This short term attitude stopped me from doing so many things for so many years, particularly the books I’m currently writing. Because it didn’t necessarily ‘click’ with me straight away, I’d put the notepad away in frustration and forget about it. Thankfully I’ve got a grip of it, with a little help from the tips covered below. I’m writing regularly and seeing improvement from going to the gym. But it’s not easy.

It turns out that our brain has two sides that are constantly competing between satisfying short term rewards and long term gains (I’m being simplistic here, if you want the science read this). If you’ve ever been on a diet and walked past the cake display in a shop, you’ve probably felt that battle raging inside of you. Because in modern society it’s so easy to satisfy that short term side of you (no waiting around because of the internet, easy access to things because of transport, etc.) and there are so many temptations put right in front of you, for many people this internal battle now represents a well-disciplined army taking on a leaderless rabble.

So, we need to balance this battle. Below are my five tips for doing just that:

• Be aware of that internal battle
  If you’ve ever wondered why you’re always impulse buying, or why you can never say no to a cigarette, now you know what’s going on in your head. Being aware that there really is a short term versus long term battle raging, really gives you a new perspective on those daily challenges you have.
• Break your work down into bitesize chunks
  Short term rewards, whether it be that cigarette packet in your coat, the doughnut on the table or that nice shirt on the clothes rack, are often tangible and right in front of you. Long term goals are generally anything but, and encompass all sorts of planning, tasks and projects to achieve. So, make those goals tangible. Break them down into bitesize chunks of activity that you can do in the short term, and which are actionable.
• Be consistent
  Remember what it’s like when going to the gym. You won’t see results immediately. You won’t get a muscled or toned body in a few weeks no matter how hard you exercise. But if you go regularly and consistently, eventually it will happen and you will notice a difference. The same applies for whatever goal you have.
• Be happy with each individual step you take
  One of the simplest thrills is doing something. That little buzz when you finish a report or finally finish tidying your bedroom is vastly underestimated. Plus there isn’t any guilt attached to it, unlike when you buy a new TV on impulse knowing full well your credit card is almost maxed out. Taking small steps forward satisfies both your short-term hunger and long-term appetite, because you’re getting the buzz of doing something you like and also the satisfaction of knowing your moving forward with that future goal.
• Focus on today
  What? Achieve long term goals by pandering to our short term side? Yes, that’s basically it, and why not? If you’re thinking about what you need to do today to push forward with your goals, that fuzzy future which causes us so much confusion and inaction becomes an irrelevance. We all get demotivated when we contemplate the year and a half it will take to do this or the six months it will take to do that. There’s no way around that so… just focus on today instead!

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On my 25th birthday I decided to spend the whole of the next year coming up with, and doing, 250 random things. I wanted to have some interesting stories to tell, to try new things and force myself to get off my sofa once in a while, so I came up with my silly challenge…

Over the next few weeks I created a list which grew as I sent it to friends and family (some of whom were all to eager to suggest some bizarre and potentially embarrassing things!) and I started trying to keep track of everything I was supposed to do and had done (plus the ones I’m too afraid to do). Keeping a blog seemed like the easiest way to update people on what I’ve been up to and hey presto, 250 Things While I’m 25 was born.

Initially I thought the blog would just be a handy way to keep everything in one place but it has turned out to be one of the best bits of my silly project. Publicly announcing my challenge, including posting the full list online, has become the biggest incentive to keep going and to actually do the things on my list.

I suffer from newprojectitis and usually lurch from one new shiny thing (fornight long interest in photography) to another (cushion-making business?!) as the novelty wears off, so keeping a public blog has forced me to stick with my challenge as I know people are watching. As my friends, family and colleagues know about my blog, I know I’d have to explain any lapse in my efforts and that people reading it and following my challenge would notice if I stopped.

Knowing I’ll have to blog about my list exploits also means I can’t cheat (well, not as much as I would do if it was a secret). Though my rules clearly state that it’s my challenge so my rules, I know that any blatant squirming out of a list item will be noticed and that I’ll have to explain myself. Thus ‘I couldn’t be bothered’ isn’t really a good enough excuse. Some of my followers have been all too happy to heckle me via my blog or in person if they think I’m not trying hard enough. Even if I don’t agree with them it is useful to examine the reasons for my actions.

