ShareThis1 |
Answer the simple but vexing question, "Was today a success?" by defining success in concrete terms. |
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Write down the criteria for each day's success in the morning, and check off "yes" or "no" at the end of each day. Set up an Excel spreadsheet for this. |
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Four weeks of observation, starting August 10 and ending September 6. |
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Collect the data without judgment; journal fearlessly about the process. |
Created Aug 18, 2009
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Comments & Observations
Dan Owen I know this is a powerful and highly-charged experiment for me because I'm avoiding it!
Aug 18, 2009
Brock Tice How's it coming?
Aug 18, 2009
Dan Owen Tracked this on paper for 3 days last week, nothing since. I'm discouraged by my lack of success, by how work-oriented my definition is, and by how out-of-line my expectations are with my performance. I need to look closely at this.
Aug 19, 2009
Brock Tice Do you have a set of defined goals for what you want out of life, both personally and professionally? Are your daily criteria aligned with those goals?
Aug 19, 2009
Lizzy From Liza: Dan this is a great idea for an experiment. I continually struggle to answer this same question. Are defining success based on the outcome or the journey?
Aug 19, 2009
Dan Owen Brock, I do have clearly defined life goals, but I'm not defining the success of my day in terms of them, at least not directly. "Achieve daily feeling of satisfaction in my work life," is a life goal, but not really helpful. I'm still thinking that I haven't defined "success" clearly enough. By setting down a list of projects to complete, I may be defining it too narrowly. On the other hand, not finishing what I set out to do each day is a real frustration. I think this experiment may be working in that it's making clear that I have a daily planning problem to solve before I can step forward to a larger question. I'm still mulling. Thanks for asking this question.
Aug 19, 2009
Dan Owen Also, I've been thinking about this recently in the Matisse-vs-Picasso context of Matt's recent blog post. (Was that Gladwell talk not incredible?) Matisse was engaged in a lifelong experiment. Outcome was clearly important, but process was essential. How might he have defined a successful day? (Could he have kept from scorning someone who asked such a question?) In mid-life, I'm afraid I've switched from Matisse to Picasso, and I'm not sure I'm better off for it.
Aug 19, 2009
Matthew Cornell This is clearly an important exercise, Dan, if I may say so. A few thoughts... Bottom up: Do you have an example in the past of a day that was a home run? What were the components? Realism: Have you tried cutting way back on the quantity that would qualify as success? That's hard to do, but one day might be instructive. Re: Picasso, without a sponsor, we have to balance the two. Tuning into the process as part of the success is integral to TTL, so I wonder if one of the metrics might be to track those moments of joy, surprise, etc. "Micro-successes"? I'm enjoying following this, Dan. Thanks for sharing.
Aug 19, 2009
Dan Owen I took some time to think about this and then this past weekend made some decisions. I also got some feedback from my weekly review accountability partner that was very helpful.
I stopped tracking results back on Aug 12 out of sheer discouragement. I was being totally unrealistic about how much work I could get done each day.
I took Brock's feedback to heart regarding broadening my criteria for success to include non-work areas. Again and again, I keep coming up against the feeling that I don't have "enough time" to move forward in any area of my life except work, but when I took a closer look at why I wasn't getting my work done, I saw that it was because I was (successfully) spending time on non-work endeavors. If felt good to realize this.
So I restarted the tracking process this weekend, except that I'm including all of the big categories in my daily criteria for success: work, relationships, financial, health, and personal.
I'm also following a much more rigorous daily planning routine, in which (per Matt) I'm estimating the time required for each task and fitting them into the daily schedule instead of making an amorphous list and hoping for the best. To be honest, I'm resisting this part of the exercise, but I can see that it's essential. I think my resistance comes from seeing just how few tasks I can actually complete versus my appetite (although, why I think finishing 10 tasks a day is such a small number is a bit of a mystery).
Aug 31, 2009
Matthew Cornell How much work you can get done vs. defining success are two different things. Including home (and broadening to major life areas - work, relationships, financial, health, and personal) is a good start, I think. How about a checkbox next to each one that you evaluate at the end of the day, something like "Did I make progress in this area?" I write in my daily planning guide that getting one solid task done is sometimes a home run!
Re estimating your daily plans, if there's resistance then maybe drop it for a bit? Or perhaps you can waaaaaay underestimate how much you can get done, then suprise yourself. It might feel unsatisfying, but then again, maybe it'll reset expectations... Just an idea.
Finally, I wonder how you can detach a bit from the data, as you write in "How will you enjoy the journey?" A fellow TTL-er suggested third person past tense observations, such as, "The subject experienced discouragement about the results."
Keep us informed!
Sep 01, 2009
Dan Owen Matt: I'm tracking this exactly as you suggest: a spreadsheet with five boxes, one for each area, and a specific goal with regard to each. In the checkbox I simply write YES or NO for whether I was successful that day. Then I journal about it. Still lots of resistance around this, but my anxiety is far less amorphous and much more specific, which is always the first step toward solving the problem effectively for me.
Sep 03, 2009
Matthew Cornell Keep it up, Dan. I'm interested in how you handle the resistance.
Sep 04, 2009