Chapter 12 - 25 Strategies for Results

From Getting Results | The Book

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. —Lao Tzu

In This Chapter

Learn how to treat time as a valuable and limited resource.
Learn how to improve your results by changing your mindsets.
Learn how to create a more enjoyable path on your way to your results.

This chapter helps you fill your playbook with some time-tested strategies for getting results. These strategies complement the 25 Keys to Results found in Chapter 11.

Strategies are a big picture perspective while tactics are a small picture perspective. You can think of the strategies as guiding approaches: they guide your tactics while you pursue your goals. You can use strategies to help design your approaches and to evaluate potential practices, methods or techniques. Mix and match strategies, but keep in mind that sometimes strategies support each other, while other times they are competing. Ultimately, you must map relevant strategies to your situation. Rather than try to decide or buy into a strategy, find a way to test and judge it based on your results.

What you don’t know can hurt you and knowing the right strategies is like knowing the playbook. While each strategy is independent, many of them work better together. Instead of trying to memorize or implement all of these strategies, simply familiarize yourself with the set and draw from them as needed. One way to get started is to identify three strategies that are most helpful for you now. As you read the strategies, pay particular attention to the ones that you aren’t familiar with, since they might be new ways for you to tackle old challenges. Changing your strategies can be one of the best ways to get unblocked or to unleash your potential.

The 25 Strategies for Results

The strategies are a culmination and integration of many lessons learned over many people. These lessons show up time and again in various contexts. The common theme across them is that they can make a significant difference in your ability to accomplish the results you want. What you do with them is up to you. Knowing is often half the battle and there’s a good chance that some of the strategies may surprise you.

Strategy 1: Outcomes over Activities

An outcome is result or consequence. An activity is a pursuit in which you’re active. Work backwards from the end in mind by figuring out the outcomes you want to accomplish. If you focus on activities, might do a lot, but accomplish little. For example, let’s say you’re reflecting on your results for this last month. If you start listing all your activities, so what? That’s a bunch of activity. What did you actually accomplish or achieve or make progress on or improve? Those are your outcomes.

One simple way to train your mind to switch to focus on outcomes is asking yourself, “What do you want to accomplish?” The trap you can fall into is asking yourself, “What are you trying to do?” I originally learned this distinction when I worked in Microsoft Developer Support. Time and again, I made the mistake of asking a customer, “What are you trying to do?” So, we’d fix the wrong problems. Often they were doing one thing, but trying to accomplish another. Asking “What are you trying to accomplish?” might sound subtle, but it’s a big difference in results. The key take away is that if you know where you want to go, there’s lots of ways to get there. Be committed to your outcome, but stay flexible in your approach. This lesson shows up time and again.

Strategy 2: Goals Are Vehicles

Always remember that goals are vehicles. They are a means to an end. While reaching for a goal, you become something more. That’s why you want goals that stretch you.

SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym to help you improve your goals:

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Actionable
R = Realistic
T = Timely

You support yourself better by creating specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely goals.

Strategy 3: Know the System

When you need to produce results, one of the best things to do is figure out the system. This includes the people involved, the activities involved, and the key triggers or events. If you know how things work, you know where you fit in. You also know who needs to be involved when you need to get things done. If you don’t know the system, you can end up fighting unnecessary battles or doing things at the wrong time or just plain working too hard to produce results. Instead, find a way to make the system work for you.

Leverage the System

One of the most important strategies is to leverage the system rather than work against it. When you figure out the system, part of your job is to figure out the key levers you can pull. Sometimes, it’s as simple as knowing when to try and pull things off.

Strategy 4: Know the Cycle

Sometimes time is not on your side. Other times, it is. There are a lot of relevant analogies and metaphors here: ebb and flow, wax and wane, off season and on season, high tide and low tide, bull and bear. Cycles and rhythms can dramatically impact the success of what you do. Have you ever tried to swim against the tide? If you know the rhythms and know the cycles you can make them work to your advantage or at least set better expectations. A lot of failures aren’t the result of bad ideas, but a consequence of bad timing. You might have experienced the downside of this when you either had an idea the market wasn’t ready for or you did too little too late. You might have experienced the upside of this when everything just seemed to go your way and you were riding a wave.

