Have you ever noticed that when you start really recording your workout statistics you see a lot of nice round numbers? I find that I do three sets of 10 or run for 20 minutes a day at the same pace for weeks. Lately I have been thinking that this is a sign of laziness. If I was really trying to improve myself I should see some sets where I can only get 3 reps or 7. This would indicate that I am pushing myself to my limits and seeking to expand them. If you don't push the limits you will never improve in anything, and if you are not improving, someone out there is passing you by. This is true in athletic compettition or in business.
When you work toward improvement you should seldom see round numbers in your metrics. If you are working toward selling a thousand units of something and you consistently hit one thousand on the nose, you should look at changing some aspect of the target. You could try to sell the same thousand units, but reduce your cost by half. Maybe changing the timeline for getting those thousand units sold so you can free up more time for strategic planning, or finding new markets, or just forgetting about working and doing whatever you are passionate about doing.
Another instance of this is stagnation of progress. When your metrics level off just below your target it is a strong indication that there is an unstated acceptance of this level as a success. This is particularly seen when the initial goal is audacious. If you find one of these hidden targets you should start digging into things a little deeper to root out the problem and get moving again.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tanking Up
Reducing fuel costs is a summer tradition for many Americans. Air conditioners go on and gas prices go up. Articles abound in every form of mass media with suggestions about how to ratchet up the number of miles you can squeeze out of a full tank of gas. Using this gold standard to measure performance however overlooks some big opportunities to reduce your monthly spending.
Miles per gallon improvements are really minimal once you have already purchased a vehicle. The opportunities for reducing costs however are increased significantly if you shift your perspective away from MPG thinking. One of the biggest opportunities to reduce your fuel costs is getting beyond the assumptions that both your starting and end points for travel are fixed.
When I changed jobs recently I made an effort to find us housing as close to my new employer as possible while still meeting all of our other requirements. The result was a four mile one way drive that replaced my previous fifteen mile trip. It seems like a small thing, but the results are significant. I achieved a 73% reduction in fuel cost and a 40% reduction in travel time. To achieve this same fuel cost reduction I would have needed a 2010 Prius (50 MPG) and all of the costs that go along with it.
Since this first step I have upped the ante again and begun riding my bike to work. This has cut my fuel costs to zero (or very close, I am still driving in once every two weeks or so) and has still resulted in a time savings over my previous commute of 14%. In addition I have eliminated nearly five hours per week of gym time by getting my daily exercise during my ride to work.
Telecommuting is another good way to achieve the same or even better results, but good discipline and a career that does not demand your physical presence are required.
Miles per gallon improvements are really minimal once you have already purchased a vehicle. The opportunities for reducing costs however are increased significantly if you shift your perspective away from MPG thinking. One of the biggest opportunities to reduce your fuel costs is getting beyond the assumptions that both your starting and end points for travel are fixed.
When I changed jobs recently I made an effort to find us housing as close to my new employer as possible while still meeting all of our other requirements. The result was a four mile one way drive that replaced my previous fifteen mile trip. It seems like a small thing, but the results are significant. I achieved a 73% reduction in fuel cost and a 40% reduction in travel time. To achieve this same fuel cost reduction I would have needed a 2010 Prius (50 MPG) and all of the costs that go along with it.
Since this first step I have upped the ante again and begun riding my bike to work. This has cut my fuel costs to zero (or very close, I am still driving in once every two weeks or so) and has still resulted in a time savings over my previous commute of 14%. In addition I have eliminated nearly five hours per week of gym time by getting my daily exercise during my ride to work.
Telecommuting is another good way to achieve the same or even better results, but good discipline and a career that does not demand your physical presence are required.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Living Lean
I mentioned a while back that my family was downsizing our life to a small apartment. The results so far are great! Not only do we have less junk and more free time, but we are currently able to make both the rent and house payment without having to cut back on things that we enjoy. More walking, due to living near almost everything that we enjoy and elimination of some of the services that we never used have cut our costs more than we realized was possible. My truck has sat in the parking lot for all but three days in the past month, and I have ridden my bike to work. We get all of our entertainment through netflix on demand and the Wi-fi connection that is included with our lease. We have been eating a lot more fresh foods and have not "stocked up" once due to the limited space we have for storage. We seem as a family to be even more dedicated to continuing to eliminate the unnecessary. Our son does not quite have the philosophy down yet, he is only four, but my wife has truly embraced the concept and we have been making regular trip to donate things that we do not need. We truly use all of the space we have, and when the walls close in a bit we go outside and enjoy the sunshine and the grass and the sky. I almost wonder where this process will end. My wife told me about a story she read recently where someone eliminated theri life down to one north face backpack and wandered off into the world....sounds good to me!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Time Blindness
The following is from a converstation I overheard two days ago:
(Some specifics have been modified to protect the guilty)
"Hey you know what we need is a thingamabob that can turn widgets into ultra widgets by changing the angle of the doohicky!"
"Yeah that would be great, but I tried that three years ago and they don't make it anywhere. Don't waste your time. You have a lot more important things to do."
"But it could increase our profit 200%? I know I can find it."
"I'm telling you its not out there. I would have found it. Forget about it."
You have probably been in this same situation when you have moved into a new situation and worked in close proximity with someone who has been doing similar work for a long time. Now if you do whatever it is anyway and it works you will have embarassed someone senior to you (read this as "made an enemy"), and if you don't you have taken the first step into the rut that everyone else has dug. The logic error that is inherent in this story is time blindness.
