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December 27, 2018

The 5 Choices

The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity by Kory Kogon, Leena Rinne, and Adam Merril is about how your organisation can be as productive as possible. The book is written by people in the Covey organisation and are along the lines of the infamous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Here it is:

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” – Stephen R. Covey

The 5 Choices for Extraordinary Productivity is a framework for achieving more, much more, productivity:

Why

In times when everyone is busy, being productive is key to standing out. Every day many people work for 5-12 hours, however, some get much more done than others. That is productivity at work. The 5 Choices explain how you can (instantly) become more productive. This involves a) making better decisions, b) diverting your attention to where it’s needed, and 3) managing your energy.

5 Choices for Extraordinary Results

  1. Act on the Important – Do the things that are important, don’t react to what’s urgent
  2. Go for the Extraordinary – Good is the enemy of great, don’t settle for ordinary
  3. Schedule the Big Things – Focus on what adds value, don’t get lost in the small things
  4. Rule Your Technology – Use technology to your advantage, don’t become a slave to dopamine shots
  5. Fuel Your Fire – Strengthen your vitality, prevent a burn-out

The lessons from the 5 Choices are very clear, be proactive instead of reactive. With this, you can solve the 3 big questions (at work). First, how can you make many decisions, the right ones, every day? Second, how can you divert your attention towards the right places? Third, how can you manage your (limited) energy? That is what the 5 Choices help you to navigate.

1) Act on the Important

Our brain has different sections and they work in different ways. We are automatically reactive, this takes place in our old/reptilian brain. But if we put in some effort we can become pro-active, we can plan and exert self-control (pre-frontal cortex, new brain). Daniel Kahneman also called this, thinking fast and slow. This means you have to ask yourself a simple question: why am I doing X or Y?

The Eisenhower (or Covey) Matrix is the visual translation of this process. If you really ask yourself the ‘why’ question, you should come to the conclusion that the most productive tasks are those which are non-urgent and important. This is the pro-active work, creative thinking or relationship building. Tasks that are also urgent have a 1-on-1 return; if you extinguish a fire you save one house. But if you prevented 10 from burning by installing fire alarms and this took you the same time, the payoff is much bigger. This means we have to say no to urgency and focus on what’s most important.

2) Go for Extraordinary

In your life, you have many different roles. You can be a father, colleague, athlete, child, husband, etc. At many times, you may feel that these roles are conflicting, and they can be. Most important for being extraordinary is knowing what success means for you, in each of the roles. Define your goals and passions in your role description (e.g. Super Dad), and make a role statement. Also, note that roles can (and will) change during your life, they are dynamic.

If you know which roles you have you can make specific goals. You can use frameworks like SMART goals. What it comes down to is; from X to Y in Z time period. This way you will be making non-urgent and important goals that are aligned between your roles.

3) Schedule the Big Things

Your attention is limited and it should be going to the most important things. But as you know your brain loves dopamine, and will therefore gravitate towards urgent things. This is a challenge that you can tackle, it only involves some planning. Take some 10 minutes at the start of your day at the office to make a small planning. Here you can decide when you can work on the non-urgent and important tasks (preferably early in the day). Also, take 30 minutes each week to review your processes and make a global plan for the next week. This whole process takes less than 90 minutes and will make sure your attention is going to the right places. You will be pro-active, every day.

4) Rule Your Technology

There is a new addition on the block, not to alcohol or drugs, but to your technology. People check their phones 85-150 times a day, for many it’s more. And what are you to most likely find on your phone, unimportant tasks. You see the latest in internet cat memes, how a war is going in a faraway place, or what your friends are doing on vacation. There is a near-zero chance that you will find important and non-urgent things on your phone/devices. But what about your email or other places where information is entering your brain?

To combat this trend, you can manage your incoming information in a system. You can decide that you will 1) act on the information, or 2) archive for later use. If you act on information you can make an appointment with yourself when to do it (i.e. in google calendar) or make a task (i.e. in Basecamp). If you archive information you can save it as a contact (i.e. in your phone) or as a note (i.e. in Evernote). And if you really want to get good at it, you can make sure these systems can talk to each other, more on that in Getting Things Done.