Know Your Own Rhythms

Most people have an off season and an on season. For example, I tend to be more on in the spring and fall and more off in the summer and winter. I know that I also go through bursts of learning and growth, while other times, I’m more on a plateau and have to work hard at it. By recognizing the cycle I’m in, I can better time my plans. I could fight myself or I can work with my natural tendencies. In this case, it’s far more effective to work with my tendencies. I don’t mind working extra hours in the winter. I do mind working extra hours in the summer. As such, I move some heavy rocks in the winter to set myself up for great results throughout the spring. I don’t plan on being brilliant in the summer, but if it happens, great. While I could change my patterns, I’ve found it’s better to first figure out what they are and leverage them, then, if it’s not working, figure out what to change. Use well-timed strategies to leverage yourself.

Strategy 5: Treat Time as a Valuable Resource

You can’t buy more time. You can, however, spend it more wisely. Time is the main ingredient in life. If you value your time, others will too. If you waste your time, others will too. One of the most important factors in your consistent success is how you treat time. In order to thrive, you must spend time in things that make you strong, make you happy, and keep you growing. Think of yourself as the main manager of your time. Ultimately, you get what you spend your time in. A friend who does marathons says, she gets results by putting in her hours.

Make Time for Priorities

Stephen Covey teaches us to make time for the big rocks. What are your big rocks? In the big picture, start with your basics: mind, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun. They support each other. For example, it’s tough to be great on the job if you don’t get enough sleep. It’s tough to give your best if you never have fun. If you don’t invest in your relationships you can miss out on fun and you can make life difficult for yourself on the job. You must make time for each of these. Make thoughtful decisions in how you invest your time. For example, invest a minimum of two hours a week on your body. Consider investing a minimum of five hours on your relationships. Your circumstances will influence what makes the most sense, but the key is to not over-invest in one area at the expense of another. You can also use time limits as a shutoff valve, such as when you’re spending too much time on the job.

Make Time for Yourself

People that make time for themselves tend to operate better. They get clarity in their thinking. They have a better idea of what they want and what they don’t want. They figure out ways to fix things that aren’t working and they come up with new things to try. They feel more in control of their life and don’t feel like they are in constant reaction to the world around them. They are more deliberate about gradually making their world, the way they want it to be.

Make Free Time

Whether you think of it as down time, free time, or whatever, this is your discretionary budget of time to spend on whatever you want. Scheduling your free time might sound like over-engineering, yet it’s an exercise that can improve your life. Failing to define free time in your schedule may result in having no buffers, and then it’s too easy to get over-extended.

Strategy 6: Fix Time, Flex Scope

Several years ago my circumstances demanded a new way to think about time and scope. I had multiple vendors on my projects and their time was fixed at 40 hours. That meant that when the rest of the team went above and beyond it didn’t help because the core team was out of synch. To optimize the results, I had to optimize the team around a 40-hour work week. Interestingly, this turns out to be an Extreme Programming practice. Effective 40-hour work weeks beat inefficient 50, 60, 70, 80-hour work weeks. Fixing time leads to improved time management, better energy management, improved techniques, and ultimately better results. We fixed time, but flexed scope. We bit off what we could chew and prioritized value. It’s that simple.

Prioritizing Gets Easier

Here’s the deal. If you fix time, but flex scope, you’ll improve your success in many areas of your life. For example, you might set a boundary of a 40-hour work week. Now, instead of throwing more time at the problem, you’re forced to produce results in a fixed set of time. Your world changes. You prioritize your meetings. You’re more deliberate about how you spend your discretionary time. You start to set limits within your day. For example, instead of spending three hours on email, you decide to spend one or less.

Better Techniques

Now, the most important thing happens. You start to question the efficiency and effectiveness of your techniques. Before you threw time at the problem and you never really noticed how ineffective and inefficient your approach was. Now, with time as a constant, you can test different approaches to see what works best.

Energy Up

When you fix time, your energy goes up. There’s always an end in sight. You can sprint when you can see the finish line.

The End of Scope Creep

If you flex time, then the tendency is to overflow your plate. Why say no if you’ll get to it in the future? You’re not sure when and you’re not sure how, but you’ll get to it. That’s how it starts. Next, things fall off your plate, or worse, you throw more time at them to get them done. You routinely cut into your nights and weekends and wonder about that myth called work life balance. Now, consider the opposite. If time is fixed, you have a rough idea of how much to bite off. When you’re not sure, you chunk it down. Finish what’s on your plate before going up for more. This builds momentum.

