When reviewing the articles from the second week I recognised a logical flow in how I want to present the reviews. I divided the articles into three different sections.

2 articles regarding proactivity and continuous evaluation

Philip’s second article highlights the importance of being proactive, i.e. to set clear goals and exact schedules “before” one starts working. He argues that the extra time spent on planning is earned back tenfold due to the time saved by never having to question what to do next. I think this is one of the very basic conclusions of highly efficient individuals. Still, the importance of proactivity cannot be overstated. In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Steven Covey even dedicates the first of his seven habits to proactivity. The general conclusion is that proactive behaviour is more efficient than reactive behaviour.

Johanna’s second article recognizes that the daily planning and evaluation routine has made her more conscious regarding her own behaviour. She stresses that she has recognized an unexpected pattern that she was unaware of before – a difficulty to be on time to activities, such as lectures, meetings and work. She concludes that being on time is a central part of how efficient work can be. I think this is an excellent example of a learning process. When we start evaluating our performance on daily basis, we start to identify deviations, i.e. unexpected and unpredictable behaviours. When similar deviations occur repeatedly, we are able to identify patterns. The awareness of patterns increases our ability to instantly handle and/or eliminate a deviation “as it occurs”. In conclusion, continuous evaluation triggers awareness, which in turn triggers learning and improvement.

3 articles about how to set goals

Lina’s second article is the first of three articles that discusses how one should set goals. She underscores that it is important to set “the right” goals. She recognizes that she tend to set too high goals, which in turn only puts her into a negative and stressful state. Lina consequently argues that planning and scheduling are great tools as long as one is “on the road”. Otherwise it will only create a sense of unease until one is back on track. I think Lina highlights an important aspect of personal productivity. The source of personal productivity is not “knowledge” – knowing what to do – it is a “capability” that we develop over time through trial and error. In conclusion, the ability to set motivating (and not demotivating) goals is a skill that one has to develop.

Amanda’s second article also covers the ability to set goals and argues that it is important to set concrete and specific goals in order to be efficient. She claims that general goals do not put her into a productive state; it is too abstract and does not trigger her into action. The more concrete the goal is the easier it is to “start” being productive. This is also an example indicating that personal productivity is a capability that we have to develop. Lina argues that it is crucial to set the “right level” of a goal, while Amanda argues that a goal also has to be “concrete” in order to trigger an efficient behaviour.

Rasmus’ second article also covers goal setting but from a slightly different angel than Lina and Amanda. He argues that one characteristic of a highly efficient individual is to know exactly what one wants. He claims that if one really wants to achieve something, and recognizes that particular desire, very few things will hinder that desire to come true. Rasmus concludes that it is “in” our own desire, and “in” our own will, we gain our drive and energy to perform. I like this article because he highlights a phenomenon that is extremely straightforward – do what you want – but still so difficult to follow. If we believe something is fun, we are 100% engaged and can just “play the guitar”. Nothing can stop us. But if we believe something is boring, we are disengaged and don’t even “lift the guitar”. We start to procrastinate. Furthermore, if we push this conclusion one step further, it would be interesting to investigate “how” to transform a boring task into a fun task!?

4 articles about how to be productive within specific activities

Kristoffer’s second article points out that is important to be focused when conducting one activity, i.e. one should not mix one activity frame with another frame. More specifically, he argues that “work is work” and “free time is free time” and he concludes that mixing these two different frames is not productive in the long run. This is a phenomenon that I call “frame competence”, which includes our ability to identify, plan and execute a particular activity. For instance:

a)    I identify a need that I have to read an article within my research work

b)    I subsequently plan the activity, i.e. when to read the article

c)    I finally execute the activity, i.e. I read the activity.

If I follow this sequence – identify, plan and execute the activity – I would consequently be “frame competent” since I do what I ought to be doing; I follow my plan. Kristoffer consequently highlights one (out of many) thing that hinders us from being frame competent. When executing an activity, we tend to “mix” activity frames, which in turn decreases our ability to fulfil the original need that triggered us to plan the activity in the first place. In conclusion, when executing activities, keep the “right” frame in order to be efficient. Relax when you should relax. Work when you should work.

