Simplify your life
The great Green Bay Packer's football coach Vince Lombardi was once
asked why his world championship team, which had so many multitalented
players, ran such a simple set of plays. "It's hard to be
aggressive when you're confused," he said.
One of the benefits of creatively planning your life is that it allows you
to simplify. You can weed out, delegate, and eliminate all activities that
don't contribute to your projected goals.
Another effective way to simplify your life is to combine your tasks.
Combining allows you to achieve two or more objectives at once.
For example, as I plan my day today, I notice that I need to shop for my
family after work. That's a task I can't avoid because we're running out
of everything. I also note that one of my goals is to finish reading my
daughter Stephanie's book reports. I realize, too, that I've made a
decision to spend more time doing things with all my kids, as I've tended
lately to just come home and crash at the end of a long day.
An aggressive orientation to the day—making each day simpler and
stronger than the day before—allows you to look at all of these tasks
and small goals and ask yourself, "What can I combine?" (Creativity is
really little more than making unexpected combinations, in music,
architecture, anything, including your day.)
After some thought, I realize that I can combine shopping with doing
something with my children. (That looks obvious and easy, but I can't
count the times I mindlessly go shopping, or do things on my own just to
get them done, and then run out of time to play with the kids.)
I also think a little further and remember that the grocery store where
we shop has a little deli with tables in it. My kids love to make lists and
go up and down the aisles themselves to fill the grocery cart, so I decide
to read my daughter's book reports at the deli while they travel the
aisles for food. They see where I'm sitting, and keep coming over to
update me on what they are choosing. After an hour or so, three things
have happened at once: 1) I've done something with the kids; 2) I've
read through the book reports; and 3) the shopping has been completed.
In her book, Brain Building, Marilyn Vos Savant recommends
something similar to simplify life. She advises that we make a list of
absolutely every small task that has to be done, say, over the weekend,
and then do them all at once, in one exciting focused action. A manic
blitz. In other words, fuse all small tasks together and make the doing of
them one task so that the rest of the weekend is absolutely free to create
as we wish.
Bob Koether, who I will talk about later as the president of Infincom,
has the most simplified time management system I've ever seen in my
life. His method is this: Do everything right on the spot—don't put
anything unnecessarily into your future. Do it now, so that the future is
always wide open. Watching him in action is always an experience.
I'll be sitting in his office and I'll mention the name of a person whose
company I'd like to take my training to in the future.
"Will you make a note to get in touch with him and let him know I'll be
calling?" I ask.
"Make a note?" he asks in horror.
The next thing I know, before I can say anything, Bob's wheeling in his
chair and dialing the person on the phone. Within two minutes he's
scheduled a meeting between the person and me and after he puts down
the phone he says, "Okay, done! What's next?"
I tell him I've prepared the report he wanted on training for his service
teams and I hand it to him.
"You can read it later and get back to me," I offer.
"Hold on a second," he says, already deeply absorbed in reading the
report's content. After 10 minutes or so,
during which time he's read much of what interests him aloud, the report
has been digested, discussed, and filed.
It's a time management system like no other. What could you call it?
Perhaps, Handle Everything Immediately. It keeps Bob's life simple. He
is an aggressive and successful CEO, and, as Vince Lombardi said, "It's
hard to be aggressive when you're confused."
Most people are reluctant to see themselves as being creative because
they associate creativity with complexity. But creativity is simplicity.
Michelangelo said that he could actually see his masterpiece, "The
David," in the huge, rough rock he discovered in a marble quarry. His
only job, he said, was to carve away what wasn't necessary and he
would have his statue. Achieving simplicity in our cluttered and hectic
lives is also an ongoing process of carving away what's not necessary.
My most dramatic experience of the power of simplicity occurred in
1984 when I was hired to help write the television and radio
advertisements for Jim Kolbe, a candidate for United States Congress
running in Arizona's Fifth District. In that campaign, I saw firsthand
how focus, purpose, and simplicity can work together to create a great
result.
Based on prior political history, Kolbe had about a 3 percent chance of
winning the election. His opponent was a popular incumbent
congressman, during a time when incumbents were almost never
defeated by challengers. In addition, Kolbe was a Republican in a
largely Democratic district. And the final strike against him was that he
had tried once before to defeat this same man, Jim McNulty, and had
lost. The voters had already spoken on the issue.
Kolbe himself supplied the campaign with its sense of purpose. A
tireless campaigner with unwavering principles, he emanated his sense of mission and we all drew energy from him.
Political consultant Joe Shumate, one of the shrewdest people I've ever
worked with, kept us all focused with consistent campaign strategy. It
was the job of the advertising and media work to keep it strong and
simple.
Although our opponent ran nearly 15 different TV ads, each one about a
different issue, we determined from the outset that we would stick to
the same message throughout, from the first ad to the last. We basically
ran the same ad over and over. We knew that although the district was
largely Democratic, our polling showed that philosophically it was more
conservative. Kolbe himself was conservative, so his views coincided
with the voters' better than our opponent's did, although the voters
weren't yet aware of it. By having each of our ads focused on our
simple theme—who better represents you—we gained rapidly in the
polls as election night neared.
The nightlong celebration of Jim Kolbe's upset victory brought a huge
message home to me: The simpler you keep it, the stronger it gets.
Kolbe won a close victory that night, but he remains in Congress today,
more than 10 years later, and his victory margins are now huge. He has
never complicated his message, and he has kept his politics strong and
simple, even when it looked unpopular to do so.
It's hard to stay motivated when you're confused. When you simplify
your life, it gathers focus. The more you can focus your life, the more
motivated it gets.