When you fix time, you hit more windows of opportunity. You become more reliable to yourself and other people, because you stop biting off what you can’t chew. You get in touch with your capacity.

Strategy 7: Diversify Your Results

This works hand-in-hand with fixing time and flexing scope. You can think of your results as a portfolio. It matters where you spend your time and energy. You spread your life force across certain investments. Set minimums and maximums. Take a lot at where you’re over-investing and under investing. For example, you might establish a maximum number of hours in your career, and a minimum number of hours on your health each week. If your relationships are slipping, seize the opportunity to carve out more time for them. You’ll find that you get more of what you focus on and more of what you spend time and energy on.

Life Frame, Work Projects, Personal Projects

You can diversify your results at multiple levels. For example, consider the following opportunities:

Life Frame: How can you carve up your overall time across your mind, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun?
Work Projects: How can you carve up your time for administration, think time, and execution time on a daily basis?
Personal Projects: How can you carve up your time for your personal projects and make progress on the ones that are most important to you?

When you diversify your results, you spread your risk. It’s all about trade-offs. Don’t trade your health for your wealth, or you’ll later trade your wealth for your health. Prioritize the vital few things that matter most, and don’t neglect areas that really need your attention. Simply having a mental model to look at your portfolio of results is the first step to dramatically improving your effectiveness. It forces you to be more deliberate in how you spread your life force across your portfolio.

It’s a Numbers Game

Another important reason to diversify your results is because it’s a numbers game. It’s hard to predict when things won’t work out. Sometimes, the time just wasn’t right. Sometimes, it was the approach. Sometimes, it was the concept. By diversifying your results and prioritizing in terms of focus on your vital few, you can be selective about your high risk bets. Your vital few results will cushion you when you stumble; alternatively, you can redirect your energy and re-establish momentum when something else just isn’t working out. The opposite is to put all your eggs in one basket. The problem is that life has more than one basket. If you spend all your time in your career, then your relationships or body can go downhill. Too much time having too much fun will weaken your body or mind. The different buckets support each other and help improve your overall effectiveness. Yet when you have a good bet, not to go for it! Follow your passion, but use your portfolio to keep things in check and not lose sight of the bigger picture.

Strategy 8: Next Best Thing to Do

What’s the next best thing to do? Believe it or not, the key difference in a lot of productivity systems boils down to answering that question. It’s a great question to tackle because time is your most precious resource. You can’t make more of it. You can only spend it more wisely. This is where all your outcomes, priorities, trade-offs, and focus meet.

The question can be more powerful than the answer, because there is no one answer. Instead, it’s a quick check to help you course correct. You might already ask yourself in fuzzy or indirect ways. That’s completely different than asking yourself such a pointed question at the start of your week, at the start of your day, or in the moment. Before you worry about whether you have the right answer, get in the habit of asking the question. Your mind is a powerful resource when you ask the right questions.

Strategy 9: Value Delivered over Backlog Burndown

Like the camel loaded with one too many straws on its back, your backlog can wear you down, even break you. Backlogs tend to be a laundry list of items that once were important, but time changes the value of things. Your backlog is an input for you, but you should never be a slave to it. Doing so will result in missed opportunities.

A Catalog of Potential Action

Instead of being backlog driven, think in terms of value delivered. You backlog is a catalog of potential action. You probably have more things to do than there is time in the day. That would be a problem if all things were equally important, right here, right now. Instead, each moment, each day, each week, you get to choose the most valuable things to do. This is where asking yourself what’s the next best thing to do really comes into play. It might be an item in your backlog. It might not. How do you know? It’s based on what you want to accomplish (your outcomes), how you want to maximize your impact, and what’s valued. The key here is delivering value over backlog burndown.

Backlogs Rot with Time

Backlogs tend to have two problems. First, backlogs rot over time. The longer an item sits in a backlog, the better chance that it’s time has come and gone, or that something else is more important now. The second common problem is they are often overly detailed plans. Thus was coined the saying, “A plan is a list of things that will never happen.” It’s better to elaborate and add detail when you’re actually going to do something. Don’t get bogged in details. Stick with tickler lists with just enough notes to feed into your decisions and to remind you what’s important. Don’t become a beast of burden to your backlog. Instead, let it serve you.

