Habits and Procrastination

Energy, Flow, Habits, Human Brain, peak Performance, procrastination, Thinking

I have written earlier about the book Tiny Habits by B. J. Fogg PhD. This is one classic book and it eliminates the ideas of doing heroic things to achieve Peak Performance. I have been deeply impressed with the book and the results it has helped me get.

The logic of the book is very simple, yet profound. Actually most profound things have simple explanations. Here the simple explanation is that if there’s something which requires a lot of ability (also known as hard work for the brain) then chances are, that if motivation is not high, then it won’t happen. So you may have the best intentions, but your brain won’t let you achieve it. This is what I was talking about yesterday .

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the brain has only 2% of the mass of the body but consumes about 25% of the energy, so its always trying to conserve energy as per Steven Kotter in his book The Art of Impossible.

As per Steven to achieve the impossible one of the key ingredients is motivation. He also looks at the various chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin etc., which when layered give the brain the power of feeling good and hence the motivation to perform at peak.

Where I think the intersection takes place is that if you make something into a habit, then the brain does not use so much energy and you don’t procrastinate even for tasks where the motivation is low and the amount of ability needed is high.

On the other hand when your motivation levels are high and you’re at your creative best, you can get into a “flow” state and achieve massive outcomes.

I would think you should read both the books because both can help you grow your abilities to perform at your peak.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Keeping commitments with yourself

commitment, confidence, Habits, self esteem

One of the best ways to lose self confidence and therefore self esteem is to not keep a commitment to yourself

Its easy to not keep a commitment to a third party and then try to rationalize the reasons. Sub consciously you lower your esteem there also.

However when you don’t keep a commitment to yourself, inspite of all the rationalizing, in your heart you know you cheated yourself and that hits your self esteem badly and your confidence as well.

You however need to be careful with making commitments both in terms of quantity and the type of commitments. Too many commitments is a recipe for disaster because you don’t have so much will power or motivation in a day.

If you don’t have the capabilities and you still make a commitment, you are bound to fail anyway inspite of your intentions.

I have found the book Tiny Habits by B. J. Fogg to be an amazing handbook to create small interventions which don’t need will power or motivation and slowly become part of your behavior. He has a very succinct formula which he calls the Fogg Behavior Model

B=MAP where B is behavior, M is motivation, A is ability and P is prompts.

As these small interventions start having an impact and you start keeping commitments to yourself, automatically your self confidence goes up and you start aiming for even higher without doing any heroics.

I have multiple posts in which I have recommended this book. If you have not read it, please do. It will have a major impact on your self esteem and self confidence.

Till next time then. Keep commitments to yourself first.

Carpe Diem!!!

Technology Adaption – the next challenge

Habits, Human Brain, mindset, Product Management, Technology

For product management in a technology company, the big challenge after identifying a single niche then targeting it, is the adaption of the technology.

Most technology based products are integration of existing resources. Very rarely are they designed from scratch for every component.

If by chance your product is designed from scratch then this problem is even more acute for you.

If the end user of your technology is not able to adapt your product easily as in 2-3 steps then even the most technologically superior product will be sent the grave. The human brain does not like change and therefore people resist any kind of new products. This is the biggest blockage for new technologies.

Look at Instagram or WhatsApp, such easy to use apps, therefore the adoption is in millions. It does not mean that the product is simple. I am sure the complexity is enormous, but they have kept it hidden from the customer. The user experience is very elegant and easy to use

Similarly the Iridium satellite phones, with the best pedigree and the ability to connect you from wherever you are in the world, bombed.

When doing product management of technology based products, you need to keep in mind if the existing infrastructure willsupport your technology. How much will the user have to unlearn to use your technology. What can be the simple things you can do to increase adoption.

This is a very complex subject so we will cover over multiple posts.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!