📈 Focus on small improvements
Compounding is the secret of habit formation.
Hey there 👋🏼
In today’s email:
Food for thought: Push-ups go between washing your teeth and putting on your pajamas.
Compound: 37.78.
Call for proposals: Time to buckle up and share your experiences.
Cool stuff on the web: The best stuff on the web.
Post of the week: 5-star on social media
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
So did you really think I would let January end without going on a full-blown rant about frameworks, goals and habits? Think again!
Today, I want to focus on small but effective changes instead of doubling down on macro goals for the year or the semester.
And it’s absolutely impossible to talk about improvements or habits without mentioning Atomic Habits, probably one of the best books on the matter by James Clear.
One of the most interesting takeaways from the book is how to reduce the friction of introducing a new habit into your already established routine.
Clear calls this Habit Stacking, and one of the main advantages is that instead of pairing a new habit with a certain time or location, you pair it with existing habits.
For example, instead of saying that you will do 10 push-ups every day at 5 PM, you do 10 push-ups every night between brushing your teeth and putting on your pajamas.
The obvious question now arises. How can you turn this from blog-post theory into practice?
Write down the habit you want to create.
Plan your Implementation Intentions, the where and when you’re going to act.
Identify how you can use Habit Stacking to improve your odds.
One extra piece of advice is to employ one of the following two techniques:
The Two-Day Rule
The idea is extremely simple: Never skip the thing you’re trying to accomplish for more than two days in a row.
This was introduced to me by Matt D’Avella, one of my favorite productivity/minimalist YouTubers.
The Jerry Seinfeld Chain
Jerry Seinfeld has a very simple but hardcore principle: Don’t break the chain.
Every single day he has to write a joke. He’s done this daily for years. That is the path to writing better jokes. The path to getting better every day.
COMPOUND
If you still have doubts about investing in yourself and just trying to improve by 1% daily, the chart below should change your mind.
Sure we’re going to have off days, and we might not reach the full potential of the chart below, but we sure have the responsibility of not reaching December 31st without improving.
So buckle up, set a plan and focus on improving just a little bit in whatever area you want. 🚀
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Start your year on the right foot and submit your proposals to talk at these key Tech Leadership conferences.
Developer Week Europe | April 26-27, 2023 | Deadline: January 20, 2023
Developer Week Management | May 9-10, 2023 | Deadline: February 17, 2023
LeadDev London | June 27-28, 2023 | Deadline: January 23, 2023
COOL STUFF ON THE WEB
📚 An AI Reading List by Jack Soslow
POST OF THE WEEK
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Have an incredible week! 💪🏼
Parada 👊🏼 A Leader's Mindset