Value Is in the Eye of the Beholder

Always remember that value is in the eye of the beholder. Know who the customer is when you’re working on something. Is it you for your personal learning? Is it for your boss? Get clarity on that first. If it’s for not for you, you need to know whether what you’re doing is considered above the line or below the line. Below the line is simply expected. Above the line is valued. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a raving review when all you did was below the line work. At the same time, don’t screw up great results by failing to meet basic expectations. Part of your success is how you manage expectations, with yourself and others.

Strategy 10: Make It a Project

If you want to get real results, make it a project. When you make something a project, you turn it into something more manageable. You give it a start and a finish. You can figure out the work involved. You can weigh the benefits of it against other things you might invest your life force in. For example, let’s say you want to improve how you handle your email. Now you have something real to focus on or direct your energy towards. Giving it a name puts you in control. You now have a named thing that you can prioritize. You have something specific and you can experiment with the best ways to accomplish it. You now have a named thing that you can put on the backburner, associate actions to, or measure your results on. You can drive it from cradle to grave.

Chunk It Up

Based on my experience on many projects over many years and the experience of others, you’re better off in the long run of doing many short projects over one long marathon. You build momentum. You get a fresh start. You can version your results. For example, you might do a short project to test your results. At the end of your project, you can evaluate your results. Not happy with your results? Maybe it’s time for version two, if it’s the next best thing for you to do. Remember that the power is in treating something as a project. Projects can vary dramatically in size. One effective way to right-size them is to do it by time. For example, you could have a day project, a weeklong project, a month-long project, a three-month project, a six-month project, etc. You want it long enough to get useful results and meaningful feedback, but not so long that it wears you down and you can’t see the end in mind. Jump incremental hurdles over trying to scale a major wall.

Strategy 11: Have a Strong Week

Unless you’ve been deliberate about your schedule, there’s a good chance you’re spending a lot of your time on things that make you weak. The activities that drain you might be spread out all over the week. Some you may have control over, some you don’t. Maybe you haven’t even identified what makes you strong and what makes you weak?

Figure Out Your Weekly Strengths and Weaknesses

First, figure out the activities each week that make you weak and that make you strong. Pay special attention to what makes you weak. Things that make you weak are those which leave you feeling drained—not in a good way. You never look forward to them. Pay attention to what makes you strong. It may be things you enjoy, or it might not. Things that make you strong give you more energy when you perform them. Knowing yourself is a huge advantage over ignorance. This list is your insider’s guide to improving your energy levels.

Consolidate and Compartmentalize Your Weaknesses

Next, fix your week. Don’t let your weaknesses spring leaks in an otherwise potentially strong schedule. Whether you designed it on purpose or not, you already have a weekly schedule. This is your chance to create a strong week by design. Based on Peter Drucker’s recommendations and what I’ve tested in practice, a good way to start is by pushing as much of the things that make you weak to Mondays and to the morning in your day. Compartmentalize them. By consolidating them and shoving them into timeboxes, you stop the energy leaks throughout your week. Why does this work? You use the strongest part of your day, to get over your major humps. Ideally, you line up things that make you strong right after to give you a boost. By structuring your days and week like this, you design your momentum. Otherwise, you either luck into weakness or luck into strength. Don’t leave your success to luck. Know the keys and continuously work towards and refine them. The beauty of designing a week that supports you is you get to practice every week.

Strategy 12: Know Yourself

You can learn all the strategies in the world, but if you don’t know your own patterns, there’s a good chance they won’t help. If you know your own patterns, strengths, and weaknesses, then you can choose and adopt more effective strategies. Here are some ways to know yourself in relation to personal productivity:

Mindsets and Motivation. If it’s not working for you, change your mindset; this is one of the most powerful things you can do. For example, if you realize that you tend to be negative, test adopting a positive mindset for a month. If you have a fixed mindset (one which assumes that things are the way they are and you can’t improve them), adopt instead a growth mindset where you test your ability to thrive and to learn. Rather than just think of things as natural talent, think of things in terms of skills waiting to be developed. This opens a lot of doors to you. Again, test it for a month to decide whether this is right for you.
Metaphors. You probably already represent your work to yourself in some way. Maybe you think of yourself as the lone cowboy. Maybe your work is like herding cats. Maybe you’re Atlas with the world on your shoulders. However you are thinking of it, write these down. Are they helping you or working against you? One metaphor that helps me is thinking in terms of mastering my craft. Another is taking the bull by the horns. Think of metaphors that empower you and swap them out for the ones that make you weak.
Personas. You probably know whether you are a starter or a Finisher, a Maximizer or a Simplifier, a Thinker or a Doer, etc. Whenever there’s work to do, think about which persona helps you best and put on that hat. Additionally, consider the opportunity to pair up with other personas. If you’re a Finisher, then see if you can find a good Starter to help get you going.
Introvert or Extrovert. Introverts are more focused on internal ideas and you may prefer to work alone or in small groups. Extroverts on the other hand may want to work as part of larger teams or where there’s more real-time communication. Know your pattern and set yourself up to keep your energy high. If you’re an introvert, this means getting your alone time. If you’re an extrovert, this means spending time with others.
Strengths and Weaknesses. You should know your strengths such as detail oriented or quick on your feet or great presentation skills. You should know and respect your weaknesses. You should reduce your liabilities and invest more energy in growing your strengths over your weaknesses.
Passions. If you know your passions, you can make time to refuel. You can also find ways to work your passions into your current job. There’s always a way, it’s just a matter of degree.
Fighting Perfectionism. Most people have some trace of perfectionism. Some people have it more than others. Find ways to overcome your perfectionism, such as versioning your results and improving each time, and adopting beliefs such as perfection is a journey not a destination.
Fighting Procrastination. You know your patterns better than anybody. If you keep finding yourself procrastinating, one of the common problems is you’re thinking too much and you talk yourself out of it. One quick solution is to simply start taking more action. Another issue is that most people think they have to talk themselves into doing something. The problem is that action comes before motivation. If you know this, then again, the trick is to take action and let motivation follow. Find ways to look forward to what you do, and work on way to reduce friction. Create more glide-paths for yourself.
Linking to Good Feelings. Know how to push your own buttons. Pay attention to what makes you feel good: certain memories, certain thoughts, certain songs. Think the thoughts that make you feel good, recall the memories that make you feel great, or play the songs that get you fired up when you need to link things to good feelings. To put it another way, if you whistle while you work, you might find new ways to enjoy old things.
Compelling “Why.” Make sure you know why you do what you do. This is your simple most important carrot that you can use to help motivate yourself when the going gets tough. It’s also your reminder and checkpoint to stay on track.
Workspace Pattern. Some people like to work with others. Some people like to work alone. Some people like to work on their own thing, but with other people. If you know this about yourself, see if you can arrange your projects to support your most effective work style. Otherwise, recognize the issues and ask friends and mentors for strategies that help you improve your effectiveness.
Time. Some people care a lot more about time than others. For example, they’re always on time and they never miss deadlines. They are quick to set dates and meet them. Other people care a lot more about quality and actually taking their time. They often send belated birthday cards, are late to parties, and regularly miss deadlines. Others are somewhere in the middle. You should know which end of the spectrum you fall. If you tend to be scope and quality driven, test focusing more on time for a month. Set daily, weekly, monthly goals and bite off a little at a time. Focus on getting drafts or strawman or prototypes done over fit and finish. The key is to see what it feels like to do things on time and to trade perfection for timely results. One of the worst failure patterns I see time and again is this: “It will be done when it’s done” and the recurring missed deadlines that inevitably follow. That just doesn’t work in today’s world. It’s one of the toughest things to learn, but it’s about finding a balance with sharing “good enough” sooner versus too little too late.

Strategy 13: Team Up

Pair up, team up, buddy up, whatever. Find somebody to complement your skills. If you’re a Starter, pair with a Finisher. If you’re a Maximizer, pair with a Simplifier. If you’re a Thinker, pair with a Doer. This keeps momentum and you get the benefit of synergy.

I’ve seen a lot of people get stuck. For whatever reason, they hit an invisible wall. Pairing with the right person got them over it. Consider teaming up with somebody at work. Consider teaming up with somebody on something you want to learn. There’s a lot of mentors in the world, you just need to know what you want and go for it. Most people that are good at something, like to share what they know. The trick is often finding and asking the right person.

Strategy 14: Factor Thinking from Doing

What do the most successful people that get results have in common? They don’t second guess themselves every step of the way. They don’t analyze everything while they do it. They decide and go.