5) Fuel Your Fire

Last, but not least, you need to manage your energy. To be extraordinarily productive and take the right decisions you need to be present and awake. To do this you can do five things; 1) move (keep your body active), 2) eat (healthy food), 3) sleep (at least 7 hours), 4) relax (important and non-urgent), and 5) connect (social relationships can boost your energy). If you keep your energy level high you will do your most productive work.

When to Use

This framework is important to keep yourself on track. Without it, you may revert back to being reactive, non-productive and stressed. Therefore I advise you to reflect on this framework when you feel the pressure is building. You won’t always sleep enough, work on those most productive tasks or stay away from your phone, but this framework greatly enhances your ability to do so.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” – Sun Tzu

More on the Choices for Extraordinary Productivity:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1esyYzebVoA – Youtube video about The 5 Choices

2. http://www.franklincovey.com/productivity/the5choices.php – Official FranklinCovey website

3. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-levels-leadership-framework-floris-wolswijk – My previous blog post about The 5 Levels of Leadership

December 27, 2018

Eat and Run

Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek.

If you want to know how the life of an ultramarathoner is like, this is the book for you. It describes Scott’s life from youth to the last race he is running competitively. Along the way, you meet his best friend, and furious user of profanity, Dusty. You get to know about a tribe of Tarahumara Indians. And you get to know the comradery & loneliness that come for free with each ultramarathon.

Scott holds many records, so I will only list the most impressive one. he set a new American record by running 165.7 miles in 24 hours—6.5 marathons in one day. Yes, that’s right, 6.5 marathons in one full 24 hours (and that isn’t even the longest he has been on the road). It’s difficult to comprehend even how long this is. For us Dutch, it’s 266.7 km, as far as going from Groningen to Venlo.

Two other things make Scott different from most runners. He follows a plant-based diet, i.e. he is a vegan. He finds all his (high quality) proteins in soy, lentils and other non-dead-animal places. And after every race, he gets into a small tent and wakes up each time a new runner arrives to high-five them when they finish. He doesn’t go home or finds a spa, he stays out in the open to say hi to the other runners.

Now after writing his book, there is some fame reserved for Scott. But as far as I know, there was never any fortune (the money kind) involved. He, of course, made some money with sponsorship deals and even is the designer of a popular running shoe. But since running ultra long distances isn’t the best television material, there was never much money. And I think that this also shows that money is something that can be a force for the good, but that it’s necessary for a good life.

December 27, 2018

Born to Run

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDouall

What if an investigative journalist decides to tackle a personal problem? What if this problem is this: my foot hurts, how can I make it stop? This is the simple questions that set Christopher on a journey that finds him on the path with Scott Jurek (see Eat and Run), the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico and some other amazing people. Along the way, we dive into the science and non-science of running.

The most surprising thing about this book are the revelations about running(shoes) that I was taking for granted. A shoe that has more cushioning and helps correct your foot should help you prevent injury… right? It turns out that the rate of injury has not gone down a single digit since the invention of the modern running shoe (1970). Isn’t that odd? Christopher thought the same and found out that a soft shoe also makes for soft feet, and that a bigger cushion translated into us putting down our feet more thoroughly to compensate for the lost sense of feeling the ground.

What it also shows is that a very average (but not unhealthy) man, 40 years of age, can train to run a 50-mile race through very unforgiving terrain. The last chapters of the book describe a fascinating race between Scott, the Tarahumara’s best runners, a dozen of the other bests in the world, and Christopher. He takes twice as long as the fastest person (guess who) to finish, but does it. It’s an amazing accomplishment and is only overshadowed by how this book gives a beautiful insight into running and it’s crazy culture.

See below for a video of Christopher talking about running, the evolutionary story and some more about our running shoes.

December 27, 2018

Carbohydrates 101

Now that my runs are becoming longer and longer. I started wondering what I needed to do with regards to nutrition. That is where carbohydrates (carbs) started to pop up. Of course, I know what carbs are, but what do they mean when related to going on long runs. In this post, I will explore our carbohydrates stores, what to eat/drink during runs, and what to eat beforehand.

Carbohydrates 101

Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for the body. There are fast and slow types of carbohydrates, depending on the speed which they are absorbed by the body. Some sources of carbs are oats flour, soy, and rice. In Queal about half the energy comes from carbs, both fast and slow.

