Power Through Your Work With the “enforcement Function”
For some reason, I can get my job done faster and more efficiently if I have a tight deadline. For example, if I’m writing a blog post, it seems like words flow faster and easier when I know I only have a couple of hours to turn them on. Entrepreneur Dan Martell calls this the “coercive function” and explains how you can use this to your advantage.
Stress sucks, but it can be motivating. If you’ve ever put off a project and then miraculously completed it in record time, you can probably figure it out. However, contrary to popular belief, stress does not improve your academic performance . So, obviously you don’t want to develop this and make yourself unhappy all the time, but you can steal something useful from stress. Martell calls this the “coercive function.” He’s writing:
A coercive function is any task, action, or event that forces you to take action and produce results. I believe the best way to work is to put yourself in your place. Essentially, it forces us to complete the task.
He offers a great example of his own coercion function, which I also used. Several times a week, he brings his laptop to the coworking space or cafe, and leaves the power cable at home. This gives it a few hours of battery life to get it going.
That’s when I’m flipping through a bunch of emails, doing some serious planning, or developing new product features. There is something magical about a 3 hour hard-quit work session.
I do the same when I’m having a hard time getting through a downturn at work. Knowing that the clock is ticking helps you eliminate distractions you never knew existed. You are eminently focused on the task at hand, and I believe I can get my job done much faster. This is in a nutshell the concept of a “forced function” and Martell offers some additional examples at the link below.
3 Simple “Forcing Functions” That Will Increase Your Productivity 3-5X | Dan Martell via I’ll Teach You To Be Rich