are there still valuable intermediate packets that are not public (ie. [[Zettelkasten]], also ref ((Ce2MvOaCb))
​This is assuming you have an audience - easy for Tiago to put something out there, even a tweetstorm. If I publish a blog, and nobody reads it? If I write something, and nobody in my company has the time to provide feedback? If the people I need feedback from (academic colleagues) are too busy to provide feedback on drafts?
Attempt many different projects network etc, however ​However, definitively danger in spreading yourself too thin, getting involved in too many networks. At least in academia, visibility etc are all good, but at the end of the day, only journal articles count. Probably different for entrepreneurs. Even there though - being known as an expert on something, as opposed to knowing a bit of everything, in this world where there are so many experts on everything… Finding a niche.
Key metric, Return-on-Attention
based on Return-on-Investment, which assumes abundance of projects, choose best one
now, we have to nurture promising projects - but this takes an incredible amount of sustained attention
Projects
have become non-linear, complex emergent phenomena
understanding projects takes as many units of attention as acting on them - makes more sense to plunge in with exploratory action, instead of trying to predict what will happen
​similar to "fail fast" etc
​we need systems for managing our attention that produce value now, not eventually
​attention is the scarcest resource for knowledge workers
attention
units of attention are not created equal
one minute of deep, tranquil state worth 100 minutes waiting in line
one hour of close collaboration vs 100 hours of small-chat
state of mind/mood shapes quality of attention
State of flow - startup costs are high, so we need to work on Intermediate Deliverables and Placeholders
cognitive processes
"transient hypofrontality" - prefrontal cortex, seat of higher level thinking, which also contains inner critic, goes dormant #mind
Cascade of neurochemicals, each kicking off the next
Norepinephrine tightens focus, as we lose track of time and our surroundings and that attention is redirected to the task at hand
Dopamine makes us anticipate the next discovery with excitement, while also improving the pattern recognition essential to creativity
Anandamide improves lateral thinking, helping us route around obstacles in our thinking
Nitric oxide suppresses the stress response that comes with creative risk-taking
Endorphins give us a sense of inner tranquility and enjoyment as our efforts begin to pay off
benefits
intersection of peak enjoyment, performance and learning
satisfaction in work/life related to time spent in flow - studies
humans operating at the edge of intellectual capability - fulfilling potential.
blocking off long, uninterrupted stretches of focus time
single-tasking for as long as possible
back-to-back “sprints”
managing the work-in-process in your head.
they are socially isolating, take a toll on bodies and mind.
alternative?
triggers don’t require minimum block of time?
internal
clear goals
immediate feedback
challenge-skill ratio
easier to calibrate with smaller undertaking
external
presence of risk
substitute risk of not delivering on something large, with creative risk on going deeper on something small
deep embodiment ??
outsourcing memory to software frees you up to be present in the moment
rich environment
brain as pattern recognizer - trigger ideas based on existing thoughts, notes, media, sketches
Work phases
Setup/startup/warmup
environment
mental
emotional
Four stages of flow
struggle Setup/startup/warmup
creative risk experienced as physical risk - cortisol, adrenaline - stress and anxiety rises when you sit down to perform focused work
getting into flow is very expensive - are you sure this is worth getting into flow for?
neurochemically - brain burns neurotransmitters faster than it can produce them?
multiple layers of cortical neurons have to build up their action potentials as they recognize patterns and make connections, which takes energy. A Pattern Recognition Theory of Mind
in evolutionary terms, as you lose awareness of your surroundings and thus become more vulnerable to threats in the environment.
in terms of opportunity cost, as you push aside competing options and dedicate hours to a single pursuit.
release
flow
recovery
Problem with focusing on big end-product
But all the products, the value you create, is created at the very end.
And you might not succeed - all that risk, with nothing to show for it.
And you loose all context the moment you step away
As soon as you step away from your desk, all the knowledge you spent so much attention to “load” into your mind – the ideas, priorities, questions, concerns, objectives, problems, potential solutions, examples – promptly gets “unloaded.”
As you step away for lunch, all those potential connections and jumping off points you spent so much attention to acquire just dissolve away. All the intermediate artifacts from that mental labor – the notes, drafts, outlines, files, brainstorms, rough sketches, websites, research, illustrations, screenshots, statistics, mindmaps, diagrams, articles – if we keep them at all, remain disconnected, fragmented, and hidden, scattered across dozens of different apps and folders.