The great Green Bay Packer's football coach Vince Lombardi was once
asked why his world championship team, which had so many multitalented
players, ran such a simple set of plays. "It's hard to be
aggressive when you're confused," he said.
One of the benefits of creatively planning your life is that it allows you
to simplify. You can weed out, delegate, and eliminate all activities that
don't contribute to your projected goals.
Another effective way to simplify your life is to combine your tasks.
Combining allows you to achieve two or more objectives at once.
For example, as I plan my day today, I notice that I need to shop for my
family after work. That's a task I can't avoid because we're running out
of everything. I also note that one of my goals is to finish reading my
daughter Stephanie's book reports. I realize, too, that I've made a
decision to spend more time doing things with all my kids, as I've tended
lately to just come home and crash at the end of a long day.
An aggressive orientation to the day—making each day simpler and
stronger than the day before—allows you to look at all of these tasks
and small goals and ask yourself, "What can I combine?" (Creativity is
really little more than making unexpected combinations, in music,
architecture, anything, including your day.)
After some thought, I realize that I can combine shopping with doing
something with my children. (That looks obvious and easy, but I can't
count the times I mindlessly go shopping, or do things on my own just to
get them done, and then run out of time to play with the kids.)
I also think a little further and remember that the grocery store where
we shop has a little deli with tables in it. My kids love to make lists and
go up and down the aisles themselves to fill the grocery cart, so I decide
to read my daughter's book reports at the deli while they travel the
aisles for food. They see where I'm sitting, and keep coming over to
update me on what they are choosing. After an hour or so, three things
have happened at once: 1) I've done something with the kids; 2) I've
read through the book reports; and 3) the shopping has been completed.
In her book, Brain Building, Marilyn Vos Savant recommends
something similar to simplify life. She advises that we make a list of
absolutely every small task that has to be done, say, over the weekend,
and then do them all at once, in one exciting focused action. A manic
blitz. In other words, fuse all small tasks together and make the doing of
them one task so that the rest of the weekend is absolutely free to create
as we wish.
Bob Koether, who I will talk about later as the president of Infincom,
has the most simplified time management system I've ever seen in my
life. His method is this: Do everything right on the spot—don't put
anything unnecessarily into your future. Do it now, so that the future is
always wide open. Watching him in action is always an experience.
I'll be sitting in his office and I'll mention the name of a person whose
company I'd like to take my training to in the future.
"Will you make a note to get in touch with him and let him know I'll be
calling?" I ask.
"Make a note?" he asks in horror.
The next thing I know, before I can say anything, Bob's wheeling in his
chair and dialing the person on the phone. Within two minutes he's
scheduled a meeting between the person and me and after he puts down
the phone he says, "Okay, done! What's next?"
I tell him I've prepared the report he wanted on training for his service
teams and I hand it to him.
"You can read it later and get back to me," I offer.
"Hold on a second," he says, already deeply absorbed in reading the
report's content. After 10 minutes or so,
during which time he's read much of what interests him aloud, the report
has been digested, discussed, and filed.
It's a time management system like no other. What could you call it?
Perhaps, Handle Everything Immediately. It keeps Bob's life simple. He
is an aggressive and successful CEO, and, as Vince Lombardi said, "It's
hard to be aggressive when you're confused."
Most people are reluctant to see themselves as being creative because
they associate creativity with complexity. But creativity is simplicity.
Michelangelo said that he could actually see his masterpiece, "The
David," in the huge, rough rock he discovered in a marble quarry. His
only job, he said, was to carve away what wasn't necessary and he
would have his statue. Achieving simplicity in our cluttered and hectic
lives is also an ongoing process of carving away what's not necessary.
My most dramatic experience of the power of simplicity occurred in
1984 when I was hired to help write the television and radio
advertisements for Jim Kolbe, a candidate for United States Congress
running in Arizona's Fifth District. In that campaign, I saw firsthand
how focus, purpose, and simplicity can work together to create a great
result.
Based on prior political history, Kolbe had about a 3 percent chance of
winning the election. His opponent was a popular incumbent
congressman, during a time when incumbents were almost never
defeated by challengers. In addition, Kolbe was a Republican in a
largely Democratic district. And the final strike against him was that he
had tried once before to defeat this same man, Jim McNulty, and had
lost. The voters had already spoken on the issue.
Kolbe himself supplied the campaign with its sense of purpose. A
tireless campaigner with unwavering principles, he emanated his sense of mission and we all drew energy from him.
Political consultant Joe Shumate, one of the shrewdest people I've ever
worked with, kept us all focused with consistent campaign strategy. It
was the job of the advertising and media work to keep it strong and
simple.
Although our opponent ran nearly 15 different TV ads, each one about a
different issue, we determined from the outset that we would stick to
the same message throughout, from the first ad to the last. We basically
ran the same ad over and over. We knew that although the district was
largely Democratic, our polling showed that philosophically it was more
conservative. Kolbe himself was conservative, so his views coincided
with the voters' better than our opponent's did, although the voters
weren't yet aware of it. By having each of our ads focused on our
simple theme—who better represents you—we gained rapidly in the
polls as election night neared.
The nightlong celebration of Jim Kolbe's upset victory brought a huge
message home to me: The simpler you keep it, the stronger it gets.
Kolbe won a close victory that night, but he remains in Congress today,
more than 10 years later, and his victory margins are now huge. He has
never complicated his message, and he has kept his politics strong and
simple, even when it looked unpopular to do so.
It's hard to stay motivated when you're confused. When you simplify
your life, it gathers focus. The more you can focus your life, the more
motivated it gets.
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