How Procrastination can make you More Effective, Harder Working, and Free up time
We have all been there. 8pm the night before a big paper or big exam, and you haven’t even cracked the book; sitting furious with yourself because you ended up in this position AGAIN. Odds are you did fine. We have all survived many similar episodes in our college careers.
Here what you may not know: That is a wonderful place to be. Those following hours were probably some of your most productive hours in the whole year. You learn a semester worth of material in 12 hours? You finish a month-long final paper in a 20-hour marathon of stimulants and panic? Awesome.
You accomplished those things because you had to. You were in a position where the consequences of failure were so significant that you were certain to perform. There is nothing wrong with this. Actually, this is an incredible tool, if it can be used correctly. Let’s break it down:
- Impending deadline: not flexible, not negotiable
- Dramatic penalty for failure
- A long time leading up to the assignment, spent making mountains out of molehills
This situation sounds terrible. Psychologically speaking, it can be very intimidating. It is very hard to shake the “if I don’t pull this off I fail” mindset. But turn that around. Let’s look at the advantages you have here:
- Incredible focus and clarity
- No dispute of priorities
- Adrenaline and excitement
- No time for non-critical tasks
- Obvious and immediate time-table
These advantages may seem slight in the face of the task you have to complete, but they should not be underestimated. They have served you well, and will continue to do so in the future. They are your weapons against wasted time.
The negative mindset is a huge obstacle to embracing and maximizing this situation. “If I don’t pull this off, I fail” is poison. Think: “I have to do this, I will do this. Let’s do it.” That’s all. Use the time pressure, but allowing looming failure to overshadow your work will not result in your best.
This all breaks down into a simple principle. The fancy name is Parkinson’s Law. It states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” What this means is that the longer you give yourself to study for a test or write a paper, the longer it will take. Not only will it take longer, but due to distraction, stop-and-go work and lack of focus it will likely be of lower quality.
The implications of this are the one lesson that college should teach us above all. Cramming, all-nighters, and marathon study sessions are incredibly efficient uses of time. They ensure that no time will be wasted on trivialities, and that absolute focus will be given to the topic at hand.
In order to best apply this principle, you have to embrace it. Plan for it. Accidental procrastination can be dangerous. Planned, scheduled and choreographed procrastination can work wonders. So how do you plan for procrastination?
- Break down the task into the essential parts
- Allot each a specific amount of time (adding 10-20% of estimated is a good idea)
- Ensure that you have an unbroken block of time (double-bookings are a bad idea)
- Find or create a comfortable workspace (secluded if that is your thing)
- Schedule in time for short breaks, meals, walks, and maybe naps
- Short naps are fantastic (but that is another post)
- Make damn sure you have all the resources you need
- Be well rested going in (you wouldn’t start a marathon after a huge party)
- Keep the positive mindset
- Rock it
Hopefully this can help in your next tight spot. What are your most impressive, short time-frame accomplishments?
How Open Innovation can Save Lives and Improve Education
I just did an interview for Brainrack.com, where I participated in one of their challenge cases. I like the interview, but it got me thinking crazily again. So I had to expand on it, and this post is just that. If you want to see the kernel from which it sprung, you can read my interview about Brainrack, Education, and Entrepreneurship
In my constant state of feverish, borderline-obsessive need to create value, I recently participated in a Case Challenge on Brainrack.com (full disclosure - founded by a friend of mine). It also didn't hurt that there was a $5,000 prize pool. Thinking through this, how could I not love it? My goal is to make $47,000 pre-graduation, so of course there is the money, but this concept holds another, much more important place in my heart.
Ready? It MATTERS. It actually effing matters. These cases aren't just made up by TA's, graded and stuffed in a drawer at the end of the semester. These problems are experienced by real companies, big ones, from all over the world. They come to Brainrack hoping that young, ahead of the curve students can come up with something new, something different, something incredible that will change the way they run their companies. There is something about working to solve a problem, rather than just working for a grade that shifts thinking. People become result-focused, creative, willing to experiment, more determined. People think in terms of real-world, culture, environment, competition, not just limited to the parameters of the project brief.
It was incredibly fulfilling to read a case about a company, read their stated problem, and truly believe that I had a solution. It was empowering. I set about stating my case, supporting it, researching best practices, branching out other possibilities, and generally kicking that problem's ass with a fervor that I have never had for schoolwork. Now that may just be my particular pathology, and tendency to grade-agnosticism but I believe that many more people would respond well to being confronted with real problems; with tangible feedback and rewards.