Theo’s second article discusses self-induced inefficiency, i.e. how our own mind can hinder us to be efficient if we have a lot, or something particular, to think about. He concludes that it is better to finish one task before continuing with another since it allows him to keep focus. I think Theo’s point highlights that an “inventory” of unfinished tasks is not only inefficient since the tasks are not completed. It is also inefficient since the “inventory” affect out mental state, which in turn puts us in an unproductive state. The higher amount of uncompleted tasks we have, the more difficult it will be to keep focus since our mind in fact has difficulties to “let go”.

Karro’s second article is highlighting several different issues. One of the issues is regarding the relationship between her mental state and her eating patterns. She concludes that it is important for her to eat on continuous basis in order to “be able” to keep a productive state. She argues that if she doesn’t eat properly she easily loose her state. I think this – our diet – is one of the aspects that differs LeanOnMyself from other personal efficiency oriented concepts. Our diet, sleep, workout and health are areas that, according to me, often have been neglected. According to my experience it is central to integrate these areas of “work-life balance” with “efficiency”. Our diet, sleep, workout and health are all our basic needs, but still difficult to master. To have continuous attention to, and work with, these areas are crucial to be able to sustain long-term productivity.

Malcolm’s second article underscores the magnitude of flexibility when working with strict schedules. He argues that just strictly following a schedule is not productive. If the conditions, by some reason, have changed, it is important to reschedule and take the new conditions into account. I think this conclusion is important to acknowledge in contrast to the conclusion that “proactivity increases efficiency”. When we are proactive, we set goals and we plan activities to achieve the goals. Put differently, the planning serves as a working hypothesis about “how” to be efficient, which in turn triggers action. If the conditions that founded the hypothesis have changed, however, it is important to be actionable enough to recognize this change of condition and modify the hypothesis about how to be efficient, i.e. reschedule.

All nine participants within the LeanOnMyself research project will publish one learning article per week for 20 weeks. This editorial is a review of the first nine articles from week 1.

Amanda’s first article is about how to motivate yourself to be efficient in a situations when you acctually don’t need to be efficient. It think this area – motivation – is interesting within personal efficiency since it is abstract in its nature. How do we actually motivate ourselves, especially when we have a lot of time on hand? Amanda writes that she had 4 weeks left until her exams, which is quite a lot of time (resources). Therefore, it was difficult to “start the engine”.

Churchill once said: “Don’t give me more time, just give me a deadline”, which I think is very applicable here!

Suppose that the more resources (time in this case) we have, the more inefficient we let ourselves be. How should we then manage large projects where one initially has a lot of resources to utilize? My Japanese professor – Takahiro Fujimoto – argues that the fact that Toyota had very limited access to resources was one of the reasons why they “had to” develop capabilities to be efficient. Prof Fujimoto calls this phenomenon “economies of scarcity”.

Together with W. Churchill (haha), I think this – economies of scarcity – is also true within personal efficiency. We force ourselves to be efficient when we lack resources (time, money, etc). The question is how we can create such an efficient behavior even if we have excess of resources? Is it possible to force ourselves into an efficient state without having a knife on out throat?

Johanna’s first article is about how to maximize understanding when attending a lecture. I think she is opening an interesting area of discussion within personal efficiency, i.e. “activity level” efficiency. When talking about efficiency the unit of analysis is often on project, week, day level; we evaluate the level of efficiency within a fairly long period of time. What Johanna highlights in her article is more of “activity efficiency”.

It is crucial to start analyzing what “frames” that are needed (have to be in place) in order to be  productive within a certain type of task.  How – EXACTLY – should one “execute” an activity in order to get the most out of it? What shall we do? How shall we do it? How shall we be? What equipment do we need? What do we not need?

In conclusion, we need to use all of our “information processing channels” (hear, see, write, think) in order to be productive!

Karro’s first article is about how to handle deviations (within our planned schedule) that initially put us in a stressful state. I think this area is one of the areas that are contextually specific within “individual efficiency” if comparing with manufacturing for instance. We are not machines. We are human beings. Our mental state has the control to make us really inefficient AND really efficient.

I believe that the issue Karro is highlighting – mental state control – is one of the most important characteristics of highly productive individuals. If one gets stressed highly productive individuals are able to take control of that negative state, stop it and take action in order to get into a positive (and productive) state.

