The Answer to Decision Fatigue

June 18, 2017 Mike StPierre

By some estimates, we make 35,000 decisions per day. I'm writing this post at 7:42am on a Sunday. So far, I've had to decide on the following:

1. what time to wake up
2. what to wear
3. what to drink
4. how much coffee creamer to put in my coffee
5. whether to have morning devotions on the porch or in the living room
6. whether to text my wife who just ran an errand
7. whether to use Safari or Chrome for the news
8. whether to draft this post now or save it for later

You get the point.

I was a skeptic when I first heard the 35,000 statistic. Then, I was honest with myself and started to inventory the many, many actions I take each day and the decisions that drive them.

This is exhausting and can ultimately sap your energy and your productivity.

Asian Efficiency provides the ultimate guide to overcoming decision fatigue. No need to replicate their good work. Their companion podcast also does an excellent job in breaking the issue down.

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Decision fatigue hit me last week. I arrived home and declared to my wife, "I'm done. I can't make any more decisions today." It wasn't anger. It was exhaustion.

Can you relate? Have you had a time when you were just so tired of making decisions that you felt you couldn't make one more?

The answer, I suspect, and the response to all of this is to do the following:

Admit that you've got too much on your plate. As the saying goes, the first step is to admit you've got a problem. This isn't a moral failure but an acknowledgement that your life is full and maybe spilling over with commitments.
Decide today to simplify. The good news? Simplifying takes many forms and can be applied to any of the following areas:

-finances: you can decide to go out less often or automate your bills.

-fitness: you can decide to eat smaller portions or use a meal planning process.

-spirituality: you can decide to use the same prayer book each morning instead of searching for one.

-work: you can decide to work on certain things on certain days.

-wardrobe: you can decide you streamline your wardrobe and pair back your options.

-groceries: you can decide to use an Amazon Dash button to make less decisions at the grocery store.

You get the point. These areas and corresponding actions are easy to read (and actually easy to do) but take courage to act on.

Take the case of simplifying your wardrobe. You and I both know that a simpler wardrobe will save time and money. Yet, if I told you today to go through your closet and write down a few outfits that you absolutely love, that's where the process might fall apart.

Those actions, while not difficult, are hard. They involve loss and further decisions. They involve donating things and possibly buying new things. They take time.

Could your simplifying contribute to decision fatigue? Perhaps but once you press through, keeping your eye on the goal, you'll overcome it. These decisions are actually ones that will counteract the others that feed into decision fatigue.

As a homework assignment, make a small decision today to simplify.

One thing.

Anything.

Realize that it can counteract your decision fatigue and bring more peace of mind. Then, you'll be able to bring your very best self to those you love and ultimately, the whole world.

How to Make Lists Work for You

May 29, 2017 Mike StPierre

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The most productive people I know use lists to stay organized. Most people appreciate the value of a good list- for groceries or for Christmas shopping.

What the uber-productive people know is that the same magic that makes a grocery store list so good can be scaled to other areas of life.

The result: super productivity and greater peace of mind.

Think of the grocery store list and why it works so well:

It matches need to resource.
It gives you items to cross off. This feels so good!
It takes a store with tens of thousands of items to offer and simplifies it to your needs and wants.

Where a grocery store list can be brought to the next level is when you keep a list going throughout a week. The milk runs low on Tuesday and "milk" goes on your list. Tortillas show up on Friday and also go on your list. By the time Sunday rolls around and you're ready for the store, you already have your list. This is how you can make your lists work for you instead of the dread of having to add things at the last minute.

I use this at work for upcoming cities and travel. For example, it's unlikely that I'll remember all of the people I want to visit the next time I'm in Boston. But, I can remember a little at a time and add to my list in the months leading up to my next trip to Beantown.

I currently have lists for:

next time in Cincinnati
next time in Boston
next time in LA
next time in Florida

I find these sort of "add as you go" lists work really well around the house. At a random moment, you might have an idea of something you need for your porch to get finished. As you already have an "Around the House" list (or better yet, a Finish the Porch project), you can simply add when the muse hits you. Then, on a Saturday when you have time, you just open your list and get to work.

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This process also works well for gift giving. My wife is notoriously difficult to shop for so I keep a list just for her birthday and Christmas. When she drops a hint of something that she might like, I add it to my list like a super-sleuth. Boy does it make things easier when I then go to purchase a gift!

