Remove blockers by removing external frictions
I am working on a project to market in order to deliver growth. I've set a goal. I've plenty of ideas to work on to achieve the goal. It seems to be all lining up and I am ready for it. However, I can't get started. It's just not happening!
I am finding myself procrastinating. Finding small tasks within my past work more tempting to look into. I am wasting time looking at reports, analytics, insights etc.
Why?
I've given external frictions a lot of room, more than they deserve. I made a mistake by letting them to become a blocker.
How?
When starting a project it's best to see it as stairs. Imagine you are at the ground floor and you want to get to second floor. You can build a staircase that has minimum steps but each step is so high that nobody would want to use and therefore reaching second floor becomes mission impossible. I've built a blocker.
Solution
Alternatively you build the staircase with plenty more stairs making each step much easier to take. First step is easy so you go for it. Since you've taken the first step you might as well take the next now. You get it, you are making a progress and finding it not as difficult as you might have thought.
External Friction
When we set so high goals or make the journey so much harder without proper planning, we introduce external friction. Unintentionally feeding it and adding more friction as we go, we are feeding a monster that sucks our energy.
How to reduce external friction and get rid of blockers in marketing?
Uh, this is the bn $ question. Well, the good news is there are simple ways to do that.
- Set achievable goals within reasonable timeframes.
- Stick to the plan and focus.
- Don't delay getting started even though it looks like a mess.
- Aim to fail quick and try again as early as possible.
- 80/20 rule. Spend 80% of the time for getting stuff done and 20% for improvements.
Other than a framework for marketing, let's think of a real world scenario. How I might apply the above to it.
Exercise - Hitting the gym?
- My reasonable goal
My body weight is 90kg at 30% body fat and I would like to lose weight to become healthier. I have some background and done this before so I believe I can drop to 80kg and 27% body fat in 4 months.
2. My sticking to the plan and focusing framework
I am going to make sure to remain motivated. I know it's the most important driver for me to achieve a goal. I need to question myself how do I keep being motivated?
Motivation will come from wanting something so bad. I am keen to achieve my goal. There is a reason I had it in my mind. I will now strengthen it connecting to a bigger goal. Failing that would knock other goals off the list too. Not what I would want. I am feeling more accountable now.
I hear you. This potentially will cause stress and sound depressing. But, no big goal is simple. You have to fight with stress. You have to face difficulties. Thankfully it's doable and instead of feeling under the weather, we will use stress as our weapon to win the war.
On that note, to achieve my weight goals, I am going to remove distractions. If eating too much is a problem, I will opt in for a suitable diet. If inactivity is a problem I'll have to achieve certain hours of exercise every day. Anything stops me achieving these will have to be sorted. (eating to much junk food? if there is none around you, nothing to eat. get rid of them. )
3. Acting now, not tomorrow
You know the saying, best time to start was yesterday, the next best is now. When we don't start it now, we are already another day late which makes achieving the goal less of a reality. If that's exactly what we wanted, fair enough. Act later. Otherwise you have no other option but to start it today. Full stop.
Am I feeling too tired to go to the gym? Well, you know what, your body can handle so much pain. I started turning my gym visits into a regular thing by not caring about the food first until I became a gym rat. Then I introduced limits to the chocolate I consumed. I found a solution rather than leaving it to tomorrow to start acting. Act now.
4. Failing quicker and earlier > failing later
Today or tomorrow, you will fail. I mean it's not that dramatic. Failing is a part of the game. Everybody fails. The way we see failure is actually what matters.
Failures should fix the way(s) we take to success. Not act as a blocker to stop us getting there. Noticing early failures will help you correct your path sooner and make the goal achievable.
Started exercising, controlling diet but it's not working. Too tired, pain everywhere, miserable etc. Yes it will happen. You will feel like a failure. You fail when you stop. Experience the difficulties to appreciate the win. Fail with a lot of the stuff you thought was a good idea. That helps learn what works what doesn't. Instead of repeating the mistake for million times half way through the journey, it's better to spot it early and fix it.
I felt terrible first two weeks of changing diet in order to lose weight. Thought it's going to be another failed attempt. But no, the early failure feeling turned into a win 2 months later.
5. 80% effort to get it done, 20% to perfect it
You are a builder. Don't start painting the walls with perfect shade of blue before you actually built the house safe enough. It is tempting to visualise the colour for sure but solid ground is what will make sure your
Regarding the gym / losing weight goal, this is such a great example of how to apply 80/20 rule.
People straight away start thinking of a gym plan.
Monday - Chest day. 15x, 3 sets push-ups
Tuesday - Shoulder day
No, no, no!
Unless you've made it a part of your life, the early days is not meant for such structure. You are trying to remove blockers that stop you hitting the gym. Why introduce something you will be reminding yourself million times how much of a failure you are. Set your main goals cleverly. Then set these micro goals to help you stick to the plan.
80% of the work is about hitting the gym daily and completing a min 30 mins a day at least 5 days a week. In that 80% you have a diet you got to stick to.
In your 20% you have 15x, 3sets push-ups. You have the 1% incline change on thread-mill.
Conclusion
I shared an example above from myself, my experience. My tactic losing weight might not match with somebody else's however, it worked for me.
The key thing from this post is to make goals more realistic and remove friction that stops us getting started. The friction that slows us down too much due to spending unnecessary time on the stuff that doesn't matter that much.
Don't think of climbing Mt. Everest as one big step to the top with legs that are just not big enough. Think of it as each step you will take is similar to the step you take in your local park. Now it is achievable, blocker removed, external friction reduced. All you need to do is, to act.