Another bonus of keeping a blog throughout my challenge (apart from the fact that it means I can tick another thing off my list) is that I’m building up a great memento of the things I’ve done (and proof of some of the weirder ones). Seeing my achievements build up is really rewarding, a great incentive to keep going and something to be proud of.

If you’ve got something you want to achieve or stick with you might find that making some form of public declaration, publicizing your intentions and progress are a handy incentive. What do you think? How could you use a blog to help you stick to your goals by making them public? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This guest post ticks another thing off my list – have a guest post published on a blog. Thanks James! Now I just have to go and blog about it…

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I try to avoid thinking about luck, and just generally try not to use the word nowadays. To me, it applies some sort of deity granting fortune and fame to one person and misfortune and ill health to another based on some mystical roll of the dice. In other words, it removes all personal responsibility. If something bad happens to you, well, you’re were just unlucky – nothing to learn, no lessons to be taken from the experience. And if you were lucky with something, that detracts from whatever you had done to achieve it.

Was Barack Obama lucky to become president? He was certainly in the right place at the right time. But who was responsible for that? Obama himself who worked hard to get into that position should the opportunity come his way, or some all seeing goddess of luck? I suspect the former may have had more to do with it.

Instead, I prefer to think about things in terms of probability, or the statistical chances of something happen, but not luck. That may make me sound like some gambling addict but there is a logic to it. Rather than thinking that to get a promotion I’d just have to be very lucky, I could think about what the probability of me getting the promotion is. Why? Because, probability can be influenced. A poker player knows pulling the right face in the right game can increase the odds of him winning. A football team that has lots of tall players increases the odds of scoring goals from corners and free kicks. And me researching in detail how to pull off a good interview will increase my odds of getting that promotion.

The probability of you crashing your car is naturally low if you’re sensible and stick to the speed limits. It will dramatically shoot up though, if you drive like an ass. Then, if you happen to get pulled over by the police, luck has nothing to do with it, because you only have yourself to blame for raising the odds of it happening through your careless driving.

That’s really why I like to think in these terms. It puts the focus on you and what you can do (or not do). Of course, you can’t control or influence everything in this world (in fact you can’t control much at all if you think about it) but it does provide comfort to view these things in a more logical fashion. Good things and bad things will always happen in your life. A 1% chance of something happening is still one time in every hundred, a slim but not improbable event, but that’s real and tangible. It means something in a way just saying you were lucky or unlucky doesn’t do.

Do you believe you are a lucky person? Why makes you think that? Or do you feel luck passes you by? Share your thoughts, I’d love to read your comments on this.

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I’ve tried different ways of trying to break and fix bad habits, from trying to go cold turkey and barge through the problem, to taking small steps and making steady changes. None of it worked because I was looking at it the wrong way round. My lifestyle wasn’t a result of my habits – those habits were a result of my lifestyle. How could I fix a bad habit when the way I was living practically encouraged me to do it at every turn?

It’s a bit like trying to quit smoking while being surrounded by smokers, though it’s often more subtle than that. We settle into routines and rituals because it’s naturally easier to satisfy some inner need. So for instance, I would often eat out for dinner rather than staying in and cooking because it was simply easier – I had enough money and a car plus there were plenty of cafes and restaurants nearby.

Another example is where you idly browse the internet, often spending hours looking at websites or checking out friends on Facebook purely for the hell of it. Why? One big reason is because the internet is just getting faster.

The same goes for drinking alcohol or smoking. I’m only a few minutes walk away from a few tinnies if I so wanted. And why do I want them? Because it’s nice and lightens my mood. In short, we slip into these habits because they are easy to fall into. They satisfy us here and now. Try browsing the internet on dial-up and there isn’t much chance of you getting into the habit of it.

That’s the logic I’m using at the moment when it comes to breaking bad habits. Either find something else to replace it with that’s even easier, or find ways of making pursuing the habit difficult and time-consuming. I have no intention of ditching my ADSL connection, but I am currently experimenting with different Firefox plug-ins that block or limit access to certain websites throughout the day. In fact I have three installed at the moment. Why? Well, if I feel like having a wasteful browsing session it’s easy to just disable one plug-in… but three? Suddenly it becomes easier to just do something more constructive instead.

