[crankin]

I have found that all the best advice I've received centers on how to focus your attention. As humans when we can give something our full attention it's almost impossible that what we are doing won't bear fruit. Here are some axioms around that idea that if you implement you will progress.

  - Time is not your most valuable resource. Your attention is.
  - Focus your attention only on things that have disproportionate returns.
  - Multitasking is a myth. Pick one thing and do it with all your strength.
  - Discern between Type 1 & Type 2 decisions. High vs low consequence. If high consequence apply scientific method. Everything else delegate to smart people.
  - Prioritize everything systematically. See Eisenhower Matrix or T.R.A.F apply it to everything vying for your attention.
  - Keep a distraction list. Write down every idea, review monthly but know 95% of this is going into the trash. You simply don't have enough lifespan to do them all. 
  - Discard all unnecessary things from your life. Half done projects, old clothes, shoes, ideas, cups, bowls, hackysack, cars. All that crap that's piling up in your basement, garage, closets, cupboards wherever. You don't use it, you don't need it and they rob you of your attention.

[layer8]

> Discern between Type 1 & Type 2 decisions. High vs low consequence. If high consequence apply scientific method. Everything else delegate to smart people.

What is meant by “everything else” here? All low-consequence decisions? That doesn’t seem to make sense (e.g. what to eat for lunch today).

[crankin]

@layer8 one thing to keep in mind is your future and past self are people you can delegate to. If today I prepare a tuna sandwich in a brown paper sac for tomorrow's lunch. Then I have delegated that decision to "someone else"... past me. Keeping my current self focused in the now.

Yesterday me's focus was on making the sandwich.

But here's another piece of advice. Don't think in absolutes! Sometimes you'll have to use your gut on a Type 1, sometimes you'll be making the Type 2 decision. It's just advice not the law of Moses.

[layer8]

I was mostly referring to “delegate to smart people”. My today’s self preparing a tuna sandwich for tomorrow probably isn’t smarter than my tomorrow’s self eating the sandwich ;). So, the “low priority” = “delegate to smart people” doesn’t make sense to me, and I suspect is not what you meant. If anything, I would want to delegate the “scientific method” stuff to people smarter than me.

[crankin]

These terms are relative. Low priority doesn't mean not important or even not difficult. As an executive I delegate parts of the scientific method to my team when analyzing Type 1 decisions however the final go/no-go decision is squarely on me and I have to answer to my share holders and my employees if I get it wrong. You should never ever delegate blame.

Type 2 simply means low consequence, again relative. Because everyones appetite for consequence is different. For example a Type 2 decision for me is Health Care. I delegate to my spouse to pick the plan. If a bad decision is made worse case is my out of pocket is higher than I would like but it can be remedied in 12 months. It's an important decision and difficult one but for me personally it's a Type 2. For someone else that might be a Type 1 and they must really pick the right plan.

So apply the advise to your life in the way that makes the most sense. And for me personally what I eat for lunch is always a Type 1 ;)

[Hates_]

Thank you for your list! Would you be able to share what "T.R.A.F" is as I was unable to find out more by Googling it.

[crankin]

You won't find it on Google. It's a technique from a book for executives from the early 80's. The last chapter is on how to use a personal computer to manage your files instead of a file cabinet! No internet.

T.R.A.F stands for (T)rash (R)ead (A)ction (F)ile

The idea is everyday you, "along with your secretary" lol, Go through each item in your inbox and mark each item with either a T R A or F. You don't read or contemplate on the item you simply categorize it and move to the next item.

Mark T - to TRASH item like junk mail, unimportant, not worthy of a response

Mark R - to READ later ie articles, memos, letters, etc.

Mark A - to take an ACTION on this item. Phone call, pay a bill, etc

Mark F - to FILE this item away receipts, tax return, etc.

You are to do this exercise at the beginning of each day. The idea being your action pile is the items you need to work on. Schedule a time daily or weekly to go through your read pile and catch up on reading. Trash all the garbage and file away things you need to keep but don't need to look at.

Whatever you didn't complete from your action & read list you put back in your inbox for the next day. Each day mark a dot in the upper right had corner of the item. Once the item collects 3 dots. Force yourself to handle it that day. No more delay.

This system was designed in the days before computers but apply it to your email inbox and it works very well. I started by just using flags on the email messages. Green flag action, Blue Flag read, Red Flag trash, Orange Flag file.

I have since evolved into a custom system that is a blend of TRAF and Eiesenhower Matrix. I'm actually designing a mail client around this idea. It has greatly improved my ability to handle the onslaught of material that comes my way.

[Hates_]

That's a useful framework. Thank you for taking the time to share.

[sanjayio]

This is great advice, surprised I don’t hear the time vs attention argument more.

[swagasaurus-rex]

What is a type 1 or type 2 decision? How do I apply the scientific method to those?

[crankin]

A Type 1 decision is a decision with high consequences if you get it wrong the results could be catastrophic. Alternatively a Type 2 decision has low consequences, if you get it wrong you can undo what you did and try again.

Let's say you're starting a new software project for your job. And it's up to you to decide what language/framework to build it. This would be a Type 1 decision, if after 6 months of development you realize you picked the wrong stack. It's going to be very difficult or impossible to go back on that decision. Alternatively within that project deciding where to place a button in the user interface is of low consequences. If you put it in the wrong place and realize conversions are down you can just undo it and put it in a better place.

For Type 1 decisions it's important to apply the scientific method. The purpose of which is to use facts to guide your decision and not your gut. Your hypothesis may be software framework X is best to build this project but you should do everything you can to disprove that with evidence. If you can't disprove it then you're probably making a good decision. If you find you have a lot of evidence it's a bad decision then you need to find another path.

You only need to apply scientific method to Type 1. For Type 2 / Low Consequence just make an educated guess or delegate to someone you trust to make the educated guess.