Intermediate Deliverables (/Packets)
goal is having a personal knowledge base which grows over time
reuse past work
draw from past experiences
build products and services out of knowledge
structure your work as a series of Intermediate Deliverables
Instead of delivering one big lump of value at the very end, you stage your progress in a series of short, intense sprints, ending each one with a tangible, intermediate deliverable, like a set of notes, a brainstorm, a series of examples, an outline, a prototype, or a draft.
Advantages:
You become "interruption proof" (don’t need to load entire project in your mind at once)
More frequent opportunities for feedback
people give better feedback on rough drafts or outlines, than on highly polished work
you can create value in any span of time
mood-based productivity
context-based (reading Kindle on the subway etc)
big projects are less intimidating
ability to reuse previously built packets for new projects
​does [[Zettelkasten]] notes qualify as packets?
​are packets always public (or shared with colleagues)? Producing something for others as motivation to synthesize
link to criteria for Flow - triggers don’t require minimum block of time?
- internal
- clear goals
- immediate feedback
- challenge-skill ratio
- easier to calibrate with smaller undertaking
- external
- presence of risk
- substitute risk of not delivering on something large, with creative risk on going deeper on something small
- deep embodiment ??
- outsourcing memory to software frees you up to be present in the moment
- rich environment
- brain as pattern recognizer - trigger ideas based on existing thoughts, notes, media, sketches
Small batch sizes
Toyota Production System
continuous integration in software development
The Lean Startup - fail quickly
a dashboard for meta-work
iron triangle of Project management - traditionally workers had little control - but now projects have become non-linear, complex emergent phenomena
time
the deadline. now: downscope into small parts, work evenings and weekends
budget
central - now: lack funding for big, downscope, create something you can charge for, raise funds for the bigger version
scope
specific spec from management - now: can change at any time.
Attitude towards information
consumption
information intake
planning stage
make decisions
implementation stage
we need to collapse these, constructivism, learning is an active process. Put something on the line, allow yourself to fail.
​There’s a strong bias in academia for not publishing something if it is not genuinely new, or you have a very strong grounding. Even in blogosphere, I might feel that there’s no point in me writing about productivity if Tiago has written a much better post, that I can link to.
​Perhaps one way of overcoming this is making the format of publication intentionally "draft-y". But will this get readers/feedback, and will it be a good enough motivation to actually put effort into synthesizing, or just dumping my notes?
​Easier trade-off for entrepreneurs who live on their own reputation and SEO etc, but for someone working in a company, trade-off with how much time you spend on this
​Also question about context - if I am taking notes for myself, I assume all of my own knowledge. If I share with a few colleagues, I assume a lot of shared context. One way of adding value might be to write it up in a way that it was actually understandable by others, outside of my field. But huge effort. On the other hand, potentially very helpful to aid genuine understanding?
products (generative)
writing, tweeting etc
making diagrams, sketches and visual overviews - ​I could experiment more with this
performing - recording video, presenting at local meetup etc.
producing (​how is this different from writing? more finished product?)
translating into a different product (​what I’m doing right now with my notes from Tiago’s blog series?)
selling
most powerful - puts you in direct contact with reality. Can include any exchange of value, not just financial (I guess this includes pitching something internally?)
Workflow
(see Workflow strategies below)
get started
people wait with getting started until they have enough time/money. Downscope.
maintain momentum
modulate progress depending on how other things are going. Make progress in smaller chunks.
test assumptions - a learning process - ​design your deliverables/packets specifically to learn/test certain assumptions
questions to be answered
assumptions to be tested
hypotheses to be proven
there is always a smaller/simpler version of whatever you’re seeking to create
​This is assuming you have an audience - easy for Tiago to put something out there, even a tweetstorm. If I publish a blog, and nobody reads it? If I write something, and nobody in my company has the time to provide feedback? If the people I need feedback from (academic colleagues) are too busy to provide feedback on drafts?
Divergence and convergence #**divergence** #**Emergent Productivity** #**Productivity Research**
overview
concept from design thinking
all creative work completed in these two modes, alternating
relationship to mood-based productivity
divergence (scope of work expanding)
widening the range of possibilities, options, ideas, pathways
we need better placeholders - preserves the current state of project so we can switch away without losing our progress
examples
short summaries of websites you found, and why you think they are useful
assigning action items after a meeting
outline of top learnings from conference/event
review of book on Goodreads
photos of best slides from a presentation, with some comments
are Intermediate Deliverables
can only be done in convergence mode - need to end each session with a quick bout of convergence (summary/conclusion)
structure everything you do as an intermediate packet,
end each work session with a clear deliverable,
send them off for feedback whenever possible,
offload to your digital notes every possible bit of thinking during this entire process.
