Design

Stressful Work, Self-Evaluation And Hacking Your Productivity (And How To Win Monopoly)

Garth Beyer

Hacking Productivity

It’s been more than two years since I gave a Toastmasters speech. I connected with the president of the club I used to be involved in and had dinner with her yesterday. We chatted about the PR life and how stressful the work is. (Top 10 most stressful careers!)

I agreed that it’s stressful work, but it’s as stressful as you let it be; there are ways to lessen the stress.

One of my old friends gave a speech at the meeting about saving mental energy for more important decisions by limiting the options you have for what to wear. A few months ago I mentioned the benefit of wearing the same outfit each day. Jobs did it. Zuckerberg does it. So many others do it to save mental energy for work and decisions that matter.

What I do each weekend is evaluate my week in terms of stress, productivity, time, focus… all that important stuff that dictates your level of happiness or unhappiness. I stop doing what’s unproductive, I stop having meetings with people who don’t create value, I read more, I freewrite for 15 minutes every night, I meditate in the morning and recite a mantra I wrote – all the things I do and don’t do are done or not done with purpose.

The president asked me something like, “Isn’t that exhausting or stressful to have to be so on top of everything?” She was obviously thinking about the benefit of going with the flow, letting things be, simplifying life (which certainly has its value at times). My response…

It’s fun to hack your productivity, your energy, your focus. It’s like the moment you learn how to win Monopoly: just make sure you buy St. James. Place then begin to build on the orange. Works every time. The excitement of learning, knowing and then implementing the practice which nearly guarantees success is what drives me to reevaluate, review, and renew my objectives of the week each weekend.

Stress is not an external force we have no control over. We design our stress, and by evaluating ourselves on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, we begin to notice what’s working and what isn’t in our lives. We respond rather than react. It’s an art, and there is so much beauty in art.

 

Stay Positive & There Is No Better Game To Hack Than The Work Game

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4 Steps To Success (Wisdom From Cambodian Monks)

4 Steps To Success (Wisdom From Cambodian Monks)

Garth Beyer

Steve Jobs Meditation

While in Cambodia at the POP House (meditation resort) a handful of monks taught me a lot about buddhism, life, and success. After a 20 minute meditation session, one monk began to tell us the four steps to success in life. Now I’m sharing them with you.

1) Affection – Show affection to your friends, to your enemies, to strangers. Find ways to show your love of people, of plants, of the world, of life. Care, not only about others, but your self as well.

2) Try – The likelihood of success is connected to the amount of experience you have. The more you try, the more successful you will be. Not only try things you’ve never tried before, but try things you don’t think you could overcome, don’t think you’ll complete, don’t think will change you. Just try.

3) Comment (on yourself) – You are your own judge of whether something worked or didn’t. You must evaluate your actions to confirm what you’ve done has moved you in the direction you want.  Criticism is pointless, especially when given to others. The monks were firm about concerning yourself only with yourself.

4) Experiment – Put things together that you’ve never imagined combining. Try new designs, interfaces, systems, plans, diets. Success is often the result of experimentations, not well-thought out intentions

Bonus: Be like Steve Jobs. Every monk that taught had told me about Steve Jobs and how he followed these four steps. And he meditated often if you didn’t know.

 

Stay Positive & Your Time Is Limited

Use Your Senses

Use Your Senses

Garth Beyer

All Five Senses

The most lively writing I’ve written and read is when the author uses all five senses. The most remarkable inventions stimulate all five senses. The best stories incorporate all five senses.

Iscream is delicious tasting, but there’s something special about taking the label off the cone (touch) and to watching how the Iscream gets scooped from the tub (see). But there’s something lacking in the smell and hearing department. How could you change that? How can you appeal to all five senses?

  • Touch
  • Smell
  • Taste
  • Hear
  • See

Jinsop Lee has a great Ted talk about designing for all five senses: basically he answers why sex is so good.

The five senses are worth considering before you ship your next project. It might be what it takes to turn something great into something remarkable.

