So, today we're going to be talking about a very powerful concept called deciding what
done means.
This is a way to help you find the end point of a project and to coordinate with your team
when you discover what done means for them or they discover what done means for you.
What if there was a way for you to do your very best work and for it to feel somewhat
effortless?
For it to feel easier than it is now?
It turns out that your great work can be done and not feel exhausted at the same time.
This is entirely possible.
So, what causes the problem?
What problem here are we solving?
We're solving the problem that some projects never seem to get done.
They just drag on.
You know, maybe you've moved home recently and it's a year later and there's still boxes
in the garage.
You know what I mean.
Perhaps perfectionism or procrastination or vague goals or just tinkering, that constant
tinkering with the project.
So, we have found that if we can address those issues, we can get past perfectionism, we
can get past vague goals, get past tinkering and get past procrastination.
Here's the key concept.
So, let's go back for a minute to a previous training we did when we talked about that
one vital thing, that one contribution you make, that 80% of what you do is in 20% of
your time.
We know this from the Pareto Principle.
So, that means technically we surmise that if you could arrive on Monday and did your
20%, that would be 80% of your contribution.
Your organization would still move forward because you're bringing that core thing you
do to bear.
But we also know that practically that we need the other 80% of our time to do non-vital
tasks.
One might say trivial tasks or supportive tasks.
But in reality, it's these small trivial tasks that take up 80% of our time that really weigh
on us.
They really take the energy, if you like, out of the thing we do.
Because most of us love the core thing we do.
By the way, if you don't, you definitely need to find that A-seat, that number one contribution
you make.
Because that's what gives you energy.
A quick example that really helped me understand this is, as we try to go past the Pareto Principle,
the cost gets astronomic.
So, 80% done by somebody else is a great idea.
That's not to your standard, but it gets things done.
A quick example of this is, I used to spend a lot of time on a track where you can take
your car and you can drive around the track as part of a club I belonged to.
You know what I discovered?
I could have 80% of the fun with a $10,000 little Miata.
So I've got a little Miata and a little Mazda Miata, which I loved.
And that 10k gave me 80% of the fun.
Now if I wanted to move from 80% to 95, I had to 10x the price.
I had to go from a 10k Miata to a $100,000 Porsche 911.
When I got the Porsche 911, I did get to 90% of the fun.
But that 10x price gave me only 15% gain.
I'm sure you're getting the point.
In the same way, if I wanted to push it further and get another 3%, I could get a Ferrari.
Now we're at 30% 30 times, so now $300,000.
Or if I wanted to push it another 1%, I could get a race car that costs $1,000,000.
And if I want to get it to that top 100%, I would get a Formula 1 car that might cost
$10,000,000, which is 1,000%.
So to move it from 80, which costs 10k, to 100, which costs $10,000,000.
So I wanted to point out this.
This idea, when you try to decide what done means and you push too far up the Pareto levels,
the cost becomes exponentially higher.
You know, let me give a simpler example.
Perhaps you love washing your car or detailing your car.
You know, in one hour, you can get 80% and just say, hey, that's what done means.
You haven't perfected every little thing.
You know, you didn't put leather on the seats and take care of all the plastics and ceramics
and all that other stuff.
Well I got into this whole car detailing thing because it's something I love doing.
And I found out that I've got a 1-hour version, a 3-hour version and an 18-hour version.
The 18-hour version is literally 26 steps, which involves paint restoration, full ceramic
coatings, etc.
So that lasts for 7 years.
But it takes 18 hours of work, whereas in one hour, I can get 80% or more done.
Think about writing a book, you know.
If I'm writing a book and I got my paragraphs
and I've gone through every paragraph,
the way I do this is I look at every paragraph
and I give it a rating from one to 10.
If I get seven or eight or better,
I'm counting that as done.
Otherwise, I sit there and tinker and fiddle and change
and what happens is I'm paying that 10x, 100x,
even 1,000x in cost and time to get it done.
So that's one of the most powerful editing techniques
that writers actually do.
They go through the paragraph and actually many of them
will actually read the book backwards by paragraph
and rate each paragraph from one to 10
and say if it's above seven, that's what done means.
So when you decide what done means,
it's extremely powerful if you're working with a team.
So let's say for instance, you started a project
or you want a project done and you're handing that off.
Explaining what done means to you is huge.
If you're given a project,
then ask what does done mean to you?
Because the word done means different things
to different people.
So I might say, hey, I want you to take on
launching this new marketing campaign
and I want to sell this book.
Well, what done might mean is that to one person
might be write out the emails, create the click funnel,
make sure the book publisher has everything
at wherever the logistics and the shipping
and warehousing is all taken care of
and I'm starting to sell the books
and I want to see a live dashboard
where I can see all the information.
That's what one person might consider done.
Another one might simply mean I will create the click funnel
where somebody could go and buy a book.