Just-in-Time paradigm
best to do most tasks "as late as possible"
late starts (Critical Chain Project Management)
developed by Eliyahu Goldratt, based on Theory of Constraints
attention and people are the most important constraints in projects, not time, machines or raw material
critical path
dependencies between tasks
tells us where to start, what to prioritize, soonest possible completion date
in project with many collaborators, everyone starts off full speed - but might not be best way to spend resources (maybe research initially takes a long time, should be done by one person)
By pulling many people onto the project early, the total cost balloons immediately, raising the stakes for “getting it right” and possibly stifling experimentation
Parkinson’s Principle
related to procrastinate, everyone works close to deadline anyway
structure can be added later - restructuring not only possible, but best possible way
re Progressive summarization, Progressive formalization by Joel Chan
​but what if you never create structure, like my photos?
Features can also be added later - release early, release often
​difference between blog post and wiki though… who wants to come back to a half-assed blog post when it has been improved?
launch a container, and fill it slowly over time via releases - discrete packets of incremental value. (​Like the course that Lukas Kawerau released… or an MVP website that only takes sign-ups and has no product)
called versioning, powerful form of downscoping
purpose can be added later
(​[[Zettelkasten]], gathering without a purpose - but sometimes it’s more powerful to be guided by various projects in progress - of course they can be modified as you learn more)
You can write an email to a colleague explaining how to use an internal software program, and suddenly realize it could easily be turned into a wiki for future employee reference.
​This is powerful, I have so many notes, emails and videos laying around. How can I effectively reuse them, and make them shared more widely? And how can I be more effective going forwards - linking to public notes, instead of writing long emails?
Only possible and humane if
downscoping and upscoping (flexible scope)
Placeholders
Intermediate Deliverables
E: Convergence and divergence
Culture change in teams
implicit trust (sacrifice own productivity to enable others on critical path)
strong alignment and buy-in on purpose, late starts prioritize overall project at expense of any single component
trust in ability to self-manage/responsibility
openess/candor
Risk
working digitally, it’s easy to start things and hard to finish
Intermediate Deliverables as one solution
convergence
What should I work on now?
​Nothing here on goals, reviews etc - I guess that’s orthogonal, lot’s of great points below on how to take goals and actually make progress. But would have been nice to mention.
From GTD to the possibility of working on anything anywhere
Create subcomponents as early as possible
inherently valuable piece of potential future project
low-risk time consuming activities early
​danger of analysis paralysis? PhD students spending four years on literature review — even if they wrote some great blog posts, still not good for career
component thinking / modularity
each gives optionality
can be reused
can remove uncertainty
solving through analysis - separating problem into smaller part, or synthesis, making things and putting them together (E: Convergence and divergence)
​Seems like a lot of repetition from earlier writings about Intermediate Deliverables
Packet switching as metaphor to increase "bandwidth" of productivity (using same packets for multiple tasks)
nodes also include other people (including networks, Twitter followers etc), and software/services
shift from knowledge worker, doing one task at a time at fixed rate, to knowledge manager, routing jobs to the best nodes
Multithreading - rapidly switching between projects, making progress on many fronts simultaneously
projects often have delays
roadblocks
blind alleys
communication loops (waiting on response)
require feedback/testing
opportunities are non-linear and assymetric
the one in hundred that takes off could produce more return than the 99 others. Downside of failing is ever smaller, upside of winning ever higher.
​However, definitively danger in spreading yourself too thin, getting involved in too many networks. At least in academia, visibility etc are all good, but at the end of the day, only journal articles count. Probably different for entrepreneurs. Even there though - being known as an expert on something, as opposed to knowing a bit of everything, in this world where there are so many experts on everything… Finding a niche.
Thinking of yourself as project portfolio manager
which projects to start ("promisingness")
Natural to focus on throughput, but should focus on throughput per constraint unit - related to mood-based productivity
if you only have 3 hours of Flow time per week, but 20 hours of superficial attention, the 3 hours are the constraint, so choose the project with the highest pay-off per hour of Flow, not hour in general
Good inputs:
expand how many constraint units we have available (establishing repeatable process)
prioritize projects that take constraint units to build, and are self-perpetuating
kill projects that require too many constraint units per output
use mild focus time on things that improve quality of constraint units, like meal planning, exercise
collaborate with others, trading our light focus time for their deep focus (and vice versa)
maximizing project completion
State of Mind (re mood-based productivity)
Characteristics
difficult or expensive to reproduce (in contrast to simple emotions)
often requiring long spans of time, certain substances, rituals, or environments to reproduce. A week in meditation, cancelled meetings, an assistant to deal with bureaucratic work.
primarily somatic and affective, not intellectual (in contrast to belief systems or worldviews)
temporary and ephemeral (in contrast to mindsets or attitudes)
unpredictable
you can set up the right conditions, but cannot force it
leverage
dramatically influence how much energy it takes to complete a given task
When you’re in Errand Mode, running an additional errand doesn’t take much extra energy. But if you’re in the middle of a deep focus session, even the simplest errand can feel like a harsh imposition.