That is a very simple example and it’s not the worst bad habit in the world, but this is the way my thoughts are heading at the moment. Maybe in the future I can give further examples but in the meantime, what are your thoughts? And more importantly, what practical applications can you see for this?

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But I’m afraid I’m going to be a little critical in this post. It’s time for a reality check about this whole simple living, minimal lifestyle movement that’s going on right now. Simplifying is not – I repeat, NOT – just about doing less.

Simplifying is about… well, simplifying. Nowhere in the dictionary does it say anything about cutting this out, removing that, stopping doing this, severing ties with those groups, cutting contact with those people, etc. Simplifying is about making things less complicated and complex. It’s about making things plainer and clearer. Yes, of course that sometimes means completely removing it from your life and doing less. But not always.

A year I jumped wholeheartedly onto the whole simplifying bandwagon. Having spent many a month in the busy-for-the-sake-of it mindset, I finally got a grip of myself and realized how much time and energy I was wasting on junk. What followed was what I call the purging of the irrelevant. A lot of day-to-day tasks disappeared during this time and a couple of hobbies that had long since passed their prime were ditched in favor of more valuable interests. It was all low value stuff and I was glad to be rid of it so I could focus on The Big Picture™.

A lot of those tasks revolved around this blog so I’m going to use that as an example (I understand that many of my readers probably aren’t bloggers but I hope you will still be able to appreciate and relate to the point I am trying to make). Mindless promotional activities that brought in an extra visitor or two if I was lucky, tedious maintenance jobs that barely benefited the site but made me feel happier because everything was kept neat and organized, those were the sort of tasks that I ditched. For six months or so things were better as a result. Running the blog wasn’t a chore anymore.

But then I realized something. The value of an activity isn’t always immediately apparent. It’s benefits aren’t always clear until further down the line. It turned out that those little promotional activities weren’t about those handful of visitors, but about having the blog in the spotlight regularly. Those little maintenace tasks like deleting spam and checking dead links weren’t about keeping everything tidy, but about making sure the blog gave off a positive impression on visitors. So rather than cutting them out completely I reinvented them, streamlined them and made them easier to do on a regular basis.

The next time you’re touched by the power of less and you’re tempted to simplify your life just remember that though a large part of it is about cutting stuff out, it can also just as easily be about streamlining how you do something, automating an activity, making it easier to do, replacing  one thing with another, etc. Simplifying isn’t, ironically, always that simple.

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Think small
Creativity is about originality and appropriateness. Sure, you might be able to come up with wacky, crazy, out-there ideas but how many of them are genuinely useful or practical? It’s difficult to turn big, abstract concepts into something you can make sense of. We’d all like to come up with a super-cool car design with cutting edge features but what does that actually mean? Pass that concept to design engineers and they’d laugh in your face no matter how creative or open-minded they themselves are.

Creativity is, contrary to stereotype, about the small details. We could all come up with the concept of a scary monster for a sci-fi film in our heads but how many of us would be able to describe what it looked like? What would the fine details be? That would require you focusing on individual features. What would the nose look like? Big or small? Would the eyes be on stalks?

Though it may be taboo to any manager trying to get his staff to brainstorm during a team meeting, or to a webdesigner trying to develop a fashionable site for his client, when it  comes to  being creative  think small. Focus your mind onto small things and individual features. Focus on innovative ideas for a new braking system or steering wheel, not on that fuzzy New Car™ idea.

Think big
Stop, wait! There is still room for big thinking in creativity though, but that’s in regard to your environment and surroundings. Creativity needs room and space to breath. Your brain needs to be stimulated by open areas and fresh air,  not dulled by box rooms and beige walls.

I never just type something up, whether it be a blog post or a chapter in my book. I prefer the freedom of writing and brainstorming on paper and that’s always where I start. But it’s not so much about ease of use and portability – sitting on a computer in the corner of a room, while staring at a small 17″ monitor makes for a very constricted environment for creative thinking.

Years ago at school, when I was doing my A level in Art (yes I did art at school, don’t laugh) the teacher would always encourage us to use big sheets of paper and large canvasses, and he was right. We shouldn’t restrict or box ourselves in. In that regard I think the ideal environment for creative thinking is a massive field, from which you can see the mountains and the hills for miles around, and a great big blank canvas to brainstorm what style of feet my sci-fi alien should have.