 

Stay Positive & The Senses Also Help You Differentiate Your Product

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If Quality Is A Given, Where Does That Leave Us?

If Quality Is A Given, Where Does That Leave Us?

Garth Beyer

Bike Design Quality

It’s harder to differentiate our product or service by saying “we’re better than this other product because our product is bigger/stronger/smaller/faster/etc,.”

Now different styles of a phone are parallel in terms of quality.

We’ve come to realize the facts that a bike with thin tires isn’t too different from a bike with fat tires. Both get you to where you want to go. One tire is a half-inch wide and the other is two inches wide. Neither makes one much better than the other… except in the story they are telling the customer.

If quality is a given, we’re left with the story the product or service tells.

In the past, good design meant better quality. Now good design is about telling a story. It’s that story that stops potential consumers from even thinking about your competition.

 

Stay Positive & What Does Your Design Say?

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Build Talkability Into Your Design

Build Talkability Into Your Design

Garth Beyer

MillerCoors Rooftop View

Pumpkin patches and apple orchards do a wonderful job of adding talkability factors into their design. They have the picture of a farming couple that you can put your head into and take a photo or the turkey that’s begging you to stand behind and show your face where its face should be. They add simply interactive designs that a majority use to share and talk about their experience.

I went on a three and a half hour private tour of the MillerCoors facility in Milwaukee today with a friend. I was too busy listening to the guide and chatting about how to brew beer to take dozens of photos, but there was a moment that was irresistible. As seen above, we’re on the roof of a 12+ story building and it’s clear they’ve designed this rooftop experience as a talking point. You have the shipping carriers, miller park, the brewing facility and the giant Miller sign all in one photo. MillerCoors figured out a way they could add talkability into their design.

I’ve been guilty of trying to make an entire experience worth talking about instead of focusing on a few little points that tell the larger story, that are easily talked about, and that people can’t help but share.

Consider how you can design talkability points into the experience you’re providing people.

 

Stay Positive & Better To Guide The Points Than Have Others Decide What’s Worth Sharing

because in most instances, they’ll choose not to share.

Horizontal Prioritization, A Better Method Of Prioritizing

Horizontal Prioritization, A Better Method Of Prioritizing

Garth Beyer

Design Matters

Perhaps you’ve heard of the six F’s (family, friends, finances, fitness, faith, and fun) or something similar. Every success mentor always suggests making these lists, and I agree, not just in life, but in business as well. They allow you to divvy up your focus on all the important matters. However, the way they are often presented is vertically.

Family first

Faith second

Finances third…

The problem with prioritizing your life this way is that it gives you an excuse to not tout as much effort in the bottom categories. By prioritizing vertically, you’re forcing yourself to weigh the importance of each group, when, in fact, the reason for writing the various groups (whether you go with the six F’s or some other type of categorization) is that they are all equally important.

Success and balance aren’t easy to achieve, but trying to achieve them using vertical lists and actually prioritizing one important theme or category over another is a sure indicator of always lacking sufficiency, efficiency, and quality in the bottom-most themes or categories.

Prioritize horizontally. Then feel free to list goals and tasks below those, vertically.

While finances and fun are both equally a necessity, how you go about achieving each is not.

Go ahead. Try it.

 

Stay Positive & Design Matters When It Comes To List-making

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There’s A Reason It’s Called A/B Testing

There’s A Reason It’s Called A/B Testing

Garth Beyer

AB Testing

Much of the time when pitching options the only rule of conduct you need is “Here’s option A… and here’s option B, which do you choose?”

No remarkable designer goes into a pitch with only one option. Doing so makes the audience feel obligated to find a reason to dislike it or pick on it or point out a miniscule detail they don’t care for.

Just showing option A is not a smart move.

Nor is showing five to 20 other options.

It’s called A/B testing, not A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L testing.

You can certainly develop a bracket system, but I would push on whether your ideas are great or if they are merely good, which is why there are so many to face-off.

 

Stay Positive & Just Think On This Next Time You Pitch Anything

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