Productivity Arata! If you have watched several videos on productivity, you may be feeling confused: is it better to use David Allen’s GTD (or Getting Things Done) method? Or is it better to use the Franklin Covey Planner? Or what about the Pomodoro technique of Francesco Cirillo? The Pareto principle of 80/20? Maybe you do not know any of these methodologies and instead use applications like Trello, Remember the Milk, Wunderlist, or OmniFocus. Which one is the best?
In the series Productivity Arata today we will give you the only strategy you will need NOW. Everything else will follow.
1. The domino effect can amplify the results of your actions.
Here is a physics principle that will amaze you. It works like this. If you take a small domino and tip it over, the force of its fall has the ability to bring down a larger domino, about 50% bigger than the first piece.
Now consider this: if you put a third domino, it may again be 50% bigger than the previous one, and so on. And this allows us to see exponential growth: if you tip the first piece of 2 centimetres, what happens?
The second piece that will fall can be 3 centimetres. And it in turn drops a piece of 4.5 cm. That will bring down a piece of 6.75 cm. Then a piece of 10 cm. Which tips a piece of 15cm. And if we continue like this, we need a total of 25 pieces for the last tip to be 336 metres high. That would be a domino the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
[Calculation
2cm – 3 – 5 – 7 – 10 – 15 – 23 – 34 – 50-77
1m – 1.5 – 2.5 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 9-13 – 20 – 35 – 45-66 – 100-150 – 220-330]
Can you understand the implication of this? It means that in some situations, a small action, if it has an amplifying effect, even if it is repeated a small number of times—let’s say twenty-five times—the final result can have a huge impact. Now let’s apply this to your personal productivity.
2. Choose your first piece.
If you want to have the best possible result in your personal productivity, you need to choose the first piece to tip. This will be the first small activity you perform that will begin the sequence to all the others.
If you are in front of a giant domino the size of the Eiffel Tower, you can kick and push as much as you want, but you will not have the strength to knock that piece over. Nor the previous piece, which is two hundred and twenty metres high, or the one before that, one hundred and fifty metres.
But you can probably push the piece that’s a metre and a half tall. And if it is difficult, no problem, you can go to the previous piece, which is even easier. Because of this, there is no excuse. You might even choose to take down the tiny piece of two centimetres to initiate the process.
By the way, you should not be ashamed if you decide to push the first piece of two centimetres. It is the first phase of many others ahead. What you should not do is stand still, frozen.
3. Every marathon starts with the first step.
Your absolute focus has to be the first step. It’s the only thing you can do now. You can dream big and have very big goals, but you need to understand that the effort you need to achieve this great dream will depend on previous results.
In other words: To complete a marathon of 40 km, you first need to be able to complete a race of 30 km. To complete a race of 30 kilometres, you need preparation for a race of 25 kilometres. It’s hard? So instead run fifteen kilometres. If even that is difficult, your goal has to be smaller, maybe ten kilometres. You see? First you get behind the goal that is realistic, but you can continue dreaming about the next steps. You need to start the domino effect.
Whenever you are confused, feeling unable to cope with the challenges ahead, you need to simplify and have the humility to accept easier challenges. The Productivity Ninja course is the most comprehensive training you can find online to help you go through the whole process of finding your first step. You will clearly define your main objectives, your purpose. Go ahead, dream big, we’ll help you make the necessary preparations so your dominos are aligned.
Visit this link to start today!