Achieving Greatness: Improving Performance (Part 2)

This is the second of four posts I will be writing about achieving greatness. The first post was focused on things I do to improve my performance, and this post will be continuing in the same vein. Those first three tips are things that I try to do on a daily basis as they help give me the energy, mental clarity, and encouragement I need to do everything else. These next three tips are what I do to get more focus on what I have to do and get more time to have fun.

Create “Today” Lists

This is one that I discovered only a month ago, but I’m really glad I did as it has helped me significantly already. The idea came from successful entrepreneur Martin Bjergegaard. The concept is very simple: Instead of making a never-ending “To-do” list, make a short “Today” list. That is, just write down the things that you intend to have accomplished by the end of the day. And if you have something on your list, get it done before you start goofing off. Make sure you write this list down either first thing in the morning or the night before.

The main benefit I’ve seen from making these lists is that I don’t forget to do things as much as I used to. If I do forget that I have to do something, I just check the list and get reminded. The things I put on the list are things I need to do and should do before I start doing leisure activities. My list usually includes reading (as I discussed last week), working out, doing daily chores, and other tasks to get done. I will also put events on there so that I don’t overload myself. For example, yesterday I ran a 5K and did service on my car, which took most of the day up.

Another thing I do with my list, but is not necessary, is that I will put asterisks next to the items that are more important than others. Sometimes things will get in the way of accomplishing a task for a day, so I will usually star it the next day to make sure I prioritize it over other things if time doesn’t allow for everything.

This is not meant to discourage anyone from making long-term goals, this is just a way to focus on what needs to be done day-to-day and not get bogged down by decision paralysis when trying to use a gigantic “to-do” list. I know how it goes, my “to-do” lists would just balloon out of control and I wouldn’t know where to start. Use “today” lists to focus on a few tasks at a time, and eventually those “to-do” lists will sort themselves out.

Prepare / Offload / Automate

I don’t know how true this is for most people out there, but I always feel like I never have enough time to do anything. I also have a lot of trouble making unimportant decisions, so coming to an answer can take much longer than necessary. For example, I have been known to sit in a spot for up to half an hour trying to decide what to eat. If I don’t have something ready to eat or make, I will go around in circles until I have to do the easiest thing, which is usually go out and eat something bad for me.

So for the last few months, I’ve been forcing myself to make a menu every week. And I don’t just mean dinners, I mean every meal. If I don’t plan out my breakfasts and lunches, I end up going out for all of them unless I just happen to have leftovers from the night before. Knowing this, I combat my indecision by planning out the whole week. It’s okay if it doesn’t go 100% according to plan, just having it helps me a lot. I also make most of my breakfasts in advance because I hate making food in the morning.

The point of my food anecdote is that it is important to recognize what your weaknesses are, and find ways to either make it easier to get around them or remove them entirely. I have a lot of trouble deciding what to eat in any given moment, so I prepare a menu ahead of time to remove the need to make a decision. Saves time and lets my brain answer questions that are more important.

Another way to get time back is to offload menial tasks. This isn’t easy for everyone since this will usually require money, but there are other things you can do. For myself, since I live with my girlfriend, we split chores up. We share cooking duties so that one can make dinner while the other relaxes. I do the dishes every night, and in exchange she does the laundry every week. Another thing I don’t like doing is going to stores, so I offload that task by doing most of my shopping online. Let other people get what I need and send it to me.

The last thing that ties in with this is to automate wherever possible. Technology allows us to do a lot of things easily that required a lot of time before. Things like paying bills or shifting money around between accounts. With the exception of rent, I pay for all my bills online, and I always do auto-pay if available. All I need to do is check my accounts once or twice a week to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Using these tips, I generally only spend, on average, one hour per day on chores, leaving plenty of time to do other tasks.

Avoid Distractions / Practice Selective Ignorance

Out of everything on this list of tips so far, I feel like this one will be the hardest for a lot of people. While the Internet is one of the greatest tools we have ever created, it is also creating new generations of people who don’t know how to unhook from it. And I totally get it. When I’m at work and I don’t feel like working on my current task, my first thought is to check Facebook or one of the forums I frequent. For many people, they waste time on news sites, blogs, Reddit, Twitter, etc.

If you want to be truly productive, you have to learn to step away from all of that and focus on the task at hand. My policy at work is to go the entire day without going to any non-work related site. Sometimes I fail at this, but just setting that restriction on myself has increased my focus on work significantly. I’m talking 200% or more output compared to when I would check Facebook every hour or so, just because I wasn’t breaking my concentration. I do my status updating when I get home, and that’s all anyone really needs to keep updated.