All things change over time. There is nothing static in the world. Everything from technology to the location of land masses to the words in a dictionary always have and always will be in flux. Forgetting this fact can lead to serious errors in judgement. Often elaborate structures of belief are built on the fragile evidence of one attempt far in the past. Simply questioning whether things might have changed over time can collapse the whole, and open new worlds of possibility and inquiry. Give it a try sometime and let me know how it works out.
(Some specifics have been modified to protect the guilty)
"Hey you know what we need is a thingamabob that can turn widgets into ultra widgets by changing the angle of the doohicky!"
"Yeah that would be great, but I tried that three years ago and they don't make it anywhere. Don't waste your time. You have a lot more important things to do."
"But it could increase our profit 200%? I know I can find it."
"I'm telling you its not out there. I would have found it. Forget about it."
You have probably been in this same situation when you have moved into a new situation and worked in close proximity with someone who has been doing similar work for a long time. Now if you do whatever it is anyway and it works you will have embarassed someone senior to you (read this as "made an enemy"), and if you don't you have taken the first step into the rut that everyone else has dug. The logic error that is inherent in this story is time blindness.
All things change over time. There is nothing static in the world. Everything from technology to the location of land masses to the words in a dictionary always have and always will be in flux. Forgetting this fact can lead to serious errors in judgement. Often elaborate structures of belief are built on the fragile evidence of one attempt far in the past. Simply questioning whether things might have changed over time can collapse the whole, and open new worlds of possibility and inquiry. Give it a try sometime and let me know how it works out.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Walking The Talk
In about a week I will be dragging my family along on a real world experiment in lean living. In past posts I have discussed matching capacity to demand in living space. With this in mind we will be moving from a 2000 square foot house to a 900 square foot apartment. If this sounds crazy to you you are not alone. I have been excited about this new experience ever since we made the decision, but I have
been amazed at the inability of most people to understand. Virtually everyone I have spoken to about our new living space immediately assumes that this is a temporary move to get through my job transition. No one can imagine that we would not want to buy a house at the earliest opportunity. For us however this is a chance to simplify our lives by physically limiting our footprint. We have sold off nearly all of our stuff and made many difficult choices about what we will keep. There will be no room to keep the unnecessary. In addition, the new apartment is as walkable as we could possibly find. We are making an escape attempt from the suburban driving culture. Nearly everything that was only a short drive away will now be only a short walk away. This walkabilty is calculated to reduce the time cost of many of our frequent tasks and gain us more discretionary time for each other. The next few months may be a difficult adjustment but they should at
least be interesting.
been amazed at the inability of most people to understand. Virtually everyone I have spoken to about our new living space immediately assumes that this is a temporary move to get through my job transition. No one can imagine that we would not want to buy a house at the earliest opportunity. For us however this is a chance to simplify our lives by physically limiting our footprint. We have sold off nearly all of our stuff and made many difficult choices about what we will keep. There will be no room to keep the unnecessary. In addition, the new apartment is as walkable as we could possibly find. We are making an escape attempt from the suburban driving culture. Nearly everything that was only a short drive away will now be only a short walk away. This walkabilty is calculated to reduce the time cost of many of our frequent tasks and gain us more discretionary time for each other. The next few months may be a difficult adjustment but they should at
least be interesting.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Time for the News
One year ago I could have answered most any question you had for me on current events. I faithfully listened to NPR both to and from work. I had RSS feeds from CNN, BBC, NFL, and various other alphabet soup organizations that ensured I knew the minute something happened, anything. Then we had another child. I ran out of time to do much of anything. When I started seriously looking at what I needed to cut back on to free up enough time to just get the absolutely necessary tasks completed, I noticed that I was spending a lot of my time keeping up with the world. Sure I could readily converse on nearly any topic in the news, but I was missing workouts, rushing the trash to the curb just ahead of the trash truck, not making any progress in the books that I needed to be reading, and getting "the look" from my wife far too often when sitting at the computer. I decided that knowing the status of the current government scandal was no longer worth the time that it took to acquire the details. It was time to cut back. When I began to look at what I really needed to know and the information that I was actually taking in it quickly became clear that I had no real need or interest in roughly 80% of what I was taking in from my various news streams. After sitting down with a blank sheet and a pencil and a little focused thinking I was able to identify the things that I am truly interested in knowing on a regular basis. A few more minutes research and I was able to identify blogs or twitter feeds that had good updated information for those areas. Now all of the news that I really want comes to me with a minimal amount of gossip, scandal, opinion, blatant lies, or general sensationalism. So far I don't miss it. It actually makes me feel go dd to say things like "I have never heard of Lady Gaga" or "There is another political sex scandal? Huh, guess I missed it" I'll keep you updated on my low information plan. Special thanks on this one to Tim and the
4HWW.
4HWW.
Christmas is the season for getting...
In past posts I have mentioned some of the ways that we super size our lives for convenience. This Christmas has really brought home to me the mindset of getting more stuff as an agenda. Yesterday a cashier at Walmart was talking to my four year old son. Her first question was "Did you have a good Christmas?" Her second question was "Did you get a lot of good stuff?" Perhaps this is a clever marketing technique that the multinational mega-retailer is pushing, but other interactions over the last few days have convinced me that she was just voicing the general thinking about the holiday. No matter how many times we say that Christmas is about giving, most people seem more concerned about getting. In a strange twist, many people I have spoken with seem happy for others that have gotten large numbers of expensive gifts. Not only do we want to get lost of stuff for ourselves, but we want everyone else to get lots of stuff too! This would be fine if everyone had plenty of money, stable jobs, and not debt. Unfortunately very few families find themselves in that situation. I am not advocating a miserly lifestyle absent of fun and things that make you happy, but the idea that more stuff is better needs to be laid to rest.
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