Fast and Slow

The distinction between fast and slow carbs is something that I only heard of, but never looked into before. Luckily I did already know about the Glycemic Index (GI), this states how fast carbs are processed in the body. Carbohydrates are all chains of simple sugars. Your body breaks these chains down to individual sugars to process them. The more complex these chains, the lower the GI and the ‘better’ the carbs are.

A simple rule of thumb is that when a nutrient is high in fibre and nutrients it’s a slow carb, when processed and low in fibre and nutrients a fast carb. Glucose (sugar) has a GI of 100. Everything that is below 55 is slow, below 69 is medium and above 70 is high. Examples of slow carbs are steel cut oatmeal (in Queal), whole wheat, most fruits, nuts, seeds, beef, chicken, eggs. Examples of fast carbs are white bread, instant oatmeal, pretzels, popcorn, cornflakes and white rice.

Storing Carbs

So what types of carbs do you need as a runner? Both. In the days before your run, you will make sure that your body has enough slow carbs that it can store. And during the last 18 hours before your run, you will stack up on fast carbs that will also release when you need them. During a marathon, it’s also advised to drink/eat only fast carbs, so that they may be released immediately.

In your body, you can store about 400g of glycogen in your muscles and about 100g in your liver. In total, this equals about 2000 kcal in energy. For me, this is about 21km (or halfway there) worth of energy. If you run out of glycogen your body will resort to using fat as an energy source and in only very extreme circumstances protein. The problem with this is that fats are about 15% less effective (more difficult to convert to usable energy) and therefore you will slow down.

With training for a marathon, you want to do two things. The first is to increase your store of glycogen. This can through training. If you are more fit you will be able to store more glycogen. In the days before the race, you should then of course also eat a lot of slow carbs to fill this space. Depleting your body of glycogen (e.g. going into ketosis) about 7-4 days before the race hasn’t shown to be beneficial to your glycogen storage capacity. The second is to become used to running on fat. This means that you can do a slow, but moderately long distance, run on an empty stomach. This way your body is already a bit familiar with running on fat.

During the Run

The big race day is there. You’ve eaten a lot of carbs and now you want to make the most out of the race. But what if you want to extend the carbs some more, could you eat during running? That is what I tested today, and yes it’s very much possible. I ate a bite of a bar at every 5km and although I felt my liver a bit, it was great for my energy levels. Eating during a run has two benefits, one being more energy, the other of replenishing your electrolytes.

Electrolytes? Yes, I also didn’t really know what this meant. It a name for all the minerals in your blood (and other bodily fluids) that carry a charge. You lose electrolytes when you sweat. Common types of electrolytes are sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The common sports-water drinks contain all the necessary electrolytes and also have some carbs in there. If you drink these you may prevent these things that are related to imbalances in your electrolytes: muscle cramps, stomach cramps, side stitches and fatigue(1).

During the run, you can also eat solid foods and gels. Your body will be able to take in about 100 kcal every 45 minutes, try and eat about this much and nothing more. You can think of cliff bars, energy bars and even things like dates. Another option is gels, they have the perfect amount of carbs per bag (100 kcal) and I will try some in the next week.

December 27, 2018

The Hierarchy of Engagement

In this article by Greylock Partners (Venture Capital firm) Sarah Tavel explains how engagement is built.

These are the four steps/levels

  1. Growing engaged users – completing the core action
  2. Retaining the users – product gets better with use, users should lose something when stopped
  3. Self-perpetuating – users create virtuous (growth) loops
  4. €1B+ company – all 3 above plus some magic

Tavel states that user engagement is the driving force behind a product/company.

And knowing what to do as a company start as art (early stage) and become a science (later stage).

Her model ties in with the Hook model (trigger, action, reward, investment, tri…)

(also mentioned in The Power of Habit)

Step 1

In the beginning (first step) the growth of users isn’t the most important statistic, it’s users completing the core action.

For this to happen, users need 1) motivation, and 2) ability.

At Queal I can ask myself, what is the core action that our users need to do?

  • Is this a shake every week? And if yes, how do we measure this precisely? (or do we do this with random samples/emails)

Step 2

Will users stick? This will determine the long-term success.

