Keeping Commitments to Others and Yourself - Or be a Liar!

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Many people make commitments either formally or informally.
To meet someone for a meeting
To do something
Many people don’t seem to take these things seriously.
If you’re a few minutes late, no big deal (no!)
If you say you’re going to do something then do it!
If you don’t then you are a liar! I know it sounds harsh but that is the reality. So we need to stop lying to ourselves and to others.
Now there are two ways to help with this

1. Before you make a commitment, pause and think to yourself if you can actually do it and if you are willing to actually do it. If not, it’s ok to say no. Saying no is a very freeing thing. It is much better to say no than to say yes and then not do it. If you say no, you always have the possibility of changing your mind and going and doing it later but if you say yes but then don’t do it you are making yourself a liar. So be careful committing yourself to things

28 A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father?

1. When you do make a commitment, you need to make sure that you do it. If you followed step one and really thought before you said yes then you have already decided it is possible. So now you just need to make preparations to be sure that you follow through.

If you are always late to things, here are some tips.
How late are you normally? Add 5 minutes to that and start preparing to leave that much before you normally do. If you really struggle try being ready to walk out the door 15 minutes before normal. That way, worst case scenario, you just have to sit and wait for 15 minutes before leaving.
Sidenote: Find out when it is appropriate to arrive. For a meeting with a specific start time where people will be waiting on you it’s a good idea to be at least 5 minutes early so that you can start right on time. For some things, like parties or other gatherings where people are coming and going then being a few minutes late doesn’t really matter.
When you say you are going to do something, make a way that you can remember it. Add it to your to-do list, set a reminder on your phone, add it to your calendar, etc
Make sure that you can follow your commitment to get it done!
Over time, people will start to be able to tell what type of person you are, whether you are the first son or the second son. They will know whether or not they can trust your word, in other words they will know that you are a liar or not. I know it sounds harsh but that’s really what is going on. You are naively lying to people.
Now when you make commitments to yourself you need to follow similar guidelines. If you decide you want to start a new habit or two, make sure that you are willing to do what it takes before you commit to it fully. It’s ok to say that you are going to try to be a little better here and there until you’re ready to fully commit yourself. It’s better to not commit fully and then do it anyway than it is to commit and then not do it.
When you have decided to commit to yourself to do something. Plan accordingly, like with commitments to other people, you should make sure you remember and make a plan that’s easy to follow that will allow you to get the thing done.
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/solvemyworld/message

Don't let your phone control you!

Why do we think this is ok?!

The person in front of you is the most important at that moment

If you get interrupted by a notification ignore it! Apologize if you really have to look at it and definitely don’t respond unless you have to and then tell the other person

Train yourself to not look at notifications

Turn off unnecessary notifications

Free Market Chore System

I wanted to share the latest project I have been working on. It is a chore sheet that dynamically sets prices for the chores based on the feedback of the market (group doing the chores)

This is still in development, I just built it a couple weeks ago and it is a little rough around the edges but it is working pretty well as a proof of concept.

How it Works

1. Add your list of chores. You can add more in the future so don't worry about getting all of them the first try

2. Set a starting price. The starting price doesn't matter too much because it will change over time. The idea is to try and put it a little below what you think people will actually do it for.

3. Estimate how long it will take. Again, this will change over time but you want to try to be fairly accurate. Estimating too high is better than too low.

4. Put a checkmark in the status column to say that the task needs to be done

5. Click the checkbox next to "Assign Chores" when you are finished. This will assign out any chores that are checked and not already assigned.

Now that you've got the chores set out and assigned, you can go look at your list to see what jobs were assigned to you.

As you can see, each job shows the price, the estimated time, the per hour rate and gives you four options:

Not Available - This is for if there is an urgent job that needs to be done but you are not available to do it right now. Clicking this will assign it to someone else.

Reject - This is for when you don't think it's worth it to do the job. Clicking this will assign it to someone else and increase the price by 10%.

Working - When you are ready to do the chore you check this and it will keep track of your time in the "Time" column. If you take a break without finishing just uncheck and the time will stop increasing.

Completed - When you are done with the chore you hit completed.

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Background Operation

Assign Chores - When this button is pushed, each task that is not already assigned will be assigned to someone. The chance that someone will be picked is based on their balance. The higher the balance, the less likely they are to be assigned the chore. The lower the balance, the more likely they are to receive the chore. This helps to balance out between people with higher and lower balances, if you have a lower balance, you are more likely to get first pick of the chores.

