Lifehacking

1. Lifehacking Concrete Strategies & Tactics for Personal Awesomeness James Norris jsnorris@gmail.com www.jnorris.org

2. Overview • More than a decade of personal development study and practice…packed into 20 minutes. The focus is on hacking your life to achieve more. • I'll briefly cover the basics of personal development and highlight practical actions you can take immediately to catalyze your growth. I‘ll also include quasi-turnkey solutions to augment and even partly automate the process. • I suspect people fail to grow for two major reasons: too much nerdy 'let me think it through' (without taking enough action to initiate the changes) and too much cowboy 'just do it' (without building systems to sustain the changes). You need to do both well. Think nerdy cowboy. • In a sentence: strategic, disciplined action is the key to success.

3. Offer I Offer • This talk • Practical Personal Development Kit v2.5: free on www.jnorris.org • Swift kick in the butt: free • Swift kick in the butt + 1-on-1 support: almost free You Offer • You commit to living a life worth living • Your public declaration of one specific personal development action that you’ll undertake within the next seven days • Otherwise, please leave :)

4. Why Me? • Grew up in dysfunctional family environment (e.g., mother passed away when I was 16, lived below poverty line, family bankruptcy, suburban ghetto, house robbed 5 times, people very close to me became drug dealers) and was a little deviant myself (e.g., breaking/entering, mini-pyromaniac, light theft, smoking) • About 12 years ago I got really busy/productive/interested in personal development • The stats so far: • Helped with (almost) building a 100,000 sq ft for-profit museum/theme park hybrid before the recession put us on hold (multimillion dollar raise) • Created the infrastructure for a social innovation hubin Austin, Texas (first real startup at 26) • Established 14 other organizations (my first at 15) • Learned from 19 jobs and internships (my first at 14) • Experimented with 6microbusinesses (my first at 6) • Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with 3 majors, 4 minors, and 2 programs; 244 hours (double normal) in 5.5 years (~average U.S. graduation rate)

5. Why Me? • Honestly, I still suck at life a lot. It’s not easy to rock it well. But even my 40-50 year old mentors have trouble. So all we can do is try… • Dozens of personal development initiatives, projects, experiments, exercises, sacrifices, etc. • Personal development non-profit (19 events/”homework” assignments) • One month sabbatical in desert • One year quasi-sabbatical • Two 7-person mastermind groups • One personal advisory board • Three mentors (personal development, business, social innovation) • 79 serious self-assessments • 141 frivolous self-assessments • 988 documented pieces of feedback • 24 hours/day time tracking (9 months) • Daily performance self-assessment (5-20 metrics, 17 months) • Overload experiment (12 months, 60 academic hours, 4 part-time jobs/internships, 2 senior year capstone projects/quasi-theses, 1 girlfriend) • Push/work days • ROI days • Discipline days • Three month mobile phone free experiment • Hunger fasts • Daily training push • Frugality experiment • Caffeine fasts • Facebook fasts • Socializing fasts/hermit mode • Internet fasts/information diets • Computer fasts • Courage experiments • Partial vegetarian diet (2 day per week) • Essentially giving up TV • Essentially giving up video games • Essentially giving up non-productive social life for extended periods • Moving to a completely foreign country • (Temporarily) giving up 80% of my stuff upon moving to foreign country

6. My Approach Learn • Analyze like a scientist • Diagnose like a doctor Prepare • Plan like an engineer • Strategize like a business person Act • Execute like an athlete Review • Evaluate like an economist

7. What’s Your Number? • How many unprocessed emails do you currently have in your inbox(es) right now? • How many unprocessed physical items do you currently have in your inbox(es) right now? Including your floor, closet, attic, etc. 0 = you rock (inflow to zero every day is bliss) 1-25= not bad 26-100= moderate 101-500= ouch 501+ = ouch ouchouchouch

8. Empty Your Pockets • Get rid of something you regularly carry around • Can experiment for 7 or 30 days with not carrying it • Goal #1: reduce unnecessary clutter (which is also psychological clutter) • Goal #2: ensure there is a no-stress idea capturing device

9. Hardcore Reality Check • Life Performance Self-Assessment • Eat healthy 90% of the time? • Exercise 3-5 days a week? Stretch before/after you exercise? • Brush twice a day? For two minutes each time? Floss every day? • Practice ubiquitous capture? • Practice ‘do it now’? • Practice single-handling with email? • Have a clear inbox? • Work in Quadrant II (not urgent, important) most of the time? • Happy with your love life? Having enough sex? :) • Everything okay with the family? • Fully and consistently self-actualized?