Kristoffer’s first article is about planning and he highlights that it is crucial to have the right information in order to be able make a good plan. When I read his article I got into a causal chain:

1. In order to be productive, we have to plan well.

2. In order to “be able” to plan well, we need the right information.

3. In order to get the right information, we have to engage and invest time to get it.

In conclusion, if we get the right information, we can plan, which in turns allows us to be productive. Extremely simple! Still, we just don’t do it. Why? Within our work life, I think we put too much energy in “production” (just doing things), and too little time and energy on “product development” (getting information about what we should do) and too little time and energy on “process development” (planning how we should to it). Planning is an easy way to increase productivity.

Lina’s first article about the trade-off, and how to prioritize, between your work life and private life. I think this area is one of the most important issues to understand when applying lean on our “life processes”. Efficiency is not only about how to work, it is also about how NOT to work, i.e. how to relax.

In order to be efficient we have to plan. Planning helps us to be efficient because we know what we have to do, when we have to do it, and hopefully even how to do it. But the area of planning should ALSO help us to be “efficiently inefficient” – to know how to relax. If one has a good plan at hand, it is easy to make conscious choices about when to chill out and really do nothing. The plan is a prerequisite for that flexibility since it allows us to know exactly what we are not doing, which in turns helps us to reschedule.

In conclusion, when we have a good plan we are much better to have control of a) when to work and b) when to relax. Both areas are value added time (My work vs. Myself) and we need proper planning to secure both types of efficiency; work efficiency and relax efficiency.

Malcolm’s first article highlights one important area within personal efficiency which I think is often overlooked; the competence on how to set goals.

Before it is even possible to “produce” within manufacturing a company has to invest severe resources in product and process development, i.e. it has to know exactly what, when and how to produce something before it is even possible to produce. This is however not a prerequisite for white color workers since we can just “start production” by going to work without any consideration of a) what product to produce and 2) how to produce it.

Product development capability, process development capability and production capability are three different areas of competence that have to be translated into the area of personal efficiency. It’s is however easy to “skip” the first two.

Philip’s first article stresses the importance of one (sleep) of the four areas within “systemic health” (my sleep, my diet, my workout, my health) that are included in the LeanOnMyself concept. This particular area is “fairly” important for human beings since we dedicate approximately one third of our entire lives sleeping. Still, very few companies and organization take responsibility of the sleeping patterns of their personnel. Of course, it is not within the responsibility of a company to control the sleeping patterns of an individual since sleep is “most often” private time. But every company and organization has the possibility to offer competence development regarding how to relax and especially how high vs. low quality rest affect our ability to focus and deliver. Sleep is one of the most important inputs that we have to control in order to control the quality of our output.

Rasmus’ first article sheds light on a central cornerstone of the LeanOnMyself concept – how to define value – which is important to understand in order to grasp the depth of the concept. “Value” that is work-related is only one of the different “value-adding areas” in our lives. Value that is related to our private life is consequently another area. Both areas are important. The question is how and when to prioritize the different areas.

A well-defined intention within each value-adding area will consequently help an individual to handle the trade-off between the different areas. Sometimes “area A” might be more important to prioritize than “area B”, and sometimes vise versa. It is subjective and depends of what each individual value.

Therefore, constant and conscious attention to our intentions in life will help us to make the “right” decisions.

Theo’s first article is about the two-minute-rule presented in the best selling book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. When I read his article I started to think about “failure demand”, which is a fairly new concept within the lean service discourse. Failure demand is a work product that does not meet the customer needs and generates additional work. One of the most common failure demands is timing, i.e. a need is not fulfilled on time. For instance, if a patient has to wait to be treated for a certain injury/decease the patient might get stressed. The stress creates new demands (wants to talk with the nurse), which in turn require additional work (that the healthcare system has to fulfill). Failure demand is thus a need that was created since the original need wasn’t fulfilled.

When it comes to personal efficiency there are many things that are hindering us to be efficient. Failure demand is one of them. We often have to fulfill failure demand since we were not able to fulfill certain needs (complete a task) on time.

I think that one possible root cause of why we are not able to hold a deadline is because we have too many things to do. We have too long to-do-lists (if we even write them down) why some tasks are just forgotten. Why is that? I argue that there is a positive relationship between “number of tasks that we have to do” and “risk to create failure demand”. The more errands we have, the more difficult it will be to manage and control our lives, which in turn will increase the risk for failure demand.

Therefore, the two-minutes-rule is a very efficient method to hold down the total number of tasks that we have within “our system”, which in turn will decrease the risk for failure demand.

// Niklas Modig