Or, a better question: Why not? Even if it is only beneficial for 5% of students, isn't that enough to give it a try? It certainly won't hinder those that are already motivated and engaged. Think about this: There are almost 20 Million students enrolled in higher ed across the country. That is a lot of mental horsepower doing repetitive, rote work, and often duplicating a product of the mind hundreds of times. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Let's get those brains working on some of the coming challenges. It's not like there is a shortage of problems. We never know what kind of brilliance could come from such a wide array of minds. We may solve some great unknown; we may not. But what is there to lose by trying?
Example: Stanford has a class called "Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability". The goal is to develop products the provide service to some of the poorest nations on earth. The students in that class have accomplished incredible things. They have brought light to darkness, literally. They have launched projects that will save millions of babies' lives. Yes, it's Stanford. Yes, they are brilliant human beings. But with 20 million students in Universities all over the country, I am confident that there is a massive amount of value that could be gleaned from halls of bright, hungry students eager to solve the world's problems.
Give us problems, give us challenges. Assign us the great difficulties of the next generation for homework. After all, isn't that what education is for? Aren't we being prepared to tackle the (formidable) challenges of the pivotal next 60 years of planet Earth? Let's start now. We're ready.
As always, more to come...
Note: I understand that there are basic building blocks of education that are irreplaceable, and that must precede this sort of challenge. My point is that these opportunities can and should be worked into the classroom, into the mainstream of education, rather than extracurriculars and after-school contests.
Another Note: I placed 5th in my first Brainrack Challenge, netting me a nice but dainty $250. You can read the challenge brief here and read a (slightly modified) version of my submission here De Alliantie Challenge
Build a Business that Won’t Trap you in Self-Employment
Starting a company is easy. One form and $0-$100bucks depending on what state you live in. That's all. A company is just a legal entity, its what you do within it that matters. One guy in a basement doing web design is a company. So is Google. A company is what you make it, and there are a million different ways to make a company.
Owning your own company means that you have the option to build it in such a way that profit, (your income) is no longer dependent on the time you spend on it. Now, are there businesses that are still dependent on the time that you put in? Of course. For Example: if you start a business knitting newts, and you can only knit 5 newts per hour, and you sell each newt for $3, you are still making at most $15/hour (it would be significantly less, with administrative time, selling time/cost, overhead, etc. Important considerations.) So your newt-knitting business is not really a scalable business. This is an incredibly important point: Most people's 'businesses' are just jobs that they've created for themselves. There is nothing wrong with this and is what many people want when they are starting a business. But, at that point, it is not a scalable business.
Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson, my favorite Venture Capitalist
Math backup: Say your actual profit for newt-knitting is $12/hour. Costs of production, selling cost, etc. all average out to you making 12/hour. Though you own your own business, you are making only a job-type wage, and to make our goal of $47,000 you would have to work almost 11hrs/day for 365 days/year. Even if your business did incredibly well, you spend 20 hrs/day knitting newts to sell. This would still be a dismal situation. Though you would be making more money, it would still be directly correlated to your personal sacrifice. All the money in the world doesn't matter if you are busy knitting newts 20 hours/day.
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with creating a business to create yourself a job, but it is an incredibly important distinction. It is important to understand the goals the business you are building from the very outset. Be sure to control expenses, price, and plan accordingly. You don't want to end up furiously knitting newts, making only $12/hour. This is a tough place to be, because you are trapped into the prices and expenses, without the margin necessary to hire people, or accumulate the cash necessary to invest in infrastructure. You are forever knitting newts by yourself, for $12/hour. This can be avoided (or achieved) with proper planning.
There is more in this topic in my previous post about building a scalable business
As always, there is much more to come on this topic. Stay in touch.
EJ
How a Free, Open-Source Education can get you Closer to your Real Goals
Get the education you need, not the education you have.
Whether or not you spend your days in a classroom, you learn every day. Every experience you have teaches you something. That being said, we are all students in one way or another. Though this is written in the language of students and teachers, it applies to everyone.
This is an amazing age. As long as you have internet access, you can take advantage of some of the best instructors and greatest bases of knowledge that mankind has to offer.
With the advent of open courseware, blogs, e-books, podcasts, youtube, and a million other tools, knowledge and wisdom can flow with almost infinite bandwidth to those who want to learn, from those who can teach them.
