Determine the minimum effective dose

What’s the least you could do, the least that’s required?

Some people think the world is going to ruin, that quality will drop if we don’t do our bestest of the very best of the best on every single thing we work on.

Oh sure, high quality and attention to detail matters, but not on everything! Keep quality for the things that really matter.

The whole minimum viable product (MVP) strategy is an example of doing just enough of the valuable stuff for a product or service to get it ready to put it out there.

So what’s the least you need to put in? Do that and then test or validate it.

Oh, and there’s the minimum effective dose strategy too. Medicos and pharmaceuticos know about identifying what’s the minimum amount of a drug or treatment that will ‘do the job’. (There’s the ‘do no harm’ mantra in there too.)

Let's play the same game. Stop doing harm to your self, your mind (and others) thinking you need a maximum dose of something (or everything) ... or that more will make it better.

Your good enough is likely good enough. Go test and validate it sooner than you think you can, to see how good enough it really is. That’s a minimum effective strategy that will bring some mega results.

Overcooking the work - Overworking the cook

It was a reality cooking show and a competitor ruined the protein for all of the meals by overcooking it. In the bin! What a waste!

This can happen in our everyday life. When we have a task to complete we can keep cooking and cooking it, trying to make it better. Then at some point it’s overdone, overcooked. What a waste!

It isn’t only the waste of effort; also the waste of energy, time, resources, power, space, people ...

Even though time is our most precious resource, we often act as if we - and others - have plenty of it. We still get distracted everyday, overcooking, overthinking and overworking, getting dragged deep deep deep into the work of our ‘cook’ - whatever the 'cook' is for you.

The kitchen's 'rare/medium/well done' scale is a useful analogy to work out how much your task needs to be cooked.

It’s best to scope out the minimum amount of work required (so you can then test or validate) before proceeding any further. You don’t need to go for well done, initially ... ever.

Where might you be overcooking something at the moment? Have you checked with others, validated your thinking or tested out your progress? Pause and give it a taste test.

Choose satisficing over maximising

When we're working on a task or activity at some point we need to say, ‘Enough. It's satisfactory. That will suffice.’ 'Satisfactory’ and ‘suffice’ were cleverly combined in Nobel Prize–winning economist Herbert Simon's Theory of Satisficing.

This decision-making theory says look at alternatives and go with the best. Make a choice. It will do, it is good enough.

In my book ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’, ish means somewhat, to some extent. Ish is about satisficing.

Maximising is not good for us. Perfectionists (called ‘maximisers’ by Simon):

- exhaustively seek the best options

- compare everything against others to an unhealthy degree

- expend excess time and energy, and

- end up unhappier with the outcomes.

Ish is the opposite; it's about being a satisficer. We:

- accept good enough

- not obsess over the options

- move on after deciding, and

- end up being happier with outcomes.

It's good enough!

All that effort, unhappy with the outcomes

On the topic of ‘maximising’, this week’s posts highlight the damaging effects of striving for more, better, perfect.

Maximising isn’t as good as it sounds. It means we put in extreme, herculean efforts trying to make things better, tick all the boxes, cover all the bases (and other metaphors!) to cover every question, topic or query. We work back late, take work home, stay up late, do ‘all nighters’, come in early and put other priorities aside to focus on doing still more on this task or project.

We expend excess time and energy. Excess. More than is required. We know it’s not required because of economic and mathematical laws and principles like the Pareto Effect (the 80/20 rule) and the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Effort is not equal. Some effort is useful, giving us a good return and progress; some of our effort ends up being a total waste of time!

And then ... maximisers don’t tend to be as happy with the outcomes as if they'd called ’time’ sooner on a task. It's a big 'no' to maximising

Do you apply the 80/20 rule in your world (20% effort brings 80% of the reward)?

Comparing against others to an unhealthy degree.

I'm posting on ‘maximising’ this week; the unhelpful activity associated with perfectionism, making us overthink, stress, doubt and be paralysed with inaction, stuck (of course) in comparison.

You know that quote: ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’ ... well, it does indeed make us miserable. The perfectionist (the maximiser) keeps comparing everything, thinking it's the way to a better solution or more perfect answer. We even try and use comparison as a kind of 'evil motivation'.

Comparison itself isn't bad. We are taught to compare and contrast as part of growing and learning. It's how we know an apple is an apple, not an orange. This is identification and sensemaking. So we can't really 'kill comparison' as some less than helpful inspo quotes suggest.

The problem then is not the comparison ... it's the not stopping, the endless and ongoing nature of the act. Enough with berating and being unkind to yourself!

Compare, sure. But then decide to move in to action; action that's in your world, on your stuff, for you. Not them.

Are you in unhelpful comparison on something right now? Like or comment below.