Last week, I wanted to write for my self-coaching e-book, so I had "write about being a designer at a startup" on my to-do list - and I didn't finish it. That's not good. This project will require me to be productive over several weeks or months - so it was time to level-up my routine.
Early Bird Writes the Book
I knew that whenever I work in the morning I'm more effective. I think it's a mix of waking up with intention, nobody being awake to sap your attention, and having your willpower energy at its top. So - what if I moved all my productive hours to the morning? This week I went to bed at 9 pm so that I could wake up at 5:30 am and do personal work before I start my actual job at 8:45 am.
The Results
I woke up before 6 am twice, and at 6ish twice. Even though I didn't wake up as planned I was able to get a lot more done - I finally wrote that section for my e-book (and did other important things I've put off) and, even better, I learned what worked for me and what didn't so I can set myself up for success later.
For example. I had a hard time sleeping at 9 pm, so I tried turning off the internet at 8 pm so I couldn't interact with the outside world - which helped. Now I also have other ideas to further improve my routine. The night before I'll write down what I'll do in the morning at what time to make it easier for my groggy mind to know what it should do.
If you're interested in seeing the progress of my e-book, reply to this email and I'll send you a link to a draft!
Design Thought of the Week
If there's one skill that has helped me to provide value at H&M it has been workshopping. In my new team, I created and facilitated workshops to find all the assumptions we have about the new product and business model, create and prioritize hypotheses, define the primary persona. The workshops are appreciated because it speeds up the process - people don't expect to get so much done in 1 hour.
I've been asked by my followers if they can get a closer look at my workshops, so I'll show you live! Sign up for my workshop stream.
An unexpected benefit of all of this workshopping is an exciting collab that I hope to announce next week - stay tuned!
My favorite thing this week
Video: Hunger Games really do be like that.
Quotes of the week
If you’re not sure that management is the right path for you, there are things you can do to get a better feel for it, like mentoring other folks on the team, taking on an intern, or interviewing managers who have recently transitioned to understand what their experiences were like.
From "The Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhou. Read or listen to the main ideas with Blinkist.