The limiting factor is demand. Of all the people who have the capability to sit down and listen to a TED talk during breakfast, or watch a Stanford lecture during lunch, how many do? There are millions every day that could be pushing themselves, learning more about everything that they are curious about, and satiating a thirst for knowledge. But instead, we read TMZ. We watch Paris Hilton buy a dog and Lindsay Lohan go to jail.
Just a few decades ago, the limiting factor of someone’s life was education. People went to school for as long as they could afford, learned what they could, and then were left with their life in its rut. Universities were ivory towers, with only a select few leaving every year with a piece of paper.
Today, there may still be only a few receiving that paper, but now anyone and everyone can walk those steps, hear those same words, and read those same books. There is no reason to settle for a second-rate education.
No matter where you are, or what you are doing on a daily basis, you can be getting a first-rate education every day. Whether or not you have a diploma from any university, learning about material that sparks your interest or applies to your area of work, will show in your work and speak for itself. Your education, no matter how official, will show itself in your work and your life. There is nothing stopping you from becoming better than Harvard’s Valedictorian in your practice. You have the tools, you have the potential.
There is no required curriculum for life. There are no prerequisites. Best of all, you don’t need anyone’s permission. There is just you, the resources you need, and the road ahead. The only obstacle is your own laziness. Get off your ass.
Whatever knowledge you need to be successful in any venture you have is out there somewhere. Not learning what you need to wherever you are is no excuse not to know it. Go find it.
Get the education you need, not the education you have.
I don’t mean to, and never would, imply that all the lessons of life are online somewhere. I believe that most valuable knowledge comes from the practical, experiential parts of education. But there are a lot of great stories, resources, and people out there that can teach you more than you ever dreamed.
Miles White, CEO of Abbot Labs: The Politician
I listened to and met Miles at a USA Today CEO Forum held at Michigan State University. He was interviewed by a reporter onstage, for a piece in USA Today. It was an interesting presentation, but not really for the content. Not knowing a lot about Abbot Labs, it was interesting in the way that new companies are, but the reporter seemed determined to talk only about the effect of the current politics on the company.
Mr. White is unique to this list in that he is the only one here who is not really an entrepreneur. He took this position, whereas everyone else here built their companies from the nothing. In reflecting on his presence and his speaking, this was very different. I really got no impression of any sense of business knowledge or skill. (Though I’m sure he had plenty, his credentials are ridiculous.) There was no impression that he made any choices or ‘ran’ his company in any way. It was like watching a politician. He was incredibly balanced in his answers, carefully calculated for optimal diplomacy. He had mastered the art of answering a question without touching on the nerve that the asker was really after. When you stepped back and looked at it, it was an incredible talent. He assumed no blame, but acknowledged difficulties, reflected underhanded criticism, but created a compliment, all with a huge smile to uproarious applause.
Personally, as much as you have to respect skill like that, and he is clearly a very powerful guy, CEO of a Fortune 500 and all that, I never want to be that kind of CEO. Even though he may have more credentials and preside over a bigger company than anyone else on this list, he would be the last one that I would trade places with. That in itself is a valuable lesson to me, and tells me something about what I value in my accomplishments and my businesses.
What about you? Who did you learn the most from? Who would you most like to meet? Who would you most like to trade places with?
The Big Chiefs of Biggby Coffee
(Biggby) Bob Fish, CEO of Biggby Coffee: The Proactive Public Pioneer
Bob Fish founded Biggby (then Beaner’s) Coffee with Mary Roszel in March 1995 in East Lansing, MI. He began franchising in 1999, and by mid 2009, had over 100 stores in 10 states.
Bob is the CEO who taught the most about being personable. He spends most of his time, not running his company, but representing it, traveling to Biggby franchises all over the country, talking to customers, employees, and everyone in between making sure that everyone is having a good coffee and a good time. He is a very nice, genial man and is obviously providing a huge benefit to his company by being a very approachable, public face.
However, his presentation was largely a reflection of this passion for the people of his stores. It was very inspiring to see his pursuit of experiencing and understanding even the smallest things in his franchises. But, we did not learn much about the running of the company, the challenges faced, the daily moves made inside the company.