For investors it’s important to look at the accruing (compounding) benefits as the user engages, and mounting losses if they leave the product (e.g. you can’t see your friends posts on Instagram anymore).

Insight: This is why anonymity apps don’t work, they don’t provide new benefits after you start using the product. You don’t build your identity based on such an app (which I guess is kinda their point too).

  • How long do users stay engaged with Queal?

Step 3

The engagement of existing users creates virtuous loops, it makes the product even better. This is what happens if people post things on social platforms. But this doesn’t happen if someone finds his/her true love on Tinder.

  • Is there a virtuous loop possible for Queal (as an offline product?)

How do you build engagement? And in what phase are you yourself?

December 21, 2018

Algorithms to Live By

Algorithms to Live By is a very enjoyable and applicable book by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths that explores how we can use knowledge from computer science to guide decisions in our lives.

Whilst surfing around for a synopsis I found this excellent summary, please take a look and come back afterwards for my own observations below.

Scheduling

There are many algorithms for planning the day. One thing that stood out was thinking about small and large tasks and how sometimes a small task can block the large task.

I think I like to do planning that involves planning the large things first and then doing the small tasks after the large ones. I think I also will talk with the rest of the office about doing this type of planning (which we already do to some extend).

For my personal life I also like this with regards to what to do when I get home. First do X, Y, Z (e.g. write, stretch, read) and only then think of what else to do.

Caching

You can see caching as the amount of information you have to keep in your head. You’re not very good at it. So write down almost anything. I always have my notebook with me or can make a note in Gmail so I think I’m quite good here, but it can be even better (e.g. by then sorting those notes to the relevant places). And also using Todoist more.

Optimal Stopping

The next few lines are a bit tongue-in-cheek. With optimal stopping you look at when to stop doing X to find the perfect Y. Dating can be an example here and in the book they mention that stopping at about 27 should be the right age (if I remember correctly). Guess around which age I met my girlfriend.

Explore/Exploit

With regards to this algorithm I can say that I like how this makes you look positively at doing something again (exploit) because you liked it (e.g. eat at a specific restaurant) and not doing something new (explore).

For me the practical examples are friends (see many of the same ones again and again), foods (where I could explore more, also because I think there is value in the exploring itself), music (Spotify does a good job of balancing both).

December 18, 2018

Give and Take

Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant divides people into three distinct groups; takers, matchers, and givers. In 320 pages we are educated on why nice guys finish first. How powerless communication can be strong, and how from worrying you can go to success. Supplemented with a rich body of research, this social psychology book should be the one you get to read now!

Giving is the act of expending energy whilst not expecting anything in return. Richard Dawkins has argued that genes are inherently selfish, but on the group level, we can be amazingly altruistic. Givers are not the people at the centre of attention, they can very well be sensitive introverted people. What they are is considerate, consistent, caring and cooperative. Where takers and matchers see the number of shares/pieces of the pie as fixed (the former wanting to take a piece, the latter exchanging one), the givers look for ways to enlarge the pie for everyone to take a piece.

A word of caution is in its place here. When giving a person must in all cases not manoeuvre away from his or her own desires. A giver should be wary of himself or herself and others alike. A clear goal should lead his or her life, do know what you yourself want to achieve, whilst helping others. The people you help should in the first instance be everyone, but when confronted with a consistent taker, take your space and do not get overrun by his or her requests. Do not become the sucker.

Give and Take is filled with rich examples of successful givers. This ranges from Fortune 500 executives to volunteer teachers in the tougher neighbourhoods in America. One of the recurring examples, maybe even the role model of givers, is Adam Rifkin. He has been called the most connected man in America and has connections ranging from Hollywood to The Capital. He has not done this by taking resources from people or working his ass of (which he probably also does). He has achieved this by utilizing two principles. Giving people 1) a chance to connect to someone else that may help them to achieve something better together, and 2) giving honest five minutes feedback to people. But of course, these two skills are only two of the many things a giver does.

Adam Grant, a Wharton professor, has worked a long time on this masterpiece of a book. It is complementary to Quit by Susan Cain, they both emphasize that a great leader is not the extraverted he-man, but has other less superficial characteristics. Grant has also managed to spot how trends work, and via this is very alike to Malcolm Gladwell in identifying connectors. In the end, it all boils down to presenting man with a more stable long-term strategy to gaining resources. Sometimes being the nice guy in the room will have you overlooked, but in the long-term will get you ahead. Become convinced yourself by reading the book.