As a follow up, I suggest looking at your current lists. This presumes that you're using a digital task manager (like Nozbe which is my favorite or Omnifocus or even a paper planner) to stay on top of your lists. After a quick scan, identify which of your lists you can "populate" as you go through your week. You may be surprised by how many of them are ready for you to add items as you go.

Then, and this is the key, have the courage to add to your lists on the fly.

You'll be tempted to just have a thought and then let it go. Instead, pause and add to your lists. Don't let the hectic pace of life sabotage your lists. You'll feel good about it and your productivity will go to the next level.

How to Love Your Work

May 26, 2017 Mike StPierre

Deep down, each of us wants a job that plays to our strengths. We want to make a difference and feel valued by the organization. We seek connections with our coworkers. We desire to feel good about our work and about contributions to the "greater good".

Still... most of us find it hard to check off all of the boxes just mentioned.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the phrase "love your work". That's not easy to do, depending on the work you have in front of you but I think we are called to do just that.

Some how, some way, we are called to love our work.

Dan Pink puts it this way, “Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” (Source)

When we love our work, we embrace both challenges and opportunities. In addition:

We find the inherent dignity of employment.
We make deep connections with our colleagues.
We practice grit when it would be easier to just quit.
We choose to be positive when others get cynical.
We are surprised by small things that make us smile.

Don't misunderstand me- there are times when it's impossible to love our work. That's when you know you're ready for a change.

But if you can stay, here are six things that can be helpful, easing you into greater appreciation of your work:

You have a job. Many do not. This most basic truth is powerful to be reminded of.
Your work allows other things to happen. Health care, new contact lenses and braces for your kids are all possible because of your job.
You are getting clearer as to your strengths and weaknesses. Work polishes the stone of each of our gifts.
You are being prepared for your next job. Strange as it sounds, work gets you ready to work- next week, next year, next month.
You have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. This pushes back on depression, health issues and anxiety.
You have others around you that you can invest in and cherish.

There's one other thing that contributes to us loving what we do and that is often called "mastery". Again, to quote Pink, “Why reach for something you can never fully attain? But it’s also a source of allure. Why not reach for it? The joy is in the pursuit more than the realization. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes.”

Mastery is the idea of getting better and better at something. This rarely comes through hobby. It can come through employment and practice. Work, when seen this way, becomes the vehicle for personal improvement.

You can actually become an expert by virtue of your job- that's awesome.

Work isn't always fun. It's not meant to be 100% birthday cakes and balloons. With that said, it can be thoroughly stimulating and can make you a better human being.

What delight can you find in your work today?

7 Surprising Attributes of Patient People

May 7, 2017 Mike StPierre

Do you think of yourself as a patient person? Do others give you feedback about your patience, or lack thereof?

This might look like a friend making a casual comment like, "As if you'd wait in line!" Or, your family might laugh when you tell them that you're patient.

Family is good like that, sort of a built-in polishing of the stone. There's no flaw that doesn't go unnoticed.

My family has been telling me for years that I'm not very patient. I wore it around my neck as an odd badge of honor. You see, my father is not very patient and I just figured that was how it was supposed to be as a "St. Pierre man". Add in the cultural myth that leaders are classically impatient and there I was- impatient as all get out.

Something inside me told me that this might not be a good thing after all. What if patience was actually better than impatience? What kinds of opportunities might open up if I could become more patient?

I chose Lent as the time of year to begin to study this further. During a chat with a local priest, he asked me which one thing I could do to show God that I was more grateful. It immediately came to me- I had to work on my patience.

Since then, just before Easter, I've done just that. It's been work to flex my patience muscle and pause my impatience enough to grow and learn. I've realized that I was pretty much a zero in the patience department.

It didn't feel good. Something needed to change.

After a few months, here's what I've found about learning to be more patient:

Listening is part of patience. To the degree that you can look someone in the eye and not just be waiting to say something is an act of patience.
In between-spaces are part of patience. Think of line waiting, etc.
Silence is part of patience. How hard is silence for you? For many people, it's terrifying. Just closing your eyes, listening and doing nothing... this is an aspect of patience. You're just "there". For me, as a person of faith, this is integrated into my daily time of prayer.
Daydreaming is part of patience. When was the last time you looked out a window and let your mind daydream? Patient people, I've learned, enjoy a good daydream from time to time. They're not in a rush to get to the next thing.
Humility is part of patience. To put someone else above yourself is an act of humility. Thomas Merton, the Catholic Trappist monk, once said that the simple act of reading is a gesture of humility. Just as it takes patience to read, it takes humility to be patient.
Focus is part of patience. A patient person can focus on thing at a time, whether it's a work task or a conversation.
Contentment is part of patience. If you can be happy doing one thing at a time, you're flexing your patience muscle.