(This has changed slightly in light of his presentation at TEDxLansing, which you can find here: Bob Fish at TEDxLansing: Random Entrepreneurial Thoughts - where he talked much more in depth about his views on entrepreneurship and business. There are some wonderful insights here (especially 'choosing to be profitable'))
Which leads me to…
Mike McFall, President of Biggby Coffee: The Secret Weapon
Mike McFall is, in my opinion, and from what I thought when I met him, the real reason that Biggby is still growing and thriving today. I met him during a class (MGT 352) trip to Biggby World Headquarters in northern East Lansing. He had started out in some hourly-wage job in the very first Biggby that opened, and became a partner when the company started franchising. Proof that every workplace is an opportunity for the smart and hard-working.
He is quick, clever, brilliant and hardworking. He had a sparky, excited kind of energy about him. It was obvious that just talking about his business was truly exciting and interesting to him. After meeting him, it was clear to me that he was the real reason that Biggby was built the way that it was. He has awareness and control over every aspect of the company, and approves every dime that was spent.
It was truly an inspiring presence to be in, and I feel that I learned more in that hour than most other days of my life. Probably the most lasting impression that he left was that he was utterly unimpressed with himself and what he had accomplished in building 100 stores in less than 10 years. He still maintained that that was “hardly an accomplishment at all” and that he hoped to achieve exponentially more. Wow.
John Hantz, CEO of Hantz Group: The Financial Farmer
I went to see John Hantz speak on Entrepreneurship, hosted by MSU Entrepreneurship Association. He built Hantz Group, a financial advising group, up to being a hundred-million dollar company from humble beginnings in his garage. Based on a hunch, he predicted where the finance sector was going over a 20-year trend. This man understands the essence of Entrepreneurship. He was unrelentingly energetic, eager to convey as much knowledge and excitement about his passions. He was very personable, down-to-earth, and unabashedly opinionated.
He spoke most often of understand the difference between ‘employee’ and ‘employer’ mentalities. The point was made that “what was best for you parents could be the very worst for you.” To support this, he told the story of the safe, secure job he had lined up at Ford Motor Company falling through, and taking a surprising, winding path to end up in the financial district in Minneapolis. Acknowledging that this was one of the best things that could ever happen to him, as the financial sector was an unknown at that time, just beginning to grow. This concept of being where the explosive growth was happening was incredibly important. Exact quote: “Most of the game is already won, if you are in the right industry.”
He also had a very simple but insightful outlook on building relationships as an entrepreneur. He broke it down simply, that there is no way for you to know everything, but you can know people who do know everything about specific topics. This is a powerful archive of knowledge to call upon, and he said that he was still calling on contacts from college, and others with talents that he never knew he would need, for his next project.
John is currently working on a fascinating, inspiring project that aims to make Detroit the Urban-Agriculture capital of the world. He is a Detroit resident, committed to bettering his environment, and re-invigorating the economy of Detroit. I learned a lot about the economics of community/commerce interactions from his insight. If you want to learn more about the project, or Urban-Ag (and you should) check out his site: http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/
Lessons from 3 CEOs (and 1 President), up close and personal
This past year, I have had the good fortune to observe, meet, and kick it with some incredible people. Most notably, four of them have been great leaders of companies of various sizes. I learned more per minute in the presence of these great men who have lived the life than any number of hours spent in lectures. Here is a condensed version of what was learned and observed from each of these very different, but equally interesting people.
Sometimes the best way to learn is by example; while these guys may not have been making much in college, they certainly made up for it later. Take what lessons and inspiration you can!
And now, the first installment of CEO Week:
The Innovation Workshop
Read time: ~5 mins
I had the great opportunity to conduct a workshop earlier this year, which has since caused some wonderful thoughts...
I was invited to an FFA gathering, of some 300+ high school students, to conduct a 'breakout session'. Awesome. My given topic was 'Entrepreneurship & Agribusiness'. Well, I am very aware that seeds go in the ground and plants eventually come up. Past that, I didn't know much. I was certain that each and every student supposedly there to learn from me would discover this very quickly. I gently suggested that we shift the topic to 'College Entrepreneurship'. I was told to 'do what I could'. So far, so good.
I hurried to create an outline, make bullet points, create a powerpoint, and structure a nearly hour-long presentation about 'College Entrepreneurship'. Eager for a test-drive I showed this to some fellow college entrepreneurs who, by the third slide, were bored, and stopped me abruptly. They were quick to point out that I was being stupid, archaic, and far too professor-y. They asked me what I would tell myself if I tried to present this to me(what?). They were very right. I would have called myself boring, unoriginal, uncreative, and completely un-engaging. It was a profound moment, to realize just how easy it was to follow the well-worn path, throw a powerpoint together, be boring, and just generally suck. Disgusted with myself, I immediately scrapped everything I had done, and went back to the whiteboard.
