A Few Items Off The Always Works List
I keep an active list I call the Always Works and Never Works List. The idea is to keep track of things that always work and things that never work. When I’m stuck, I check the list to see if I’m doing some of the Never Works things and try to add some of the Always Works things. I highly recommend keeping your own version of this list.
Anyway, a few conversations with members who were stuck prompted me to check the list mid conversation.
Here are a few of the things we referenced - they might be useful to you:
After a member had been stuck on her idea for a few weeks: Any sort of side project or life goal only works if it’s ambitious enough that you aren’t sure you can do it and if it’s tied to some form of public accountability. If your project doesn’t seem to be moving forward, it likely either isn’t ambitious enough to get you sufficiently excited / terrified, or you aren’t accountable in a way that would make you horribly embarrassed if you don’t take action. Losing public status (or status with someone you really respect) is easily the most reliable motivator.
After a founder was frustrated trying to knock out content for the quarter during a marathon session on a Sunday: Don’t try to make a “Toothbrush Problem” into a “Diploma Problem.” There’s a post I love called So You Wanna De-Bog Yourself that discusses Toothbrush Problems and Diploma Problems. A Diploma Problem is one where, once you solve it, you never have to solve it again. You get your Diploma and you’re done. It’d be nice if all of our problems were Diploma Problems. Unfortunately, most are Toothbrush Problems. No matter how well you brush your teeth on Monday, you’ve got to brush them again on Tuesday. If you don’t mentally accept that a problem you’re dealing with is a Toothbrush Problem, not a Diploma Problem, it’s easy to get frustrated. Nearly every problem worth solving needs to be worked at every day (health, diet, relationships, customer interactions, writing, etc.)
After a founder used AI to summarize all the top marketing books so that he could put together a growth plan: AI Bullet point summaries, while objectively impressive, are useless. If something is worth understanding, reading the actual thing is critical. It’s how you’ll retain the information and actually be able to apply it. Getting AI to give you the bullet points of a great marketing book and then trying to use that to grow your business is like if when my 1 year old pooped in his diaper I changed his shirt. The two things just aren’t connected.
I’ve been talking about Always Works and Never Works for a while - anyone have any good ones on theirs? Send them over, would love to see.