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From the outside it’s easy to think that I’m wasting my time. I suppose it can seem like I’m writing about getting things done (note I’m talking about the generic activity here and not that book) rather than actually getting things done. But would I know what I know about time management, being organized and productive without this blog? Probably not. Would I have developed a working routine that meant I could finally write those books I’ve always wanted to do? Almost certainly not. I’m going to come out and say it – it wasn’t reading The 4-Hour Work Week or GTD (whoops, I said it) that did it, it was blogging about it.

I think blogging can be an invaluable exercise for anybody who is willing to stick with it and not get blinded by the dream of the Superstar Blogger. There is nothing quite like writing your thoughts, experiences and ideas down. It allows you to really think about them and come up with your own conclusions in a way that just reading books or having it taught to you can never achieve. Keeping your thoughts locked up in your head just doesn’t cut it. Regardless of whether your interest is gardening, cooking, marine biology, getting yourself out of debt or breaking free of the 9-to-5 lifestyle I can’t see how it wouldn’t be a beneficial experience.

And then there is the fact it’s public. Some say blogging is indulgent and nobody really cares about what you have to say and unless you’re a top 100 blogger that’s probably statistically true, but I find it to be an added benefit. It’s what distinguishes it from just writing in your journal or jotting your ideas down in a notepad each night. Everytime you post you’re getting invaluable feedback. Whether it’s a person validating your beliefs, somebody providing constructive criticism or an alternative view, or just a smartass who is so rattled by your post he feels compelled to spam on it.

I wrote a post last year giving several reasons why I find blogging to be a great hobby to pick up so I won’t repeat the points here. Suffice it to say, while I continue to learn something about personal development, productivity, lifestyle design, time management or whatever the heck it’s all called these days (suggestions are always welcome) I’ll still be here updating this blog. Thankyou and goodnight!

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James wrote a post a little while ago discussing the myths about simplifying your life and he has been kind enough to let me explore the myth a little more. Living a simpler life is definitely appealing. I sometimes imagine living without the hassles of everyday life – paying bills, cleaning the house, dealing with people that aren’t particularly nice. Sometimes I wish I could just give it up and breathe. Just looking at a person meditating brings up feelings of peace and calm that I want in my life.

Now that I have stated my worries and why I desire a simple life, maybe I should take a look at the root cause. Why do I want to simplify my life? I want to relieve my stress. What’s stopping me? The things I do are getting me to where I want to go. I have two conflicting desires and cannot resolve both by simplifying my life.

The objective (if it can be said to have an objective) of zen is not happiness, but to be free from desires. When one is free from desires, he is content with the situation or the here-and-now. When you accept everything as it is, there is no need to have or pursue anything (including possessions, responsibilities, or desires) and one can simplify. There is no change and thus there is no personal growth.

A misconception about simplifying is that it is solely about removing the low value elements from your life. Walt Disney would remove full scenes from his films, not because they were low value (on the contrary, they were often well thought out and entertaining), but because they distracted from the story he was trying to tell. Simplifying should be about focusing in on your story -  defining who you are in the context of your environment.

Life is a natural process of exploring new areas and removing the unnecessary. We breathe in and we breathe out, taking what we need from the air and exhaling the waste. Disney’s films are classics because he was able to first explore different ideas and then cut back the ones that didn’t fit. Both adding and simplifying are needed for growth because the two working together produces movement.

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A couple of weeks ago James wrote an article about the importance of identifying the root cause of a problem and not just addressing the symptoms. Having done root cause analysis for companies on a number of issues, I’ve seen first hand the benefits of taking this approach to problem solving. It’s not always easy to just sit down and do it. It does take time, practice and patience and it also helps to have a guide on how to do it.

Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years on how to perform a successful root cause analysis. Keep in mind this can be applied to any problem or source of resistance in your life, whether it’s at work or at home.

Identify the problem
The first step is to identify the problem, put a name to it and list out the specific symptoms. Without a clear understanding of what the problem is, it will be almost impossible to fix it. Don’t rely on your memory too much here, I’ve always found it more effective to write (or type) it out.

