Getting things done – My Way.

Work as individuals, managers, leaders, team leads, or in any other capacity, the most critical thing is to get things done. A better word to replace this is “Execution”. And I believe that executing things is not just limited to our professional life but is equally important for us to excel in our personal life.

Eventually, between success and failure, better execution is always the deciding factor.

Thus, what does it take to get things done? Is there any thumb rule, any secret ingredient, any framework or philosophy to get things done?

I’ll say yes, there is!

If you closely observe, we’ve a two-way problem at hand. The first being how effective the planning is, how accurate is the outlining of what needs to be done, getting a different team or team members involved, setting up time frames, deadlines, maintaining a track of workflows, reviewing regularly etc. There are multiple frameworks, models, and softwares available for managing such projects. One such framework is 4DX, another popular used for software development is Agile & Scrum and I’m sure there are more available for every function of an organisation.

Despite all this, we somehow find that goals do not get accomplished in reality.

So, what’s missing is a mental model of execution! 

For me, a model has always worked wonders. I’ve created this over a period of time for myself. Let me first explain it in an individual capacity and then co-relate in terms of a team execution.

Let’s begin by understanding why do we execute things at the workplace in the first place. Well, of course, it’s our job! Our livelihood depends on it. No choice here.

But what’s the driving factor when we have taken up a personal goal? It is certainly not an obligation to let say lose 15kgs this year/in the next 6 months or to travel to 5 destinations this year or for that matter read 20 volumes? I think, the answer is gratification – personal gratification. I’ll come to this later.

The second important thing is knowing how far we’ve gone? A quick checklist such as what’s the current status, are we on track, are we losing track and did we completely lose it? In most of the cases, it’s the last two - either lost track or running behind schedule.

We often let it go within the first few weeks of execution - Why?

There are again two things to be considered here – firstly, we have a tendency to jump from one thing to another. It is like I’ll aim for a certain goal and if I’m off track, it’s easier for me to change track and then start fresh instead of getting back on track. A good example of this is, say in case of losing weight, one gets himself subscribed to a gym for 6 months. Things started well, one does it religiously for the first couple of days, even continues for a week, and then comes the day off, followed by one more day, turn out to be a week, followed by another week and then one let it go. Game over. What happens next, switches to swimming, then running, then dieting and the list goes on.  

Secondly, one must consider the interrelated outcomes - just going to the gym won’t work, one has to keep be vigilant of their diet as well. You may have been doing great at the gym, nearly regular but unable to cut down on binge eating. As a result, eventually, it gets even. Net result - lose a couple kgs, stop going to the gym after a while since it’s not yielding results, right?

Now, coming back to the WHY - as I mentioned, the reason why we get hooked to something that we like or seek is to attain gratification, mostly instant. There could be multiple gratifications say for losing weight - it could be looking good, it could be feeling good, for better-earning prospects and likewise.

Therefore, if you see, it’s this large dosage of gratification that is driving us to reach out for the end goal, isn’t it?

If you ask me, it’s partially true, it’s not just the summit that I’ve enjoyed the most, but also the journey to reach there. It's essential. This is my model of gratification. You have to gratify yourself at each step that you take and not just wish to get gratified at the end. You’ll cut yourself lose soon enough because of the burnout.

Let me explain the premise behind this continuous gratification that is so important. Assume that you have a willpower of 100 units. You can invest all this in doing all kind of sought after things, however, the problem is that the units required to complete all your sought-after things are 400. Thus, you can't-do it all. Say losing weight will take 150, reading books will take 100 and other professional goals will take another 150.

So, one way is just doing worth 100 units, in this case reading books is only fitting the bill, Sometimes, even to complete one goal, i.e losing weight, you may have to do multiple things, going gym will consuming 90 units and proper diet is another 60. If you let one go, the end result, you know.

What’s the way out? The answer is to gain more willpower units! Isn’t it too simple? The catch is that you have negative marking here. Not going to the gym will return 2X negative units. Every time you skip one complete cycle you will get -2X units.

So, this is how the model works, you have to break the routine into small tasks how mundane they could be, and then associate units of gratification, say to get to gym is 80 units, break it down to getting early is 20 units, which means sleeping early is another 20 units, doing gym is 40 units. In Gym, cardio is 20 units, weight training is 20 units. Similarly, avoiding junk food a day is 10 units, having a healthy breakfast is 20 units, timely lunch is 15 units and proper dinner is another 15. Since we have negative marking in place, each time you skip the entire routine is -2X units.

So, the game is to maximize the gratification units for the day. Suppose, you slept early it’s +20, but you overslept, can’t go to the gym, but here is your chance to save (2*80 -160 units) by going to the gym in the evening. The more negative units you accumulate higher will be the difficulty levels for you to overcome the gap. Gaining negative units is a downward spiral. In a nutshell, you have to avoid the negative units at all cost.

The good part is negative units only come in a bundle. If you’ve got one + unit for the day, you’re half done. Doing any of the subtasks will avoid the negative units. So, if you’ve not slept in time, most likely, you might skip the gym in the morning. It will make you vulnerable to get -160, but by putting an extra mile, if you can get up early and hit the gym, maybe only able to do cardio will help in two ways, firstly you have avoided the -160 and secondly you have gained +20 for getting up early, +20 for cardio and then if you followed the diet plan for the day, it’s another +60. So, from a -160 for not hitting the gym, that in most cases will also result in skipping the diet plan is another -120, i.e -280 in total, completely avoided, you have secured even after not doing weight training is +100 will power units! Another interesting piece here is like attracts like. More + units will result is you earning more + and – will result in more – units.

Game on guys! Just plan for your units of gratification, and you will be finding it extremely easy to get things done not just of 400 units but worth 1000! I’ve done it for most of the things I would like to do.

In the next blog will try and explain how to get this model implanted in team tasks.

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