establishing this new habit and

I realize it's like the things that are

important to me are important but my

only goal is to get up at 9:00 I'm sorry

to go to bed at 9:00 p.m. so that's the

only thing I'm really concerned about

everything else that happens in this

section here is incidental its secondary

to the habit that I'm trying to

establish um so this isn't my goal but

these are all things that are really

important to me and if I focus on my

goal these things should happen as a

result police that was my theory so how

did it go well this is the first week

there is some good there are some bad

and so if we if we break this down a

little bit I added in my goal here at

the top I'm headed check marks along the

top to the days that I actually did it

the zeros are the O's in this case are

times that I didn't quite meet the 10

p.m. time but I had a really good reason

or I was being accountable to my wife at

this point and if she agreed that it was

also a good reason that everything was

was okay so for examples I'm on the mid

camp organizing team and the mid camp

meeting starts at 8:00 and we often went

until 9:30 10 o'clock something like

that so in those cases I had an O and I

wrote in you know mid camp meeting so

they were the time here where I'm in San

Francisco and I kind of knew this coming

into it but it's really really

highlighted here for me that when I

travel it is really really hard for me

to establish to have it in fact I

actually don't know if this plan is

gonna work for me in my lifestyle

because I travel about once a month

which means I'm never going to have a

and make that automatic

I don't quite have an answer for this

yet so I love feedback maybe we could

talk a little bit afterwards but I'm

still trying to figure out what to do

when I travel in this case I was in San

Francisco it was a teen retreat I knew I

wasn't going to go to bed at 9:00 p.m.