10. Life Performance Create your own areas for measurement from your deepest principles and values. Then self-assess your current performance in each area (1-10 scale, A/B/C/D/F, Good/Poor, etc.). Repeat weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly. Here’s one example: • Work • Mission • Job(s) • Mental • Cognitive • Emotional • Character • Personality • Physical • Health/Fitness • Appearance • Social • Relationship(s) • Friendships • Family • Other • Financial • Fun • Overall

11. Workflow Wave Metaphor The wave represents your life’s workflow. The size of the wave represents the quantity of work and opportunity you have and your position in relation to the tidal wave represents how you handle it. • Size • Tidal wave: huge amount of work and opportunity, lot of movement • Small wave: some work and opportunity, some movement • No wave: no work and opportunity, no movement • Position • Behind: constantly struggling to “catch up”, no momentum boost, huge energy burn • Ahead: obsessively overworking to “keep ahead”, trying to operate outside of natural constraints, no momentum boost, huge energy burn • Under: frantically struggling to do anything, no sense of direction, no momentum boost, huge energy burn • In: strategically working “in flow”, good sense of direction, operating within understood constraints, huge momentum boost, minimal energy burn

12. Workflow Poverty Metaphor Your workflow is much like your cash flow. Workflow poverty is akin to financial poverty. • Workflow positive • Essentially stress-free, able to adapt quickly, creative, can strategically invest in future, highest productivity level • Workflow neutral • Some stress, able to adapt quickly sometimes, sometimes creative, can sometimes strategically invest in future, relatively high productivity level • Workflow negative • Always stressed, not able to adapt quickly, not creative, can’t strategically invest in future often, lowest productivity level

13. Movement Metaphor It’s important to constantly move towards your goals. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -Confucius • Size • Small: cautious experiments are sometimes prudent, even minimal movement is productive • Regular: given limited energy allocating some is often reasonable • Leap: taking a giant leap demonstrates confidence and commitment (even if you’re artificially creating it), leads to a higher chance of success • Direction • Unknown: 95% of the time it’s good to know where you’re going before you go, however if there’s no way for you to know with any certainty then just go • Relatively certain: if you’re relatively certain of where you want to go that’s often enough to move forward confidently (~20% of the time you’ll find you were way off, ~20% partly off, ~60% of the time you’ll be closer to your goal) • Absolutely certain: if you’re 95%+ sure where you’re going then get moving already! • Focus • Always forward: ~66% of the time it’s good to go straight toward your goal and let nothing stop you • Detours: ~33% of the time it’s good to allow for detours and revise along the way • Dancing: ~80% of the time it’s good to allow for random, funky dancing along the way

14. Elephant Metaphor

15. Personal Development Resource Kit • Online at www.jnorris.org • Free • As turnkey as possible • Lots of Excel spreadsheets and Word documents • 100% focus on practical change • Next section will be concrete strategies and tactics for your personal development (part is from resource kit, part are links to services online, part are quick exercises)

16. Career • Management Competencies Analysis • Career Options: aim for 25-100 options • Career Decision • World’s largest job search aggregator: www.indeed.com • Free look at salary data from top companies: www.glassdoor.com

19. Distractions • Disable internet (wifi switch, unplug router) • Firefox LeechBlock • Blocks certain sites at regular times or after specified amount of usage • Lockdown: locks down distracting sites • RescueTime: http://www.rescuetime.com • Get Focused: locks down very distracting sites • Freedom: http://macfreedom.com • Blocks all internet access for specific length of time • K9: http://www1.k9webprotection.com/index.php • Blocks certain sites at regular times • Blocks all internet access at regular times (e.g., at midnight) • Locks down specific sites • Pay yourself $0ly.25 every time you successful avoid a distraction • Use a partner to require accountability (e.g., give them your mobile, give them your router, make them set your LeechBlock password, etc.)