What happens once you click buy a book,
it doesn't know, doesn't know where that order goes
or to somebody else it might mean
I'm just gonna jump onto Shopify and create a little block
and put the picture of the book and a link to buy the book.
And so once I've bought the book,
who ships it, where it goes?
Oh, that wasn't part of the project.
Is that what done means to you?
So what we found is this is a very powerful way.
Explain what done means to you
and if somebody gives you a project,
find out what done means to them.
Let me give another approach to this.
You know, one of the big things for leaders
is the ability to give a project away to someone else
because many of us feel like,
hey, hang on, only I can do it to this level.
Well, what if that level costs too much?
And I love what Dan Martell says,
80% done by someone else is amazing, right?
80% done by someone else is fantastic
because it's freed you up or in Dan's terms,
you've bought back your time.
So you being able to buy back your time
to free yourself up and give projects away
means your willingness to see done
at what you would consider 80%.
So this means hitting, you know,
and sometimes even as simple as helping visualize
what done means.
It could be like in the example I gave earlier,
deciding what done means
for the launch of that book sale process
is when somebody hits the buy button
that a transaction goes through
and a book is being shipped.
So visualizing what that is
is a very helpful way to visualize the end point.
Greg McKeon in his book Effortless
gets into this in great detail.
And so the idea of this is helping you finish a project
is visualizing exactly what done means.
Picture the hitting the submit button or the buy button
or the closing, you know, of a book or whatever it is,
you need something specific.
You know, maybe if you're a software developer,
it's finishing that feature.
And so done means seeing the user's delight of,
oh, that works now.
So something along those lines.
So here's an exercise for you.
Is there a project you're working on right now
that you could look at and decide what done means?
Number one.
Number two, visualize something specific.
Like you're writing a paper
and hitting that submit button or the send button
as you send that off to the publisher
or to your supervisor or wherever that's going.
So visualize something specific
that for you is a visualization of what done means.
Let me make it even simpler.
Let's say, for instance, you need to clean out the garage.
Right?
And it's that time of year,
and you've just, you know, got a little bit of time left
and you're deciding what does done mean.
Does done mean pull everything?
out of the garage and everything that's stored in it and power wash the entire
thing, patch up the wall where there's been damage, repaint all those elements.
You can see where this is going, right? Or does done mean taking the blower,
blowing out the dust and just neatening everything up? Done can mean
very different things. The one can take one hour and the other one can take the
weekend. So this is what we want to visualize. So now I'm visualizing that I
pull into the garage and all the boxes are now, some of the stuff is all packed
to the one side, there's some sort of labeling system and everything's cleaned
and all the cobwebs and all that. And so I'm visualizing the driving and stopping
and that feeling of this is nice, this is organized, this is nice. So I'm
visualizing the walls being repainted or power washed or any of that stuff. I've
just visualized what done means. Let me make it even simpler. Perhaps you're
trying to lose weight, you know, you've gone through Thanksgiving or Christmas
or some event and you have picked up weight and you want to get rid of it. So
what done means to your diet is, think of the number on the scale, right? So
what's that number that, visualize yourself stepping onto the scale, looking
at the number and saying that's what done means. So all of this helps us and I
think if you go through this you can see that, you know, Greg McKeon gives a bunch
of examples like cooking a meal. Done means the meal is cooked, served and
enjoyed by the guests. It's not just the food is finished cooking. Done could mean
completing a project. Done means delivering the results to the
stakeholders, not just completing the tasks on a to-do list. Subtle but huge
difference. Cleaning the house could mean done means giving, having a clean and
tidy house that feels comfortable and relaxing, not just completing a checklist
of cleaning tasks. Writing a book done could mean having a finished project,
meeting the author standards and having it in your hand, visualizing that first
day you open a book. Any of you have published a book, you know, it's a very
emotional moment when you open the package and it arrives and you've not
actually physically seen it and you open it, it's got your name written at the
bottom and that could be what done means for you. You know, let me add one more
just practical thing to make this even more real. What if you created for
yourself a done for the day list? You've got a long list of different items that
you need to get done in your to-do list and you know not everything can be done
for the day. So why don't you just circle the done for the day. If I hit these main
things, I'm done for the day and that would make me feel satisfied. Now I'm
visualizing myself at the end of the day looking at those few extra items, maybe
there are ten items and I've circled three of them, that for me would be done
for the day. I knock off those three, I'm feeling great, I feel satisfied, I feel I
did and I feel cognitive control. I feel in control of what I'm doing. So I love
this idea that you can really set yourself free. You can buy back your time,
see an endpoint to your projects, be really great in communicating with your
team about what done means and even in your personal life not have that heavy
feeling of projects hanging over you that you know you should get done but
you've never decided what done means. And finally that willingness to allow
someone else to do something to an 80% level so that you don't pay that hugely
expensive cost because only you can do it and what you're doing there is buying
back your time. I hope you enjoyed that and have fun deciding what done means.