Patience is a rare virtue. Our workplaces expect a lot out of us and bosses are typically impatient. As high performers, we demand a lot out of ourselves, always pushing towards excellence.

Through it all, we would do well to practice patience, with ourselves, with one another and with our work.

Is a Notebook Your Best Productivity Investment?

April 10, 2017 Mike StPierre

Everywhere you look, people are using old-fashioned notebooks. It's not that they've given up their smartphones but that they are using notebooks to bring some analogue into their daily lives.

A smartphone, complemented by a portable notebook is a powerful combo for everyday productivity.

I have been a hybrid paper-digital user for years. While Google Calendar keeps my "hard landscape" events in place, I find there's nothing like paper and pen to navigate the nitty-gritty details of my daily work. This includes meeting notes, doodles and notes from phone calls.

David Sax, in his best-selling book The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, details the rise in popularity of such notebooks like Moleskine and Baron Fig:

“Numerous studies have shown that handwriting notes is simply better for engagement, information retention, and mental health than is writing on digital devices.”

When you write things down, your brain activates on a deeper level than if you just think something or type it into your computer.

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Moleskine isn't the only popular brand of notebook. There's also the Bullet Journal which has given folks a clever way to stay organized. Consider it "stylized productivity".

The bottom line- notebooks are back and they're cool once again.

There's one catch: what if you want all of the benefits of a fancy notebook but would rather save the $15 that often goes with it?

After all, consider the costs of the most popular "in" notebooks:

Bullet Journal: $24.95
Baron Fig: $15-65

There are some other options. You can use an inexpensive notebook. You can create your own system as David Seah has done. Or, you can use a whiteboard to get your creative, handwriting juices flowing.

The most important idea is this- connecting paper with digital is a smart move. You just need to find an expression of this marriage that works for your style and your budget.

One Clever Way to Chart Your Personal Growth

March 7, 2017 Mike StPierre

Productivity expert Carson Tate uses a wonderful tool to categorize folks according to their personal style of working.

The Arranger

The Planner

The Visualizer

The Prioritizer

You can take the test here. The book is even better as each chapter lets you just zoom in on the strategies that match your particular style. As an avid book scanner, it was nice to be able to breeze through each chapter, not feeling guilty about it.

I'm a Planner first and a Visualizer second. My wife is an Arranger to the max.

Typically, when you take any assessment like Tate's (or Disc or Myers Briggs, etc.) it just gets filed and you move on. I decided to do something different this time around. I wanted to savor the assessment and link it to other measurements like Disc, Meyers Briggs and Enneagram.

What if I could design a personal growth "tool" of sorts? And, what if I could make it look nice?

The latter part was important to me. Yes, I've written (in the past) my goals and posted them on my office wall. Yes, it's worked. What didn't work was the utilitarian vibe- I needed something stylish, something with some class.

Enter Canva.com.

I use Canva daily (yes, daily) for reports, flyers, brochures, social media graphics and anything else in between. It's nearly free and makes even the most basic designer look like a pro. What if I could take my productivity style, along with a few other growth metrics, and create something out of it for my office? Using Canva, I finally could.

Step two was to find a template in Canva that matched my office's aesthetic. I chose a "resume" design- very simple and easy to manipulate.

Step three became more difficult as I had to limit the information to one page. The temptation in these things is to make it complicated. Not this time, I told myself...

The final product included the following:

Mission statement
Productivity style
Myers Briggs indicator
Disc rating
Enneagram rating
Quarterly goals
Spiritual growth target
Audacious career goal

Here's what the final product looks like in my office:

The value of this process was twofold. First, it memorialized what I'm working on right now. Second, it made personal growth much more than just a few ideas on a scrap of paper. When you make something look nice, it gives it dignity and a proper place.

Think- Baron Fig notebook as opposed to a cheap $1 version.

You can do this too. It's that easy. I've created a template for you to use for yourself. It will save you about 15 minutes. If you're familiar with Canva and want to do it on your own, that's ok too.

Here's the download:

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The real question is this: how are you capturing and honoring your own growth goals?