22. Finances • Automated financial tracking and planning: www.mint.com • Investing wiki: www.wikinvest.com • Quick answer to “What to invest in?” is: index funds, www.vanguard.com • Set up your IRA (Individual Retirement Account) immediately and aggressively exploit company matching programs if offered • Automatically divert portion of paycheck to savings and investing accounts • Live below your means • Analyze your expenses and cut out superfluous items (before the analysis agree to cut $50/month or 10% no matter what and then make the sometimes hard decisions of what has to go)

24. Fitness • Exercise Record • Fitness tracking: www.dailyburn.com • Excellent beginners training program: www.stronglifts.com • Aerobic: high intensity interval training is faster and more effective than standard aerobic training • Resistance: generally follow a periodization schedule (hypertrophy, basic, strength, active rest) and always go hard with excellent form • Consistency: 100% commitment to train every day is easier to maintain than 99% or every other day, etc.

27. Goals • Life Goals: be precise, be ambitious • Stop Doing List • One Week Trial • Self-contracts for change: www.stickk.com • Giant dry erase board/butcher paper • Try predicting specific achievements over next three days (as opposed to setting goals for those days)

29. Life Master Plan • Life Master Plan • 15 Minute Mission: 99% of people can spend 15 minutes per day taking baby steps toward their life’s mission (that’s 91 hours annually)

30. Miscellaneous • Sleep Cycle alarm clock for iPhone naturally wakes you up: www.lexwarelabs.com/sleepcycle/index.html • Expert personal shopper that selects and ships clothes to you for free: www.trunkclub.com • Hire a personal shopper, www.craigslist.com • Learn languages through chatting with foreign language speakers: www.livemocha.com • Have readable chunks of books emailed to you daily: www.dailylit.com • Use math to find dates: www.okcupid.com • Use courage to find dates: 5-10 approaches per day • Ubiquitous idea capture: sticky notes, Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-331M, smart phone • PhilosophersNotes: www.philosophersnotes.com • Every day generate a list of 10 things you are grateful for • Every day journal for 20 minutes straight focusing only on writing and no editing (if you write about your most traumatic experiences you’ll experience health and psychological benefits)

35. Organizational Systems • Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen • Inflow to zero • Single-handling of all inflow • Do it now philosophy/two minute rule for all inflow • Calendar: ticklers/reminders; events • Weekly review • Email folders: Inbox, Action, Waiting For, Archive

36. Schedules • Physical planner or smart phone planner • Automates group scheduling: www.doodle.com

37. Self-Analyses • Life Performance • Relationships Value Analysis • Emotions Record • Work Rewards Exercise • Get anonymous feedback from anyone: www.rypple.com • Myers Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI): http://www.okcupid.com/tests/16567335035599898597/LONG-Scientific-Personality

38. Strategies & Tactics • Pick Me Ups • Workflow Rituals

39. Task Lists/Project Management • Daily Task List • Google Tasks: www.gmail.com • Basecamp: www.basecamphq.com

40. Time & Performance Management • Accountability Matrix • Performance Record • Time Allocation Record • Hire a personal assistant: www.craigslist.com • Hire a virtual assistant: www.timesvr.com • Sync Microsoft Office with Google Docs: www.offisync.com

41. Give Back To Each Other • Find a partner • Declare your action out loud • Set check-in date with partner • Write down your action and date in your to do list/task manager • Exchange contact information • Hint: identifying the one habit you could introduce or remove from your life that would create the highest possible life ROI is usually the best source for your personal development action. To Me • Suggest new practical strategies, tactics, tools, tips, and so on for this talk and the Personal Development Resource Kit • Let me help you grow through 1-on-1 support • Help me design a website (or two)

42. Thanks! I personally invite and challenge you to all to live a life of awesomeness. Go for it! =) Stay in touch: James Norris jsnorris@gmail.com www.jnorris.org