One of the things that really resonated with me when I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss was his section on elimination. He encourages taking in the things that are necessary to your tasks and ignoring all the rest, and I try to follow it as much as possible. In other words, practicing selective ignorance. This is why I don’t read the news. If something is worth hearing about, I’ll hear about it in person, but otherwise it is just so much garbage to wade through and virtually none of it has any affect on my life. This is also why I don’t spend any time looking at funny pictures or videos. Yes, they are funny and cute, but I have better things to do. I also don’t spend a bunch of time on Wikipedia looking at articles that give me useless knowledge I won’t remember later anyway. Sure, lots of interesting stuff, but if I can’t use it, then I just wasted 10 minutes that I could’ve spent writing something of my own.

Avoiding distractions is similar to losing weight. If you want to stop eating things that are bad for you, don’t put them in your house to begin with. If you want to stop wasting time, don’t go to websites that are specifically designed to do so. I know it’s hard, especially when you have friends who are always asking, “Hey, did you see this adorable picture?” or saying, “Dude, you have to watch this prank video.” Ignore them! Cute cats and skateboarding fails do not make you a better person. Of course, there are things out there that are worth your time if the topic is something you care about, but 99% of the media on the Internet is useless. I don’t have time for that crap and neither do you if you want to improve your performance and have time to get things done.

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Next week, three tips on how I try to increase my happiness. See you then!

Achieving Greatness: Improving Performance (Part 1)

This is the first of four posts I will be writing about achieving greatness. This is a topic that I’ve been spending more time thinking about in the last few months, mostly thanks to the work of Lewis Howes on his fantastic podcast, The School of Greatness. One of the questions he always asks of his guests is what their definition of greatness is. For me, greatness is fully realizing my potential. In fact, that’s what most of his guests answer with, or something very similar. Greatness is all about just doing the best that you can do at everything you do. It never has anything to do with the final product or what it can get you. If you are truly excelling at what you do, the results will come naturally.

Part of me feels like this is a topic that I shouldn’t be giving advice on, seeing as how I am not even close to realizing my potential. And that is very true. But then again, no truly great person has ever acknowledged they have realized their potential. They just keep aiming higher. So, even though I have not reached my goals, I have learned a lot of things along the way, and I want to help others get down the right path as well.

One of the things I do a lot of is listen to interviews with successful people. And, on occasion, if I really connect with someone, I will read some of their work and try to glean some advice on how to be successful as well. These posts will be about the things that I’ve learned from hundreds of interviews and several books, things that have specifically worked for me. Honestly, a lot of these people tend to just say the same things, or sometimes their claims are rather far-fetched, and other times their advice just doesn’t apply to most people. I’m not a self-help guru, so I am not going to make any claims that these will work for everyone. I do know that they work for me, and I think that they are general enough that most people can apply the principle.

This post is about improving performance and being more productive. When I think about performance, my focus has always been on doing things properly and quickly. Not just in the workplace, but at home as well. Here are three tips to improve your performance.

Put Your Health First

This always sounds cliché since everybody says the put your health first, but yet so few people actually do. I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy. In high school I was in fantastic shape. Then I went to college and gained around 40 pounds by the time I graduated. They just built up over time. When I got out, I went on a diet and exercise regimen and lost almost all of it. Then I hurt myself and couldn’t do the exercise anymore, so I gained it all back over the next four years, which I still carry today.

And this is exactly why I am putting my health first again. I am choosing to sacrifice some of my vices in order to make sure this happens.

The first component is to not eat crap. Duh! “Eating right” is a very dumb phrase since there are hundreds of ways to do it. Just look at the shelves of books on diets that “work” at bookstores. So instead of saying “eat right”, my phrase is “don’t eat crap.” And it’s really easy to tell what crap is. All sweets, fried foods, sodas, alcohols, and most carbs fall under “crap”. Avoiding those will do most of the work. Not eating crap is pretty easy for me, but I still struggle a lot with eating enough fruits and vegetables, so I am focusing more on getting those in my meals. I am still constantly amazed at how much better I feel eating good foods versus crap foods.

The second component is to control portions. This is really, really hard in America since most restaurants serve way too much food, especially at dinner when you should be eating the least. I am the worst at controlling portions, always have been. When I see food in front of me, my instincts are to finish all of it. But I still work at it because I want to be better. For best results, I will eat a small breakfast when I get up, just to take the edge off, then eat another small portion two hours later, have my biggest meal at lunch, and finish with a smaller dinner. Often I won’t even eat enough at dinner to feel full. I take half of what I think I should have, and then eat again before bed if I get hungry enough. Having significant food in my stomach when I go to bed is the surest way to see the scale go up in the morning rather than down.

The third component is to exercise regularly, daily if possible, but I have yet to reach that point. Again, it’s really hard to find the time to do it. Any decent workout is going to take an hour. And then stretching and showering takes another 30 minutes. Put in the time it takes to get to the gym and back, and my workouts end up taking two hours out of my day. But it’s worth it to me, so I sacrifice by getting up early to make time for it. I have found that going to the gym at lunch break works best for me, but doing it before or after work is just fine too. Figure out when you like it best.