Reassign Chores - This will simply unassign any chores that have not been worked on yet and then assigns the chores as explained above. This feature is for when someone has finished all of the chores on their list and they would like to be able to do more chores. This also prevents someone from hoarding chores and incentivises them to do the highest paying chores first to avoid those jobs being reassigned.

I have already explained "Not Available" and "Reject"

Working - Every minute, any chores that have "Working" checked will have the number in the "Time" section incremented. This represents how long it took to complete the job.

Completed - When a chore is marked "Completed" it will have the "Status" unchecked on the "Chores" page. The chore name, price, time, and person who completed it will be recorded on the "History" page. The balance of the person who completed the chore will be increased by the price.

Calculating Price - When a job is completed, the price is calculated as the average price that the chore has been done before on the chore sheet times 80%. The price on the "Chores" sheet will be updated to this number. This is to always be putting downward pressure on the price of the job. If people continually do the price for the price offered the price will go down over time. (Remember, when people reject a chore because the price is too low it increases the price by 10%, this is how equilibrium is found for the price. If it's too high it won't be rejected and the price will begin to fall. Too low and people will reject it, raising the price, until someone is willing to do it.

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The Purpose

The idea is to easily and simply find the market prices for each chore in a way that doesn't take much thinking on the part of the users. All the users have to think about is whether they think it is worth it to do the job for that price.

It works similarly to an auction where the right to bid is randomly chosen and the price of the bid is already selected. Now the person only needs to decide if they want to exercise this option or pass it up.

This brings the benefit of free market pricing without the drawbacks of needing speculators and investors who spend a lot of time finding the market price. This of course isn't feasible on the small scale with untrained people.

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If you would like more info or have any comments or suggestions for me, feel free to leave a comment below or email me at littlejoeward@gmail.com.

Multitasking. Can it really help you be more productive? (Video)

You can’t really multitask

We switch between the different tasks quickly

Switching takes time and brain power and therefore is less efficient

You can do one thing well or two things poorly

Do one thing then the next

No switching, no wasted time

Exceptions:

If tasks take different parts of the brain (physical, mental, visual, audial)

Physical - motor skills

Mental - thinking

Visual - eyes

Audial - ears

You cannot overlap on these or you will not be able to do them both effectively

Music (audial) and computer work (physical, mental, visual)

Audiobooks or podcasts (audial, mental) while working around the house (physical, visual)

Some things only take half of your brain power so you can actually do two mental things at the same time if both of them take less than half of your brain power

Watching a show (visual, mental, audial) while playing mindless puzzle (physical, mental)

Any questions for me? What are things that are holding you back from being as productive as possible.

Dealing with Distractions (Video)

How do you deal with distractions? Comment Below!

The key to productivity is doing the right things at the right time.

Studies* show It can take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on task.
That can add up to as much as 6 hours a day not doing the right things at the right time!

How do we deal with them

Step 1: Be aware of when you are being distracted.
Step 2: Have a system to organize the distractions

Suggested System

Do you really want to do this? Yes? continue to next step. No? Dismiss the task
Will the task take less than 30 seconds? Yes? Do it quick! No? Continue to next step
Add it to your to do list to deal with after you are finished with your current task.


*There's good news and bad news. To have a uniform comparison, we looked at all work that was interrupted and resumed on the same day. The good news is that most interrupted work was resumed on the same day -- 81.9 percent -- and it was resumed, on average, in 23 minutes and 15 seconds, which I guess is not so long.
-Gloria Mark, associate professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine

Overall Life Planning Theory (Video)

--Show Notes--

Analogy

Living out in the wild

Cultivating

Property has useful and non useful plants haphazardly scattered throughout your property

First step. Figuring out what you like and don’t like and putting things where you want it.

Trying to make your property more efficient and enjoyable

Gathering

Gather food from places outside of your property that you like

Deciding on whether or not you want to bring them onto your property

Exploring

Going to new areas and make note of things you want to gather

Explanation

Our lives are scattered and unorganized

First step is to organize our lives and start getting rid of things you don’t want

Second you can start researching things you are interested in that you may or may not add to your life in the future

Third is exploring topics that are new to you. You might move some of these things into the gathering stage to learn more. Some of the things you won’t really care to pursue further.

Tasks vs Attributes (Video)

-- Show Notes --

Tasks - things we do

Play piano, planting garden, playing soccer

Attributes - what we want to be

Becoming a musician, being healthy, self sufficient, staying in shape

Analogy:

Tasks are the vehicle

Attributes are the destination

Costs of the vehicle vs worth of the destination

Mowing the lawn to have a good lawn. Is it worth it or is there a better way?