​how is this affected by meditation, and other kinds of exercises? Better ability to control state of mind? More time spent in productive states of mind in general?
in nature, sources of reward are correlated (find three apples in short period of time) - moods drive us to act opportunistically
Our brain extrapolates that what has just happened will keep happening, forms expectations of the rewards it will encounter, generating anticipation, which is the key motivator of action.
This is the source of the advice to “fake it till you make it,” which absolutely works. We can essentially trick ourselves into a certain mood by creating a series of small wins, which put us “in the mood” to pursue even more, which generates more wins, which further puts us in the mood. By taking some action, however superficial or insecure, you “prime the pump” of your emotions in a certain direction. Action primes emotion, and then emotion primes further action, in a feedback loop.
Psychological capital
“Psychological capital is developed through a pattern of investment of psychic resources that results in obtaining experiential rewards from the present moment while also increasing the likelihood of future benefit.”
you quickly start benefitting both from information you are consuming now, and the information you’ve consumed in the past (compound/accelerating returns)
The brain detects the beginnings of this exponential curve, and extrapolates it forward, giving you anticipation, desire, excitement, and motivation – the crown jewels of creative productivity. In effect, the brain imagines a future based on the present, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Link to Progressive summarization - each layer of summarization is exponentially faster than the previous one
Emotional agility
Daniel Goleman‘s book proposed Emotional intelligence but Tiago thinks agility more important
You have to wear many hats, not just knowledge but also ways of being required for each of them differ
Speed
information decays
accuracy - more accurate understanding replaces previous state of knowledge
relevance - some things change more quickly than others
awareness - information gets unloaded from our brains as we move to other tasks
memory - our memory fades over time
because of the time required to create placeholders, and the startup cost, there’s a positive feedback loop on how much time is required
speed -> acceleration
cultivating ability to change speed and direction, modulating as you go
trying to avoid bridging costs, and instead always focusing on small deliverables
not starting things at the end of a work session (​even though some authors will always leave themselves a few pages into the next page, to make it easier to start the next morning)
Workflow strategies
Planning
Archipelago of ideas
Instead of starting with a terrifying blank page, Archipelago of Ideas has you collect a batch of starting ideas from the most relevant notebooks, which you then just have to string together. You can collect these ideas in your notes slowly over time, summarizing the words or phrases that resonate the most, and when the time comes to put them to use, create an outline with the ideas that seem relevant for the project at hand.
Headings first (outline)
Offloading
Color commentary
adding thoughts/ideas directly where they were sparked (​that’s what I’m doing)
Status summary
summarize in plain language the current status, for the benefit of your future self
details
remaining tasks
next steps
open questions
observations
Tracking
Meta-plan
A list of tasks you’ll complete on the way to completing deliverable, "making a plan for making a plan", like list of sources to review. Gives sense of progress.
Temporary tags
Add tags such as reviewed, that are only used in one project, to track how you’re reviewing notes etc.
Interlinking, hierarchy of tags etc
Searching
Brainsweep
search for a broad topic like "marketing" in your second brain
Adapting
Dial down the scope
Staging work as series of short sprints
Context switch
When you are stuck. Switch locations, state of mind, or switch project to work on. See it through the eyes of another person - share with a colleague.
Remixing
Sentence hacking
Extract and combine text from an article according to your perspective, to add new insight/links
Function follows form
Often, they key to a breakthrough is reframing what you’re looking at
Chronologically: put a series of ideas or steps in chronological order
Prioritized: sort a list by priority, or importance, or urgency
Sequentially: put items in order by function, or by stages in a workflow
By objective: put each item in a list under its objective or desired outcome
By size: order items from largest to smallest, or the reverse
By theme: re-order a list by theme or topic, looking for patterns or groupings you didn’t see before
Question-answer: rewrite your ideas in the form of questions and answers
By shape: try mapping your ideas to different shapes like a circle, square, triangle, or hexagon, looking for any interesting patterns