in fact I wasn't even planning on it

because I was there to be with my

colleagues we're gonna play some board

games we're probably gonna be up pretty

late and that's okay like that's the

point of the retreat so I don't know I I

saw it I tried to establish it as less

like this is a failure week and more as

a I'm going to like kind of like if you

have a return a recurring task on your

calendar you know it's something new

every week

but oh I'm traveling this week but it's

on my calendar for next week you know

it's something I'll pick up as soon as I

start the following and that worked okay

the following week was still of hit and

miss but let's jump to the bottom so the

bottom here I have my daily incidentals

the things that I'm trying to set up to

do those were all listed there I was

also curious on what days that I would

like read just to it wasn't necessarily

one of my important things but I was

just coming kind of curious I've been

reading a lot so I marked that I added

that as an extra thing oh and then again

I the goal of this is to be flexible and

kind of customized what I'm trying to

track and so I also added a section here

four sets of push ups so every time that

I would do is set up push ups I would

add a little tally there and as you can

see I am awesome at doing push ups

yeah but it was it was something good

for me on track and then the bottom

section here is how I feel mentally and

physically and and I don't know if

anything significant will come out of

that but I think it there could be some

interesting data on like oh the days

that I get up at 5:00 I feel better or

or something but at the very least it's

good for me to kind of be aware of how

do I feel today in relation to yesterday

help but yeah again the whole point is

to be flexible you know you could you

could build this into kind of whatever

you want and you know make whatever sort

of plan you want if this is something

that's interesting to you if you want to

give it a try I do have some printouts

that you guys can take with you and it

is also available on my website David

Needham dummy and you can I've been

blogging about it you can download that

and again if it's useful for you please

feel free to use up so the whole point

of what I'm trying to get up for today

is not to tell you this is the way to do

it not to tell you the Ivy Lee method is

the way to become productive I think

it's a way to become productive it's a

way to become productive for a while but

I don't think that it's the end-all and

Beall solution what I'm trying to help

you guys with today is the process I

went through to create this plan it's

it's really about setting yourself up

for success or thinking about the things

that are important to you to think about

habits and to help yourself to succeed

it establishing this honest so let's

talk a little bit about building your

own plan these are some that headings

we're gonna talk through so let me jump

right in

so the first one here is that there's no

silver bullet there's no one technique

that's going to to do it all for you

also not there's not like a

one-size-fits-all solution that's going

to be appropriate for every single

person so personally I have done some

personality tests I'm in ENFJ Myers

Brigg and I'm a specialist on the disc

assessment I'm part of what I learned

about myself and doing those tasks is

that I'm very a detail-oriented I like

to have a plan I like to follow through

that plan and if I didi eight from the

plan it's difficult for me to jump back

into it so knowing that about myself

some of these strategies will work

better than others um I after the the

Ivy Lee method some of my colleagues

were interested in kind of picking it up

and it didn't really resonate with them

and I didn't really know why I thought

oh well I must just be like failing at

explaining it the right way I just need

to explain it again or I need to show

them my work or something that will help

but we actually did a personality test

during our retreat and it was really

interesting to see just how different

groups of people process things in

different ways and think about things

differently and work in very different

ways so things that work for me may not

work for you and that's okay

the important thing is finding something

that you feel like will work for you and

Chung's would adopt that so some things

you can ask yourself the Quinns when

someone's talking about oh this new

productivity strategy or as I'm going

through and talking about these

productivity strategies ask yourself

what parts of this technique can I use

like which parts are actually like oh

yeah that resonates with me and which

parts are like I don't it's not gonna do

anything and then also think about if

you currently have a strategy or a plan

in place like what do I want to try next

and maybe I'm really focused on this

thing it's working pretty well but let

me write this down and you know I'll

iterate on that also personalization I

think is really important there I think

it's important to find a plan to create

a plan that is personal and unique to

you specifically the things that you're

trying to do

some things that come up with this is

for example like asking yourself how how

strict do I need to be to make this

actually happen so for me you know going

to bed at 9:00 p.m. I found I needed to

be pretty strict with myself you know

recently I've been failing a little bit

more at that than I had at the beginning

and part of the reason is because I grew

I grew a little bit laughs like oh it's

you know nine oh five how many wouldn't

finish the chapter in this book that I'm

reading and then a little bit and that

just led to yeah yeah didn't go well so

so I found out I have to be a little bit

more strict with myself on you know it's

chapter but I need to turn off Kindle I

need to go to sleep because that's

important I'm also for some people who

have died did you know that there's this

thing about like cheap days David it's

okay you need to eat the ice cream or

it's okay to have that chocolate cake or

whatever for me I don't think that would

work I think if I had a cheat day it'd

be really easy to have every day a cheat

day but for some people they can do that

if you're not works also how will you

motivate yourself not to fail what what

what things we set up for yourself to

keep yourself from falling off do you

need to give yourself a reward for

completing a particular milestone for my

first week I got all the check marks on

the first week part of the reason I

think is because I set up a reward for

myself where there is this video game

called dreamworld and I'm really into

right now I didn't own it at the time

but I saw my friends playing it it looks

like a lot of fun and I said okay if I

can get through and do it perfectly this

just this one week then how I'll go

ahead and get that for myself and then

that motivated me that that first week

was the hardest and it was great to have

that motivation there also what sorts of

accountability do you need to have what

level of accountability is appropriate

for making sure that you follow through

on the things that you want to do every

day does this need to be public

accountability our private

accountability or some mixture of both

for me I logged publicly about my

challenged myself I'm thought inviting

the public to kind of be aware of my

success or failure which motivated me to

try to succeed also I I reached out to

some friends and I said ask them to ask

me about how things were going on a

regular basis which was good ultimately

just you know yourself better than I do

you know yourself better than Ivy Lee

who hasn't been around for a while so

think about it

customize it personalize it to what

you're trying to do and then it zaps

things will change your life will change

you'll get in your job you'll have kids

you'll move you'll get a new car I know

lose all sorts of things that change in

your life it could even be little things

you change your morning routine you

start riding a bike I don't know there's

all sorts of things that can change the

important thing is to be flexible in

your plan

be prepared to adapt to whatever the

changes that you are having and make a

plan so that you can adapt and get back

on track with something else it's okay

to change your plan and then also don't

be afraid to stop something that isn't

valuable anymore if you're going through

and you're you review your goals and you

realize this really isn't what I thought

it would be it's okay to stop and come

up new goals but in the end you can

expect failure you're going to eat the

donut or I'm gonna eat the donut and

that's okay no plan is intended to be

perfect no plan is going to last forever

people will change things will happen

and that's okay but when it happens ask

yourself why it happened don't just say

oh I failed it sucks

I'm just gonna not do anything anymore

you know ask yourself why it happens

actually take a look at it ask yourself

what you could have done to avoid that

from happening on the

is there anything you could change about

your strategy to actually keep it from

happening the next time

and then also review your goals consider

the things that you thought were

important to yourself and then if you

can't make a contingency plan this is

something I'm still working on what will

happen when the plan that I'm on right

now totally fails what will I do to keep

myself from becoming totally

unproductive and anxiety and depression

all that stuff again I don't have a plan

for that yet and that's something I need

to work on myself oh and I was reading a

book and one quote stood out for me in

that and that they said sometimes we

need to stumble in order to keep

ourselves from falling so you're walking

along sometime you need a little stumble

to keep yourself we're actually falling

on the ground I think that applies here

too sometimes it's okay to have a few

hiccups down a little bit of things

happen if it reminds you and gives you a

chance to basically grow to use the

opportunity for failure you know use the

opportunity of something not working to

give yourself a stronger more vibrant

more efficient plan and with that I'm

gonna open up to Q&A

yes yeah question just to comment I

think I would avoid personally using the

word failure because that's part of that

so that particular approach might not

reach the end point you were hoping for

so rather than say oh I feel that better

find something else it's like it's time

to shift direction it's time to you know

to try something new or whatever piece

you know if you go into something saying

I know the point will come where I will

fail then why do it anyway yeah

interesting

thank you every should that be done

all right thank you all very much

[Music]

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