Why is this such a big deal? This is how you avoid task saturation and shutting down. It’s also how you avoid analysis paralysis. If you think your whole way through every step, you burn up your prefrontal cortex. That’s the thoughtful part of your brain. If you find yourself constantly drained, there’s a good chance you aren’t taking enough breaks or you are interspersing too much thinking with your doing. This isn’t about being mindless. It’s about factoring your thought processes. For example, if you edit while you write, you slow yourself down and you wear yourself down. Instead, the recommendation is to write it out and then edit. The same holds true for brainstorming. You don’t critique while you brainstorm. First, you brainstorm; then, you critique. Likewise, for task execution, you think; then, you execute. Basically, you do it; then, you review it and improve it.

There’s another benefit to this approach. You can literally script your success. If you think through your actions up front, you can write the key actions to execute. If this is a routine that you’ll perform regularly, you now have a script that you can improve. In fact, I call these improvement scripts. This is one of the secrets the Air Force uses to turn ordinary people into extraordinary pilots.

Strategy 15: Factor Practice from Performance

This is related to factoring thinking from doing, but in this case, it’s being clear about whether you’re practicing or you’re performing. When you’re practicing, it makes sense for you to go slower and be more thoughtful to get the routine down or learn a new technique. You might even be doing a dry run. When you’re performing, you can’t be second guessing yourself along the way. Simply perform.

Strategy 16: Measure Against Effectiveness

How do you judge a technique? Measure by what works. You can’t argue with results. More importantly, measure against effectiveness. For something to be useful, it first needs to be effective. It needs to work. You can want it to work all you want, but you have to be honest with what you’re getting. If it’s not working change your approach. That’s the key to success. Throw out what works in favor for what works. There are many ways to accomplishing something; the challenge, of course, is finding the right technique.

Strategy 17: Know What You’re Getting

When you take actions, you produce results. Pay attention to what you’re getting. This includes both qualitative and quantitative feedback. There are always clues.

The pitfall is to kid yourself when it counts. The quicker you have a good sense of how things are actually working out, the faster you can change your approach to something that might work better. Producing results is a constant exercise in course correction. Trust your intuition. If your mind says things are on track, but your gut says something is off, dig deeper. You might be picking up on something intuitively that you just haven’t figured out how to rationalize yet. Always balance your intuition with your mind. Don’t react to what you don’t understand. As you ask better questions, you’ll eventually figure out what you intuitively sensed. A simple way to use your intuition more when you’re analyzing what you’re getting is to ask, “What does my gut say?”

Strategy 18: Model the Best

One of the ways to find the best technique is to model from others or to find reference examples. Stand on the shoulders of giants. No matter what you’re doing, chances are you’re not the first. One of the worst mistakes people make is reinventing the wheel. “Best” is subjective and context dependent. What’s important is that you meet your objectives in the most effective and efficient way you can. That’s both the art and the science of results.

Leverage Your Heroes

You can also think of this as an exercise in impersonation. For example, you can ask yourself, “What would Einstein or da Vinci do in this scenario?” This is a great way to switch your thinking and gain new perspectives. This assumes that you know enough of the other person’s thought patterns and behaviors to draw from. You’d be surprised how little it takes though to figure this out. You can gain a lot of insight into behaviors through “thin slicing,” a concept introduced by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Thin slicing simply means extrapolating expectations about behavior by watching somebody in small periods of time.

Find the Mentors

When you look for mentors, find people that are getting the results you want. I know it sounds obvious, but I see a lot of people just ask smart people or just ask their friends. You want to find a few people that are succeeding where you want to succeed. They’ll know what works and what doesn’t work. They can save you a lot of time, especially by telling you which paths to avoid. You may have to tailor their guidance for your situation, but at least you aren’t starting from scratch.

Strategy 19: Test Your Results

One useful metaphor for this is to “do a dry run.” You don’t always know what you’re capable of. The fastest way to get some useful feedback is to test your results. Call it an experiment and see what you can do. Don’t rely on your ability to predict what you can do; take action and get real feedback instead. One of the big surprises for people is when they believe they can’t do something and they actually test their can’ts. Sometimes it works better to try to prove your right. If you really think you can’t do something, prove it. There’s a good chance you’ll be surprised. Remember that what the mind can conceive, the body will achieve. You don’t want to be the bottleneck to your own success. Lastly, testing your results early on is important so that you get a relative gauge of what you know, don’t know and need to know next, as well as potential risks. As soon as you get some tangible feedback, you can start to make better estimates, you can start asking better questions, and you can start figuring out where the most valuable places are to spend your time. Don’t be afraid to be wrong sometimes!