Do an analysis
Take a look at the problem you’ve just described. Ask yourself a few questions to help you flesh it out. What are the consequences of the problem and how severe are they? How long has this been going on for? It’s great if you can include as many people in this step as you can. Seek out people that are familiar with the situation, have faced similar problems in the past and are directly affected by this problem. You’ll be more successful at truly solving the problem if you can see it from as many different perspectives as possible.

Ask why
This is my favorite technique for identifying the root cause of an issue. You don’t ask yourself why just once and move on, you ask yourself why at least five times! This 5 Whys technique was popularized by the Toyota Motor Corporation and is a simple yet powerful way to get to the bottom of things. We go beyond asking why just once or twice, since the first thing that comes to mind typically isn’t the real reason for the problem. The first and most obvious response tends to be superficial. But with further prodding it can set off a chain of reasons as to why a problem exists. Take this example below of why I’m always late for work in the mornings.

• Why? I run around gathering all my stuff to get out the door
• Why? I sleep in
• Why? I’m still very tired when my alarm goes off
• Why? I go to bed late
• Why? I enjoy watching late night TV

You can see from this simple example that the reason I’m late for work isn’t just because I’m unorganized and spend much of my time each morning running around trying to get out the door. The real reason is because I stay up late watching TV… that is what really needs to be addressed. You can even take it one step further and repeat the 5 Whys exercise for each of the five responses above, you can get pretty detailed and gain a lot of insight by exploring each one further.

Decisions and implementation
Go over your list of whys again and brainstorm possible solutions for each one. When deciding on which solutions to implement be sure they meet the following criteria. Solutions to problems must:

• Be realistic
• Work for everyone involved
• Directly help in achieving your goals
• Most importantly, not introduce new problems

Following this simple guide will certainly help you to perform a successful root cause analysis and identify solutions to real problems. Often times, implementing a single solution will not be enough to prevent the problem from coming up again. It is important to check in from time to time and make sure your solution is still valid and still working as it was intended. Continuous improvement, re-evaluation and re-implementation of new solutions is the best way to proactively keep your problems under control.

Do give it a try and let me know how it worked for you. Do you have any other tips that you could add here? Please share them in the comments!

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I’ve always frowned upon the whole idea of tracking your time in detail. As useful as it might be to know you spend 40% of your time at work, 5% of your time commuting and 10% of your life on Facebook, if you do genuinely need to know that information there are deeper issues to resolve. Such data might reveal to you where time is being wasted, and that by taking a different route to work and paying less attention to Facebook, you may resolve that problem. But it doesn’t resolve why you’ve got that problem in the first place (anyone want to suggest what the root cause may be?).

It’s surprising how often we just deal with the problems facing us rather than identifying what’s actually causing the problem. What’s even more surprising (and a little scary) is how often governments, businesses – and in fact a great many people in authority – take that approach to their dilemmas. They focus on creating better ways to catch the horse that keeps bolting, but never on making sure the stable is locked in the first place.

Consider this scenario. A manager sees that his team aren’t making enough sales each week and targets are being missed. The obvious approach to this problem is to make sure the staff work harder to get those sales. However, as time goes by the manager moves from gentle cajoling to shouting and threats of redundancy to get the desired results. Turns out the root cause of the problem was that new IT equipment was installed several months ago and the staff weren’t fully trained to use it, so it takes them extra time to complete orders. Because the manager hadn’t bothered to identify the root cause he had essentially created an extra problem for himself – the staff were now so miserable due to his heavy handed approach that they worked even less efficiently.

Identifying the root cause doesn’t just stop at work. Every area of your life can benefit from it. A person who has had several failed relationships would benefit from identifying that her low self-esteem was the root cause of all those breakups. Likewise, for somebody who enjoys one too many drinks on a weekend. He wants to cut back but he can never resist. Turns out the root cause of his drinking is because he finds himself bored and a few pints on a Saturday night allows him to let off steam (with that knowledge he can then find an hobby to indulge in instead).

I’m sure many of you will have been in similar scenarios in your life. Why not share them in the comments or on Twitter? It can be anything from your finances (what’s causing  my debt?) to your productivity setup (why isn’t this tool working out for me?). How have you applied root cause thinking and been proactive in your life?

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