I was determined to create a workshop that would engage and excite even the most riddilin-addled little crack-monkey of a high-schooler I could imagine. I tried to think back to high school, back before I was used to giant lectures and being surrounded by academia. The main goal was to not just engage, but force real thought, in an exciting way. Nothing complicated, nothing incredibly difficult. But also absolutely nothing passive, nothing mundane, and nothing that they'd done before.
I pulled in a few other college entrepreneurs, and was fortunate enough to be teamed up with a fancy Angel investor. We had a loose plan, and some good experiences, and for the most part, we winged it. We set very huge parameters, and let the students lead the thoughts. Guess what? We succeeded. By dispensing with almost all formalities (literally immediate engagement-we barely even introduced ourselves), and very quickly challenging them to think within out-of-the-box scenarios, interact and refine those thoughts within groups, and to share their work with the whole group, to be publicly discussed, praised and evaluated, we created a very engaged, excited, and thoughtful group.
After sitting through a few hours of lectures by men in suits so boring that I'm relatively sure I watched one kid count his own breaths, they were elated to have a chance to participate, to speak up, to innovate, to demonstrate to other students the originality of their thoughts. It was a beautiful sight. Each and every kid participated, and had very different but similarly new and fresh ideas. Some students were even suggesting products that had only just been discovered recently, with no prior knowledge at all. It really was an incredible experience.
So really, we didn't 'conduct a breakout session', we didn't 'give a presentation'; We enabled thought. We created an Innovative Environment . In the end, they learned almost nothing about 'Entrepreneurship & Agribusiness', but they had a glimmer of experience with the innovative mindset necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. And they loved it. Everyone loved it. Every teacher in attendance told us that they were blown away, and that it was a wonderful experience for them. One said: "I have never seen a more engaged group of students"
The take-away here is that anyone will respond to a lesson if it is well-crafted and engaging. People love participation, challenges, and fun. The conveyance and integration of new ideas is not hard when approached in this way. Another is that anyone and everyone can and should innovate on a regular basis. Think new thoughts, meet new people, imagine new worlds. My greatest hope is that one hour stays with them for a long, long time, and pays dividends for the rest of their lives.
We have since polished and refined this workshop, and are now prepared to give it anywhere that wants to have us. We would love to give this workshop at your school (any K-12), college, place of work, camel racing team, or anything else.) Send me an email anytime if you are interested. Nothing gives us a greater thrill.
The Semester by the Numbers
Read time: ~2 mins
As the semester draws to a close, I took a minute to reflect before the madness of finals took over. Since I seem to have such an affinity for crunching numbers, I decided to look back in a data-oriented fashion, and paint a picture of how this semester went with a series of statistics. I would be very curious to see others' self-stats as well. So, here we are- my life quantified...
These numbers are figured as extended averages of the semester to date, and are calculated through the end of the semester.
Days - 115
Class Days - 64
Credits - 18 (six classes-not doing that again)
Hours in Class - 304
Exams - 20
Multiple Choice Questions Answered - 540 (additional 280 for homework)
Textbooks Purchased - 0 (not counting two coursepacks) (Most books are completely unnecessary, but that is another post)
GPA: Average < [My GPA] < Exemplary
E-mails - 700+
Texts - 5864+ (Over 50 per day! Thats incredible....I need to put myself in text rehab)
Websites - 4
Twitter Accounts - 8
Tweets - 400+
Blog Posts - 10 (Just getting started)
Business Started - 1
Businesses planned - 3
Hours worked - 224 (at the actual job, I haven't kept track of start-up hours)
Sleep - <6 Hours (on average)
Mg of Caffeine - 389,941,672,378,641,935,671,989
Incredible People - Too many to count...
Some of these numbers are surprising and horrifying (texts), but it was an interesting exercise. If you can think of any other interesting metrics that I should add, let me know. Or if you want to share your 'semester by the numbers" I would be very interested to see it. All in all, it has been an incredible semester, the best yet in terms of progress and amazingly exciting opportunities.
The real point here is so see how much the life of a college student has changed in recent years. I bet our professors did not send over 700 emails over the course of a semester, or send over 50 texts a day. They damn sure didn't manage 8 twitter accounts, start websites, or have Facebook. The life of a college student has undoubtedly changed. Has college changed enough to keep up?
EJ