Strategy 20: Ask Better Questions

The right questions can dramatically improve your results. They can improve your efficiency and effectiveness. They can improve your state of mind. In contrast, the wrong questions can waste your time and put you in a deadlock. The right questions can save you from working on the wrong things, or using the wrong approach. They can get you out of a bind. If you know how to ask more effective questions, you can easily avoid deadlocks and keep forward momentum.

Ask Yourself Better Questions

Avoid asking yourself “Why” questions, such as “Why can’t I do this?” You’ll put yourself in a non-resourceful state and your mind will come up with reasons why you can’t. Instead, ask more resourceful questions such as, “How can I solve this?” or, “How can I make the most of this?” or, “How can I improve this?” Your questions should support you, not disable you. If you get stuck in a loop when you ask yourself, “How can I solve this?” and you keep responding, “I don’t know,” switch the question and answer this instead: “Well, if you did know, how might you solve it?” I’ve used this many times to get myself and other people out of deadlocks. You’d be surprised how many people get stuck here, simply because they got stuck on needing a perfect answer instead of a potential path.

Ask the Right People

One of the fastest ways to waste your time is to ask the wrong people. Who knows more about which small businesses are working, an accountant who handles the taxes of many small businesses each year, or your get rich quick friend who saw the latest infomercial? You want to ask people with results. You want to ask people who are relevant to your scenario or problem. You want to ask people who are also capable of helping. You can save yourself a lot of wasted time simply by asking yourself if you’re asking the right person. If you aren’t sure, go ahead and start asking, but keep moving forward. One way to move forward is asking those who don’t really know for somebody who does.

Solution-Focused Questions

I call empowering questions, “solution-focused questions.” I think the name says a lot. It’s about focusing on the solution, instead of dwelling on the problem. It’s biased by design to help keep you from getting stuck in analysis paralysis and for taking action as quickly as possible. You’ll learn more by doing and get better feedback. Asking solution-focused questions that are forward looking and optimistic will help you keep moving ahead as you face adversity and friction. They will be your greatest ally in terms of producing results.

Time, Cause, Effect, Meaning, and Action

Some of the best questions you can ask are pretty basic. You can ask questions about time, cause, effect, meaning, and action. For example, a time-based question would be “Is now the right time?” A question about cause would be “What’s the root cause?” A question about effect would be “If we do this, what will be the impact?” A question about meaning would be “What does this mean?” You might ask a question about action such as, “Do we have the right people?” or, “What’s the best thing to do?” One practical way I use this is when I have a meeting. One of the most important questions is “Are the right people here?” If not, there’s no point in having the meeting. A few of the right questions can go a long way in improving your results.

Strategy 21: Enjoy the Process

Don’t let the focus on results trump your approach. You have to enjoy the process, or you won’t achieve sustainable results. This doesn’t mean that every aspect along the way tickles you pink. What it means is that you feel the journey is worth it, and it’s not just because of the destination. You become more along the way without sacrificing the basics along the way: like your health, your mind, your emotions, your relationships, and your fun.

Have a Metaphor

Sometimes enjoying the process is as simple as changing your mindset. “Working on your masterpiece” is an entirely different experience than just trying to get something done. Metaphors work wonders for helping you enjoy the process. Whether you see yourself as a craftsman, a mentor, an expert, or a novice can profoundly impact how much enjoyment you get along the way. This is also true for the metaphor you use for work. Is it a sprint? A marathon? An epic journey? An adventure? A SWAT mission?

One Pitch at a Time

The more the pressure is on, the more likely you are to watch the scoreboard. Pressure can help you improve your performance, but you need to focus on the right things. Instead of the scoreboard, focus on one pitch at a time. Trust that whatever you are doing at the moment is what you decided as your next best thing to do, and focus on it. You’ll improve your performance. More importantly, you’ll enjoy the process.

The beauty of this approach is it works instantly. Right now are you worrying about something you haven’t finished? Or did you decide this was the next best thing to do and you’re lost in the moment, asking yourself, how can you use this? All it takes is a simple shift in mindset to go from hating a task to savoring the moment. For example, if you decide to master your craft, then each session is a new opportunity to improve your efficiency and effectiveness. This sets you up for learning and growing. The opposite is doing your time and then wondering where your time went—one pitch at a time.

Find Your Passion

Where attention goes, energy flows. Energy is your fuel for results. One approach is to follow your passion. The other is to find your passion. Chances are that before you go looking somewhere else, you can find ways to enjoy what you do. One way to do this is to connect to your values. For example, when I lead my projects I turn them into epic adventures. I have value adventure, and I find that connecting to my values helps me find my passion in whatever I do.

