In This Episode
Over the last couple of weeks, I have developed a consistent journalling routine through the effective use of IF-THEN planning. Yesterday, my approach let me down because I encountered a situation I hadn’t planned for. Today I rectify that and discuss how this is a good thing.
Edited Transcript
Hi, it’s Michael Tipper and welcome to today’s episode of the Profit Productivity Podcast.
Today I want to give you an update on how my journaling is going and talk about the principle of constant and never ending improvement again.
Over the last a week or so I have focused on getting back into journaling properly because I’d let that slip. I felt it was a key factor behind me not developing my skills because I wasn’t tracking what was going on.
So I did a few episodes about how I decided to get back into journaling, why it was important and how I was going to do that. Part of the approach was using IF-THEN planning.
I explained in a previous episode about the IF-THEN planning approach and that it comes from some research done on how we behave. My original source was Heidi Grant Halvorson’s book Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, which I’ve also reviewed on this podcast.
My IF-THEN planning for journaling was this – IF it was six o’clock in the evening, THEN I will journal for the day. In doing so I’ll capture my thoughts on the day; I will look at what worked really well and I will look at what I would do differently either tomorrow or next time I do those activities.
That’s been working really, really well to the point where I shared in an episode a couple of days ago that automatically at around about six o’clock in the evening, I get my journal and start writing. And that’s how powerful it’s been and I’ve been really impressed with that approach.
Now yesterday my working day was slightly different. It was a Friday and I took a half day. So I just worked in the morning than in the afternoon I had some social activities planned.
So at around six o’clock in the evening, I was still in the middle of those social activities. The thought never even occurred to me to do my journal because I was otherwise occupied. Last night I went to bed having not journaled at all yesterday.
I realise that I’d not allowed for that as a possibility.
What I’ve decided to do now is look at the IF-THEN planning I’ve set up and modify it to allow for this change.
In the past I might’ve been of the opinion that I’d failed because I’d not done my journaling properly. However, that would have been a fixed mindset view. With a growth mindset the same circumstances are viewed differently.
Now I view it like this:
“Here’s the situation – I’ve set out to do something; It’s not gone as planned; I’ve looked at why it’s not gone as planned and now I’m going to make a change to prevent that happening again”.
That’s part of this constant and never ending improvement cycle about getting better and better in small chunks – marginal gains.
Here’s how I will update my IF-THEN planning:
IF it’s six o’clock in the evening, THEN I will journal; and IF I go to bed, having not journaled at six o’clock for whatever reason, THEN I will journal before I go to sleep.
Originally I decided not to journal before I go to sleep because if I’m tired, the quality of journaling is usually poor because it’s harder to do when I’m tired.
This is going to be a fall back position if for some reason I’m not be able to journal at six o’clock.
In future iterations, I might even allow for half days so that I end up journaling at the end of the working half day. But for now, I’m going to try this second iteration of my IF-THEN planning and see how that works.
And I’ll let you know how that goes.
Until tomorrow.
