Super Thinking (3) - Efficiency

This chapter talks about the core thinking of individual and project management execution, that is, how to effectively implement projects to achieve goals under the condition of limited resources and time.

1. Finding your North Star (Finding polaris north star): Refers to the company's guidance "vision" (vision) is a long-term vision direction, if the company does not have a vision, it is easy to be affected by the short-term results and get lost. If you don't know where to go, you will never arrive at your destination one day. But if you can keep going in the right direction, maybe slowly, but keep accumulating, it will get you quite far.

2. Compound interest (compound interest): If you continue to count the interest on the principal into the principal to generate interest, the interest income will grow over time. I believe many financial experts must have reminded you not to underestimate the power of compound interest. Rolling stones don't grow moss, don't underestimate the power of your own long-term cultivation in the field of focus.

3. Eisenhower decision matrix: It is a 2x2 grid to help you classify important/unimportant, urgent/non-urgent things. Except important and urgent things, we should try our best to focus creative energy on important but important things. Not urgent. Because dealing with them will help you get closer to your long-term goals the quickest, but often our time and energy are distracted by urgent but unimportant things, such as dealing with text messages and emails. Of course a prerequisite for using this matrix is your ability to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.

4. Opportunity cost: Every choice we make has a cost. Opportunity cost is the value of the best opportunity you didn't choose. We are of course to choose the option that will incur the lowest opportunity cost. For example: considering resigning to start a company by yourself, you must evaluate all the salary and benefits of working for the company and the profitability of the company, the satisfaction of personal self-realization and all the costs that need to be invested, including hidden costs.... , choose the option with low opportunity cost.

5. BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) The best alternative to a negotiated agreement: When choosing, evaluate the opportunity cost to find the best solution. Whether it is the choice of buying a house or a job offer, you will only accept BATNA.

6. Pareto principle: In many cases 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. For example, the company's profits mainly come from 20% of its important customers, and the product features that customers mainly need only account for 20% of the full product features. Universal health care spending is concentrated on 20% of the population. This rule can help you think about focusing your efforts on the 20% and using the law of leverage to profit.

7. Present bias: We often overestimate recent rewards and set goals that are too high, thus leading to procrastination. For example, I set the schedule to go to the gym every day, but I never went to the gym because I was too busy and too tired. The way to overcome procrastination is to actively “commit” to the future you want, such as enrolling in a weight loss class, making financial commitments, or publicly holding yourself accountable. In addition, you can customize a fixed time to do a fixed thing, and add it to the calendar to remind you, resulting in a "default effect".

8. A great way to increase efficiency:

(1) Design pattern: Many fields have fixed design methods and models, which can be completed as long as the model is followed. It can also be called SOP. Examples include the design of clinical trials and the management of new startups.

(2) Algorithms: a step-by-step process. For example, the steps of medical treatment, the mode of controlling traffic signs, or the algorithms of Facebook and google to decide which advertisements to place.

(3) Automation: Design SOP, and let machines or AI robots complete tasks for you, especially to deal with a large number of repetitive tasks. Good and efficient, can naturally reduce production costs.

(4) Parallel processing: Multitasking mode, which refers to the simultaneous processing of different tasks in parallel, which can be processed simultaneously by people from different professional departments, and more tasks can be completed.

9. Sunk cost fallacy: Don't think that you have invested so much that you can't get it back, you should continue to invest. Instead, you need to think about it in time. Is it better to turn around and leave? Why do gamblers keep losing money but keep playing?

You can do anything, but not everything. Spend your time wisely!