Personal efficiency: desirable and achievable | Jean-Luc Doumont | TEDxGhent

if you are a typical citizen of the Information Age then you must be very busy so much to do so little time to do it surely you have asked yourself the question how can I be more efficient and if you are a typical citizen of the information age then you know exactly what to do to find the answer right google it the trouble is how are you going to make sense of millions of tips on personal efficiency well let me share with you a simple model I found useful to organize all these tips to think about personal efficiency and take action and best news is most of you already know it but from a very different context what we can expect to gain from an action would be the return we get on a specific outcome multiplied by the probability of this outcome summed over all possible outcomes example imagine you place some sort of lottery and you have one chance in a thousand of winning 1500 euros well you expected gain would be one euro and 50 cents so if you have to pay two euros to enter the lottery then on average you lose money that's the sad truth about gambling right that's not gamble let's see how this simple model can help us prioritize or actions first the return let's see what's desirable then the probability let's see what's achievable and finally the whole expected gain let's see how broadly we can apply this model if you are short on time then don't do anything unless it is worth your time right seems obvious enough but it's easy to forget especially if you are a perfectionist and I bet many of you are well guess what so am I so a personal example then my business partner Genevieve and I we teach communication among others how to design write and format documents now imagine we have to sign some paperwork we get a model document and I go oh I don't want all name on bats let's fix it real quick huh start from a simple three column grid with generous margin as a strong basis for a harmonious page design now place the content set the title top left actually on two lines for ease of reading and for visual balance and now add the text ha too long that's okay it's got too many words anyway edit for conciseness in fact rewrite to optimize the line breaks so you can justify the text without any of the lines being visibly stretched huh wait the data in there we deserve a graph visually harmonized with paragraph two even a short caption under it that gets the message across they're ready at last four Genevieve's signature and it doesn't take any time at all right one hour all right maybe two which is when Jenna VF goes who's going to see this and I go I don't know I don't care it's got our name on it it's got to be perfect one person who doesn't even care come on think of everything else you could have done in two hours catch up on your sleep there spend some time with your kids start one of those many projects on your long list of things to do someday okay okay I get it not the best use of my time in this case they are moments when all of this matters now you may be perfectionist about very different things and it's fine to be a perfectionist I wouldn't be here talking to you if I wasn't one but be it when it matters on demon and don't be the victim of it challenge every single thing you believe you have to do ask yourself what would happen if I did not do it nothing bad right now or in the future the little important just don't do it otherwise decide how important it is now don't confuse importance with urgent right it's independent it's enough fuggin all axis if it is more urgent then do it now but if it's also less important then don't spend too much time on it save you time for what is more important even if it is less urgent oh and as you all try to fill out this grid for yourself tonight resist the temptation to place all of your actions top right okay use all categories once you figure out what is truly desirable in your life the next question is what are you chances to make another obvious statement here believe in yourself fight for your dreams but don't waste time on lost causes you must have heard that idea before as well possibly as a prayer but it doesn't need to be it's all about the courage to change the things you can change the serenity to accept the things you cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference that is key to deciding on your priorities another personal story my wife and I get an email from the music school of our kids sent to all the parents with all the email addresses visible not we a bit protective of our email address so I proposed to write to the music school and demand that from now on they put all the email addresses in blind copy and that's when my wife goes well if it makes you feel better go ahead and write the you know how these people are I don't think they will get you port really I have to agree the chance is small and since the issue is not that's important to me well little desirable x little achievable that's the second order of smallness it's negligible it would be different if it were a matter of life or death even then it's important to recognize two cases of probability zero say I'm flying to the United States again we are already on the runway in Brussels and we have to go back to the gate to fix an issue delays accumulates and I start to worry about missing my connection in Chicago years ago I would have been a nervous wreck for the whole flight checking my watch all the time thinking of nothing else nowadays I can think well I cannot possibly make this plane fly faster so there's only one simple decision right when I get off the plane run or don't run and I will make that decision when we touch down in Chicago and not before that way I can be mentally available for something else during the flight and I can still hit the ground running if that is what I choose to do because from then on then the probability of making my connection depends largely on me it's about doing what it takes at all times in this case travel with shoes and a bag I can run with if it's desirable then maximize your chances you know this whole idea of considering not only what's desirable but also what's achievable has broad applicability so let me go beyond simple to-do list in three different ways first rather than maximize an expected gain we might have to minimize an expected loss if you are riding a motorcycle for example well you are at risk of colliding with another vehicle and getting severely injured as a result wearing a helmet will mitigate your injuries in case of collision but it will not in itself reduce the risk of collision what would well wearing a high-visibility vests which in turn will not protect you in case you do collide with another vehicle you could wear both or perhaps simply wear a high-visibility helmet right ii do realize that you actions typically have both positive and negative outcomes for example if you fight with other people to get what you want you may feel good if you win but you had a fight and that may well have consequences I remember when my son was younger and would make a first at dinner about eating his green peas I would look him in the eye and say son you're not going to win this one you will eat your green peas no matter what by making it first you are not only wasting your time which is bad enough but also antagonizing mom and dad and that's not good for anyone now is it Those argue unless it's important of course but never argue when you cannot possibly win finally you can use this simple model even when you want the outcome for someone else say for example that you are a teacher well you know it learning requires motivation and that means that the students must believe that the outcome of learning is not only desirable and that's what your big issue in education but also achievable and that is typically overlooked it is fundamental to make students believe that I can learn if they believe they cannot learn they will be right about it well it's that simple really what can we expect again well it would be the result with my get multiplied by the probability that we get it whether we consider positive outcomes or negative outcomes or both for ourselves and for others that's when people tell me yes the model is simple but is it correct and I bet you've heard the answer to that one before as well essentially all models are wrong but some of them are useful over the years this little model here has been so useful to me I can only hope it will be equally useful to you and I wish you every success as you figure out your very busy life in the information age

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 56,412

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Belgium, Life, Life Hack

Id: VK74BIaxkYE

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2015