The 4-Prong Approach To Getting Shit Done
How many times have you known what to do, but not known how to do it? I know I must focus on my work, but how do I maintain focus? Even if you know what to do - workout regularly, eat clean, make time for family, often the how escapes you.
Cal Newport in Deep Work had a similar problem. He knew that deep work was important, but couldn’t figure out how to prioritize it.
Using the principles from The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX), he prioritized his deep work. He more than doubled his output. He went from 4 peer-reviewed articles the year before (already a high standard) to 9 peer-reviewed articles (and he wrote Deep Work that year too)!
Here are the 4DX disciplines that worked so well for him:
Discipline #1: Focus on the Wildly Important
The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish.
It’s much easier to say yes to something that matters than it is to say no to the trivial distractions. That wildly important goal will naturally crowd out distractions.
This is about prioritizing something incredibly important to you. I’m reminded of Jim Collins’ quote: If you have more than three priorities, then you don’t have any.
For me, my goal is to be a true master of my coaching craft. That wildly important goal helps focus my efforts immensely.
Discipline #2: Act on the Lead Measures
I talked about lead measures in 4 Thoughts On New Years Resolutions (see #4) and I heard it was a bit confusing. So let me try again:
Essentially, a lead indicator is a measurable action that will drive the success of your ultimate goal. So:
It needs to be an action
It needs to be measurable
It needs to drive the success of your wildly important goal
So if your goal is to lose weight, your lead indicator could be each day that you eat healthy. To become an expert in your field, you could measure the hours that you spend learning or the papers you write (or both). Newport’s lead measure was how many hours he spent doing deep work.
Lead indicators are important because they narrow down your big goal (which is often broad and vague) into a clear set of actions that, if accomplished, will have you achieve your goal.
My lead measure(s) to be a top-flight coach? I have two:
The hours I coach: The more I coach, the better I will become.
The deep conversations I have: I get to practice coaching and (indirectly) introduce coaching to new people. Which will hopefully lead to more coaching hours. Even better, I prefer deep conversations to shallow ones.
Discipline #3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
People play differently when they’re keeping score.
Keeping score can create a sense of competition and reinforce motivation. There’s an old business saying: “what gets measured gets done.”
Measuring your lead indicator, gets you to do more of your lead indicator, which in turn gets you to your wildly important goal.
You can see Newport’s scoreboard for the hours he spent in deep work here (each tick is an hour and a circled hour is an hour when an important milestone was achieved).
Personally, I track the number of hours I coach.
Discipline #4: Create a Cadence of Accountability
Regularly review your scoreboard and commit to specific actions to help improve the score before your next review.
The key is being regular and holding yourself accountable.
If you read my previous post (Deliberate Practice and the 5 Key Factors of Training), you may recognize this as being very similar to both the “feedback” step from Newport’s views on deliberate practice and the “reflection” step from Eric Greitens’ views on the 5 key factors of training.
I focus on my coaching hours weekly. If it’s not where I want it to be, I take steps to improve it.
What Does This Mean For You?
Step 1 of 4DX is to commit to something that is wildly important to you. What’s wildly important to you?
If you’ve got more than one wildly important goal, try picking the one that would make the biggest difference. If you don’t have a wildly important goal … be honest with yourself. I’ve met far more people who bury their heads in the sand because they’re afraid of their dreams than who don’t have dreams.
Once you pick your goal, the steps are simple. Pick your lead indicator, figure out how you’re going to measure and track it, and then review regularly to see your progress and try to improve it.
Let me know how it goes!!!