We had our second GiveGetWin All Hands meeting a couple days ago, and there were two gems that stuck out from the call. Mixed in with going over the things we've accomplished and strategizing on recruiting, marketing, and building, we also share personal observations, productivity, and help each other out.
Two gems --
Zach Obront shared a key point about batching activities. Every activity your perform has mental overhead. By putting a single block on the calendar (one hour, two hours, whatever) to deal with that entire block of things, you can then forget about the individual details.
Eddy Azar shared a key point about procrastination and lying to yourself. A key goal for Eddy is to not lie to himself. So if he might be saying to himself, "I'm going to only play video games for an hour" -- but in reality, whenever he turns on the Playstation he knows he plays 5+ hours. His goal now? Identify and be honest. He doesn't try to change the behavior necessarily -- he says, "I'm going to play the Playstation. I'd like to only play an hour, but it'll probably be the rest of the day. I'm choosing to play video games right now instead of doing work, and play them the rest of the day."
Why? Because it gives choice. Zach commented and followed up on that thought of Eddy's -- when you lie to yourself, you can tell a series of small lies and not commit to what you're really doing. When you honestly admit what you're doing and why you're doing it, and recognizing it in the moment, you're then free to make the decisions you want to make.
I'm grateful I have such smart people to work on stuff with.