The fourth and last component is sleep. One of the most universal truths I’ve heard from the successful people I mentioned earlier is that getting enough sleep is critical to success. Just as universal, the recommended amount is 8-9 hours. Growing up as a borderline insomniac in school, it has taken me a long time to get to where I can do that consistently, and it really does make a huge difference. When I get the full amount, I have much more energy than I would with only 6 hours (which I did fine with for years). Don’t overindulge though, as going over the recommended amount will result in feeling groggy again earlier in the day than you should. When I get 8 hours, I find it hard to stay in bed anyway, my body just wants to get going.

Read Every Day

This is one that I picked up from James Altucher’s Choose Yourself. After college, it took me about four years to get back into reading regularly. However, I would read when I felt like it, preferring to play games or watch movies instead. But then I read James’ book, and he said that you should read at least two hours a day, it is that important. I admit that I don’t always read two hours a day, but I do get at least one, and I’m happy that I do.

I have found that reading has two major benefits. The first is that reading keeps me sharp and focused. I tend to be more productive at work when I read for an hour before I start than otherwise. I also find that I get a lot more from reading than any other medium, things that I can use in my own works.

The second benefit is that reading is very good at getting my brain to relax. This is especially useful at bedtime. I tend to fall asleep much faster when I read before bed over when I watch a movie or play a game. Tim Ferriss also recommends reading an hour before bed for this very reason.

Seriously, reading is good! I find that the more I read, the more I want to read. And it doesn’t have to be all serious stuff like biographies (I don’t read those at all) or other non-fiction. I mostly read fantasy and sci-fi novels, with some graphic novels thrown in for good measure. In fact I just got The Contract With God Trilogy by Will Eisner in the mail yesterday, and I’m looking forward to that one.

Monitor Your Progress

Another thing that most successful people will tell you is that recording your progress is the best thing to keep your motivation high, especially among athletes. I agree with them, for the most part. They will often take things to an extreme level. I like to simply focus on a few things that will show that my efforts are not in vain.

Two of the main things I record are my weight (daily) and what I do during my workouts. I really like seeing both of these improve over time, especially on the workouts. I am definitely getting stronger faster than I am losing weight, but that could easily be written off as muscle weight replacing fat weight.

Another thing I have started recording are my daily goals and how well I do on them. I will discuss this more next week.

Most people have poor memories about where they used to be compared to where they are now. Obviously if you lose 100 pounds, you will notice the difference there, but that’s over the course of months. You barely notice the daily changes, which is why recording those things is useful. Everyday you know that you are progressing in something, even if it’s not something that useful (I record my progress in the video games I play, for example). No matter how you do it, either using a notepad or a spreadsheet (I use both!) or a bunch of sticky notes on a board, monitoring your progress will make it easier to stay on path.

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Next week, three more tips on improving performance. Look forward to it!

Welcome

If you are a first time visitor to Knoxinator Productions, welcome! If you have been here before and are wondering where all the old content went, I will explain that in a second. But for now, a little about myself.

My name is Chris Knox, I live in the beautiful city of Seattle, WA, and I make computers do fancy things for a living. Currently I live with my wonderful girlfriend of two years and my cat of eight years, both of which bring great joy into my life. In my spare time I like to play games, read, and catch a movie or a few episodes of a TV show here and there. Of course I also hang with my awesome friends when time allows, though that always gets tougher as everyone gets older.

Aside from all that, I also really like to be creative, which is the reason this website is here. This website is going to be my public repository for all the stuff I write and create. Ever since I was young, I've liked writing, so there will be plenty of that on here. More recently I have gotten into making music, which I do with my band No Viable Option (I play drums). I have also dabbled a little bit in making video games, but want to get more into that space. Other things I've done in the past include making videos and websites for myself and others.

So why isn't there any of that stuff on here yet? Mostly because a lot of it remains unfinished, or is not the final product I wanted. The only things I have that are finished are the videos I've made, but posting those would likely create legal hassles I don't want to deal with (copyrighted music and video clips and such). There is also my band's first album, but since that is not available online anywhere, I can't really point to it from here.

My goal is to make this a starting point and just go forward from here. I will post finished works on here when I get done with them. Done will not necessarily mean final drafts, as the feedback I get might get put into them, but done will be a close-to-final draft that I am content with.

In addition to that, I am also making it a goal to post something on the blog once a week, probably Sundays. I'm not going to hold myself to that super tightly, but I want to try to get something on here once a week if possible. The posts will be either musings on something I've found meaningful or inspirational lately, or will be on a topic that I feel is worth telling to others who may not have experience with it. Right now I already have two topics in mind that will give me at least five blog posts of content, so that is looking great already. I want my posts to be meaningful and not just the old status updates I used to give.

Sorry if this was a lot of information, but I wanted to lay the ground rules. Hopefully the stuff I make will be worthwhile to a lot of you reading it, or at the very least be interesting.

Look forward to my first post on Sunday about my thoughts on performance and productivity, based on my personal experiences trying lots of things I've learned about from experts on the subject.

Listening to: Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin