We all hit times when we seem to stall,
where we’re working hard and not getting ahead. Often, this is because our
energy is being misdirected into areas that don’t further our goals, or only
end up keeping things ticking along. I learned that the key to eliminating
those problems was to rethink where I invested my time. It turned out that many
of the trivial energy draining tasks that I did every day weren’t nearly as
essential or efficient as I’d thought. Once I started to consolidate the
trivialities, I began to notice bigger, more satisfying ways to make my life
easier.
What allowed me to streamline my life? It
was concept of Growth Activities.
Simply put the actions you take every day fall into two broad categories; Maintenance,
actions that maintain the status quo, and Growth, actions that change
the way you live your life. By understanding what activities improve your life
and which keep it running smoothly you can direct your energy much more
efficiently.
Washing your dishes every few days is a
Maintenance activity, when you’re done you’ve set everything back to the way it
was.
Buying a dishwasher, on the other hand, is a
growth activity. It drastically changes how you spend your time. You no longer
have to wash every dish. You can just put them in the dishwasher, saving
yourself a lot of time and mental effort that can now be used for other things.
Growth activities (hopefully) make your life
more enjoyable or more efficient. But they usually come with a large upfront
cost. You have to go the store, pick out a washer, have it installed / or
install it yourself. But in return you no longer have to wash every dish you
use by hand. Over the long run you end up saving a huge amount of time.
Growth activities usually fall into two main
categories; Structural activities and
Behavioral activities. Getting a new dishwasher would be an example
of structural growth. The machine alters the underlying structure of my
environment, leading to quick and persistent change. If I wanted to overcome a
problem by changing my behavior then I would try and reducing the amount of
dishes I use, so that I won’t have to spend as much time cleaning them.
Say I don’t like vacuuming the rug in front
of my door, and it’s constantly getting dirty as I tramp in and out. What
could I do?
- >Do nothing and continue spending the same amount of time maintaining the status quo. [Maintenance]
- I could stomp my feet before I come into the house. [Behavioral change]
- I could get a Roomba to patrol my front hall so that it will automatically clean up after me. [Structural change]
Structural changes are often quicker to
implement than long term behavioral changes. When you get swept up in a
motivational mood, you can start making structural changes to you life
immediately. You can install a cat door, or rearrange you office for better
work-flow. Best of all, when that energized mood passes all your gains will
still be there.
Behavioral change requires consistent effort
over weeks or even months before it becomes second nature. All too often people
start sweeping behavioral changes when they are at the peak of their motivation;
for example, they start exercising or quit smoking. But when that initial boost
wears off, their behavior reverts back to the old easier habits. But behavioral
change possesses a flexibility and ubiquity that makes it an amazing method of
personal change. Your environment has limits on what can be changed and how
useful those changes can be. Your mind has no such limits. You can make any
behavior into a lifelong habit given enough time. The tendency for your mind to
hold onto habits can make getting rid of bad habits hard, but also makes good
habits effortless to maintain once you’ve done all the hard work of ingraining
them.
Most of the time a combination approach works
best of all. You can make structural
changes to your life that will improve the chances that your behavioral changes
will succeed. Say you have the goal of quitting smoking: you can buy 12
packs of Nicotine gum and put one in every room in your house so that your
never more than two steps away from a piece if a craving strikes. By changing
the structure of your environment (sprinkling gum everywhere) you make it more
likely that you’ll follow you new behavior (chewing gum instead of smoking).
Hopefully these concepts will allow you to
approach problems in unconventional ways and allow you to focus your energy
where it will do the most good. When you have a problem at work is it something
that can be fixed by changing your habits? Or is there a way to restructure
your environment so that it’s no longer a problem? Often, the best solution is
to grow out of a problem rather than enduring it.
If you'd like to see someone else’s take on the
Growth vs Maintenance Dichotomy see: Scott Young:
Growth
