Use the 10/10/10 Rule Before Deciding
What’s your favorite mental trick? How do you get your dumb human brain to do its job correctly? Hacker News, a forum for people too boring for Reddit, traded their favorite tricks in a thread started by simonswords82. Here are the best ones.
Simon names several tricks used by the chairman of the board of directors of the company. One of them is the 10/10/10 rule: before making a decision, he thinks about how he will react to this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. This, Simon said, helps the chairman look into the past and ponder the long-term implications.
Control your thoughts and feelings
Cdicelico, a member of Hacker News, calls “judgment suspension” and “judgment suspension”: When your opinion about something determines your mood, thoughts, or actions, investigate that opinion. Can you downgrade it from a value judgment (“this is bad”) to a feeling (“This is how I feel about it”) or to a complete lack of opinion? (Personally, I find this method invaluable during brainstorming sessions, when other people’s great ideas may seem bad at first glance or until they develop further.)
“If I’m upset, then I’m wrong.” This is the mantra of nonrabannosira. “It’s a special feeling when my brain begins to defend itself against information that proves that I am wrong.” But he checks it out every time he has a flash of anger. “It’s difficult for me, and I would like to say that it’s getting easier, but it’s not. It sucked to be wrong, and it’s humiliating. “
Control your habits
“Use laziness,” says Sange. “I don’t install Facebook on my phone; I need to use the crappy web version. I block Reddit on my laptop so I have to use my phone. By simply making things not ubiquitous, you add a little mental friction to their use that discourages their use. “
Member jjclarkson has a little card in his office listing eight productivity tactics and systems, including “always chatting.” Knolling is a simple organizational habit, as artist Tom Sachs described :
- Scan your environment for unused materials, tools, books, music, etc.
- Remove anything that is not in use. If you are unsure, please leave it.
- Group all “similar” objects.
- Align or align all objects either with the surface they rest on or with the studio itself.
Stephencoovar provides advice on over-commitment: “Default is no.” Simple math: If you say no to almost everything, you can say yes to the really important things. It is a skill that you can practice and improve. This has more to do with deals and opportunities than spending time with colleagues, friends, and family. However, if you’re constantly in meetings or walking, start saying no until it’s special every time, or you come home feeling energized, not drained. ”
Achieve the goal
Insanity, a member of HN, cites one of the simplest and most fundamental tricks: when they have so many things to do that they don’t know where to start, they jot down a to-do list on a piece of paper. This is an extremely common tactic among the successful people we chat with on Lifehacker . Most productive people can’t keep all of their tasks in mind, but in most cases, you don’t need a complex app to keep track of all your tasks. The paper list does not distract the bells and whistles.
Dboreham adds: “Write down what you did. It can be (for me) difficult to remember, which gives rise to the mistaken feeling that you have not achieved anything. “
Bsaul has another simple productivity tip: “Anytime you can’t motivate yourself to start working on something, think about the least you can accomplish and make that your only goal for the day.” You will make the project less intimidating and generally accomplish much more than this small goal. But even if that’s all you do, it’s better than doing nothing out of fear.
Of course, you can also make more complex to-do lists. But here’s how to make those lists doable, instead of bullying yourself even more with everything you need to do. In the words of participant HN: “ Never write down a ‘task’ that cannot be completed in one business day. If at worst you cannot do it during the day, this is not a task and needs to be broken down into smaller details. “
You can read more hacks, as well as threads filled with people trying to fix each other’s grammar, in the original thread on Hacker News .