Pace Yourself

Your pace can have a lot to do with your energy and enjoyment. Is it a marathon or a sprint? Is it a series of sprints? This is where knowing the system and knowing the cycle come into play. This is also where knowing yourself really pays off. You need to find the pace that best supports you. Sometimes, the turtle really does win the race. Other times, what you might just need is the thrill of a race with yourself or a race against time to really get it in gear and enjoy what you’re doing. Fast can be fun and it can be furious. Slow can be a great way to savor the moments as you go. What’s the key? Be deliberate about the pace you choose. It’s helpful to work backwards from when you want the results. This can include important timing windows. You can then setup mini milestones.

Find the Lessons

There’s always a lesson to be learned. When you don’t get the results you expect, look for the lesson—that’s where experience comes from if you choose to learn from it.

Strategy 22: Link It to Good Feelings

One of the important keys to enjoy the process is to link your routines and activities to good feelings. If you try to motivate yourself by promising rewards down the line, that’s not very effective in the long run. It’s actually important to link what you do to good feelings where possible. If you simply try to talk yourself into something, then all you end up with is a logical argument that’s not very motivating. You get more leverage on yourself if you create an emotional connection. For example, let’s say you don’t like the pain of working out. One technique you can use is to play your favorite songs. You’ll end up linking the workout to feeling good. Now you have your mind, body, and emotions working with you instead of against you.

Resistance Makes You Stronger

While the ideal scenario is you can make everything feel good, the reality is you can’t. One thing that helps is to remember that resistance makes you stronger. When you lift weights, it may not feel good at the time, but you’ll get stronger from the exercise. This holds true for when you’re facing intellectual challenges as well. Ultimately, if you’re on your path, resistance makes you stronger. What you have to watch out for is “pushing the weight sideways” (a phrase coined by my colleague Jason Taylor). What it means is that the resistance you’re facing isn’t actually helping. It’s like somebody pushing the weight sideways while you’re trying to work out.

Strategy 23: Make the Most of What You’ve Got

You’ll end up in a lot of situations that aren’t ideal. That’s called life. Your ability to stand strong when tested will serve you in the long run.

Get in a Resourceful State

One of the best ways to make the most of any situation is to ask yourself, “How can I make the most of this situation?” This will put your mind in a more resourceful state.

Play to Your Strengths

Another way to make the most of what you’ve got is to play to your strengths. The simplest way to play to your strengths is to spend more time in your strengths, and less time in your weaknesses. While you can improve your weaknesses, you get more results by maximizing your strengths.

Strategy 24: Teach What You Need to Learn

One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. It forces you to learn the information at a deeper level. Rather than just recognition, you work on your recall. You also get exposed to more questions and perspectives. Teaching requires you to burn info in at a deeper level. This requires sustained thinking and focus. One of the best forcing functions that to drive information home is simply the thought process of asking and answering questions. Of course, as you put the information into practice, you’ll want to know it beyond the intellectual. Through repetition and practice you’ll want to burn it at an emotional and physical level.

Strategy 25: Pave the Way Forward

If you think of yourself as a pathfinder, you can improve your results. Rather than stumble on results, pave a path towards it. When you find a path that works, you can improve the path by doing some simple things. For example, you can focus on reducing friction: walk your path end-to-end, identify your trouble spots, and then tune and prune the path to improve the results.

Make It Easy for You

Create a glide path for yourself. Create routines or checklists that support you. Once you create a script, you can evaluate its efficiency. Thinking on paper is powerful. You’ll probably find ways to reduce the friction or find ways to enjoy the process more. You can share your script with others and ask for feedback on improving it. The creative replies may surprise you. If you treat what you do like a system, you can improve it systematically. Your system should support you, not the other way around.

Make It Easy for Others

Create a glide path for others. You can gauge the level of maturity of your system by how well you can either ramp other people up to do what you do or how easily you can hand over the reins. This is where your checklists, routines, and techniques come into play.

In Summary

Familiarize yourself with the 25 strategies for getting results and draw from them as needed to help you turn the underlying principles into action.
Use the strategies to help guide your tactics.
Tailor and adapt the strategies to suit your scenarios and context.
Test strategies to find what works.
Mix and match strategies as appropriate.