December 14, 2018

Alexander the Great

“There is nothing impossible to him who will try” – Alexander III of Macedon

Greatness comes at a price. This is what we can learn from the biography of Alexander the Great by Jacob Abbott if we only had one short sentence to review the book. There are many biographies written about Alexander the Great and each has a different focus. Jacob Abbott decided to keep it relatively simple, short and with a focus on the character of Alexander. His histories of warfare are mentioned, as well his rise to power, but both in shorter detail. If you want to learn about the personality traits of the greatest conquer in history, this is the book for you.

As a young boy, Alexander was raised in relative luxury. On the one hand, he was the son of Philip III of Macedon, born into incredible wealth. On the other hand, he was trained to physical excellence, did not bother with exclusive food or other displays of wealth. He was trained in warfare and from early on learned how to be a leader. One of the examples is how he tamed his horse Bechepalas. At only 10 years old he read the body language of the horse, figured out that it was distressed by all the attention, his own shadow and the nervous people around him, and then took the necessary actions to calm him down. In this he achieved to tame the horse, a feat that none of the horsemen (all double or more his age) had been able to achieve.

After the tragic death of his father, Alexander became the leader of his people. He did not try and change the way the country was being run. He did not replace the men that had advised his father but embraced the knowledge they possessed and respected their authority. By being humble he quickly gained the trust of his advisors and was embraced as the true leader of his people.

Even with his enemies, he had the same understanding. He was very successful in warfare and conquered many countries. In concurring a city he would always offer the opportunity for the people to join him before he would crash down upon them. Even when a military confrontation had preceded, people who openly supported him were spared from slavery, as where religious ministers and poets. When capturing the family of one of his greatest enemies (Darius), he left them to live on in their wealth. Overlooking the share brutality of his force (Alexander very probably is responsible for the most murders in the history of mankind) there was a sense of justice to his actions.

Justice was complemented by the sheer focus and determination he possessed. His goal was to rule the known world (to which he succeeded with grace). In effecting this goal he stuck to one distinct military configuration, the phalanx. In the phalanx the men walked side to side, carrying a shield on the left, and a long spear on the right. In that time this mass of people became impenetrable as the shields could be used to become one massive unit.  Both his focus in battle and in strategy can be compared to the hedgehog concept as proposed by Jim Collins in Good to Great. The hedgehog concept states that a company (or person) is best not to have many different goals, tactics and strategies, but to focus on one thing only. By laying a focus on one thing only, a person is able to excel and become the best, as did Alexander in conquering the world by using the phalanx.

Things start going downhill after the first invasion of Asia Minor. He rejects the offer made by Darius to receive a significant amount of land, stating that he (as the King of Asia) is the only one to redistribute land. Then he undertook the siege to capture Tyra, but at the end of the prolonged battle ended up killing all men and selling women and children into slavery. After concurring Egypt he had himself declared ‘Master of the Universe’, there was nothing left of the prior humility.

Humility was also gone in his own appearance. First despising the luxurious displays of the Persian wealthy, he himself became more and more acquainted with wearing this kind of clothing. Moderation was taken over by excessive drinking and might have even been the cause of the burning of Xerxes palace. This in the end also was the cause of his own death, dying roughly two weeks after two nights of heavy drinking and a subsequent fever.

Alexander the Great did not build his empire on the notion to last forever. Much of the affairs of the empire were dependent on him. This does not mean that he personally oversaw the many details of his ruling, but that his character was what build it all. With him gone the empire soon broke up into many pieces and there was no one to follow in his footsteps. Although Alexander the Great started with a perfect character, the power he attained got to him and eventually meant the downfall of him and his empire.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all – Alexander III of Macedon

At the end of his biography of Alexander the Great, Job Abbott ponders one very significant question: What if only Alexander only had used his awesome powers for good? In his lifetime many people prospered, but an even greater number suffered and died in consequence of his ever-expanding empire. Reading about the life of Alexander the Great is very interesting and leaves you wondering how to maintain a good character when it matters. It may not be the best book to consider when thinking about leadership or character, but is definitively one that you should read when convenient.

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